SPARK IN THE SHELL
by SniperGirl0907
Summary: In the wake of a botched mission 13 children appear from nowhere with a very big secret, one that could shake the world to it's foundations, now it's up to Section 9 to help them find their way back home, before it's too late.
1. PROLOGUE: The three wishes

SPARK IN THE SHELL

DISCAIMER: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers. Just my OC's and the plot.

PROLOGUE: THE TREE WISHES

New Port City, 12:35am

The night was calm and quiet, the air was still with no wind glowing off the far away sea or the mountains, the city was unusually quiet tonight, the traffic was light, the crowds outside the night clubs were few and far between and all the drift racers, motorcycle gangs and all the usual yakuza thugs were staying low tonight.

The City of New Port was sleeping tonight.

As he slowly paced through his favourite park, Saito breathed in deep the cool night air, this was his favourite place to come after mission and today hadn't been particularly tough, a hitman with over 20 victims to his name had to be stopped after he killed the wife and child of one of New Ports most prominent businessmen on behalf of one of the bosses of the Inagawa-kai gang, the third largest yakuza family in Japan. After 6 tedious hours of tracking him through the city the team had finally tracked him down to his hideout in a 20 story apartment building, one shot from over 800 yards ended it all.

He seldom got to see the park during the day because his job with the section required him to be on standby all the time, the night was the only time he ever got to spend here. It was a shame because one couldn't appreciate the full colors of all the flowers, but the silver glow of the moonlight gave it a whole other kind of beauty, a beauty that only one who spends his life walking in the shadows could only come to appreciate, for any sniper a night like this was a perfect night hunting a target, the darkness was your friend and the moon your guiding light, here in this place he felt he could put the concerns of everyday life aside for a brief time and let his thoughts wander in secret, away from prying eyes, away from his regular life.

Overhead he saw the cherry trees were budding, ready to bloom and hail the coming of spring, the willow trees had fresh new leafs and in the borders the first of the season's flowers had poked their little heads out the ground, ready to bloom and flaunt their colors too.

But past the trees, far up into the sky the glow of the city's lights seemed distant tonight, letting the deep shades of ultramarine, indigo and bluish-violet fill the endless night sky with a depth as far as the ocean and as darkly rich as velveteen, making the stars particularly beautiful tonight, each one a perfect little diamond, radiant and never touched by mortal hands. For someone who seldom got much time to himself, little moments like this were tiny treats to be savored while they lasted.

But then when did most individuals like him ever get to appreciate the little things in life? After all, sniping wasn't exactly a profession you can brag about; being a sniper for the better part of over 15 years now was an impressive service record and after the Major took him under her wing after that duel in the ruins of Mexico City he rose to become a full class A sniper. But as formidable as it made him, he felt it had given him a sense distance from most other professionals, sure he was grateful for having his friends in section 9, and even more grateful to the Major for allowing him to become one of the top 10 class A snipers in the world. But for over 7 years he hadn't met anyone or gone up against an opponent that was his equal.

When you're a sniper your life was not one that was as straightforward as everyone else, your profession was not one that could be bragged about, glamour never came into the picture and if you had a cybernetic aid like a Hawkeye, you could easily be picked out from a crowd (not that it was a big issue to most, considering most people these days have cybernetic aids or up-grades in form or another). He wondered just who else was out there that could take him on, when you're a good sniper your enemies can range from anyone on the battlefield to those who have enough money to hire a hitman so as to get revenge for a loved one you took away, as well as anyone else that could hunt you down. But when you were a class A sniper with additional training in electronic warfare the only other enemy you could really afford to be concerned about was another class A sniper. It wasn't that Saito felt pride at being the only top sniper around, he just felt...like he wanted another sniper, either for a real duel, one that only karma could decide the outcome of, or....just someone to have as a friend?

He shook himself from his thoughts, since when was that ever going to happen? As he watched the evening star hang over the distant mountains, a great golden shooting star streaked across the sky leaving an amber-orange glow in its wake, he watching curiosity, since when did shooting stars get that big? But it was very beautiful. As it neared the horizon he smiled as he remembered something his father told him long ago back in his boyhood.

'When you see a shooting star, you get to make a wish my son'

Watching the amber trail disappear, he closed his eye and whispered silently to himself;

"I wish...to find another sniper as good as me...either as my enemy...or as my friend"

And as swiftly as it had appeared the star was gone from sight, he dropped his gazed back to the ground "Yeah right" he smirked. He looked at his watch and saw the hour was growing late; he had to be in early the next morning so some

sleep before then would serve him well. He started walking back the way he came and left the park, leaving behind that sense serenity, and forgetting the wish.

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At first there was only darkness, then he realised he was standing in sand.

Batou looked everywhere around, up, down, in front and behind but it was no use, he had no idea where he was.

Everywhere around him it was like ground zero right after the apocalypse or after a nuke had gone off, the land was an endless dessert of drab gray and dark sand, no trees, no grass or any sign of life, high above the sky looked like it was burning, thick black clouds stretched far over the heavens as the sky itself was bright crimson red with streaks of yellow flame and here and there embers and ash's fell like snow.

'Where am I?' he asked himself, was this hell? Was this some kind of punishment for his past sins? Wherever he was it surly had to be the worst place on earth, he walked forward to nowhere in particular, as if there was anywhere to go here, as he climbed up one of the huge sweeping dunes in order to get a better look a distant scream broke the empty silence, quickly he ran up to the dunes crest and stood in silence as he saw the scene play out below.

A black horse with numerous scars and wounds everywhere across it's body, was kicking, biting and rearing up its forequarters as it tried to keep a pack of white wolves with red eyes at bay, the pack was relentless as it tried to attack the colt, they growled, they snarled and even howled but every time one of the wolves would bite or tackle the horse, it only got up and lashed out again, earning more injuries in the process, quickly Batou ran down to try and help the poor creature, he punched, he kicked and he beat each and every retched wolf away, when he

turned to face the colt he was surprised to see the Major standing before it with a determined look on her face with a set of reigns in one hand and a saddle under the other arm, Batou tried to call out to her but was struck with horror as he found his voice was silent and as he tried to reach out to her he passed through her body like an apparition, all he could do was stand there like a shadow and watch in silence.

The black colt stood before the Major with a look of pure rage, its dark blue eyes sized her up, it's ears were pricked back and it pounded it's left front hoof into the sand as blood oozed from it wounds.

"It's time you were put in your place!" the Major said firmly, she put the saddle and reigns down and stepped forward with a long length of rope, with her cyborg strength she easily jumped and flipped over the horse's head, landing on its back and throwing the rope around its neck.

The poor creature went completely berserk as it bucked, kicked, reared and tossed about, trying to throw the Major off it's back as she held on tight with the rope. Finally the horse took one huge leap and landed on its back, that was enough to get the Major off but as they both scrambled back up the colt had the upper hand this time, it laid down an aggressive attack on her and every time she jumped out the way it stomped forward to kick and bite her. What was going on? Why was she doing this? What was it for?

After 10 long hard minutes of bitter fighting, the horse reared up once again and with one swift kick knocked the Major out unconscious, she fell to the ground with a thud and there she lied in the gray sand, her body turned to sand and blew away with the wind, the exhausted creature turned to face Batou, but this time it wasn't angry or agitated, it stood still as it panted for breath, its flanks glimmered a deep ruby red as blood poured from its flanks and it's scars looked raw and ugly.

Batou took a tense step forward, weary that it might go crazy again, but the horse stepped forward and let the cyborg stroke it's nose, its hot breath hit his hand like steam, its eyes were hard and battle worn, betraying a life of hardship and constant struggling.

"You've had it bad haven't you buddy? Guess you won't let anyone ride you huh?" Batou sighed, in the distance a silver glint caught his eye, on top of one of the dunes a silver panther-like creature stood watching him, the horse turned around and saw it too, it looked Batou in the eye one last time and turned to gallop in the creatures direction, together the black horse and the silver panther ran side by side together disappearing far into the apocalyptic landscape.

As Batou watched, the winds began to blow, whipping up the gray sand around and around in cyclones, the skies turned dark and the sound of rolling thunder echoed in the distance, all around the darkness enveloped him once again and as the dessert disappeared from sight he felt himself become weightless and formless, like a ghost drifting into obscurity.

He woke up and sat upright in bed, it had all been a dream.

He took a deep breath and sighed in relief. That had to be the most vivid dream he had had in...He couldn't recall the last time he dreamed like that, it had felt so real and it had felt like it really had happened, which was very strange considering cyborgs like himself seldom had dreams.

He lied back down, feeling as if something inside him had been moved, sure seeing an animal in pain was never a nice thing to see, but what was with the horse? And the Major trying to wrestle it like that? She did have a saddle and reigns but what was the significance of her trying to break it in and ride it? And what was with the silver panther? Though he would initially dismiss such a thing as just random stirrings in his cyber brain trying to get the better of him but this

felt different somehow, like something else was at work, something deep and profound, as if something had tried to reach out to him.

Maybe this was some way of his sub-consciousness catching up with him after all these long years? That this was one of the ramifications of the life he led? That everything was allowed to be alright during the day and when he shut off his cybernetically enhanced eyes at night his guilty consciousness reprimanded him for all his past sins?

"What a bunch of bull" he muttered, when he rolled over on his side he saw the glow of the city reach high into the dark night sky, high overhead the stars shone bright and clear. Suddenly, a bright golden shooting star shot across the sky leaving a bright orange amber trail, that was strange, he'd never seen a shooting star like that before, it seemed so radiant, as if it had some magic in it, he then remembered the old fairytale, if you see a shooting star you get to make a wish.

He smirked and whispered into thin air;

"I wish...for once we get a mission where things go our way all the way for once"

He turned over and let himself drift off back to sleep, letting the dream become a memory in the back of his mind and the wish a way to humour himself.

The bedroom was dim with the glow of the city coming in through the window, his baby son and four year old daughter lay sleeping peacefully in the next room and his wife lay sleeping by his side. He watched her as her breaths came soft and silent; her pink satin sleeveless nightgown made her curves all the more beautiful, her red hair framed her face quite nicely.

But what he enjoyed most was that she slept with a small smile on her pale rosy lips. He stroked her cheek softly in affection, thankful that today had been his day off and that he was able to spend it with her.

Today had been Togusa and Mei Nobuyoshi's wedding anniversary, 7 years they'd been together through the good times and the bad.

He turned on his back and stared up at the ceiling, his mind turned inwards, remembering everything that's gone on over the past seven months since the incident on Dejima.

With the chief's speciality being able to handle and resolve difficult situations, the prime minister now regularly called upon him to help defuse difficult situations. After she read Aramaki's report on how his team had handled the incident on Dejima Section 9 had been more in demand than ever, while some incidences had cropped up here and there and they had been left to either the military or the police, section 9 was now relied upon to handle the most important and serious cases.

As a result they had really earned a reputation among the public security sectors as the prime ministers favourite law enforces, admire them or loath them, section 9 was not going to be disbanded any time soon.

He smiled, remembering how happy Batou had been when the Major revealed to the team that the Tachikoma's had been saved on a secondary set of AI chips that had been kept in storage at the AI central analysis lab. After the Tachikoma unit rejoined section 9 life seemed to return to a relative state of normality.

But the same could not be said for the rest of the country, after the nuke explosion had been witnessed by the whole of Nagasaki the public had really raised a ruckus, demanding to know what had happed. The question of what was going on behind closed doors in the government was raised even further when the prime minister had announced her new independent self-reliance policy, effectively making Japan a stand-alone nation in the international community. And it didn't come as any surprise to the section when the American ambassador was given a summons to return to his country. It may have been a surprise to the public, but the general consensus among some in the government and public security (and Batou especially) was good riddance.

But while life at section 9 had stabilized back into their regular routines, Togusa couldn't help but feel something was amiss, sure the Tachikomas were back and up to their impish ways and the section was allowed to do their own thing to get a job done. All the same, he couldn't help but feel life hadn't been the same since Dejima.

Not that he could complain, the section was back to doing what it did best, his friends were well and content, and even the Major was back to being her old self.

So what was possibly wrong he asked himself?

Quietly as possible he slipped out of bed, threw on a pair of pants and silently made his way to the kitchen for a glass of water, after downing a swig he walked into the living room and gazed out of the window, scanning over the vast cityscape.

His mind wandered further and his thoughts turned to why he was feeling this sense of missing something, everything was more or less as it was before so what was wrong? He then thought of the cases they had worked these past few months, they covered a whole range of problems from high-end terrorism to run-of-the-mill hackers, each case had required a different means of investigation to get to the root of each problem and had required a different perspective for each subject they went after to best track them and take care of them.

And that's when it hit him.

It was still the same old cases with the same old high profile subjects, nothing had truly changed about the job, they just went back to doing what they did before. Which by all rights he liked it that way, it was better than working the more risky cases that involved being shot up or worse and he loved seeing is wife and kids at the end of the day.

But still...

The individual eleven case had been the only other case besides the laughing man incident that really tested section 9 and pushed them to their limits, it had been long, hard, and there were plenty of times where Gouda and the CIS had pissed them off to no end, not to mention the trouble Kuze gave them when they tried to apprehend him on Etorofu. The whole case had been long, hard, complex and very nearly turned into the worst case scenario.

But it had been a very different case.

One that no-one could solve right away, and one that lead from complicated situation to another.

It had been a challenge, not one that was wanted or needed, but all throughout they had stood by each other as a team, and as friends and although he would never tell anyone that, it had been true never the less.

Gently unlocking the door and stepping out onto the patio, he breathed deep the night air. The cool breeze brushed through his hair as he looked up at the night sky.

Amid the grungy orange highlighted clouds, illuminated by the city's radiating glow the deep indigo night sky stretched from horizon to horizon. Glistening with a billion tiny twinkling stars.

Suddenly, a bright enormous shooting star bathed in a radiant golden light shot swiftly across the sky leaving a trail of amber behind.

Togusa watched in awe, he had never seen a shooting star like that before, then he suddenly remembered the old wife's tale that if you see a shooting star, you get to make a wish.

As the stars tail began to disappear he closed his eyes, letting his thoughts go and throwing caution to the wind, and in brief moment, whispered in a voice so soft only he could hear it.

"I wish...for something unbelievable to happen"

When he opened his eyes the star was gone.

He sighed, 'yeah right...time to go back to reality' he thought with a smirk.

He put the glass back in the kitchen and quietly slipped back into bed, as he laid there he silently slipped into a dreamless sleep with only thoughts of what was in store for tomorrow on his mind.

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But what these three agents of section 9 didn't appreciate is that when you wish upon a star, not only did you have to be careful what you wished for, but also remember that fate and destiny had a strange way of making it come true, and somewhere far beyond the world that Saito, Batou and Togusa knew, the shooting star began to work its magic.


	2. Chapter 1: Webcam Chat

A/N: Here we start our story in a very different place, the grammar and some of the spell in the prologue didn't come out quite as I'd expected it, but hay, it's a good enough starting point, I've been kind of feeling on a poetic high lately so I might upload some more captures very soon, anyway, on with the story!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own (I wish!) Transformers or Ghost in the Shell, just my OC's and the plot.

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SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 1: WEBCAM CHAT

The summer heat hung like hazy smoke in the air as the sun's rays beat down relentlessly on the suburbs of Tranquillity. In a quiet street on the outskirts of the city the locals were taking advantage of the sweltering temperature, the sounds of barbeque parties drifted over the hedgerows and fences. Kids played with water guns and garden hoses in the front yards and in one particular driveway, a certain yellow Camaro, the young Autobot Bumblebee, was being cooled off with nice cold water by a young and beautiful girl by the name of Mikaela Banes.

"Feel better Bee?" she asked smiling at her reflection on his hood.

"Much better thanks, this heat is pretty unbearable" the car replied via one the sound speakers.

"I know, but at least its cooler here then back on the base"

"That's for sure"

One of the bedroom windows opened up and Samuel Witwicky leaned out.

"Hay guys! The webcams set up and Deathshot's already online!" he called down.

"Okay, I'll be right up!" Mikaela replied.

"I'll be listening in!" Bumblebee called after her as she ran into the house, up the stairs and into Sam's room. In the corner by the window a computer sat on a desk with Sam grinning as the image of another Autobot, appearing as a silhouette in a large hanger-like room filling up the screen.

"Hello Sam, Mikaela, its good to see you both again" The strange Autobot said in a deep, basso voice.

"Its great to see you again Deathshot, is Morri there?" Mikaela asked as she slid onto Sam's lap.

"Yeah, I'm down here!" a female voice echoed.

On the screen, a figure seemed to climb up the giant shadowed Autobots side and then jumped onto the enormous desk in front and into the light of a nearby lamp. There stood a young girl with brunet hair and dark brown eyes; she wore a simple white hoodie and dark jeans. This was Morwenna Heartly Briggs, a simple art student who lived in the south west of England with her cousins Tom, Danny and Ashley, and an autobot sniper named Deathshot.

Sam and the autobots had discovered Deathshot had been living in England for nearly two years, arriving on Earth shortly after the battle in Mission city. However, as he entered earth's atmosphere the north poles magnetic field threw his telemetry off and he landed in England by accident, plus the violent entry damaged his communication systems so there was no way for him to call the autobots for help.

Not long after, Morri and her cousins discovered him in a meadow not far from their village, after they got over the initial shock of seeing a 30ft alien robot, he introduced himself and explained who and what he was and vice versa for the children, soon after they helped him find shelter in an abandoned airfield hanger.

For the past two years the autobot sniper grew to be close friends with the children, especially Morri, and last year, the Autobots and the agents at NEST located the lost autobot after 13 months of searching. Optimas Prime, Bumblebee, Sam and Mikaela and Major Lennox and his team flew over to England to retrieve Deathshot and bring him back to the secret base. To their surprise he declined the offer to return to America, saying he enjoyed his life in England with the 4 cousins and requested to stay and become their guardian. Prime said yes, and the children made a pact that they would come over to America the following summer to see the other Autobots and their new base. Since then, they had constantly been in touch via e-mail and webcam.

"Hay guys! Great to see you again! Your both looking good, you both looking forward to tomorrow?" Morri asked in a broad English accent.

"Yeah! The guys on the base have been looking forward to your trip for weeks!" Bumblebee replied enthusiastically.

"Is that Bumblebee? Hi there! It's nice to hear your voice at last, sounds like Ratchet did a fine job on your vocalizer" she said.

"He certainly did, the whole base has been talking about you Deathshot, everyone's eager to meet the autobot army's most elusive sniper, and I think Ironhide's especially keen to see your skills on the training field"

"Is he? Well he won't be disappointed, I do intent to have a little fun and get a chance to really stretch my wings, if you'll excuse the pun" Deathshot replied.

"I can't believe we only met last autumn, where doe's all the time go?" Morri added on.

"I know the feeling, I thought the college semester would never end" Sam replied

"Well we'll all be together this summer, and we've come with a whole bunch of ideas for things to do while your here in California" Mikaela said.

"That'd be great, the boys have been bored out of their minds the last few weeks, so I don't think we'll be bored to tears at any time on this trip, oh and that reminds me, will Darren and Hailey and her sisters be dropping in to say hi?" Morri asked.

"They won't be just dropping in, they'll be staying on the base for the summer break too, as soon as they heard you guys were coming, they decided to join in the fun"

"Miles and Glen too?"

Of course, and even Frenzy, Scorponok and Ravage want to see you" Sam said

"Frenzy and the drones? How are they doing? You said in your last e-mail Red Alert had been pretty hard on them" Morri asked.

"It's been a tough year overall but I think they've really gotten use to being Autobots since they defected, especially since they discovered a new calling in life" Sam said.

"And what's that?" Deathshot asked

"Playing the twins at their own pranks and annoying the slag out of Jetfire and Ironhide to no end, among other things, Prowls processor is near to off-lining with all the rule breaking, Red Alerts glitch has been taken to a whole new level of paranoia, Wheeljacks experiments have been blowing up more frequently and Ratchet's been a complete wrench wielding maniac" Bumblebee sniggered.

"So the former cons are..." Morri began with a grin.

"The Bases new pranksters? Yes" Mikaela replied smiling. Deathshot chuckled on the other end.

"Not that the twins have been happy, the prank wars have been going on for nearly 5 months now, so just a heads up in case anything happens while your over here" Sam said.

"Somehow I don't think that will be the main concern Sam, see, remember I told you guys Tom and Ashley are quiet the imformous pranksters of our village? Well after your last e-mail detailed Sideswipes prank on Ironhide involving the water balloons, rubber chickens and bumper stickers, they, in all their idiotic glory, are thinking of making this prank war a threesome and asked me to ask you if you could tell the drones and the twins that if whoever can pull of the most pranks in one week, will officially hold bragging rights for the rest of the summer, so if I were you, run for the hills while you still have chance" Morri said with a wide grin and a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

"In that case we'll tell Ratchet to stock up on sedatives ,sounds like this summer's going to be pretty crazy" Mikeala chuckled

"Indeed' I've been curious about the twins combat tactics, I want to see if their 'jet judo' is as deadly as they claim it to be" Deathshot said in a cool laidback tone.

"It's pretty good, but I know Bluestreak's really edger to met you, being a fellow sniper' an all he's looking forward to training with you, I know he eventually would like to try a sniper dual with you" Bumblebee said.

"Really? I like the sound of that, tell him I look forward to a good dual" Deathshot replied.

"We're all looking forward to meeting you all, We'll say cheerio for now because it's nearly midnight over here, We'll be leaving at 6:00am and the flight should take D..what, 4-5 hours tops?" Morri turned to Deathshot.

"About 5 hours maximum" he replied.

"So we should be arriving at the base' round about lunch time" Morri said.

"Awesome, we'll see you then, in the meantime we'll warn everyone, bye!" Sam smiled, Morri and Deathshot laughed as the screen went blank.

"So, what do you think?" Sam asked as he turned to face Mikaela. She smiled a devilish smile.

"I think we're really going to have some fun with them around" she replied.

"I agree, as you human say, the more the merrier" Bumblebee said, his internet up-link still online. Mikaela looked at her watch "I better go, dad's expecting me back at the shop". "Okay, I see you tomorrow beautiful" He smiled as he placed a kiss on her lips. "Okay, Bye" she whispered as she slowly drew her head away and walked out the door. Sam sat in wonderment at her, even after facing down Megatron and the Decepticon's she still remained by his side, she was truly amazing. Brave, smart, caring, while still stunningly beautiful.

He thought about how gifted she was as an Autobot medic, since Ratchet took her on as his trainee and she had really proven to be quiet skilled mechanic and nurse, this summer was to be her 3rd year at Autobot med school, as the other humans on the base called it.

Of course, Mikaela was not the only human who had proven they were helpful to the Autobots. Maggie Madison was now head systems analysist for NEST in Washington, with Glen as the team's main code-breaker and programmer, and surprisingly Frenzy worked alongside them both as the Autobots main informant on Decepticon electronic warfare.

It had not been easy for the hyperactive hacker to adjust to life among the Autobots, in the aftermath of the battle at Mission city his head and body were recovered from the Hoover dam base. Remarkably he was still alive and Ratchet reattached his head and made a full recovery. After being told the fate of the Allspark, Prime offered him a chance to switch sides and gave him some time to think about what to do, he thought better of it and eventually he agreed and defected.

The same went for Scorponok, three months later he was found on the boarder of Iran in a pretty bad way, exhausted, his tail blown off and his energy at a critically low level. He was flown over to the base, repaired and allowed to recuperate and then given sometime in the brig to think about where he stood now, Frenzy though was able to convince him to give the Auotbots a chance. So taking a chance he defected too, and found that life as an Autobot offered much more freedom then the Decepticons had allowed. He enjoyed teasing the twins, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, digging burrows and horsing around with the human soldiers.

Ravage made planet-fall two more months after that. The impact from crashing into the earth severely damaged several of his CPU functions, when Ratchet and Mikaela patched him up they discovered in his memory banks he had been in a fight with Starscream not too long ago, and lost, badly.

He had barely gotten away when he jettisoned into outer space. After his recovery he was delighted be reunited with his brother Frenzy and made up his mind there and then to defect, much to everyone's surprise.

Sam also thought of how in the year following the end of the war, many more Autobots had found their way to earth.

Prowl and Bluestreak were the first, with Red Alert in tow.

Then Perceptor and Hound a few weeks after.

The twins Sideswipe and Suntreaker came third,

And the Ark arrived to earth, commanded by Ultra Magnas with Hot Rod, Cliffjumper, Trailbreaker, Wheeljack, Brawn and former Decepticon turned Autobot, Jetfire.

Life on the secret base had certainly gotten a lot more hectic since then.

And a lot more interesting.

He remembered the day Ratchet, Wheeljack and Perceptor managed to successfully resurrect Jazz using the remaining Allspark shard. That had been a really happy day for everyone.

And he was now looking forward to the summer and the promise of some good times ahead.

"Sam?" Bumblebee bought him out of his nostalgic line of thoughts.

"Hm? what?, oh right" he replied

He turned back to the computer screen and started e-mailing Miles.

"Hay Bee, after I'm done e-mailing everyone, How about we go out for a drive?" Sam asked.

"Sure, maybe we could swing by Miles place and see if he and Jazz wants to go for a race?" Bumblebee asked.

"Sounds like a plan" Sam replied

"Hay Sam..."

"Yeah?"

"I've got a good feeling about this summer"

Sam smiled in thought.

"I think your right Bee" he replied.

The webcam link disconnected and Sam spent the better part of the afternoon typing emails to all the other humans who knew and were friends with the Autobots. He felt good, excited even, and kept thinking about how the summer was going to play out.

The hot day passed by uneventfully, by early evening Sam and his guardian Bumblebee set off to Miles home for a bit of fun.

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R&R please!


	3. Chapter 2: The British Cometh

Here's chapter two, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or Ghost in the Shell, just my OC's and the plot.

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SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 2: THE BRITISH COMETH

The ocean wind blew off the sea with a crisp fresh breeze, the cliff sides and the rocky shores were bathed in the rich orangey golden glow of the suns very first light and the vast sea was like glass and green as jade.

Already the fishermen, dressed in their yellow oilys and other weather-proof gear were making their way to their boats in the crescent-shaped bay of the harbour, ready to set out to the fishing-grounds several miles westward along the coast. The shop-keepers and market-stall holders were opening up their businesses and setting up their stalls, preparing for the day ahead. The seagulls glided overhead, cawing and screeching incessantly, waking up the late risers.

This was the fishing village of Porthnev, nestled in the bay of Tewednnev. In the very southwest of England in the heart of the ancient Celtic county of Cornwall.

It was an olde worlde type place, one of the many old and ancient places in England were humans had elked out a living from the land and sea since time immemoria.

Considered as one of the back waters of the British Isles, Cornwall was a small stretch of land that jutted out into the Atlantic Ocean, it was a timeless and ancient place steeped in hundreds of year's worth of history, fairytales and Maritime lore, an ancient place that had known an ancient way of life.

On top of the steep towering cliffs, Morri stood watching the little fishing boats set out of the harbour, she smiled as she watched the gulls ride the sea born winds, today was the day she, her cousins and guardian were going to fly to America to spend the summer with the other Autobots. She wrapped her shawl around her shoulders as the cool winds blew across the Cliffside.

Behind her, heavy footsteps slowly paced up the rocky ground and stopped a few meters at her back, she smiled, knowing who in was. She turned around and saw her guardian standing with both hands on his hips and a broad smile on his face.

"Good morning Deathshot, are you already loaded up?" She asked "Not yet, I came looking for you to help me with that job" he replied looking down at her. "Then let's get started, we need to leave by 6 am at the latest".

He bent down and offered his hand to her, into which she promptly jumped and they set off to his secret hideout.

Deathshot was very unique by Autobot standards; he was a sniper by profession and a very good one (not that he bragged about it). He was a flyer but not like the seekers, he was much bigger standing at over 30feet tall, broad shouldered and had 2 sets of wings. His fore wings were a clipped delta design with the wingspan measuring 25 feet across, the ends of which were tipped with scarlet red bio-scanners capable of picking up the very faintest traces of movement and could scan vast areas to obtain an accurate topographical reading of the landscape. His main wingspan was a wide 55 feet across (when spread out) and was an elegant swallow-tip wing design, capable of swinging back and forth for either gliding or streamlining and the swallow-tips allowed for great manuverability at high speeds. His tail was comprised of two horizontal swallow-tail shaped fins and a tall vertical clipped fin with the Autobot insignia on it. Between his shoulders, arms and wings were his unique (practically one of a kind)Ion plasma propelled engines, seven in all, four lined along his torso/undercarriage, three were more concealed yet gave stability to his front weight when in alt mode, and one enormous thruster at the very rear for speed. His armour was a deep rich midnight blue with a few parts coloured pewter silver here and there and dark charcoal gray, but it was and face and hands that stood out as far as cybertronian physiology was concerned .

Unlike the other Autobots, Deathshots face wasn't made up of interlocking metal plates. His face, neck, digits and several other areas of his armour were made up of a flexible, durable carbon-cybertainium nanite hybrid coating with self-regenerating and blast-proof alloy and silicon elements built in, effectively giving his face a rather human-like appearance because it looked like he had skin.

Morri told him once it was her favourite feature she liked about him.

But the other feature that made him stand out was his left optic; it was a large black patch that covered the whole of the socket with two long back lines running out from it, one halfway up his forehead and the other halfway down his left cheek. Inside was housed a very special set of optic sensors and scanners so sensitive that they have to be kept covered when not in use, their capable of scanning anything, mechanical or biological on a multitude of different settings, x-ray, inferred, ultraviolet, heat signature, you name it, he's got it all in that one set of optics. It also gave his face a somewhat grim and cold look, but Morri didn't care, she loved him regardless of appearance.

As Deathshot strode over the heath land, the sight of his hideout appeared up ahead. It was an old air field base that hadn't been used since the 1980s and as he walked across the main runway Morri stood up in his hand ready to step off. Standing next to the huge rusty doors of the bases largest hanger were three unlikely looking teenage lads all standing around idly with a small stack of camping rucksacks, duffle bags and several smaller backpacks.

They were Morri's cousins, Tom, Danny and Ashley.

Tom was a tall lad at 6'2 feet with scruffy black hair and hazel brown eyes; he was 18 years of age, wearing blue jeans, an olive green long sleeve top with an orange Hawaiian shirt on top. He was a natural prankster, joker and all round good time kind of guy.

Danny was a few inches shorter, he was 17 years old with a blaze of wild, spiky, bright red hair kept back by a green bandana, with green eyes and a skinny build he wore a simple pair of beige khaki cargo pants with a green t-shirt saying 'don't worry, I'm Irish' written across the front. Danny was of Irish decent, a little bit of a hypochondriac, he was prone to being jumpy, but still loved to have some fun.

Ashley was the youngest of the four cousins at 12 years, he was real rebel and trouble maker in the village, and he was tough for his size with a quick temper and had a real knack for fighting. He stood at 4 feet tall with spiky light brown hair and slate blue eyes. He wore a baggy pair of worn and torn jeans with a dark purple hoodie that was several sizes too big for him. His side of the family hailed from Sheffield in South Yorkshire, so he always talked with a broad Yorkshire accent, which gave his already pit-bull like temperament a real load of attitude.

As for Morri, she was the eldest of the 4 at 22 years old. She had thick, long wavy rich brown hair with bronze highlights and eyes of dark brown. Unlike her cousins, she was more mature and more willing to stop and think before acting on impulse, most of the time she hanged around with them to make sure they didn't bite off more than they could chew, and to help get them out trouble on occasion.

But ultimately, the four siblings loved nothing more than hanging out with Deathshot together; the giant autobot had a professional approach to most things in life, and as such took his responsibility as guardian seriously, he enjoyed their company and their endless enthusiasm, and they too relished in the fact they were friends with a giant alien robot.

As Deathshot approached the hanger and his footsteps echoed off the metal walls, Tom turned around and watched as the enormous Autobot came up to them.

"Good your here, finally we can load up these bags" Tom smiled

"About time too, let's load up and jet off already!" Ashley huffed.

"I think we can afford to take our time, America won't be going anywhere so we don't have to rush" Morri said as Deathshot lowered her to the ground and she jumped down.

"And besides, most of the international commercial flights will be over the Atlantic' round about now, I don't want to run into traffic" Deathshot said as he leaned back up.

"Run into traffic?! You can hover around the traffic! Or fly right up into the stratosphere! Or..." Danny exclaimed in surprise, he looked up at Deathshot who looked at the boy with a mischievous grin, Ashley and Tom sniggered.

Danny folded his arms and frowned realising he'd been had, "very funny D" he huffed. "Well look on the bright side, with my engines and drag resistant force-field, we'll be there in less than 5 hours" Deathshot said

"Least it's better than a 12 hour flight" Ashley replied.

"Indeed, now let's load those bags up"Deathshot said as he took a step back and transformed into his alt-mode. A Cybertronian stealth-class Sniper craft, an impressive 50 foot long alien jet with four wings, all seven thrusters hummed while glowing a vivid neon blue, and his midnight blue armour covered his wings, tail and canopy while his undercarriage, air intakes and thrusters were a pale pearlescent gray.

On his undercarriage right under the canopy, 6 panels folded out and backwards like a flower blooming, revealing one of his subspaces. The kids all grinned no matter how many times they saw it; they never got bored of watching their guardians transformation sequence.

Morri took her rucksack over to the opening in the fuselage, and out of the door, two long slender silvery octopus-like tentacle cables unfurled down, grabbed the bag and hoisted it up into the space, the others bought the rest of the luggage over to load up one by one and in no time at all the bags were stored away in the subspace and the opening closed up.

"Attention please, this is your final boarding call, all passengers on the sniper airways flight bound for California please take your seats in the cockpit" Deathshot joked as his nosecone lowered to the ground and the canopy swung open, revealing a very spacious seven seated cockpit. The 4 kids clambered up and took their seats with Morri shot gunning the front seat.

"Any in-flight movies?" Ashley asked as he took his seat at the back of the canopy.

"You know I always keep a selection of your favourite films" Deathshot replied

"And if you get hungry I've got some snacks here in the bag" Morri added

"Good, cus I hate those in-flight meals on the regular airlines" Ashley replied.

"Wait a sec! Does anyone need the bathroom before we go?" she asked

"NO!" the boys called back

"Are you sure?"

"YES MUM!" they grinned

"Good, because I'm not making any pit stops" Deathshot replied

From out the top corners of the pilot seats the seatbelts and safety harnesses came down and clicked in place across the children's shoulders and waists. The canopy closed and sealed shut with a slight pop as the cockpit pressurised, the engines below powered up with a deep thrumming.

Deathshots Ion plasma engines did not work on the same mechanical principles as conventional internal combustion engines; they were entirely different in design and mechanism, as such, one of the noticeable features about them was the lack of sound they made, if any at all when they were working on low power.

The Autobot hovered and ascended up upward above the air base with the village across the fields, the teens watched as they flew over and up.

"Goodbye England" Morri said smiling.

"Yeah! Goodbye and America, here we come!" Ashley cheered,

And with a sudden burst of speed Deathshot shot into the sky, the four teens cheered in delight as if on a rollercoaster ride.

Soon the Autobot sniper was cruising at a phenomenal speed in the upper atmosphere on the edge of space, leaving British airspace behind and heading for North America.

* * *

In the town of Tranquillity, Sam and Mikaela were on their way to the secret Autobot base out in the middle of the dessert, Bumblebee was playing some up-beat tunes as Jazz and Miles followed close behind. It was shaping up to be great day, after Sam sent out emails announcing everyone of their British friend's time of arrival, Major William Lennox suggested a welcome party, to which everyone readily said yes to.

So the teens had spent most of the morning shopping for food for the party, burgers, hot dogs, steaks and other stuff for the BBQ filled Bumblebee's back seats and trunk in brown paper grocery bags, all so full that they were close to bursting.

"Do you think we have enough?" Mikaela said looking at the all the bags

"Are you kidding? We just bought enough food to feed the whole base! I think we're good" Sam exclaimed.

"Well Glen usually likes a few extra burgers and doughnuts" she replied

"Don't worry, I took Glen into account, I got extra burgers" Sam smiled.

"I still find it amazing how he can refuel on such quantities of food without purging his tanks" Bumblebee commented.

"I know, but hay, he's definitely got the stomach for it, remember how he won that hot dog eating contest at the state fair 3 months ago?" Sam said

"Who could forget? Sunny had nightmares for 4 weeks afterwards and Ratchet nearly blew a fuse warning Glen about the danger of chocking" Mikaela replied.

"Yeah, but at least we had a whole month's worth of peace and quiet from the psycho sunflower, and Glens officially off the twins list prank hit list after that joke Frenzy told them about humans being able to use our stomachs as organic cannons" Sam said.

"I know, even though sunny got over it, I think it still haunts him occasionally" Bumblebee said.

"Why do you say that?" Mikaela asked

"Because yesterday I walked past the rec room and Epps walked out, at the same time the twins walked by, Epps suddenly burped and Sunny nearly jumped out of his armour shrieking 'don't let it hit the paintjob!" Bumblebee smirked.

The teens burst out laughing; Sam pitched forward over the steering wheel "Oh man! I'd have loved to have seen that!" Sam said trying to get his breath back.

"I saw it on the security system, I can get you guys the tape if you want!" Jazz said over Bee's speakers.

"**Jazz, Bumblebee, report in, what are your current positions**?" Optimas prime's voice sounded over the autobot comm. link.

"**We're en route to the base as we speak, we've just finish collecting the food for the party**" Jazz replied

"**Excellent, we just received word from Deathshot that they've crossed over the Eastern Seaboard and will be arriving at the base in over an hour's time**"

"**Alright, how's the prep work for the party going?"** Jazz asked.

"**Everything's running on schedule, Major Lennox and his family have been helping to set everything up and Bluestreak and Trailbreaker have just arrived with their charges and are also helping out**" Prime said

"**Okay boss bot, we're about 15 minutes away, see you guys shortly**" Jazz replied

Sam and Mikaela look at each other and grinned.

"Well it's certainly going to be a swinging party now, with Hailey and her sisters around it'll certainly be lively" Sam said with a smile.

"Yeah, I just hope no-one gets plastered on the high-grade again" Mikaela replied.

"Amen to that, my servos ached for 3 days after the Christmas party last year" Bumblebee said.

As the friends all carried on their conversation while they driving along the highway, they left the city behind and headed out into the vast and empty desert.

* * *

Far from Tranquillity, out in practically the middle of nowhere, the Autobots secret base and the HQ and the command centre of NEST were hidden underground in an interlinking network of bunkers, hangers and enormous chambers for the giant cybertronians. At its heart, carved out and expanded from a deep gorge was the biggest hanger of them all, where the Autobots space cruiser, the Ark, had gone into a well deserved retirement, after countless centuries of service, she now served as the autobots inner most command centre for the whole base.

On the surface level above, the Autobots and their human friends had spent the morning preparing one of the empty hangers for the welcome party. Everyone was both curious and excited to see this new Autobot guardian in person.

The tables were set up, the BBQ was lit and heating up and all the drinks were sitting in cooler-boxes full of ice, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe decided to bring out some of their home made high-grade energon, the kind that if Prowl ever found out about their afts would be in the wringer for sure.

Scorpanok and Frenzy joined in the fun by helping Major Lennox's wife, Sarah and her 4 year old daughter Annabelle blow up balloons and hand up streamers.

The little honey-blonde girl giggled in delight as scorpy let her ride around on his back as he scuttled around the hanger with a bunch of balloons tied to his tail; Sarah couldn't help but giggle at the cute little scene. Scorpanok had proven (Much to everyone's surprise) to be quite good with the Majors daughter, he was always happy to let her ride him, and she always looked forward to playing with him whenever she and her mother visited the base (much to Ironhides disgruntlement).

Outside the hanger, sitting by the enormous doors, Ravage sat upright licking his left front paw, his black metallic tongue rasped against his armour, scraping off any unsightly marks. Across the tarmac, Bluestreak and Trailbreaker came walking over with a set of sound speakers in hand, followed by a boy with a prosthetic left leg, an older blonde girl and two much younger blonde twins.

"Hi Ravage, you waiting for us?" Trailbreaker asked.

"Rrrawr" the horse-sized cat replied, his one red optic glowed as he watched the kids approach.

"He's probably waiting for sunny and sides to show up with the energon, am I right?" the boy asked the cat.

The 15 year old boy was Darren Ainslie, a genius and child prodigy, he was gifted in the art of computer hacking and writing viral infiltration programmes. He came to NEST's attention after he hacked into part of the Pentagons central mainframe, looking for information on 'the strange occurrences in Mission city' as the media called it, despite covering his tracks well, Frenzy eventually tracked him down and the agents at NEST took him into custody.

Instead of being thrown into the juvenile penitentiary he was offered a chance to help work for NEST as Glen's student, and was introduced to the Autobots (much to his geeky delight) and Trailbreaker was designated the position of his guardian. With Trailbreakers humour and up-beat attitude and Darren's positive yet calm and intuitive personality, the two had been best buddy's ever since.

"Rrrrawraaag" Ravage replied with a flick of his maced tail as Darren patted the armour on his shoulder.

"It should be a blast, it's been forever since we all got together for a party" the elder blonde girl said.

She was Hailey Waineright, the eldest of three, her little twin sisters Becky and Becca were right behind her keeping pace. She was 18, her sisters both 11. Hailey was the all American cheerleader type, tall, golden blonde and fair bright face. She was perky, bouncy, bubbly, smiley and always lent a shoulder to cry on, she wore a short pink skirt with black tights and red converse seekers, a green camouflage t-shirt over a pink long sleeve top. The twins were both fair blondes with blue streaks tied up in double ponytails, they both wore blue jeans and blue and orange striped t-shirts with frilly trims.

Hailey, Becky and Becca got involved with the Autobots when Bluestreak made planet fall and accidently landed close to their home in the more well-to-do suburbs of Tranquillity. They found him in their back yard and decided to hide him in their family's garage, after he recovered he stayed with the girls out of curiosity for making first contact with this planets inhabitants, but also because he discovered they loved to talk with him, they would chat for seemingly endless amounts of time, over several weeks they found they had a lot in common with each other and quickly became best of friends.

After Prowl found him, he rejoined the Autobots and the first thing he did was ask Optimas Prime to be the girls guardian after Barricade tried to run them down, knowing the girls now knew of their existence on earth, Prime had to say yes.

So there were now 6 autobot guardians to 14 human friends and allies, talk about cosy.

"What time did Sam say they'd be arriving?" Becca asked.

"Around 11or 12 I think?" Darren replied

At that moment Bumblebee and Jazz came racing along the tarmac and screeched to a halt outside the hanger, Sarah walked out with Frenzy to greet them all.

"Finally, you're all here, and with the food at last" Sarah smiled as the teens hopped out of their guardians and unloaded the all the food.

"It took us a while to get everything on the list, but I think the party's good to go now" Sam said

"Good, I'll get the burgers and hot dogs on the grill, and if you girls want to give a hand to make the salad I'd be very grateful" Sarah said taking two grocery bags off of Bumblebee's backseat.

"Anything we can do?" Miles asked.

"Yeah, you can help us set up the sound system and decks" Darren said thumbing to the two huge sound whoppers under Trailbreaker's arms.

Bumblebee and Jazz transformed and headed in with the rest of the group.

The rest of the morning wore on and soon it was 11:35am, Sarah, Mikaela and the Waineright twins helped prepare the food, until the long tables at the side of the hanger were covered in an appetising spread of all sort of delicious treats and snacks. Sam, Hailey and Miles were on guard duty making sure that if Glen passed by; his stomach's curiosity wouldn't get the better of him.

Optimas's large crowned helm leaned in around the corner of the hanger door, catching Sarah's eye "Hi Optimas, were just about ready" she said

"Excellent, and just in time, the others are arriving and Deathshot is less than 5 minutes away" his deep basso voice echoed around the hanger walls.

High above the dessert in the sky's above' Deathshot spotted the base down below. "Well younglings, we're finally here" he said.

"Really? Where?" Danny asked

"I see it! Christ, it's huge!" Ashley said excitedly, looking down at the huge complex spread out below. Deathshot descended towards the runway and slowed his speed until he cruised a hundred feet or so above the ground.

"Hay, look who's up ahead!" Morri said pointing in front, "wow!" Tom breathed, waiting on the tarmac with his hands on his hip plates and flanked by all the other Autobots and humans, Optimas Prime stood proud and tall, as Deathshot touched down and transformed, all the other autobots stared in amazement at the 30ft sniper, a couple of the Autobots felt a chill go through their spark chambers when they saw his one blue optic and grim looking face, he looked really scary. When Deathshot opened his cockpit and lowered the teens down to the ground all the other children ran up to greet them. Amid the happy hellos, handshakes and hi's the 4 cousins made their way over to Optimas with Deathshot close behind.

The one eyed sniper dipped his head in courtesy to the Autobot leader and smiled.

"Greetings and welcome to the Autobot base my friends, I trust your journey went well?" he asked

"No problems at all, it's good to finally meet you all at last, it feels like it's been too long since we first meet" Deathshot said with a warm smile

"And it's a pleasure to finally meet the rest of you" Morri smiled up at the Autobot leader who smiled down on the children.

"It's great you're finally here, we've been looking forward to your visit for months!" Hailey squeaked in excitement

"Yeah we're gonna have so much fun together!" the Waineright twins said with a bubbly attitude. Noticing how sweet and perky the girls were, and realising he'd probably be spending most of the summer with them; Ashley suddenly felt he wanted to be out in the dessert rather than here, but he didn't let his uneasiness show (much).

After being introduced to the rest of the Autobots and Major Lennox's team, the Autobot sniper and his charges were lead over to the hanger and the party got off to a flying start.

For the rest of the afternoon the Autobots and humans mingled and partied like there was no tomorrow, the lambo twins served up their home made high-grade energon, Jazz, Bumblebee and Hot Rod were pulling off some awesome break dancing on the dance-floor, which were receiving load cheers from the human and Autobot audience as they watched the amazing flips, spins and freestyle moves to the load beat of the music.

At the other, more quieter end of the hanger near the doors several of the humans and Autobots were chatting and laughing with each other, Ultra Magnas, Hound and Deathshot were swapping their favourite features about the earth and humanity, Tom was in a conversation with the lambo twins, exchanging stories of their best pranks and other twilight activities, Danny, Darren and Glen had their laptops set up on one of the bench tables and were having fun time swapping facts and figures about computers, software and other geek-related items while Ironhide and Jetfire sat outside the doors with a couple of energon cubes talking and reminiscing about how life was like back in their day, all in all everyone was having a fantastic time, Morri stepped out of the hanger and looked across the tarmac at the setting sun, 'it's sunset already?' she thought, amazed at how fast the day had flown by, she sighed and smiled in happy thought, she and the boys had been completely surprised by the party, how everyone had been so eager and happy to see them, it was like being accepted into a secret society or being greeted back into a long lost family they hadn't known about, it was really touching to know that the friendship the other humans and Autobots shared was not taken lightly or for granted.

"Can't believe it's evening already" Major Lennox said as he walked up to Morri.

"I know, it's been a great day, you really didn't have to do all this for us Major" she smiled.

"Please, call me Will, and it was no trouble at all, everyone on the base has been looking forward to meeting you guys, I think Deathshot's really enjoyed himself, meeting the rest of his own kind I mean" he replied thumbing over to where Deathshot was standing.

"Your right, he's really enjoyed himself today, I was wondering if everyone's been this eager to welcome us, what's the rest of the summer going to be like?" she grinned, Will gave a light chuckle "You won't be bored, especial around here, I know Prime's keen to see what Deathshot can do on the training field sometime, to see if he's really as good as his reputation precedes him to be" he said

"The unseen death from above? I believe that was one of the terms he was coined with back in the days of the war" Morri said.

"From what Jetfire told us he was the top sniper during the height of the all-spark wars, racked up a lot of kills in a very short time, while keeping his head down for so long even his superiors forgot what he looked liked after awhile" Will asked curiously.

Morri's face turned slightly serious and sighed in thought "He did tell me some things about his life during the war; I assume he's the best but I can't really tell, he's way too modest about it, I've watched him snipe with his smaller shoulder and wrist mounted guns, but I've not seen him use 'the' gun, that would be something to see" she replied.

"The gun?" Will asked.

"His main sniper riffle, the one that folds out of his back and out of his undercarriage in alt-mode, I've seen riffles before but his is bloody impressive" she grinned.

"Be careful you don't let Ironhide hear you say that" Will grinned.

"Don't let Ironhide hear what?" Deathshot asked as he walked up to Morri and the Major.

"Oh nothing in particular to worry about, besides, have you seen Ashley around? I haven't seen him since earlier" she asked.

"I saw him talking to Ravage earlier, but I haven't seen him since" Deathshot replied.

"Then where did he-"

At that moment a load holler echoed around the corner as Ravage came galloping up to the hanger with Ashley riding on his back, followed by the Waineright twins riding Scorpanok.

"Whao! That was wicked! Okay ladies you owe me a tenner!" Ashley called over his shoulder to the twins.

"What's a tenner?"

"He's English, he means ten bucks"

"Where have you been?" Morri asked placing her hands on her hips.

"Having a race with the girls across the dessert" Ashley replied with a wild grin spread across his face, all the humans and autobots present looked at Ravage in mild surprise, Morri noticed the look on Wills face.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Uh...yeah it's just, your cousin is on Ravages back, he's never let anyone ride him before, not even Frenzy" he replied watching as the giant metallic panther walked up to Morri and Ashley dismounted in one jump.

"Man! you are some animal!" Ashley grinned as he patted Ravages neck; the big cat turned his head and nuzzled the boy with a load electronic purr.

"Aww! That's so cute, anyone got a camera?" Hailey squealed.

At that moment, a red and white Lamborghini Gallardo came screaming up the tarmac from out of the main base below, transformed into an another autobot and came running up to Optimas.

"Red Alert? What's the problem?" he ordered.

"Sir! Ravage has taken a human hostage! I saw him carrying a boy across the dessert on his back to the drones den; I warned you he'd turn back to being a Decepticon! But he's-" Red Alert stopped dead in his rambling when he suddenly noticed Ravage and Ashley staring up at him side by side, everyone else staring at him in surprise, he frowned down at the cat and boy and stomped over to them, Ravage arched his back defensively and Ashley stood his ground, ready in defence.

"You! I knew you couldn't be trusted! I will-"

"You will what?" Deathshot said in a serious tone as he stepped between Red Alert and Ravage, the Autobot security officer was about to order him to stand aside when looked up at Deathshots now cold and impassive face and froze on the spot as a cold shiver ran through his spark.

Everyone watched in silence as the scene played out, Optimas was curious to see how Deathshot would defuse this situation.

"Th-that Decepticon was t-taking the boy h-hostage" Red Alert stammered, all the while being transfixed by the sniper's one optic and feeling like it was boring into his very spark, Optimas raised an optic ridge, he had never seen Red Alert so nervous, usually he was very hard to intimidate, but Deathshot had him frozen to the spot.

Deathshot turned around and looked at Ravage briefly then turned back to the security officer.

"He looks fine to me, I have no problem with them having a good time together" he replied in an impassive tone.

"Com'on Red, lighten up, Ravage ain't doi'n any harm!" Jazz said putting a hand on Red Alert's shoulder and leading him back to the underground entrance, assuring the paranoid bot everything was cool.

"What was that all about?" Morri asked

"Yeah, which loony bin did he roll out of?" Ashley said

"That was our head security officer, Red Alert" Optimas said folding his arms across his wide chest.

"Is he always like that?" Danny asked walking up to Morri and Will.

"Yep, pretty much but I wouldn't worry about it too much, just stay out of his way for the first few days okay?" Will said.

"I intend to" Ashley frowned.

Inside the music had wound down and everyone was beginning to grow tired and weary, Annabelle was starting to make a fuss on her mother's lap, the lambo twins were too plastered on high-grade to stand up, Sam and Miles laid slumpted across Bumblebee's legs like two sides of meat, too exhausted from playing DDR to sit up, Will took one look around and saw the party was partied out.

"Listen guys, it's getting late, maybe we should call it a day?" he suggested.

Nobody argued as they gathered their stuff and headed out of the hanger, most of the Autobots transformed and offered rides back to the base for the more weary humans, the lambo twins staggered out and with one arm around the other to keep from toppling over, they clumsily made their way across the tarmac, falling over every few meters or so. Prowl shook his head, it would be the brig for those two tonight.

* * *

As soon as the four cousin's bags had been unloaded and the kids shown to their rooms and Deathshot had been allocated his living quarters they decided to call it a night, being too tired and exhausted to do anything else, Darren, Hailey and her sisters had gone to bed early too.

All was quiet and settled as Morri's head hit her pillow and turned the light out. She looked up out the window at the night sky as all the stars twinkled down from the heavens, suddenly, an enormous shooting star, bathed in a gold light streaked across the sky, leaving a bright orange tail in its wake.

Morri watched in awe, she had never seen a shooting star that big before, as the orange tail began to fade she smiled and murmured in a voice so soft and low, only she could hear it.

"I wish this summer will be an adventure to remember!"

Her eyes grew heavy, until she softly slipped into a dream-filled sleep.

* * *

Somewhere far away, beyond this universe and all that existed within it. In another time, another place, a very different story was unfolding and the gears of fate and destiny had begun to turn.

* * *

It's that shooting star again!, R&R please!


	4. Chapter 3 The Uncertain

Don't worry! I haven't forgotten our friends at Section 9, read on!

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 3 THE UNCERTAIN

The bar was not particularly interesting or exciting, it was one of a few he and the team knew of, and this was the one he usually came to, to get some peace and quiet, away from the stress of work. Tonight it was very quiet, only a few other people sat at the nearby tables and the barman was in the back room changing the beer barrels.

Togusa took a small sip of his drink and stared down at the brownish amber liquor, deep in thought.

This latest case been challenging, demanding and a real pain in the neck all round.

Over two weeks ago an unknown hacker infiltrated the military's network and ghost-hacked several high ranking military personel, extracting from their memories classified information and leaving their cyborg bodys practically brain dead. From the start, Section 9 knew they were dealing with a wizard class pro who knew what he was doing; he had covered his tracks well leaving virtually no trace he was there at all and he had written up a custom made virus that specialised in infiltrating attack barriers and disabling them.

Since then the case seem to get stranger and more complex. After the team investigated the military personal's backgrounds it was discovered that they had several links to certain right-wing politicians who were opposed to Priminister Kiyabuki independent self-reliance policy, but then, within 24 hours, 13 of those politicians died in mysterious circumstances and 8 more went missing, 3 showing up dead the following day with damage to their cyberbrains, the same as the military personnel.

From what little evidence the section was able to gather from the politician's cyberbrains, the nature of the ghost-hack seemed to indicate there was more than one hacker present during the attacks and that whatever resources they were using, whoever was funding their activities had a serious amount of cash to burn, and the data to keep it well under the tax bureau's radar, all the while covering their tracks and staying one step ahead of the authorities.

It had been frustrating because just when it seemed the hackers were in their grasp, they upped and disappeared, and everyone's attitude towards the case wasn't helping.

It was tedious for Ishikawa and Boma because of trying to keep up with the hackers while trying to establish a motive to their actions and trying to determine what they were after, whilst trying to write a vaccine for the virus at the same time.

Pazu had been scouring the underbelly of New Port with Saito, checking out his old haunts and Yakuza contacts for any new information, but no-one had heard or seen anything, these new hackers were either new on the scene or were good at keeping their heads down.

Togusa had been investigating the politicians and their links to the military, trying to find anything that might give a hint as to what these hackers were after and Batou's frustrations was starting to get the better of him and the Major had been rarely seen as she had been checking out her own contacts on the net.

Everyone had been working practically nonstop for two weeks straight, pulling all nighters, checking and rechecking every last detail, Ishikawa barely remembered what his apartment looked like and Togusa took whatever opportunity he could to call his wife and kids, often just to tell them he loved them.

He downed the last of his drink, put on his coat and stepped out the bar.

"Hay" a familiar deep voice said to his left. Togusa looked and saw Batou walking down the street.

"Hi, I wondered whether you were coming or not, I was just about to head back to the office" Togusa replied.

"You need a lift?" Batou asked

"Sure, it looks like it's going to rain anyway" Togusa replied.

They walked the short distance to the parking lot, got in Batou's Lancia Stratos coupe and sped back off to the office, the pair sat in silence for the longest moment, Togusa wasn't too sure what to say, his mind was still too deep in thought to think clearly, Batou noticed the look of far-off daydreaming on the detectives face.

"So what's bugging you?" the big cyborg asked.

"Huh?"

"What's on your mind?"

"Not much"

"Oh really?" Batou smirked.

Togusa sighed; he knew keeping his opinions from Batou was useless; the boss man was always sharp to spot when something was on his mind.

"I've just been thinking about the case and everything that's happened lately, nothing about it has made sense, first the military gets hacked, then the members of the lower house go missing, three showing up dead and on top of that we still don't know what it is their after, there's no pattern to their attacks or motive to their crimes, it's just...so weird" Togusa said, watching the cityscape whizz by.

"I have to admit they're good at staying ahead of us, considering all the trouble they went to to hack those politicians we should have found an inkling of at least something by now" Batou replied.

"It would make sense if the base is mobile, every time we pick up their signal and hone in on it, they up and disappear, I mean last week was the third time we tried to get the drop on them" Togusa said, remembering how they located the hackers signal and immediately raided the apartment building the signal was coming from, finding three redundant androids giving off heat signatures to make it look like there had been people occupying the apartment and a laptop had rigged to send out a decoy signal. The hackers were long since gone.

"I know, once is smart, twice is lucky but three time means these guys are no amateurs, they know we're on to them"

"But it also begs the question, that if these hackers know we're on to them, how did they..." Togusa stopped dead in his tracks and sat up straight in sudden alarm, realising were his thought had lead him.

"Huh? What's wrong?"

"Shit! Why the hell didn't we see it sooner?!" Togusa exclaimed.

"What?!"

"The hackers! What if they somehow slipped under section 9's barrier array's and got the drop on us!"

Batou's face flashed a surprised look then frowned.

"Shit! Hold on!" his foot hit the gas and they sped through city in a bee line back to Section 9's HQ.

"_Ishikawa do you read me?!_" Batou's voice barked over the cyber comm..

"_What's up?_" Ishikawa responded

"_I need you to run a full diagnostic on our barrier systems and do a full analysis of the Tachikoma's agent functions for any traces of infiltration programming_"

"_What? Why_?"

"_We need to know if the hackers infiltrated Section 9, there's a chance they probably knew about our raids on them and the only way they could have known is if they infiltrated our systems_" Togusa said.

"_We're on it!_" Ishikawa replied.

"If those bastards somehow found a way past our defences and know all our secrets then this situation just went from bad to much, much worse" Batou growled through his teeth, his blood already starting to simmer.

"But what happens if we can't catch them in time? If they hacked us at all?" Togusa replied.

Batou was silent for a brief moment before answering.

"I don't know, maybe call in re-enforcements, but I doubt taking the wait and see approach is going to yield anything"

Finally they pulled up into Section 9's Parking lot in the underground complex of the tall building. The two men made their way up to the HQ and to the dive room. Inside, illuminated by the glow of all the monitors, Ishikawa and Boma sat at the dive terminals.

"Did you find anything?" Togusa asked.

"It looks like you were right, someone has been snooping around in the public security sector's networks from the backdoor, we've found traces of an infiltration programme that copied and encrypted several classified files so we don't know what was taken but it's the same infiltration programme our mystery hackers are using, so we know it's them" Ishikawa replied

"Dam it! How long will it take to decrypt it?" Batou asked

"If its anything like the previous programmes we've seen from them, then it could take several hours" Boma said.

"No way to trace it?"Togusa asked.

"No, it's just like the other attacks, that custom-job corruption virus was embedded into the attack barriers software before the hackers left, we've had to inform the Public security sector's network defence department because we don't know what files were stolen so we don't know which sector the information refers to" Ishikawa said rubbing his weary eyes.

"If it's our sector then we're in serious trouble" Togusa said.

"Trouble doesn't even come close to describing it" a feminine voice spoke from behind. The men turned and saw the Major standing at the door, her arms folded under her breasts with a her usual brooding gaze.

"If they have classified information on this sector, we won't just be in trouble, our asses will be in the wringer if the hackers know our tricks and learn to stay ahead of us and everyone else permanently" she said approaching Togusa and Batou.

"So our hackers decided to check us out?" she said looking at the screens.

"We don't know yet if it was us they wanted to check out, I'll have to run a structural analysis on the programme, every time these guys hack into somewhere they change the programmes encryption coding to keep it from being cracked the next time they strike" Ishikawa replied.

"And talk about attention to detail! The hackers even disguised the corruption virus as an ordinary police data file, completely leaving the network venerable as the virus attacked the defence barriers and the infiltration programme sneaked in undetected!" one of the Tachikoma agents peeped on the monitor.

"Other than the fact that these guys use a custom-written virus, do we at least have any idea yet what base programme they used to write the viruses data codes with yet?" she asked taking a seat next to Ishikawa at the spear dive terminal.

"Not yet, but from what we've seen so far it's highly possible it might be one of the HW varieties, it would account for how fast the virus gets to work, but it's been re-enforced with encryption key data so we can't pinpoint it on the network" Ishikawa replied.

"Re-enforcing a virus with encryption key data? That's a pretty slick way to get under the networks firewalls".

"But the question is, what are they looking for? Even if they were looking for information on us, why look now and not back last week when we tried to catch them off guard?" Togusa asked, everyone paused a moment, the Major suddenly got a whisper from her ghost.

"That a very good question, Ishikawa, pull up your findings over here"

Ishikawa typed in the data and several windows of information appeared on the screen of the computer where the Major sat, as she scanned the figures, something caught her eye.

"Ishikawa, did you check which areas of the network the virus attacked first before the decoys started to show up?" the major asked.

"It was levels C through to E then the decoys started to appear in levels F, G, H and B but why would they send the main virus through first and send in the decoys secondly?" he replied

"Take a look at the time it took for the virus to infiltrate the upper levels compared to the lower ones, notice the discrepancy in the attack barriers programming?"

"Your right, they don't match up"

"What does that mean?" Togusa asked.

"It means there's a possibility that the corruption virus was not a corruption virus in the first place, rather their infiltration programme in disguise" she replied

"But to do what?" Batou asked.

"I'm too not sure, Ishikawa, Boma, run a complete structural analysis of the infected areas and try to isolate the infiltration programming within the attack barriers, also try to crack the encryption key data and to establish which files the infiltration programme was after in the first place" She ordered.

"Rodger" they both replied as the Major got up to leave the room.

"Think they might try to come back?" Batou asked.

"I can't say for sure, but I wouldn't put it past them to try something, they've been good at covering their tracks so far, hopefully they'll be starting to grow overconfident...besides, if they are still snooping around it will be a good opportunity to catch them in the act" she replied as disappeared out the dive room, Batou and Togusa watched her walk down the corridor.

"Need a hand with anything guys?" Togusa asked.

"Nope we've got it covered here" Ishikawa replied.

"See you guys later then" Togusa said as he and Batou walked out of the dive room.

"Think we'll finally catch them?" he asked Batou.

"After 2 weeks of playing catch-up these slippery pricks? I hope so!"

"If their as formidable as the Major, what do you suppose we'll go up against if we try to raid them again?"

"Who knows, but if their able to afford good resources then they'll probably have hired thugs to cover their backs"

"That's for sure"

"But we got to find them first in the meantime; do you want to grab a coffee?"

"Nah, I'll pass thanks"

Batou carried on down the corridor as Togusa stopped in front of one of the windows, the sky was dark and gray, and it was raining outside.

He watched the rain pour down in heavy drops as he drifted deep into his thoughts with one known fact in mind.

The future looked very uncertain and unpredictable.

* * *

So, not a good start for Section 9, please R&R!


	5. Chapter 4: All Fun And Games

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 4 ALL FUN AND GAMES

"So I stood over him, his spark chamber in my hand as his optics slowly went out, seeing the evil in him dyeing away and I knew there and then I had chosen the right fraction to fight with, and that's how I became one of the Autobots" Jetfire proudly boasted as he finished his story, Morri, Tom, Hailey and her sisters stared up at the ancient seeker in awe.

"Wow! That's amazing, it would make an awesome action flick!" the twins chimed together.

"Yeah I wish I could have been there to see that" Tom grinned.

"Well I doubt you would have appreciated the battle, your species were barely evolved into mammals back then, no offence" Jetfire replied taking a swig of his energon cube.

"None taken, but still, weren't you worried his cannons would blast your wings off? They were type 4 plasma cannons, they could do a hell of a lot of damage" Morri asked.

"Ah! But that's the advantage of teleportation, just move out of the way!" Jetfire smirked.

"So this is where you guys have been all this time" Deathshot smirked. The teens turned around and saw him leaning against the rec room door with his arms folded, Jetfire nodded to him in acknowledgement.

"Hay D, have you been looking for us?" Morri asked.

"I was about to head over to the weapons unit to give my gun a clean and I could use a hand" Deathshot said walking over to the Autobot-sized table that the teens were sitting on.

"You mean a very nimble set of hands to get in all the places you can't reach?" Tom asked smirking.

"Well, yes" Deathshot replied modestly.

"Alright, you girls want to come with us?" Morri asked standing up and stretching her limbs.

"Thanks but I've got to go and find Blue, I promised him I'd join him in the wash racks for a swim" Hailey smiled as she took a jump off the table and somehow managed to climb down between the table legs and the enormous Autobot sized coach, Jetfire looked at the former cheerleader in amazement as her sisters followed suite and landed on the floor next to her.

"Primus! There was a time once I could move like that!" he exclaimed.

Morri jumped off the table too, landed on Deathshots arm, and scurried like a chipmunk up onto his shoulder, Tom followed suit on the other arm.

"And like that! You younglings take your youth for granted far too much! There will come a day your joints will need oiling ya'know! " the old Autobot grumbled.

"Hay that's a long way off yet" Deathshot smirked.

"Not long enough" he retorted.

"Well, see you later old friend" Morri smiled as Deathshot strode out of the room, Hailey and the twins waved goodbye and jogged off in the opposite direction.

As the Autobot sniper walked down the long corridor of the ark, Morri leaned back against his air intake and breathed a deep sigh.

"What's wrong youngling?" He asked.

"Nothing, I just feel so tired, I can't believe it's been three weeks since we arrived here, we've done so much in such a short amount of time" She replied.

"I know, and it's still only June!" Tom said from Deathshots opposite shoulder.

"Well we've got the 4th of July celebrations to look forward to next month and the Californian coast to visit, San Francisco and everywhere else in-between" Deathshot replied.

"But before all that, we've got the camping trip to look forward to tomorrow" Tom smiled

"I tell you what, you were breathtaking on the training field when you challenged the twins to several rounds of jet judo" Morri smiled

"Yeah, I knew you could move but you were superfly! Where did you learn to fight like that anyway?" Tom asked, leaning around to Deathshots face.

"Superfly? My, Miles has really rubbed off on you" Morri grinned

"Ashley showed me, He showed me a couple of his break-dance moves and I calculated them into my combat software, that reminds me, he's challenged Sam and Miles to a rematch on the DDR which should be pretty interesting" Deathshot said

"Really? That must have been a while ago because I've barely seen him around during the daylight hours lately, ever since that prank he tried to pull off on the twins last week he's been keeping a low profile" Tom said

"And of course grounding him won't yield anything; he always manages to sneak away somehow" she sighed

"You got to admit, Ravage has certainly taken a liking to him, I don't think I haven't seen them apart yet"

"He is a very impressive drone, and to be so tolerant of letting a human ride him is truly amazing, hunter drones like him are not known for their patience with others, as incredible as it sounds I think Ashley's had a good influence on him" Deathshot smiled

"That really is incredible" Tom said

"Do you like Ravage? Because I think he's pretty cool, for a panther the size of a horse" Morri asked

"Considering he's a former Decepticon the issue of Ashley's well-being around him is at the front of my CPU, but he's not give me any cause for concern as of yet so I'm fine with him hanging around, and besides, together their good at keeping the lambo twits in their place" Deathshot chuckled as he walked into the weapons unit, a vast and enormous room filled to the brim with guns and ammunitions of every shape and size lining the walls, the more lethal of the Autobot weaponry was concealed in a series of huge vaults at the far end of the room, the teens had been in here several times before so it wasn't anything new, but no less impressive.

Deathshot walked around the corner to a large table and set of chairs, he placed Tom and Morri on the table top and went over to one of the large shelves and took a couple of oil barrel sized cans of gun oil, cleaning solution and a few old parachute sized rags and placed them on the table next to the humans.

The sniper leaned forward slightly as his primarily weapon unveiled itself.

A series of panels between his shoulders on his back split apart like a complex metal flower, another series of metal panels extended out from the subspace, transforming into a 23foot long black sniper rifle with two long barrels, resting on his right shoulder, the butt moulded perfectly to the contour of the shoulder armour. The gun was connected to the sniper by a large curved spine-like attachment with thigh sized cables running closely alongside it, making the weapon permanently bonded to it owner like a third arm. There was a whirring sound and a sudden clung and the gun tipped down slightly.

"Weapons software is off-line, there's not a lot to do, I just need you guys to help reline the ion configuration chamber to the firing pins, there some sort of clog in there my 5mm creeper tendrils can't dislodge" he said.

"We'll take a look" Morri said as Deathshot gently raised them up onto the base of the barrels, there they climbed alongside the scope, just beside the windage knob a long compartment opened up revealing a long tubular chamber with a row of smaller tubes lining the cylindrical space, at the end of the chamber was a large cylinder end surrounded by a ring of small iris-like holes with a camera type shutter with a tiny pinpoint of blue light in the middle, Tom manuvered down into the 2 meter wide space and looked around at the complex firing pin.

"Okay, let's have a look"

* * *

The dessert seemed to stretch on forever, the perimeter fence flicked and wavered in the far off distance as the midday heat rose and distorted the air, white fluffy clouds drifted along the azure blue sky as the sun shone bright and hot.

The upper levels of the autobot base were still and silent, most of the base personel were either in the hangers or on the first level underground in the complex, in the open, no-one was around.

Hound was walking along the long row of hangers, making his way towards the entrance of the base, the heat was relentless and a cool shower in the wash racks was just the thing to beat the high temperature.

As he passed a gap between two of the hangers, a figure darted across at the far end that made Hound snapped his head round, but no-one was there, a quick scan revealed nothing so he carried on, putting it down to the heat.

Walking on he passed another gap in the hangers, something fast darted across the far end, again he saw it at the extreme range of his vision and this time he was a little unnerved. "Hello?" he called out "is anyone there?" he then noticed a small human-shaped shadow cast on the ground that disappeared as it seemed to walk away.

Hound walked down the gap to see who was there, "Becca? Becky? Is that you?" he called out, thinking it was one of the Waineright twins. He stepped around the corner, but no-one was there.

Suddenly a shower of pink gunge and confetti rained down upon the poor unsuspecting Autobot tracker, completely taken by surprise he looked up and around, and saw on top of the hanger, flopping around in hysterics were Ravage and Sorponok with Ashley and the Wraineright twins, Hound wiped the pink goo off his faceplates and grimaced up at the pranksters "very funny guys, very funny" he called up sarcastically and paced onwards to the base entrance.

Regaining themselves, the three kids and drones clambered down off the hanger roof. "Man that was fun! So what shall we do next ladies?" Ashley asked the twins. "It's too hot out here, let see if there are any more pranks to be had inside" Becky said "Yeah, I need a drink anyway" Becca added, Ravage lowered his front for Ashley to mount on and Scoronok lowered his head allowing the twins to climb up onto his back, just behind his back-mounted cannon, and together the five trouble makers trotted/scuttled to the underground base.

The Autobots had noticed a real change in Ravage's behaviour since Ashley befriend the ex-Decepticon, after he defected, Ravage had found life adjusting to the Autobots and humans very hard, humans were so fragile and the way they moved always tempted him to pounce on them, he liked to roam the base at night, prowling the dessert in pitch black darkness, which kept alarming Red Alert to no end and he hated adhering to the base's constant rules and regulations.

What frustrated him the most is that not no-one (excluding Optimas and several of the humans) even tried to see things from his point of view, despite the fact he was sentient he was still a predator at spark, he couldn't help being what he was any more than humans couldn't help being curious about their world and tinkering with their fingers to invent new things. If he didn't have his fellow drone Scorponok to talk to, he would have gone out of his mind.

In Ashley he had found a kindred spirit.

Before he and his family moved down to Cornwall to live with Morri, Tom and Danny, Ashley had hailed from the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, up in the north east of England.

It had been one of the many places in northern counties that suffered when the coal mining industry closed down in the early nineties, as a result, the economy of the region collapsed and all the towns and cities went bust, thus while Sheffield held its own charm it was no place for a twelve year old to be after dark, it was a place that held a bad reputation.

Ashley was a kid with street smarts, for the better part of his childhood he had learnt to rely on his wits, learnt to fight with ferocity and lived by his own rules; he was a wild child and a true rebel without a cause. Over the years he had grown up in a neighbourhood with troublesome, often violent street gangs who were always vying for each other territory's and since he learnt early on to stay out of the gang scene, the life he often lead was a solitary one, like a lone tiger in the jungle.

In Ravage, Ashley found someone who understood what it meant to be toughing out alone in the world, someone who didn't fit in and someone who lived for roaming the twilight hours and doing whatever they pleased (within reason). The two hit it off right away, so much so, that Ravage even let the boy ride him and over the last three weeks he was the only human the horse-sized panther permitted to let on his back, much to the Autobot's surprise.

The two friends had an effect on each other's behaviour, Ravage was more even tempered and didn't growl at the human soldiers or the other Autobots anymore, in fact he'd often come to them to be stroked or just to play around with, he especially liked Bumblebee, Bluestreak and Trailbreaker and Optimas would always oblige the feline with an occasional energon treat.

Morri had certainly noticed a change in her youngest cousin too, he was calmer, not so hot-headed or easily ticked off most of the time anymore and he didn't try to pick any more fights with Sunstreaker (much to Deathshots surprise and Sideswipes utter amusement, really, the sight of a 12 year old mouthing off to a 20 foot sociopathic autobot melee warrior was really an hilarious sight, and considering it was Sunstreaker, the other Autobots and humans though he was either very brave or very dumb) or try to sneak into the lambo twins quarters to set up any more elaborate pranks and traps (which everyone on the base knew was complete suicide).

Once the friends had entered the base via the enormous slopping ramp, they went into one of the main elevators used to carry the autobots up and down between the 5 different levels. The kids looked up at the enormous key pad which was some 20 feet off the ground.

"I see Wheeljack still hasn't installed the human-sized keypad yet" Ashley huffed.

"Graaaww" Ravage rumbled, Ashley had come to understand 'drone-lingo' as the other teens called it. This sound meant dismount.

Ashley hopped off; Ravage looked up at the button for the 3rd floor, pounced up and his target dead on, the 45 foot tall doors slowly closed up and the elevator descended downwards.

"Do you think Miles is still up for a rematch on the DDR?"

"I think so, it wasn't really clear who won last time, you both tied, and had good moves to boot" the twins asked.

"I think this time I got a good chance of beating him, after showing D some of my moves before Tuesday's sparing fight I did some practicing so I'm feeling pretty vamped".

"That fight was so awesome! You are so lucky to have D as your guardian! He way he moves just blew me away!" Becca squealed.

"You guys are just as lucky with Blue, He transforms into a Dane Nissan 350z, that's a great drift racing model if ever there was one!" Ashley smiled.

"That's exactly the reason why he chose it, D may be a great sniper and fligher but its Blue who rules at drift racing!" Becky beamed.

"Yeah, even Hot Rod can't compete at pulling off hard turns" Becca replied

Ashley dipped his head and sighed, looking at the twins, he smiled feeling a rare moment of sincerity upon him, he looked at the girls and dropped his gaze back down saying; "You know, I must confess, when I first met you two and your older sister, I thought you three were a bunch of spoilt little rich girls who thought daddy's money was all that mattered...but, after the last two weeks of pranking with you two and seeing how your sister is with Blue and the others...I think, you guys are... kinda cool" he sighed, not looking them in the eye.

The girls looked at him a moment, glanced at each other in realisation, "is this about the day after you arrived and you avoided us for most of the day?" Becky asked. Ashley shifted uncomfortably were he stood, feeling uneasy about answering.

"Umm...kinda, I'm sorry about" he replied uncomfortably.

The twins looked at each other with a knowing glance, the kind only they knew and smiled.

"That's okay" they both smiled, they hopped off scorpys back and hugged him around each shoulder.

"Thanks" Ashley sighed in relief, feeling better for getting that sense of guilt off his shoulders. Ravage nuzzled his snout into the boy's shoulder and purred, as if to say well done for being honest and the girls remounted the Scorpy.

The elevator bleeped and the doors opened up, Ashley mounted back onto Ravage and the two drones trotted out along the corridor, up ahead was the rec room used by both the autobots and humans to hang out and chill. The sound of people and Autobots was coming from the other rooms.

The drones and their human riders went inside the humongous room, sitting at one of the tables were Ultra Magnas and Trailbreaker and across the room were Bluestreak and Bumblebee, from their potion on the floor the kids couldn't see what they were doing, curious to see what was up the children dismounted the drones and made their way up one of the human-sized ladders to reach the tabletop Trailbreaker and Ultra Magnas were sitting at. The Drones made themselves comfy on one of the couches.

"Hello children, come to join our game?" Ultra Magnas offered.

The children saw spread across the table a huge colourful snakes and ladders board game, spreading some 20 meters in diameter.

"Wow! That's a HUGE board game!" the twins chimed.

"An Autobot sized snakes and ladders?, where did you get it?" Ashley asked looking up at Ultra Magnas.

"Perceptor was fascinated when Sam explained what board games are, so he made some common known games for the rec room" the huge autobot replied.

"And as far as board games go, they don't make you board!" Bluestreak called across from the other table. The twins rolled their eyes and grimaced, Ashley face-palmed.

"Good one Blue" they both called back flatly.

"I think so too, but I don't think I get to use them that frequently I actually like to keep my humour varied where I can, I just think-"

"Blue, you're rambling again" Bumblebee said flatly.

"Oh sorry, I know it's a bad habit of mine, I really should-"

"Blue"

"Sorry"

Ashley chuckled as he surveyed the board game, he looked across at the other table where Bluestreak and Bumblebee sat, they too were playing something.

"What are they playing?" he asked.

"Chequers I believe" Trailbreaker replied as he rolled the dice and made his move.

"You know, with a board game this big, you'd think either you've shrunk or are living in a doll's house, or something" Becca thought aloud.

Ashley leapt off the table and onto the autobot-sized couch, bouncing along past the drones and up onto Blue and Bee's table. He surveyed the giant chequers board. "Fancy playing the winner?" Blue asked. "Thanks but I've got to give Miles a complete beating on the DDR" he replied

"Oh yeah! I've been wondering how a second round between you two would go down" Bee asked.

Just then Jazz walked in with Miles and Darren sitting on his shoulders, the 1st Lieutenant grinned at the pre-teens as he let Miles climb down his arm onto the table and deposited Darren onto his guardian's shoulder, Ashley grinned with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes as he paced over to the laid- back blond, arms folded, Miles placed his hands on his hips in a show of bravado.

"You ready for another round of getting your ass handed to ya limey?" Miles mocked with a wide smile.

"Depends, are you ready to get a good licking, yank? So what's the bet this time round?" Ashley replied eyeing the goofy teen.

"Well, I was thinking, maybe we could make things interesting this time around"

"Go on..."

"How about, rather than just 5 dollars, the loser has to wash, wax and vacuum the winners guardian" Miles grinned

Ashley's face turned impassive for a brief moment, as if reluctant at first and then spread into a wicked grin.

"You're on" he replied in a low voice

Over the few minutes a small audience had gathered to the rec room in readiness for the showdown, Sam, Mikaela, Hailey and her sisters joined Bumblebee and Bluestreak, Deathshot came in with Morri, Tom and Danny sitting on his shoulders, Trailbreaker sat with Darren watching from his shoulder and Glen and Frenzy walked in to see the show, Ironhide strolled in with Will and little Annabelle, followed by Hound, Hot Rod, Brawn and Jetfire. Everyone was eager to see the two DDR pros go up against one another. On the bar where the energon dispenser sat, there was a little space (little by Autobot standards) set aside for the humans, namely a dance floor for parties and other social gatherings surrounded by several long coaches and large coffee tables, and many different pot plants (Sarah said it would give the space a homely touch). To one side were a set of DDR machines, along with a set of decks and loud speakers. The Autobots gathered around the bar, the humans sitting on their shoulders, all swapping and taking bets as the music started up and the two teens stepped up, eyeing each up and down.

"Good luck"

"I know, you're going to need it" Ashley grinned

"Okay, ready, set...dance!" Jazz shouted as the game started up.

* * *

Down on the 4th level, Ratchet was going through the inventory, while Wheeljack was laying on one of the bunks with dents and dings all over his body, a wire-mesh bandage was around his helm and a support brace was around his right arm which was burnt and smoking, various wires snaked in and out of the dented limb, delivering vital energon cocktails to his systems. He sighed like a little kid who just got punished for being caught with his hands in the cookie jar.

"What's up now?" Ratchet huffed, looking up from his data pad.

"Nothing, it's just... I was so sure I had those figures worked out, how was I to know 1 cube of energon had the same blast equivalent of 25 pounds of C4 when mixed with a ¼ litre of ion plasma"

"Well now you know, and I trust that will be the LAST time you attempt to duplicate Deathshots ion plasma fuel?"

"Perhaps, but you got to admit, it's not everyday you come across a cybertronian who can transform into a stealth-class sniper craft with ion plasma powered engines!" Wheeljack eagerly replied.

Ratchet rolled his optic and grumbled something under his vocal processor.

Perceptor walked in with an energon cube in hand and approached Wheeljack, the scientist smiled at the Autobot inventor, relieved to see his friend was okay from the explosion.

"Just 10 minutes, he suppose to be resting" Ratechet called over.

"Feeling any better?"

"Well, when you've been doing this for as long as I have you start to wonder if you should take up permanent residence in the med bay" he chuckled.

"At least you wouldn't have to be transported here every time there was an explosion"

"Speaking of which, how bad is the damage this time?"

"Not as bad as it could have been, the explosion only cracked part of the wall where the storage rooms are and knocked the containment field generators off the lab ceiling, other than that, I'd say you got off pretty easy"

"In that case once I'm out of here, it's back to work!" the inventor said perking up.

"Not necessarily, there's quite a lot of cleaning up to be done, I've made a start but I'll need help lifting the heavier items"

"Okay, I'll lend a hand as soon as I'm out of here, but before then, maybe you could ask one of the others to help out"

I'll do that, in the meantime, here, you need your strength back my friend" Perceptor said, giving him the energon cube.

"Thanks see you later" Wheeljack called out as Perceptor walked off back to the lab.

Wheeljack took a swig of energon and leaned back on the bunk, wondering how much damage he'd have to clean up this time.

In the security room Red Alert sat surveying each and every one of his security camera feeds, two whole walls were filled from floor to ceiling with monitors showing every room, corridor and hanger on the base, he scanned his keen optics back and forth, when suddenly, on one screen he noticed something peculiar, when he saw what it was, he started to panic like crazy, his glitch sent sparks from out of the vent on the side of his helm.

The monitor in question showed a whole column of garden gnomes, lined up like a parade of Nazi shook troopers, all painted black and purple with the decepticon symbol on the front of their pointed hats.

The monitor was the feed from the camera that overlooked the security room door.

Down the corridor sitting at his desk going over several data pads of information, Prime suddenly heard a muffled scream, a faint but recognisable;

"THEIR BAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!"

Prime snapped his head up in surprise recognising whose voice it was, from the other end of the corridor he could hear faint laughter and he recognised whose laughs they were too.

Propping his elbow on the desk, Prime pinched the bridge of his nose plates and sighed deeply in exasperation.

"It's a night in the brig for those two" he sighed

* * *

In another time and another place, a very different situation was taking place.

* * *

The last 3 hours had passed by in relative silence as Ishikawa watched the analysis programme ran its checks on all the security and attack barriers, plus the Tachikoma's was running an analysis of the corruption virus and the infiltration programme that intercepted the public security net 4 hours ago. As the computers hummed and whirred, Ishikawa was lost in his thoughts.

The computer beeped and the analysis results appeared on the screen.

"Finally" he sighed.

"Got something?" Boma asked from beside him.

"Maybe, give me a sec" he replied typing in the necessary figures to confirm the data. A data window opened up on the screen; showing the overall make-up of the programme.

"Bingo, I think we've found the encryption programmes intended targets, there are three files on B level of the public security sectors network that are unaccounted for in the last security checks on the systems, it looks like the corruption virus was a decoy to make it look like more files had been stolen" he said

"How far along into the barrier maze are they?" Boma asked.

"Not far, their only level 7 class files so the information within them isn't above classified, so their only guarded behind a level 3 attack barrier"

"Do we know what files they were?"

"Not yet, but according to the analysis results, it seems the encryption data has a direct link to the backdoor out of the network"

"But, that would mean..."

"The hackers are still hacked into the security sectors network"

The two men looked at each other in surprise, realising this was an opportunity to catch the hackers off their guard.

"_Major, I think we hit pay dirt, the analysis of the encryption programme is indicating the hackers might still be in the network_" Ishikawa said over the cybercomm.

"_Rodger that, I'm on my way down_" she replied.

Within minutes she strode into the dive room and sat herself down at one of the dive terminals with Togusa and Batou following close behind.

"Any movement?" she asked

"Not as such, there's no indication of any data going out of the file through the back door, but there are signs that the encryption data is trying to reset itself from behind the infiltration programmes barrier maze, if anyone's here, then their defiantly in there, Tachikoma, give the Major full back-up we don't know what tricks these guy might try to pull" Boma said

"Rodger that!" the blue tank squeaked on the monitor.

On the net she made her way to the section of the of the public security sector network were the encryption programme was found, followed closely by two of the agent Tachkoma's, through her virtual eyes she could see the space where the 3 files had been, in their place 3 black files with the words 'access data required' written across the front, floated in the vertical space.

"_Okay I'm at the files barrier entrance, Tachikoma, set up a sensorial mask and send a probe into the main barrier, I'll try to unlock the programmes data freeze, if the hackers are here and they notice their data line has been cut off; then they've got to return here to realign the programmes access codes, Once the data freeze is in place, I'll hide in the lowest level using my Chroma file so when they come back we'll catch' em off guard_"

"Rodger that" They replied.

"Pretty ballsy move, using the lowest set security barrier as a cover to catch the hackers" Ishikawa said.

"Yeah but if it works, then we can actually try to back hack them and see where the bastards are hiding" Batou replied as they watched the main monitor, watching the Majors moves.

As the Tachikoma's probe filtered down into the barriers, the Major began freezing the data flow out of the main file, which streamed out past the Tachikomas and onto the vast virtual either of the net.

"Probing complete, no anomalies detected and no conflicts detected" one of the Tachikomas called out.

"_Good work, stand by and wait for the hackers to go through the barrier, once their past the first level cut off the data line to the backdoor and keep them in place with a chimera virus"_

"Rodger!" they replied

"_Ishikawa I need you to-"_

All the monitors in the dive room went black and the connection went dead.

"What the hell!" Batou exclaimed, but before anyone could react, a bright orange message began to type itself out on all the screens.

'Good afternoon Ishikawa, Batou, Togusa, Boma...' the four men stared in silence and shock as their names appeared.

'...Thanks for the Major, she's mine now...'

"NO!" Batou shouted at the screen, Ishikawa got up out of his seat and rushed to the Major at the dive terminal.

"Quick, we have to-"

"NO WAIT! Look!" Togusa shouted pointing at the screen as more words appeared.

'...Oh and Ishikawa? I wouldn't recommend disconnecting her just yet, her ghost is still within me and I'm having too much fun to let her go just now...'

The Majors body started to convulse in the chair, as if in an epileptic seizure. Boma and Togusa stared on in horror, Ishikawa typed the keyboard furiously, trying to regain control but nothing responded, all the while Batou stood at the Majors side.

The others could practically feel the heat of his anger radiating off him in waves, his fists clenched and his face scowled so hard that Togusa was worried his cyborg eyes would break like glass.

'Well...I've had my fun, you can have her back now...good bye'

All the screens returned to normal as the message disappeared, the Major's body went limp and the dive terminal collar disconnected by itself, not wasting a single second, Batou scooped the Major up in his arms and flew out the dive room towards the sections analysis room with Ishikawa running close behind.

Togusa and Boma looked at the screens in complete horror, trying to comprehend what just happened. Togusa suddenly felt a very cold sensation in the pit of his stomach slowly crawl up and clawed its way into the rest of him, Boma had a shared a very similar feeling as they ran after Batou.

* * *

Shock! Horror! R&R


	6. Chapter 5: Mystries

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 5: MYSTERIES

* * *

The Autobot base:

* * *

"This is your fault ya' know, the rain and you Brits go everywhere together" Glen huffed.

"Yeah, it's kind of a tradition" Tom replied flatly

The two friends watched the rain beat down on the tarmac. The heavens had turned dark gray overnight and unleashed a torrent of heavy rain upon the dessert, a welcome gift for all the native wildlife, but a complete pain in the aft for the Autobots and humans.

Poor Scorponok had tried in vain to drain the rising water from his network of burrows by digging an irrigation ditch, he had manage to relocate the contents of his 'treasure hole' to one of the empty hangers before the main barrows collapsed on top of him in a big muddy mess. Now, he was sitting in the hanger, having the mud cleaned off by the Waineright twins and Mikaela, all the while sulking for the loss of his burrows.

He wasn't the only one; Ravages burrow had caved in too and was now trying to lick himself clean and dry, Sunstreaker was sitting in the corner of the hanger in a seriously in a foul mood refusing to go back out in the downpour.

"Will you get over it already? It's just a speck of mud! You can hardly see it from here!" Cliffjumper called over in dead-pan tone, fed up with the golden warrior's attitude. Sunstreaker shot him a deathly glair, to which Cliffjumper immediately shut up.

Near the main doors of the hanger, Deathshot, Bumblebee, Trailbreaker, Jazz and Bluestreak sat with their charges, watching the wet weather fall.

"It's amazing how much water can fall from the sky on this planet" Bluestreak said offhand.

"You mean you guys didn't have rain on Cybertron?" Hailey asked.

"Well we had rain, but it was pure acid, whenever there was a down pour like this all the medical facilities use to go on high alert in readiness for sever armour degrading and systems erosions, It use to be a very serious problem" Trailbreaker replied.

"I like the fact that rain means life on this world, It's so refreshing" Deathshot smiled, Morri laid curled up his cupped hand, wrapped in a fleecy blanket.

"I always love that after the rain smell, it's such a cleansing earthy fragrance" She smiled.

"I remember when we were little, me and Sam used to play in the mud whenever the rain came to Tranquillity" Miles grinned from Jazz's shoulder.

"Hay yeah! I remember that! And considering it's a city in the dessert, we only get rain like this several times a year" Sam replied from Bee's propped knee.

"And we always made the most of it" Miles replied

"You guys played in mud?" Bluestreak asked.

"We were little kids Blue, you do that kinda stuff when you're a kid" Sam said.

"And who says you have to grow out of it!?" Ashley called out as he suddenly appeared at the hanger door dripping wet and threw three mud balls at Sam, Miles and Tom, all square in the face.

"What! He didn't just-"Sam stammered as he wiped the mud off his face.

"OH. IT IS ON!" Miles called out as he hopped down from Jazz's shoulder and took off after the hysterically laughing 12 year old.

"Wait up!"

"You'll pay for that!" With that, the four boys ran off into the dessert and the rain, Morri, Danny and Darren watched as they started to fight in the mud some way off the tarmac.

"Aren't you going to go after them?" Deathshot asked.

"Nah, let'em have their fun, besides I was going to do the laundry later anyway, and besides, your hand's nice and warm, If those twits catch colds it's their own fault" Morri replied, snuggling into the curve of Deathshots hand.

Bumblebee started playing out 'I'm singing in the rain, on his load speakers, it seemed to lighten the dull greyness of the weather outside.

"Listen, you're not still disappointed about the weather altering our plans for the camping trip are you?" Deathshot asked.

"It's okay, you can't help the weather, if anything it gives everyone some extra time to get everything they need" she replied.

"That's true, I still need to get some sleeping bags and sleeping mats for me and the girls" Hailey said.

"And I need to get some batteries for my Wi-Fi" Darren added.

"I doubt you'll get a good signal where we're going, It's far up in the mountains" Deathshot commented.

"Then it's a good thing I'm going to give my laptop a signal booster with those components Perceptor gave me, in addition to the new security upgrades I installed last month" Darren smiled, the other humans giggled at the memory of when he showed them his custom-made laptop which Frenzy helped build.

"I still think that is the weirdest way to protect your laptop from thieves , but I suppose if you dressed it up like a spider it would make a great accessory for Halloween" Hailey giggled as she threw a bucket of soapy water over the scorpions head.

"I think anyone would get the shock of their lives from seeing that thing scuttle off, I know I did" Danny smiled.

"I distinctly remember you squealing like a girl and leaping halfway out of your skin" Mikaela grinned

"Yeah well, It did move pretty fast" Danny quickly replied, scratching the back of his head uneasily, the others smirked and giggled

Scorponok scuttled over to jazz's side with Mikaela and Hailey's sister's in tow, happily chirping up at the larger Autobots, Jazz smiled and gave the giant metal scorpion a scratch behind the head, he leaned in and directed the 1st Lieutenants finger to just the right spot.

"Feeling better lil'buddy?"

"Chrreep chrreeep, chirp"

He settled down in-between Jazz and Bluestreak to watch the rain and watch the boys playing and rolling about in the mud.

"I don't get it, what's the appeal of playing about in mud?" Bumblebee asked as Mikaela joined him on his shoulder.

"Bee, that's one of the many mysteries of human boy's womankind, has been trying to understand for centuries" Mikaela replied flatly.

"Amen to that" Morri said.

* * *

Elsewhere

* * *

The analysis room echoed with the sounds of monitors beeping rythmatically, the psymechs and technicians went about their tasks, analysing the data as it came up, checking the ghost barrier to make sure it was fully restored while checking all the other security protocols.

The subject of their concern was the Major.

Lying on the analysis bed, hooked and wired up to the main terminals, she laid unconscious, pale as a corpse, still and motionless, no sign of life.

She had been like this the past 7 hours

Near the entrance of the room the whole team, including the chief stood and waited in uneasy silence, Togusa, Ishikawa and Boma sat on the small metal chairs next to the wall, Saito leaned against the door, his arms crossed with his face betraying his concern, Pazu stood off to one side, the smoke from his cigarette swirled and drifted up and around up to the ceiling, the chief sat on the far end of the row of chairs, deep in thought and concern at what happened earlier.

Batou though, was taking it much harder.

He stood as near to the Major's side as the psymechs would permit, he hadn't left her side since she was hacked, he hadn't spoken a word to anyone, he stood by her like a loyal guard dog and even though he knew the team had been here for some time, he was still high strung and defensive.

But it was only because he daren't not betray the fact that he was worried for her inside.

He relived the memory of the typed message, and the implication of what was going on in those few seconds.

'Her ghost is still within me'

The thought of what happened, what could have happened had left him with dark thoughts on his mind, a thousand promises of torture onto the guy who did this to her.

Finally the head Psymech came over with the results of the analysis, everyone bar Batou turned to face him.

"Well what's the diagnosis doctor?" the chief asked. The doctor shifted uneasily

"Well, for a ghost hack this was...one of the worst cases I've seen in a very long time, the fact her ghost didn't collapse is...truly a miracle..."

The team looked at the doctor in shock.

"Ghost collapse?"

"Yes, according to the results the hacker used a modified ghost-barrier infiltration virus to destroy her ghost barrier and try to pluck her ghost out"

The room grew deathly silent, none of the team could believe what they just heard. Someone actually tried to ghost hack the Major? Of all the obstacles she could go up against, of all the enemies she had faced down, and all the courage, experience and respect she commanded...

How could this have happened to her?

Most of the team could really feel the rage emanating off Batou, Togusa silently took a step back.

"But...how was that...possible?" Togusa stammered, trying to get the words out.

"You said the hacker used a modified ghost-barrier infiltration virus, any clues as to what virus modal he used?" Ishikawa asked.

The doctor paused nervously and swallowed hard.

"He used the A11 Alpha virus"

"WHAT!!" the chief exclaimed, Batou's head snapped round in shock, the team exchanged horrified glances.

"No way..."

"The A11 Alpha virus?! H-How is that possible?"

"What does it mean?" Togusa asked

Everyone paused.

"It means we have just stumbled into the worst possible scenario we could ever face" the chief replied with a sombre tone.

Of all the various types of viruses there were, none were was devastating or as unpredictable as the A11 Alpha virus. It was used during the last war as an effective means to hack into enemy networks and extract vital information while simultaneously corrupting the networks attack barriers, rendering them ineffective. Ordinarily this virus was only ever meant to be used on satellites and network terminals, but when used on a person, especially a cyborg, the resulting effects were often devastating, there were seldom any reports of anyone who had actually recovered from the viruses effect with their ghosts intact because the virus wiped the ghost barrier out within seconds, and thus, left the vulnerable ghost to unguarded exposure.

Until now, and that's why it had been a miracle the Major had survived.

"But I thought the military had put a lock down on the A11 after the war? They locked it up and made sure it was never to be used again" Boma said

"They did, so the fact that it's in the hands of a wizard-class hacker means the situation has changed completely, we aren't just going after a hacker anymore, we are looking to stop a potential crisis if the power of that virus is abused any further" The chief replied.

"But surly there must a vaccine?" Togusa offered.

Everyone looked at him and dropped their gazes with saddened looks.

"What?" he asked, suddenly feeling like a fool for asking.

"There is no vaccine for the A11" Ishikawa replied

"What?...But there has to be! It can't-"

"The viruses programme was designed to change its data configuration at random with every network it infiltrates, so even if you isolate and copy it to create a vaccine there's no way the vaccine will work the next time it strikes because the viruses parameters will have reset themselves and the vaccine would be completely useless" Boma interrupted.

Togusa looked over at the Major, his face turning sombre with despair.

Then...what about the Major?" he asked.

"Well...we don't know how she did it, but somehow her ghost managed to dodge the hackers attempt at controlling her...but..."

"But, what's wrong?" the chief asked.

"...Well, even though her ghost is intact, her brain's been giving off some weird signals, her external memory is showing a huge stash of data files, it seems whatever happened in the time the hacker tried to isolate her ghost, she seemed to access his memories and external memory while he tried to access hers, after that, he fought back and the ghost hack quickly turned into a cyberbrain fight, which would account for the seizure she had"

"Did she win?" Boma asked'

"We can't say exactly, her ghost didn't suffer any degradation from the fight but her destroyed ghost barriers did leave her exposed for a dangerous length of time, but we won't be sure until she wakes up and we can conduct further analysis, we've done all we can for now"

"Is she still infected with the A11?" Togusa asked

The doctor dropped his gaze for a moment, unsure about how to reply;

"Despite the viruses random data configuration, we managed to keep it isolated behind a level 10 barrier maze, but it will only hold for 48 hours, without the military's quadruple layer encryption barriers that were used to suppress the virus her ghost barrier will only be destroyed again...and there's a good chance she won't survive next time"

The team stood in shook, even Batou couldn't believe what the doctor just said, and wasting no time the Chief stood up and approached the door with a look of determination on his face.

"Chief?"

"Everyone back to work! Ishikawa, Boma, return to the dive room and get the section's systems working back on line again and check the Tachkoma's agent function for any further signs of the hacker infiltration programme and virus, Saito, Pazu help them in whatever way you can, Togusa, your with me, we're going to the prime minister's residence, with the A11 Alpha virus in the hands of an enemy hacker this is too big a situation to leave to chance, the prime minister has to know about this, plus we'll go to the military and request a clearance for the encryption barriers, one way or another, even if I have to beg, borrow or steal, I won't let one of my team die on my watch! Clear?" he barked.

"Yes sir!" they all replied and took off to their posts without hast.

"Batou..."

The chief looked over at the big cyborg, he didn't turn around or speak, he had known what was playing on his mind, what had been playing on his mind for the past several hours.

"...Stay with the Major and notify me as soon as she wakes up" The chief said.

"Rodger" he replied darkly.

Togusa breathed a silent sigh of relief; it was the first word the boss man had spoken in over several hours, it wasn't much but at least it was a sign his mind was still with reality.

Togusa stood a moment in the doorway, watching as Batou pulled up a chair next to the Major. He then turned to walk down the corridor and join the chief; his mind swelled with a thousand thoughts and didn't know which one to focus on.

He felt a cold sense of dread in his stomach, along with a numbness that was the aftershock of everything that had happened this afternoon.

And somehow, he knew it was going to get worse.

* * *

The Autobot Base

* * *

"Primus! What have you four been doing?!"

"Playing in the mud" Miles replied grinning madly up at Prowl.

"But, why? You're covered in mud and there's no telling what kind of bacterial infections you all might have picked up in the native soil!" He argued.

"Yeah so?" Ashley replied as he picked a large chuck of dirt out his nose.

Prowl stared dumbly at the four teens, who were covered head to foot in earthy red mud, not an inch of skin or clothing could be seen from under the grungy dirt. Seeing the look on Prowls face, Hound stepped forward to intervene before the second in commands processor's locked down.

"Maybe you guys should go to the wash racks" he suggested

"Yeah maybe, but we're gonna need a lot of soap" Tom said as he wiped some mud from above his eyes.

The four walked out the room, leaving a trail of muddy footprints behind, heading in the direction of the wash racks and Hound lead the confused tactician away to the rec room for a much needed cube of energon.

Onboard the Ark, Morri was walking down the corridor, coming up to Wheeljack's lab, she noticed the door was open and there were several crates and metal boxes sitting on the floor outside, curious, she wandered over to see what was up.

"Oh hi Morri, didn't see you down there!" Wheeljack said, his audio grids flashing happily as his put a large box down next to the door.

"Hi Wheeljack, Finally decided to have a spring clean?" she asked.

"Well, after the last exposition cracked part of the wall on the storage room, I decided to pit with it and clean out a few things, of which, I found a few little items Danny could use to modify his laptop with"

"Really? He'd appreciate that"

"Well come on in and I'll fetch them for you"

Walking in through the enormous door, Morri gazed upon what had to be the world's ultimate workshop and lab, from ceiling to floor the entire room was filled with inventions, gadgets and...weird things of every imaginable concept, the desks were littered with large data pads and all kinds of strange looking junk.

"Wow, this is some lab!" she breathed.

"Indeed, feel free to look around while I get the components" he said as he walked off into a storage room at the far end of the lab.

Looking around the room, something eminently caught her eye.

At the far end of the lab hidden in between several large shelve units and several stacks of black metal crates, a large crack in the wall ran all the way along towards the back of the workshop area, nearer the main entrance, the crack had dislodged a door partially off the wall and through the crack of the door, a strangely shaped silhouette stood out in the gloom.

Walking over for a closer look, Morri climbed up and leaned through the gap to get a better look; something was in there, something very tall and incredibly wide.

"What'cha found kid?" Wheeljack asked walking up.

"Oh, I was, just wondering what this thing in here is" she replied.

"Hmm...you know, I had forgotten about this room until I moved the crates away, I can't remember what I stored in here, let's take a look, stand back an astro second..." he said and proceeded to try and open the door, after much tugging and pulling, the door eventuality dislodged and fell off with a resounding clang knocking the crates over and knocking the shelves off the walls, a large cloud of dust rushed out with the sudden expansion of air into the old space, irritating Morri's throat.

After several hard coughs got the worst of the dust out of her lungs, Morri stepped in and looked at what had caught her attention.

The thing was huge, it was an enormous raised platform that stood 10 meters off the ground, it must have been some 50 meters across because it was gigantic compared to her, climbing up a set of shelves for a better look, the platform was a giant hexagon with a complex circular swirling pattern on the surface area, like several crop-circles laid on top on one another, on all 6 sides were strange, curved, claw-like pillars, towering at least 70 feet tall and curving inwards towards the circle, the entire structure was a deep charcoal gray, almost black.

Wheeljack gasped as he looked at the thing.

"Oh Primus! I can't believe I forgot about this!" he happily exclaimed.

"What is it?"

"The Dimensional Rift Diolater! I can't believe it's been here all this time!"

"Dimensional Rift Diolater?"

"It was an experiment my mentor worked on before the war, I was still a student in the Iacon science academy back then, I was appointed to help him construct it!" he exclaimed excitedly

"But what does it do?"

Wheeljack turned to Morri like a little kid giddy at Christmas time and in a fit of joy replied; "It was a machine used to explore the nature of the universe's physical boundaries by opening a rift in the space-time continuum, creating a gateway to different universes and dimensions"

"Sound's amazing, did it work?"

"We don't know, we never had a chance to test it out, the day we were due to conduct the first trial runs the Decepticons attacked the outskirts of Iacon, fearing they'd try to use it as a weapon we hid it deep under the city and then transferred it onto the ark before the mass exodus of the planet, I sealed it in here for safe keeping and as the war pressed on I must have forgotten about it"

So this 'dimensional gateway' has been here this whole time and no one knows it's been here?"

"Well...no, primus! I better tell Prime! He'd want to know about this!" Wheeljack turned to head out the door and Morri climbed down off the shelves.

"Oh and Morri, thanks!"

"For what?"

"For finding it! I can't wait to take her for a test run!" He exclaimed excitedly and paced off to Primes office; Morri stood there a moment in bewilderment, then climbed down from her perch and strolled out of the storage room and out the lab. Morri stood a moment and wondered about the weird machine, it must have been a very important device to get the Autobot inventor excited like that.

"Hello Morri"

"Oh hello Perceptor, sorry, I didn't see you there" she said looking up at the Autobot scientist as he approached the lab.

"Say, do you know what's got Wheeljack so excited? I passed him just now and he was like a sparkling expecting to receive an upgrade to his altmode"

"We just discovered a forgotten invention in an old storage room in the lab"

"A forgotten invention?"

"Yeah, the dimensional rift diolater, I think it's called"

"Really, where?"

"Just in there" she thumbed behind her, Perceptor walked in and around to the old storage room.

Morri walked along the corridor, hands in her pockets.

"Wonder how long it will be before he blows it up?" she wondered idly as she walked away, forgetting about the components.

* * *

Somewhere Else

* * *

It was well past 11 o' clock at night, the analysis room was quite except for several of the machines beeping away, the psymech technicians and doctors were in the adjoining lab on standby. In the centre of the room, the Major lied in the analysis chair, still unconscious and wired up to the machines, by her side, Batou sat in the metal chair, he hadn't moved for several hours. In silence he kept his vigil, hoping, praying to whoever was up there that somehow she would be okay. Right now he would be willing to offer his soul, his very ghost to the devil himself it meant she would be okay again.

He mind was so raped up in his own thoughts that he didn't hear Togusa walk in.

The detective walked in and placed a cup of black coffee on the edge of the chair, the ex-ranger looked up and saw the concerned look on his friends face.

"You could use it, you've not had anything all afternoon" he said.

Batou looked up at him, his scowl began to loosen into an impassive look, he wryly drew in a deep breath and sighed heavily.

"Thanks" he tiredly said as he took a swig from the polystyrene cup.

"No change?"

"No"

He replied as leaned back in the chair and Togusa leaned against the end of the analysis chair.

"So what's been going on?"

"Well, there's good news, the chief managed to get the encryption barriers from the military's intelligence division, so the psymech's will get back to work as soon as possible, the Tachikoma's are functioning again and all the networks are back up and working, we did a full systems analysis to check for any traces of the virus or hacker, but nothing showed up, their gone again"

A pause.

"I don't understand how this could happen...To her of all people..."

"I know...I didn't think it was ever possible, not to her...I don't –"

Togusa suddenly noticed the Majors eyes flutter; he got up and came around to the head of the chair.

"Batou" he whispered, drawing his friends attention to her, all of a sudden, Batou felt his heart skip a beat when he saw her eyelids moving.

"Major?" he softly asked.

"...............mm....B-Batou?......" she weakly whispered

"It's alright, your okay now, me and Togusa, we're both here" he reassured her.

"...........Batou.....t-the... hacker...they....." she stammered.

"It's alright, he's gone"

"...no...The hacker's...I-I know...where they are..."

* * *

Things are getting good here! Stay tuned and please R&R!


	7. Chapter 6: Prep Work

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or Ghost in the shell, just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 6: PREP WORK

* * *

The Autobot Base

* * *

"So this is the device Wheeljack was so excited about yesterday?" Deathshot asked as he scanned his one optic over the strange device.

"Oh yeah, he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw it, he was like a little kid at Christmas" Morri replied from the snipers shoulder.

In the enormous storage room where Wheeljack's forgotten invention was kept, several of the Autobots and humans had dropped by throughout the course of the morning to see what had gotten the Autobot inventor so excited, after showing Optimus and Prowl the device, he had been given permission to work on it. To celebrate, he had gone off to the rec room for a cube of the Twins high-grade.

"It's HUGE! I've never seen anything of Wheeljacks like this before" Darren called over from the centre of the platforms circular pattern as he traced his prosthetic leg along one of the lines.

"I think he said he helped his mentor build it back when he was student" Morri replied.

"How do you think he got it in here in the first place, because I don't think it could have fit through that door" Sam said as he looked up at one of the pillars.

"I was wondering about that myself, that door's not very big" Bumblebee replied next to him.

"How do you think it works?" Hailey asked.

"Don't know, he said they didn't get a chance to test it because the Decepticons attacked" Morri replied.

"If it's been here this whole time without anyone's knowledge, then it's likely there might be dust and corrosion within the mechanisms of the device, Wheeljack might have his work cut out for him" Deathshot said.

"Perhaps, but it seems to be in pretty good shape overall" Ultra Magnas replied.

"Ah Deathshot, Morri, there you are, could you please gather everyone who's going camping with you tomorrow and have them meet me and Ratchet in the med bay as soon as possible please?" Perceptor asked poking his head around the cracked door frame.

"Alright" Deathshot replied.

"What's up Perceptor?"

"You'll see Sam" the scientist grinned as he disappeared out of the lab.

Bumblebee only shrugged when Sam looked up at him for an explanation, he and the others wandered out of the lab to gather everyone to the med bay.

Several days ago, (out of shear boredom) Sam, Mikaela and Morri had talked over what to do next with their vacation time and decided on a camping trip. Initially it was only going to consist of Deathshot and his charges, Sam, Mikaela and Bumblebee and Jazz with Miles. But when they told the others about it, it quickly grew to include Bluestreak and the Waineright sisters, Darren and Trailbreaker, Glen and Frenzy plus the drones.

The last few days of rain had given everyone a chance to get their camping gear together, fortunately Will and Epps had let the kid's pilfer the army supplies for rucksacks, tents, Swiss army knives, first aid kits and other essentials, the day before yesterday the kids all went to the mall in Tranquillity for some extras, like sleeping bags and mats, gas fires and tilly lamps, maps and a compass, and for the Waineright girls an outdoors survival manual (they were Californian rich girls after all, if they slept away from home it was usually in a 5 star hotel, so this trip was going to be a whole other ballgame for them, but they said they would be willing to forsake 5 star luxury to be with their friends in the wild, unbelievable to most but they were willing to see it through, besides, they agreed to come primarily because they found out the campsite had a washroom with bathrooms on sight).

Yesterday was the day they were meant to leave, but the rain scuppered their plans so they decided to leave tomorrow, today was being used to double check the equipment and supplies.

Deathshot walked out with Morri on his shoulder and Hailey and Darren by his ankles, Sam and Bumblebee strolled off in the opposite direction to look for the others. Within 10 minutes, the respective camping party of autobots and humans had gathered in the med bay. Ratchet and Perceptor walked in from one of the side rooms, carrying a small white box.

"So, what's up?" Jazz asked.

"We gathered you all here because we'd like to participate you in a little test run of a new device we've developed for NEST..." Perceptor said as he laid the box on one of the berths, from out the box, he pulled out a strange device that seemed to resemble a miniature leaf blower, Perceptor held the device over Ratchets open hand, pressed a button on the nozzle and a tiny silver and black disk popped out, the medic handed the disk to Sam to pass around.

"With a big thank you to Deathshot for donating some of his nanite technology, I present the Bio-Scanning Homing Beacon, or BSHB for short; it's a multifunctioning bio scanner that tracks the health and physical state of the subject it's attached to" Perceptor started off

"We included quite a few features within it; each disk is capable of relaying the subject's location on an encrypted channel to avoid detection from enemy interceptors, plus a homing beacon to allow the receiver to find the subject if they are lost or cannot return to the receiver, It's fully capable of recording and registering every detail of the subjects anatomy and bio chemistry, relaying it to the receiver in real time, and it will transmit an emergency signal if the subject is severely injured or ill or scared and in the event of an attack it can generate a 15 second repulsing force-field, or a protective shield force-field to throw off the attacker and allow the subject time to escape, in addition as a sort of side-effect, the shield setting encases the subject in an anti-gravity field, essentially levitating them" Ratchet said.

"Really? That's so cool!" Miles asked excitedly

"This little disk can do all that?" Danny asked looking at the mini CD sized disk. It was silver with a black, course, sand paper like texture on the underside, on the topside in the middle was a round white opal-like gem, surrounded by a wide silver ring with tiny cybertronian glyphs intertwined within a complex series of vermiculate circular patterns.

"Wow its beautiful, how does it work?" Mikaela asked.

"Yeah, this could pass for being a cute little broach" Becca said as she ran a finger

"It's Cybertronian nanite technology, when we took a sample of your unique armour skin Deathshot I managed to replicate additional samples and conducted several experiments to see if they could be reprogrammed to interface with organic tissue, sure enough I was able to produce a batch that could interface with organic cellular structures without damaging them, realising this had great potential for the advancement of human medical science I showed Optimus and Secretary Keller the results and they requested a basic prototype device" Perceptor explained.

Deathshot looked at the disk which Ashley was now holding.

"You were able to create that device from my nanite-armour?" he asked with a hint of surprise in his voice.

"Yes, why is there anything wrong?"

"No I'm impressed, and amazed you found a way to manipulate the nanite's central CPU core's without a nanite housing processor" he replied.

"Actually it wasn't as difficult as it seemed, it was only a matter of knowing which appropriate programming sub-frequency could reset the CPU core functions for the desired parameters" the scientist replied.

"Anyway, getting back to the reason your all here, we'd like you test run the BSHB's for us, since your all going on a camping trip we'd thought this would be the perfect opportunity to test their capabilities, We've already cleared it with Prime and Keller and their good to go, if their successful, then Keller will give permition to apply them to the troops in NEST" Ratchet said.

"So these things can generate a force-field? Wicked! I'll try' em!" Ashley said.

"Me too!" Miles added.

"How do they register your anatomy?" Darren asked.

"They attach to the skin via microscopic thread attachments" Perceptor replied.

"Sounds painful" Glen said flinching slightly.

"Actually the threads are designed to avoid coming into contact the pain receptive nerves in the epidermis layer of the skin, so essentially it would be no different or more painful then ear piercings" Ratchet said.

"Well, I suppose it can't be that bad then" Danny shrugged.

"So, would you all like to participate?" Perceptor asked the kids, they all looked at each one another and nodded.

"Excellent! Now, who would like to go first?" Ratchet grinned in a rather a madly manner while holding the device in front of the kids like a weapon; suddenly it felt like it was booster shot day at school, along with the dreaded feeling of being skewered alive by a giant kebab-sized needle, Ratchet had a gift for installing that kind of fear in his patients.

* * *

Section 9 HQ

* * *

Five days had passed since the Major woke up, and much to everyone's relief the encryption barriers that were uploaded into her cyber brain held in place, re-enforcing her ghost barrier to subdue the A11 Alpha virus.

However, there was a price, she was not permitted to attempt another cyber brain fight or ghost dive, if her ghost barrier was exposed to the net and the hacker's returned for another round there was a good possibility they could take out the protective barrier and take her ghost out too, although the barrier wasn't a cure it was better than nothing.

Essentially, she had been told to stay on the sidelines and command from the rear while the rest of the team carried on with the case.

That did not sit well with the Major.

But fortunately, in the time she was able to evade the hacker, she used all her experience as a class A hacker to infiltrate his memory and extract all that she could gather, which turned out to be more than enough.

Much to the team's horror.

The hacker was part of a secret yakuza-style organisation called the Black Lotus, a radical group of cyborgs that were the complete opposites of the human liberation front, rather than reject cyberizations and prosthetics; they embraced them completely, with a violent streak.

They believed human evolution had come to a dead-end and that becoming cyborgs ensured an existence on the net and guaranteed immortality for all. They believed all-natural humans were a weak and useless species, nothing but walking sacks of meat only fit for extinction or cyberization.

Ultimately, the Black Lotus was a new breed of Nazi.

Hell-bent on purifying civilization in their own image.

Ruling out the strong and preserving them, ruling out the weak and destroying the

If they went unchecked, not only would it be chaos, but according to the information the Major extracted it would be a repeat of one of, if not the darkest episode of modern human history.

The Holocaust.

Over 6 million deaths, the Black Lotus intended to triple that number.

It was unbelievable, how could such a depth of evil still exist in this modern age?

Everyone needed no encouragement to find these monsters, even the prime minister had been appalled by the findings of the case and had put the Black Lotuses neutralization at top priority for section 9, no exceptions, to which no-one argued.

Alone in her office, the Major sat behind her desk, watching the dark gray clouds shrouded the tops of the neighbouring skyscrapers in a dismal, cold greyness, their foreboding appearance reflected her mood aptly.

A knock sounded at the door, Batou poked his head around the corner.

"Are you okay? No-one seen you around all day" he asked, she looked at him with her trademark stern stare, not wanting to reply or talk for that matter, but her face softened, knowing Batou, he wouldn't go away until he was satisfied she was alright, she beckoned him in and he sat in the seat in front of the desk.

"Sorry if I disturbed you but, everyone's worried about you since..." he stopped in his tracks, knowing she didn't want to remember the day last week when the doctor told her she couldn't attempt to ghost dive again.

"It's okay Batou, I don't mind, at least I'm still useful for other things around here" she sighed, dropping her gaze to the desk, Batou frowned at hearing the sombreness of her voice

"Perhaps, but are you okay with it? Sitting aside and letting Ishikawa, Boma and the Tachikoma's do all the work on infiltrating the Black Lotuses network, I just thought, you'd be more frustrated seeing as you're the one who gathered the Intel on them in the first place"

"I am, but for all that its worth staying angry over it won't help, if you want to be angry, then save it for when we infiltrate their base, besides, I'm still the sections field commander, it's not like I've been relieved of duty"

"I know, it's just..." Batou dropped his gaze with a scowl, after she woke up, Togusa informed her of Batou's watch over her and how he never left her side, how enraged he had been. She knew he cared about her, but she didn't realise that her near brush with death had worried him this much, until now; she looked at him with a sympathetic gaze.

"...It was a shock to me too Batou..." she said, he looked up at her

"...For what it worth Major, I'm just glad you're okay"

"Well, for everyone sake's my being attacked by the A11 Alpha virus will have yielded enough information to get all the prep work for the raid on the Black Lotuses base in place in time for when we finally locate them"

"I still think the Prime minister's getting ahead of herself, I mean, does she really think we're really in a position to raid a group that could easily locate us and wipe out our ghosts one by one in one fail swoop? I mean, I know we're the ones the government come to these days to fix a problem or clean up their messes, but by sending us in we could easily bite off more than we chew"

"I agree...and that's why the chief told me this morning we won't be going in to raid the Black Lotus unless we have no other course of action open to us, he requested the psymechs to work on giving the rest of the team uploads of the encryption barriers in the event we have to go in and take them down, but otherwise, we stay put"

"Why didn't he tell the rest of us?"

"Because he's waiting to see what move the Black Lotus will make next, since my back hack caught their attention we have to see if they'll be willing to risk anything now that we have key information on their motives and their mode of operandum"

"Is that such a wise choice? What if they try to hurt any more people? Is the old man really willing to put innocent people's lives at risk just to see what they do next?"

"I don't like it anymore than you do, but at this point, it's-"

"_Major, come down to the dive room immediately, I think we may have located the Black Lotuses base!"_

"_Rodger that, I'm on my way!"_

Rushing out of the office, the Major and Batou flew down the Corridor, both hoping that this time, luck would be on their side.

Down in the section's weapon's department, Saito sat cleaning his favourite 50mm long range sniper rifle, the long room was still and silent, all around him, the finest weapons and munitions the government's money could buy were stacked and arranged in order of size, model and fire power. It was amazing just how much of the section's budget the chief spent to keep them well armed to the teeth.

As he cleaned the firing pins, his mind turned inwards as he reminisced of the old days when the chief first set up Section 9, he was one of the first the Major recruited for the job, the cases they used to work back then, while by no means were simple, seemed to make more sense in terms of motive and objective, when the whole refugee issue had nearly ended in a nuclear holocaust last year, It became clear the old days really were the old days, and that with every year that past, the criminals they came across grew bolder, more radical and their visions of what they wanted for/from the world grew more extreme.

How was it criminals could dream up great visions of grandeur and radical change and believe their goals were so simple to achieve?

Life was never that simple.

And as time passed by, it didn't seem to get any easier.

And with the Black Lotus being armed with the world's most devastating computer virus the bar had been raised one too many notches this time, as well as one too many questions arising.

If these barstards were wizard-class hackers and where capable of overcoming the Major, then what other surprises were they hiding, and what did they plan to do next?

Saito stopped as he suddenly felt a familiar chill run down his spine.

The same chill he felt when he first encountered the Major in the old hospital over 10 years ago.

The same chill that told him she was the better marksman.

The same chill that told him death was on the horizon.

He knew...he had always known that being a sniper, there would come a day when there would be that one sniper who would be faster than him, and beat him to the punch.

But why had this feeling returned?

Why now?

Why here? He was inside Section 9's HQ, he wasn't facing down another sniper at this very second, and he was in the safest place for miles around.

Whatever lay ahead, it didn't bode well.

He got up to leave the room, feeling the need for some strong coffee to clear his head.

'That one sniper...somewhere...there is that one sniper' his mind taunted him, he left the room, leaving his gun sitting on the metal table.

* * *

The Autobot Base

* * *

"Man! That was a lot less painful than I thought" Glen said craning his head over his shoulder to look at the device attached to his skin.

"Yeah but it still felt like a giant mosquito digging its mouth parts in" Danny replied rubbing his shoulder.

"The discomfort will pass in a few minutes, at least they attached on alright" Ratchet said while rubbing a cotton wool ball of antiseptic solution onto Miles shoulder, the teen looked over his shoulder and saw the applicator come to rest on his scapula.

"Head forward and don't flinch" Ratchet sternly told him

"Kay" he replied nervously.

The applicator hummed for a moment, the end of the nozzle grew warm against his skin, a red light flashed and then...

Thonk!

The applicator jolted him forward as the device attached itself to the skin, the nuzzle stayed firmly on as Miles began to squirm around, feeling the devices microscopic threads burrow deep under the skin and attach themselves to the muscle, it wasn't painful, but it wasn't comfortable either.

"Stop moving around!"

"I can't help it, it feels...weird! Like, hundreds of roots crawling around!"

Finally the sensation subsided and the nozzles seal broke away, the silver disk left in its place.

"That's it?"

"That's it, you're the last one" the medic replied.

"Cool"

After throwing his t-shirt back on and walking out from behind the large patrician, Miles rejoined the others who were checking out each others BSHB's, as if they were new piercings or tattoos now on the skin, the gems in the centre seemed to glow different colours, a particular colour seemed to reoccur with each individual.

"Our are both blue!" the twins happily chimed

"Mines hot pink!" Hailey happily replied, glad it was her favourite colour.

"Mines lime green and amber" Darren said.

"I've got purple" Ashley said.

"How much battery life do they hold?" Tom asked.

"There's no batteries, their powered by body heat, so they only work as long as their attached to the skin" Perceptor replied.

"One thing left to do is install the main receiver conduit, Deathshot, since the nanite technology is originally yours, we created this to interface with your current bio scanners" Ratchet said pulling out of the white box a small container the size of a shoe box, opening it, Deathshot saw inside a tiny cylindrical microchip no bigger than a pinkey finger.

"The rest of you can go, if any of you see Hot Rod around, tell him he's got a regular maintenance check at 1:00, tell him to come or I'll drag him in here, other than that, clear off!" Ratchet grumbled as he led Deathshot into one of the procedure rooms to the side, no-one argued as they were let down off the giant birth by the other autobots and quickly vacated the med bay.

The day past by uneventfully, the teens spent most of the day packing their rucksacks and duffle bags and checking all the camping equipment was in place and working properly, the weather had began to change and it stopped raining by lunchtime and decided that tomorrow they would take a gamble with the weather and just go.

It was now late afternoon and the Autobots and their charges were hanging around in the rec room, idly whiling away the time. Jazz and Prowl were in the middle of an Autobot sized game of chess, the black queen was missing so Mikaela substituted by sitting on a chair with a black crude paper cut-out crown. Annabelle, who was watching the game from Ironhides shoulder thought it looked fun and asked if she could be the white queen with her own crown.

Watching the lazy scene from her guardians shoulder, Morri leaned against Deathshots neck.

"How's your shoulder?" he asked

"Much better, is that conduit thing working okay?"

"Very well, I can sense you and all the other children here"

"Really, what can you register?"

"Well I can feel your heartbeat; its rhythm is so pleasant to listen too" he smiled, she smiled up at him.

"You've said that about us humans before" she said softly

"But it's true, it's one of the many things about humanity I've come to appreciate"

She paused before asking him;

"Tell me, do you ever feel lonely back home? Being the only Autobot in England I mean"

"Not really, don't forget I am a sniper, having a high tolerance for solitude comes with the job, and besides, I have you and the boys and that's enough for me"

"True, it's just; I was concerned that since we came here you've been getting on with everyone so well, I was worried that when we returned home, you'd feel...

"It's okay youngling I'll be alright when it's time to go home, but thank you for the concern"

She smiled a warm smile up at him, to which he returned with a gentle look in his optic, she looked over the others, laughing and having fun together.

"I've really enjoyed our time here so far and I will miss everyone when it's time to go home, even though we've been over three weeks, I feel like I've known everyone here for much longer, as if it's been years" she said

"I know, but like you said, all good things have to come to an end eventually" he replied

"Ah but it's the smallest and shortest things in life that we treasure the most, and while they may be fleeting, it's that fleetingness that gives those moments their power to stay with us for years, if not forever" she replied

Deathshot dropped his gaze, his face flashed a brief look of sadness as his one optic seemed to fill with a small tear, Morri noticed this and kissed his cheek softly and stroked her hand across his face.

"Hay come on, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you" she whispered

"It's not that, you always speak with such wisdom for one so infinitely young, I just find it so.......It takes me back to that day, on the reef..."

Morri looked up at him, knowing what he was talking about.

"That day still sticks in your mind, doesn't it?"

"...Always...It was the most profound day of my life...the day...I changed..."

"For the better though, you've been much happier since then"

"True, and for all it's been worth, I don't regret anything since then...It's just..."

She put her hand to him metallic lips to stop him.

"It doesn't matter anymore, what's happened has happened, we may not be able change the past, but we have today, tomorrow and the rest of what's to come...don't torture yourself with the things you cannot change, we're all here together now, and that's all that matters" she whispered

He looks at her, into her dark rich brown eyes, seeing that knowing look on her face that told him she would stand by him, his optic dried up and smiled most warmly at her, a gentle fatherly smile that was seldom seen upon his grim-looking face.

"Your right, lets enjoy the rest of the summer...I don't know what I'd do without you Morri"

"Probably not a lot" she grinned

"You okay D?" Tom called up from the floor, interrupting their little moment together.

Deathshot leaned forward and noticed Tom and Danny with Ashley sitting atop Ravages back. He smiled down at them.

"I'm fine Tom, Listen, I was thinking, since this is our last night on the base and we won't be back for a week, who wants to go out for a meal?" he addressed the whole rec room eliciting several cheers and woots from the other kids.

"We do!" the twins called over.

"Can we get pizza?" Glen asked

"No let's get burgers and hotdogs" Miles said

"I fancy a steak!" Darren called out from Trailbreakers shoulder.

"Can we bring Ravage?" Ashley asked

Everyone suddenly stopped and all eyes fell on the boy and former Decepticon.

Deathshot looked at the giant cat, who was looking up at him as adoringly as possible (despite the sharp, toothy grin and one red optic), wagging the tip of his maced tail like a puppy, and saw Ashley's own pleading look.

"Sure, I don't see why not" He replied smiling.

"Whoot!" Ashley punched the air and Ravage growled in excitement as he bonded out the rec room.

As the children leapt and climbed off the tables and coaches and rushed out the door to the elevators, their guardians took off after them in excitement, Deathshot and Morri left last, bumping into Jetfire on the way out.

"What's with all the excitement? Those lambo twits haven't been feeding the humans sugar again have they?" the old bot asked, sniggering as he remembered the damage Ashley, Annabelle and the twins caused last week when Sideswipe dared them to drink ridiculous amounts of concentrated energy sports drinks, never in his whole long life had he seen any life forms move and talk so fast before, It was astounding how much damage they caused when lost in the peak of a sugar-high, at one point they had zoomed into the lambo twins quarters by accident. The entire afternoon went insane after that.

"No, we're just all going out for a meal, fancy a late afternoon fly?" Deathshot asked.

"Eh, another time"

"Suite yourself"

The other Autobots had already taken off with their charges, heading for Tranquillity, outside the base entrance Tom, Danny, Ashley and Ravage waited patiently for the sniper to transform so they could get in, he opened his undercarriage for Ravage to ride in, surprisingly, the giant panther didn't take up that much space inside of him.

As Deathshot hovered off the ground and flew upwards into the skies, the four cousins looked out over the dessert which was now beginning to turn golden amber as the sun began to descend towards the horizon.

"Hay D...You're the best!" Ashley beamed

"I try youngling" he warmly replied as he caught up with the others on the road down below.

* * *

Down in the Ark, Wheeljacks lab was still and silent, the scientist had gone to help Perceptor with some tests and had left the lab in its usual shabby, untidy state. In the forgotten storage room, the enormous dimensional rift diolater sat shrouded in darkness, not a soul was anywhere around.

In the silence of the storage room, the Device started to hum to life, on one of the sides of the hexagonal platform, a series of red lights started to glow and a small control panel flipped out of the vertical side, the keys began to type out a sequence of cybertronian numbers, as if by an invisible hand, then the lights turned green, beeping twice, the panel flipped back into the platform side and the lights went out,, the humming slowly cycled down until there was only silence again.

The strange occurrence went completely unnoticed.

* * *

R&R


	8. Chapter 7: Events In Motion

Things really kick off now, enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ghost in the shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 7: EVENTS IN MOTION

* * *

Section 9 HQ

* * *

This was it.

The day that would hopefully bring a resolution to this case, and hopefully put a stop to the Black Lotuses plans for good.

Before they had a chance to do any further harm.

The group's base location had been identified and confirmed, and the plans for the mission to raid the base had been set using the Majors Intel. All done in less than 2 days.

The psymechs had fitted everyone's cyberbrains with the encryption barrier, so in the event that any of the team got hacked; the A11 virus would be delayed in penetrating their ghost barrier.

The thought of it didn't do much to settle everyone's piece of mind.

It was early afternoon and down in the Tachikoma hanger at the base of the building, Batou and Togusa walked into the huge hanger, dressed in their black and dark gray combat suits they had come down to bring the Tachikoma's up to the launch pad. Batou's Tachikoma rolled up to greet him as always.

"Mister Batou! Mister Togusa! Are you both ready for the mission?"

"As ready as we'll ever be" Batou replied

"Yeah I guess" Togusa replied.

"Don't worry Mister Togusa! We'll cover you all the way! If you get scared you can ride inside one of us!"

"I'm not scared! it's just gut feelings is all"

"Are you unwell? Maybe you should sit this mission out and let Mister Batou and us take care of the terrorists!"

Batou couldn't help but give a chuckle as Togusa shot him a flat look.

The blue think tanks chatted among themselves as the huge elevator started its ascent up to the roof, Togusa sighed as leaned against the metal wall with his arms folded, Batou noticed the look of concern on the detective's face.

"Still worried? I don't blame' ya, even if that encryption barrier is in place the virus still has me worried too" The ex-ranger said.

"It's not just that, even though we've got the layout and specs of the groups base there's no telling what surprises they'll have in store for us" Togusa replied

"I don't doubt we'll have our work cut out for us, but at least if we can get the A11 back then at least our getting shot at will count for something"

"Perhaps, but do you think we have any chance of doing some real damage to their plans? Besides retrieving the virus, if these guys are all cyborgs then it's going to get pretty messy"

"Well, that's where my expertise comes in" Batou grinned.

"Oh sure, leave it to you to do things subtly" Togusa said flatly.

"Well, in any case, at least we're finally taking those son's-of-bitches down before they have a chance to do any more harm, even if this turns into a one way mission at least I'll have the satisfaction of dragging' em down to hell" Batou said, his voice taking on a more serious tone.

"Considering the scope of their ideology and ambitions, I won't be losing any sleep over any killing on this...Nazi principles being applied to cybernetics? I mean come on! When you look at the shier scale of human atrocities the 3rd Reich cause in the second world war how could anyone be so..." Togusa's face scowled in disgust for a moment.

"I know...and that's why they need to be put down, and put down hard"

They both watched the Tachikoma's a long while, letting the tension of the moment pass.

"What if there's the possibility we're not successful? And the Black Lotus anticipate our raid on them?

"Then we try a different plan of attack, but one way or another, we're getting that virus back or destroying it, either way we can't let them keep a hold of it"

"If it comes down to it, what do we do if a cyberbrain fight ensues? I mean, with the virus still in her system, the Major..." Togusa cast his gaze down to the floor, waiting for Batous inevitable defensive response, But Batou only sighed and turned away from Togusa, which surprised the detective somewhat.

"I know, and it's not a good position for us to be in if they know she was infected, whether they know we're coming or not there's no doubt they'll try to gain the upper hand somehow, regardless of the risk, we've still got other options open to us for the time being"

"Perhaps, but my gut is still screaming at me that this is a trap somehow"

"Maybe it's your ghost that's screaming at you Mister Togusa, It's about time you heard something by now!" Batou's Tachikoma said offhand. Batou couldn't help but laugh as Togusa face palmed.

The elevator reached the roof and the doors opened, revealing the landing pad and the awaiting tiltroater, The Tachikoma's filed out towards the aircraft with Batou and Togusa close behind. Once everyone was on board, the tiltroater took off towards its destination.

* * *

The Autobot Base

* * *

"Do you guys seriously think this was a good place to hide? What if Wheeljack comes in here? Or what if the Hatchet finds us first?!" Danny hissed into Sideswipes left audio.

"No way, Ironhide doesn't even know where this room is, we'll stay here for a little while longer and then we'll go when no-one's around" Sideswipe replied with a mischievous grin.

"Yeah, except we've got a camping trip to go to on and the others will be waiting for us, we're supposed to be leaving in an hour!" Becca whispered.

"I have to admit I'm all up for an early hours prank, but pulling off a triple whammy might have been pushing it a bit guys" Tom said

"Eh, t-they had it coming!" Frenzy hissed in his usual jittery way.

"I still don't understand why I have to hide, and let go of my arm!" Hot Rot complained.

"We're keeping you here because you had the bad misfortune to find us hiding here and now, we're making sure you don't rat on us!" Becky hissed

"Quiet! Do you want to let everyone know we're here!" Sunstreaker hissed dangerously.

The morning had started off early for the camping party, having packed their rucksacks and camping gear yesterday, they decided to hit the road early, but thinking they had some time to kill, Tom, Danny, Ashley, the Waineright twins and the drones decided to join the lambo twins for a few quick pranks;

First, Ironhide woke up to find his cannons had been painted a bright shade of hot pink, decked with ribbons, glitter and bows and loaded with candy and stuffed toys.

Second in line was Ratchet, he walked into the med bay and discovered all the wrenches in his tool boxes had been glued to the ceiling and in their place, were hatchets and axes of varying sizes.

Lastly, Jetfire had been bombarded with a whole load of water balloons, silly streamers and cream pies, seemingly out of nowhere.

Their combined cursing woke up the whole base and already had Prowl and Red Alert were hunting down the perpetrators; the 10 pranksters had been hiding behind The DRD ever since, thinking that it would be the very last place everyone would look.

On the level above Wheeljack's lab, Morri, Mikaela, Sam and Miles were starting the day off in the base canteen with some strong coffee and toast, Glen and Darren walked in, laptops in hand.

"Where have you two been?" Mikaela asked.

"Pilfering the computer lab for some Wi-Fi's and satellite uplinks, among other things" Glen smiled

"I hope we're not going to be caught in a black spot" Darren said looking down at his laptop.

"I just hope it doesn't rain" Mikaela said.

"The weather report said it will be dry over the next 48 hours so we should be okay, besides, the campsite is in a fairly sheltered area so even if it rains, the prevailing winds won't be that strong" Morri replied.

"At least there'll be room for the guys to park up and hide" Sam said.

"That's true" Miles replied

Beep-beep

The BSHB on Morri's back suddenly sounded.

"That'll be D, We better get moving" Mikaela said

"But what about breakfast?" Glen asked

"It's okay dude, we got plenty of pop tarts" Miles replied shoving several packets of the snacks into his backpack.

"WHERE ARE THEY!!!? WHERE ARE THOSE GLITCH HEADS!!!?" Ironhides voice boomed from down the corridor, making the poor teens nearly jump clear out of their skins, they cautiously poked their heads around the door, to see what all the fuss was about. Standing outside, looking up and down the corridors was Ironhide, looking at the state of his cannons; it didn't take a genius to work out what happened. He noticed the kids looking up at him; they shrank under his gaze.

"I er...take it the twins have been busy this morning?" Glen asked nervously.

"That's putting it lightly! They got ol' Hatchet and Jetfire too! They'll both be formatted into toasters for sure this time!" he snapped and stormed off in a huff.

"Man, a triple prank whammy in one morning? Sunny and Siders must be really in the zone this morning" Miles said.

"Hope they've found a good hiding place, cus if its Hatchet, Jets and Hide they hit, there's gonna be hell to pay" Glen said.

"That's for sure" Sam replied.

They stepped out of the canteen and walked along to the elevator at the far end of the corridor, hearing Ironhides ranting and raving echoing from one of the other rooms, they picked up the pace as the sound grew louder, sprinting into a light jog, Sam looked over his shoulder to see if the enraged autobot was anywhere near when all of a sudden...

Wham!

Sam bumped right into Haliley as she came running down the intersection from the other corridor. The two landed flat on their backsides, compleatly caught by surprise.

"Whoa! Are you both okay?" Miles said helping Sam up as Morri and Mikaela helped Hailey up.

"Uh, I heard Ironhide yelling, what happened? Did Ashley try sneaking into the twin's quarters again?" The bubbly blond asked brushing herself off.

"The lambo twins triple-pranked Ironhide, Ratchet and Jetfire" Darren said

"In one morning? Their feeling edger today" Hailey replied

"I know, an' I don't intend to stick around when they get caught" Glen said picking the pace back up again, the others followed suit.

Once up top on the surface level, they found Jazz, Bumblebee, Bluestreak, Trailbreaker and Deathshot waiting for them by the main entrance, they were about to walk over when Will came running up to them with Annabelle on his hip.

"Ah! thank god! Mikaela, Morri, could you spare some time? I need a really big favour!"

"Sure Will, what's up?" Mikaela

"Could you watch Anny for 10 minutes please?, I forgot to run some paperwork over to Prowls office last night and he needs it today, but its way over on the other side of the base and I can't run poor Anne back and forth so-"

"It's okay; we can wait 10 minutes, right guys?" Mikaela asked.

"Sure" they replied

"Thanks girls, I'll owe when you get back, now, you stay with Morri and Mikaela, okay sweetie? Daddy will be back in 10 minutes and then we'll go and find Ironhide Okay?" he replied as he handed the little honey-blond over to the girl's, she beamed up at them both with little rosy dimples.

"Okay bye-bye daddy!" she called out and held Morri and Mikaelas hands as the group made its way over to their guardians

"Morning guys, have you been waiting long?" Morri asked

"Not long, you all ready to go?" Jazz asked

"More or less, we just got to wait for Will to get back then we can..." Morri paused a moment, looking around the entrance.

"...Where are the others?" she asked

"Ya mean they ain't with you?" Jazz replied

"Wait a minute I'll see where they are..." Deathshot said, in his optic's view range, the BSHB's tracking programme came up, the schematics for the entire base came up and within seconds, 5 blipping signals appeared in the 3-D layout.

"...They're in Wheeljack's lab"

* * *

Meanwhile

* * *

An hour had passed since the tiltroater took off, an hour spent checking equipment, loading weapons and double checking everything. Everyone was silent, trying to focus their minds on the task ahead, letting the adrenaline course through the blood. Ishikawa sat at the tiltroater's on-board dive terminal going over the layout of the base, Boma, Pazu and Saito were checking over the Tachikoma's weaponry while Togusa, Batou and the Major were sat at the briefing table in silence.

"_Major, the clearance for the mission has been approved by the prime minister, but stay alert and on your guard, the military are also planning to send in a tactical unit to retrieve the virus since the GSDA has put a lock down on their net works they've been very eager to locate the virus via us, apparently they want to resolve the whole mess their own way"_ the chief sounded over the cybercomm.

"_Then why the hell are we even going in?! If the military want to resolve this on their own why are we risking our necks for this?!" _Batou growled

"_I said their planning to send in a tactical unit, the GSDA has not yet received approval to go ahead, for the time being their unit from Special Forces will be waiting on standby near the targets location, if it turns into a situation that's too big for us to handle, then that will be their queue to take over the retrieval of the A11"_

"_Unbelievable! What? We can't be trusted to do the mission so the GSDA wants to send in their own team because they think we're going to screw up?"_ Togusa sardonically retorted.

"_I don't like it any more than you do, but considering the gravity of the situation no-one's willing to take any chances with this, the prime minister is still confident we can pull this off despite the governments opinion, so for the time being there will be a two choppers, one from section 4 and one from section 6 approaching your current position shortly, I'll leave the mission briefing to you Major" _

"_Rodger that chief"_

"What's our ETA?" she called over to Ishikawa.

"20 minutes" he replied

"Okay, let's get on with the briefing" everyone assembled around the briefing table, a holographic 3-D layout of the Black Lotuses base appeared in the centre.

"Okay listen up, going on the basic details, we know the base is disguised to look like an abandoned warehouse on top, the whole complex is situated on 5 main levels underground, the first two levels seem to be the most heavily fortified but it's the third and fourth levels that are our target, judging from the amount of power going into the base almost 65% of it is diverted to those two levels, so we can only assume that's where their hacking equipment and computers are kept" The Major said

"So how do we get in without going through the front door?" Batou asked.

"We're in luck; the fifth level is where all their escape tunnels are situated in case of emergencies, it's likely these too could be guarded, but there are a set of small ventilation shafts running into the base 30 meters from up in the forest above the warehouse, we could use them get inside undetected, according to the Intel they seem to be the only way in with minimal protection" Ishikawa said pointing to the schematics on the hologram.

"Where do the escape tunnels lead to?" Togusa asked.

"There are four tunnels that we could account for, two lead out to the main road over a mile to the west disguised as drain pipes, one leads 200 yards up into the forest, the forth one is unaccounted and it's possible there may be an elusive fifth one, we can't be totally sure" Ishikawa replied.

"So basically we'll be going in without being sure if there's a trap at the end" Batou said

"Possibly, but going on the info I extracted from the hackers memory, there's a hidden access terminal situated near the main complex that's used to access the bases systems, it was probably set up as an emergency shut-down protocol in case the base was compromised in any way, but we won't know until we're actually get down there and try to find it" the Major said

"Then it's settled, we find this hidden terminal then we can shut their systems down in one move" Batou replied folding his arms

"Not necessarily, if we shut them down suddenly they'll know we're here and try to escape with the virus in hand"

"You got to wonder just how long they've been in business, considering the elaborate set up of their base I'll be willing to bet they've got quite a heavy security system set up" Togusa said.

"Which is why it would be prudent to slip into the base in two teams, Tachikoma, you'll go and find the access terminal and back hack the bases main systems, once you have access to the security system, we'll slip in via the ventilation shafts and catch them from behind, however, there's a very high chance the perimeter will be heavily guarded so we'll do a full sweep of the building before we land, although the Intel is basic, it's better than nothing, we don't know the full extent of their security so exercise absolute caution when we go in, there's no telling what could happen once we're in, but one way or another we're shutting this place down and getting the A11 virus back... are we clear? " the Major said in her usual commanding tone.

"Yes ma'am!" they all replied enthusiastically, and went back to their prep work.

"What do you think happen if the Special Forces try to come in after us?"

"I doubt they'll try anything soon after we land, Section 4 will probably wait unless ordered otherwise but I wouldn't put it past Section 6 to try and storm the place while we're inside"

"What a bunch of dumb-asses! Are they not even aware the Black Lotus has the A11? Their liable to get themselves hacked, and then what good will they been then?"

"Whatever it is they intend to do, you can be sure it probably won't be subtle...either way, I've got a feeling this mission won't stay subtle anyway" The Major replied as she went to sit in the dive terminal opposite Ishkawa.

Batou went to the front in the cockpit and watched the landscape come into view as the tiltroater started its slow decent downwards.

* * *

Autobot Base

* * *

"Why would they be hiding in there?" Hailey asked looking up at the door to Wheeljacks lab.

"I'm not sure but they better have a reason for keeping us waiting" Morri said as she held Annabelle on her hip, the 4 year old watched the towering Autobots curiously as they approached the door and knocked, no-one answered.

"Looks like Wheeljacks not in" Bluestreak said

"Of course he's not in because if he was, there'd be a big boom" Annabelle replied casually.

"That's very true" Morri chortled.

"Well, the BSHB's receiver is showing their in here..." Deathshot said as he opened the door and entered the lab, the teens and Autobots followed close behind.

"...Be careful you don't touch anything, who knows what might blow up in here" Deathshot warned, everyone looked around, trying to look for any signs of the other's, Darren then noticed the old storage room where the DRD resided, he walked over and went through the gap in the door into the dark hanger-sized space.

At first nothing seem to stand out, then, as he turned to leave, a faint shuffling sound seem to come from the very far end of the room, from the other side of the DRD, curious, he wandered over, training his ears on the source of the sound, he climbed up several stacked crates and boxes onto the 50 meter wide platform and walked across to the other side, looking down into the gloom of the 13 meter wide gap between the machine and the wall he looked along to the left and right.

Suddenly, something caught his eye, a small red light glowed down in the dark shadow of the room, slowly walking along the edge to get a better look, he tried to figure out what it was, it just seem to hang in mid-air, when practically right in front of it he got the feeling something else was there, but what?.

Suddenly the lights flew on and Darren found himself staring down a large set of silver teeth.

"WHOA!" he yelled in shock, falling over backwards as Ravage reared his head up.

"Ravage! For God's sake don't scare me like that! Why are you-"suddenly, Ashley, Tom, Danny and the Waineright twins poked their heads up over the side of the platform, looking at the one-legged lad rather sheepishly. The door opened and Deathshot walked in with the others close behind.

"So this is where you guys have been hiding, why are you-" Jazz said as he walked over, then, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe slowly raised their heads up too, along with a gagged Hot Rod.

"Why am I not surprised" Deathshot said flatly, eyeing to two trouble-makers.

"Boys? What have you been up to?" Morri asked raising an eyebrow.

"Uh? Nothing, nothing at all!" Tom replied with a sheepish grin.

"Really?" Morri asked with a deadpan look, knowing her cousin was hiding something, Annabelle grinned in delight, they were in trouble now.

"What's going on guys? Why are you all hiding in here for?" Trailbreaker asked as he gentle picked Darren up and placed him back on his feet.

"It's just a rough guess but does it have anything to do with the three pranks that took place this morning?" Miles asked in humorous tone

"Don't know, I couldn't really say" Danny grinned scratching the back of his head tensely as Deathshot approached and hopped up onto the platform looking down at the two sheepish-looking lambo's with a deadpan face, they knew it was pointless to lie to the sniper, he meant business when he wore that look, the other Autobots approached the machine and the humans climbed up onto the platform for a better vantage.

"Alright, why don't you all tell us why you all needed to hide here?" he asked, Frenzy tensely took a step forward in front of the 30ft Autobot.

"Uh? It's like t-this..."

* * *

Meanwhile, Elsewhere

* * *

The tiltroater circled low over the nearby valley, the enemy base was 3 miles away; its roof peaked over the top of the vast forest spread below. The Major watched from the open side door of the tiltroater's fuselage as they hovered in position over a clearing in between the tall trees, in the distance far on the other side of the base dipping in and out of a small valley, two dark gray helicopters circled, she eyed them like a panther would eye a pair of wolfs, unwilling to give up its catch to the other hunters.

The Black Lotus base was in a fairly remote location, situated in a steep valley surrounded by forest on one side and wide open fields on the other, the outside of the base was very unassuming, it was dressed up as an old, dilapidated warehouse that rose three storeys up with several smaller buildings nearby, the walls and roof were rusted corrugated iron with dirty and broken windows with weeds growing out of the cracks everywhere, the whole place looked liked it gave up the ghost decades ago. The main warehouse had a vertical Cliffside behind it, at the front of the complex the ground slopped downwards opening out onto the fields, and a small overgrown dirt road was the only connection to the place running alongside the tree-line.

"_Major, we just finished the sweep of the area, there are several motion sensors covering 150 yards around the perimeter, there's also a low-level jamming barrier covering the base in a 300 yard radius, plus we located the ventilation shafts and one of the escape tunnels, their within 60 yards of our current position and are within 200 meters of each other"_ Ishikawa said over the cybercomm as an image of the perimeter with diagrams of the outside security system filled the Majors field of vision.

"_Good work, We can set down here, that rise over there should provide a wide blind spot for the motion sensors, we should have a straight line to the shaft from here"_ she replied

"So, what's the team line-up for this?" Batou asked

"You and I will take point, Togusa, Saito, Pazu and Boma; you'll be providing cover-fire, Ishikawa, you'll stay here and monitor the situation from above, if the Special Forces move in notify us immediately, our first priority is to disengage that jamming barrier, so Tachikoma, you'll go in first and locate that hidden terminal, once you have access to the system, clear us a path to the centre of the base and locate where the virus is being kept"

"Yes ma'am!" the blue think tanks squeaked

"Do we have any idea where exactly where the hidden terminal is?"

"It should be somewhere near the main complex, inside one of the smaller buildings near the tree line, remember, while that jamming barrier is up we can't advance on the base, so we first locate the ventilation shafts and wait, got it?" she barked.

"Rodger" the team replied.

As the tiltroater landed the ramp at the rear of the plane's fuselage swung down and the seven tanks filled out, followed by the section 9 operatives. The Tachikomas took off into the trees in one direction, while the team headed up the slopping ground in single file, disappearing from sight thanks to their therm-optic camo, the tiltroater took off back into the air.

'And so, the waiting game begins...' Ishikawa thought to himself as he sat back down at the dive terminal, on the monitor the helicopters from sections 4 and 6 hovered in the far off distance like falcons waiting to strike.

'You guys better not get any ideas and screw this whole thing up' he thought.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the same time

* * *

Jetfire walked out of the wash racks, cleaned and rid of the silly streamers and cream-pies and was now ready to give the lambo twins and real good kicking up the aft, among other forms of punishment he had in mind for when he laid his hands on them. He stomped off down the corridor, striking the floor with his cane with every step, muttering and huffing all the way back to the scene of the crime outside his quarters.

Once there, he surveyed the mess around the door and floor, cream and silly streamer foam was everywhere, scanning up and down, something caught his eye, on the floor were a set of foot prints in the cream, they weren't the twins they were much too small, and the wrong shape. Bending down for a closer look, he suddenly realised they belonged to a human, as he looked all around the mess, he made out five different set of human footprints, and a distinctive spiky looking set that were undoubtedly Frenzy's.

"So, you idiots weren't the only ones in on it" he grinned.

Analysing the footprints with his scanners, he tracked the cream residue, following the footprints down the corridor, judging by the spacing of each individual print, it looked like they broke into a fast sprit into the elevator.

Scanning the entrance at three floors and finding no residue leading out, finally he found the trail picked up on the fourth floor, stepping out and looking up he saw the trail went into Wheeljacks lab.

Stealthfully he the approached the door with his cane at the ready to take a swipe if they tried to escape, the door was open slightly, he leaned forward to see who was inside, sure enough, voices drifted out.

He stood there and listened.

* * *

At the same time elsewhere

* * *

Upon the top of the rise not far from the Cliffside, hidden among the thick undergrowth, the Major and Batou surveyed the warehouse down below, no-one was around the complex and despite the jamming barrier cutting off section 9's communication they were still able to survey the complex in other ways, Batou's cybernetically enhanced eyes scanned the buildings, seeing through the walls and into the interiors.

"It doesn't look like their expecting anything to happen, otherwise there'd be a lot more activity than this" Batou whispered.

"How many are down there?" the Major asked.

"There's four in the north building, three in the east and eight in the south building, and a number going in and out of what appears to be a large elevator in the ground floor of the main building, nearly 20 in all" he replied

"Are they armed?"

"Not that I can tell from here, but it all seems quiet down there"

"_Good news Major! We found the access terminal and have successfully gained access to the bases main systems network! We're currently channelling a decoy signal to their comm. Frequency detector in order to prevent our comm channel from being detected"_ the Tachikoma called over the cybercomm.

"_Okay good work, Ishikawa, can you read me okay?"_

"_Loud and clear Major, I've got the specs of the bases layout here via the Tachikomas back hack into the bases main systems"_

"_Have you managed to find us a route into the complex?"_

"_I'm working on it, according to the data, these bastards are well armed and ready in the event of a raid, there's a whole collection of automated weapons as re-enforcements, and, just as we thought, the escape tunnels are guared"_

"_What about the vents?"_

"_We're in luck, their unguarded at both ends, but it's once you get inside that the real problems are likely to begin"_

"_Why? What have you found out?"_

"_Apparently the base in armed with motion and heat sensors along every corridor, there are security drones patrolling the complex on every level and there are re-enforced armoured combat androids stationed around the central hub where the main computer systems are situated"_

"_Can you back hack into anyone inside?"_

"_I would if I could, but they've got their personal's barriers re-enforced with the A11 so even if we could ghost hack anyone, the virus will only attack our systems via the connection"_

"_Can't we use the military's encryption barrier?"_

"_I wouldn't recommend it, the barrier will only slow the virus down, it won't stop it outright, and besides, considering the way they've written the virus into the barrier programme, it will automatically alert the Black Lotus to our presence"_

The Major sighed in frustration; this was not giving her a lot of options to work with.

"_Okay, what other options do we have?"_

"_We can hack into the rest of the security systems and set up a sensorial mask using the encryption barrier to clear a path into the central hub, but it's going to take a while longer, there's a lot of channels to sieve through and I've got to find the right ones to get this right"_

"_Very well, get to it"_

"_Rodger that"_

The Major frowned; she hated not being able to infiltrate the enemy's network or ghost hack anyone, no thanks to that damm virus.

"So we got the cybercomm back" Batou said

"It helps, but we've still got a long way to go, let's move!" she said standing and swiftly moving back up over the rise with Batou close behind. Once over the rise, they went back down the slope for 100 or so yards until they found the rest of the team hidden in the thick bushes were they left them, a few meters behind them were the ventilation shafts, disguised as an enormous tree stump.

"How does it look down there?" Saito asked

"Pretty quiet, they don't appear to be expecting anyone, but then again they could be standing guard for all we know" Batou replied

"Well hopefully we won't be seeing any action up top, once Ishikawa's got the sensory mask in place we'll be going in, so for now, we sit tight" The Major said

* * *

Elsewhere

* * *

"...And so we pelted him with water balloons, silly streamers and cream pies and made a break for it in here where we intended to hide until things died down" Sideswipe finished off his story whilst shrinking away from Deathshots cold glair.

"And why did you bound and gag Hot Rod and deactivate his comm link?" the sniper asked.

"Well after that whole rabbit-in-the-headlights incident..." Ashley sniggered at the memory of the prank "...We were afraid he was going to rat out so we kept him here to make sure he wouldn't go blabbing" Sideswipe replied, trying to sound innocent, but to no avail.

Deathshot and Jazz stood on the platform with their arms crossed and with deadpan faces, looking down at the 10 perpetrators like a set of parents ready to administer a punishment. Morri stood in much the same way with Tom, Danny and Ashley lined up as if they in a police line up, Hailey's sisters stood the same way, as did Frenzy and the drones, all scared to move under Deathshot's piercing gaze.

"You do realise I am' gonna have to report this to Prowl" Jazz sighed

"Aww com'on Jazz! Lighten up a little!" Sideswipe grinned

"Hay! You guys are lucky I' ain't Red Alert, now if you go now I won't make a big deal of it, and as for you kids?, we'll talk this over when we get to the campsite" Jazz said, directing his attention to the humans at his feet.

"Are you guys gonna get grounded?" Annabelle asked from behind Mikaela.

"No, they're still coming with us on the camping trip, albeit they'll be kept on a very short leash" Deathshot replied, the kids looked up at in a mix of relief and worry.

"Ah don't blame them! They only came along for the ride, after all, how many triple-prank whammies do you get to pull off in one morning?" Sideswipe grinned; his brother simply rolled his optics (a habit all the Autobots picked up while hanging around humans).

"AH HAH! I KNEW IT!!" a loud voice boomed from the storage room entrance making everyone jump with fright, there stood Jetfire, brandishing his walking stick with a rebellious grin on his withered face plates, everyone was caught completely off guard and no-one quite knew what to say or do.

"So This is where you fraggers have been hiding this whole time! Well I'm here to give you lot a taste of your own energon for that little stunt of yours!!" And with that he charged forward up onto DRD platform in an attempt to hit the lambo twins and drones over the helms with his stick, Deathshot, Jazz and Bumblebee tried to hold him back and in all the ruckus Bluestreak and Trailbreaker immediately scooped up the humans out of harm way while Hot Rod simply tried to get out of the way of the squabbling bots, he was about to jump off the platform when suddenly;

ZZZZAAAAAAAAAKKKKAAAAKKKK!!!

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Ashley shouted from the crook of Bluestreak's arm, the brawling suddenly stopped and all the bots looked around looking for the source of the strange echoing noise.

Suddenly, the circular patterns on the platform began to glow in a myriad of different colours, the claw-like pillars on the sides of the platform flashed with bright lights; the platform began to vibrate with a deep humming sound beginning to grow louder and faster within the device, the humans and Autobots looked around in alarm and in a few seconds;

"Uh oh, I think we really screwed up here gu-"

KABABROOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!

A blinding flash of light, brighter than the sun itself, illuminated the whole room and completely engulfing the group, the following explosion rocked the entire Ark and base, everywhere the vibrations could be felt, resounding crashes, bangs, thuds and smashes echoed everywhere as stuff fell over, got knocked out of place and both human and Autobot fell over each other.

In a minute, it was over.

Wheeljack ran like hell for leather back to the lab, he burst in through the door, into the storage room and saw the DRD powering itself down with a thick vapour trail drifting up from the centre of the platform, as for the Autobots and humans;

They were gone.

"OH FRAG!!!"

* * *

Wow. Crazy, don't forget to R&R on the way out!


	9. Chapter 8: And So It Begins

A/N: things really come to a head in this chapter, from here on the story will be viewed from both the Autobot gang's and S9's stand-points, sorry if it gets a little confusing in places, I've tried to iron out as many complications as possible.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 8: AND SO IT BEGINS...

"_Stand by Major, we're about to activate the sensory mask, get ready to make your move"_ Ishikawa said

"_Okay..."_ she signalled to Boma, who pressed the red button of a small detonator, several meters away the acid capsules that Boma and Batou had attached to the doors of the ventilation shafts began to dissolve the locks and hinges, Togusa and Saito lifted the doors up and to the side of the mock-up tree stump that disguised the vents and the team assembled ready to enter the narrow 1 meter wide gap.

"Alright, let's g-"

She didn't have time to finish as the late afternoon sky suddenly became ablaze with a blinding white light followed by waves of colour, like the blast front of a nuke, a deep loud rumbling sound like a rocket engine igniting echoed at a deafening volume throughout the valley, shaking the ground violently and knocking the team off their feet. All happening within less than a minute, the team looked up and round in complete shock and confusion trying to locate the source of the sudden noisy lightshow as the loud explosion died down to a steady deep rumble.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!!!" Batou shouted over the noise

"Where did it come from?"

"What was that sound?"

"_Major!! What was that explosion?!!" _The Tachkoma's yelled in a panic.

Thinking the worst case scenario, the Major picked herself up and ran up back the slope to the top of the rise with the whole team following close behind. Looking over the landscape below the source of the light was coming from the far end of the fields, whatever was there creating the phenomenon, it was blocked from sight by the tops of the trees obscuring their line of sight. Up in the tiltroater Ishikawa rushed to the open side door and watched in shocked silence at the strange sight, down on the ground, the team watched in amazement as the waves of light ascended up into the sky piercing the clouds and illuminating the sky in radiant hues of blue, pink, purple, yellow and some green and red, finally, the lights slowly dissipated and the rumbling grew steadily lower and lower until the valley was silent again.

"W-what just happened?" Togusa said in a state shock, for a long moment no-one knew what to say, not even the Major

* * *

Meanwhile, down in the field

* * *

Darkness

Numbness

Dizziness

That's all she could feel

Morri didn't know where she was, her body felt like it had all the strength drained out, as if waking up from a coma. She felt her head spinning and pounding while the numbness slowly gave way to the sensation of grass beneath her and the warmth of the sun above. Straining her eyes to open, all she could see was a mixed blur of colours, after a few seconds her vision began to come back into focus, the first thing to come into view was an unconscious Annabelle, her instincts flaring into action, Morri forced herself up onto her knees and hands and with her head pounding and her equilibrium off balance, she crawled over to her side.

"Anne?...Anne wake up!...wake up sweetie, can you hear me?" she called into her ear, soon enough the four year old began to stir.

"Mmm...M-Morri?...mmwhat happened?" she groggily replied.

"I...I don't know sweetie...hang on a sec..."

"...Okay..."

Taking in several deep breaths to get some oxygen to the brain, Morri finally felt enough strength return to her legs to attempt to stand up, slowly and awkwardly getting up; she surveyed the scene with confusion.

Lying on the ground all around and close together, the Autobots and humans were either still unconscious, stirring with moans, groans or groggy complaints of headaches, the landscape was completely different; they were in a vast field surrounded by trees on sweeping slopes, it felt more like a dream than reality because she remembered being in the Ark only a moment ago, was this a dream of some kind?

'Where are we?' she thought as she attended to her unconscious friends.

"Uuuhg...my servos are aching..." Bluestreak said as he sat up "...huh? Where are we?"

"Your guess is as good as mine Blue"

"Morri?...are you okay?"

"I'll be fine but Hailey and the twins are still unconscious" she replied pointing over to the girls, to which Bluestreak scrambled to his knees and crawled over to his charges and tried to wake them up.

"Mmm...oh my helm!...what just happened?" Hot Rod groaned

"W-What the frag?..."

"What are we doing outside?"

Noticing Deathshot was still unconscious; Morri rushed to his side and moving round to his face and tried to wake him up by patting his cheek.

"D? D, wake up, wake up"

"Mmmm, uh?" he groaned, turning his head to her voice

"Come on! You've got to get up, come on!"

"Uhh? ...Morri? What happened?...what's going on?" he turned his head to face her.

"I don't know, I- I have to help everyone up, stay put..."

"Hang on, I'm coming" he slowly sat up, taking a few minutes to reboot his automatic equilibrium and then went about waking up the other unconscious Autobots while Morri attended to the other humans, 15 minutes later everyone was awake with their headaches starting to subside.

"So, does anyone have any idea what just happened?" Tom asked as he rubbed his head.

"Weren't we on board the Ark a few minutes ago?" Darren said as he reattached his prosthetic leg which had somehow come off. "...Yeah, we were, what happened?" Bumblebee asked as he held a dizzy Frenzy in one hand, but the hacker quick came round and jumped out of his palm onto the ground. Off to one side Sideswipe was helping his brother up onto his feet, Hot Rod Helped Scorponok up off his back and Bluestreak helped Trailbreaker and Ravage back up. The rest of the humans slowly gathered themselves up, trying best to stand on wobbly legs but fortunately the disorientation didn't last long.

"The DRD switched on and then..." Sam said in a stupor

They all paused, exchanging uneasy looks.

"No way! It couldn't have worked! Wheeljack said it never had a chance to be tested yet!" Sunstreaker exclaimed

"Well then how does it explain us waking up out here? And besides, where are we anyway?" Jazz said, everyone looked around the landscape; it wasn't familiar, there were no landmarks that they could recognise, or anything else that was familiar, wherever it was it was certainly not the dessert.

"I don't know...I never seen this place before" Annabelle said.

"What if the DRD really did work? And...You know, zapped us into another universe?" Becca asked tensely.

"Nonsense! We're clearly still on earth!" Jetfire exclaimed as he staggered back up onto his feet.

"Earth in another universe?" Sam said bemused

"Wait! Wait a minute! How do we know we're in another universe? Couldn't there have been some kind of space rift or something? Couldn't that thing have teleported us somewhere else on the planet?" Glen argued throwing his arms up, Jetfire raised his head slightly as he scanned the surrounding environment, a worried look then appeared on his face as he looked up into the sky.

"Jetfire? What's wrong?" Jazz asked, placing a hand on the old seeker's shoulder

"I just scanned the area for any energy traces and there's an enormous amount of temporal energy right above us" everyone looked up at the air above the old seekers head, sure enough some 60 feet up, the air seemed distorted, rippling like the heat-wave's coming off the desert sands with tiny little white sparks floating around, like mercury and embers combined into one, everyone tilted their heads back and forth as they tried to get a good look of the thing, visually it didn't make any sense.

"Dude, that's weird" Miles said offhand

"It kinda looks that pretty shiny stuff that comes outta Deathshots fingers" Annabelle said as she pointed up to the strange anomaly

"It does doesn't it?" Morri replied

"But what is?" Danny asked

"I can't be sure, but it's very different to the temporal space energy I leave behind after I teleport, this one is much bigger, more....unstable, and it's flowing out of mid-air too"

"...meaning?"

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but whatever that energy is, it's not the energy residue left by just an average teleportation...it's energy from a WAY BIGGER teleportation!" he exclaimed, everyone paused as they tried to make sense of the situation.

"Uh guys? What happened to the grass?" Miles asked with a hint of concern in his voice

Everyone looked down at the ground and saw they were standing inside a 50 meter wide circle of green long grass, outside the circle the ground had been completely scorched black and the tree line of the nearby forest had been partial burnt too with some of the trees toppled over. All around the vast space was empty, nothing was alive and all the vegetation had been completely burned away, but there was no smoke or heat to hint that there had been a fire recently, Scorponok chirped quizzically, to which Ravage only shrugged.

"What happened to the grass?" Annabelle asked holding Mikaela's hand.

"I don't know" she replied confused

"It, kinda looks like we stood in the middle of an explosion" Darren said as he inspected the black grass at the edge of the green circle

"If this is another universe, it's certainly not that different from ours" Tom said offhand

"Maybe we shouldn't jump to conclusions on anything just yet" Trailbreaker replied

"Wherever we are it's definitely on earth somewhere" said Bumblebee

Sam scanned the forest and noticed a large roof and set of chimneys peeking over the treetops some hundred or so yards away.

"Hay, there's a warehouse over there; maybe we can ask for directions? Or at least ask where we are" he said pointing to the rooftop.

"Couldn't hurt to ask I guess" Jazz replied, and together the group walked the long distance to the building.

* * *

Meanwhile, back up on the ridge

* * *

"What was that?...was it a weapon? Or some kind of-"

"Shh! Look" The Major directed the groups attention down to the base, it seemed the strange lights had alerted the Black Lotus, various figures ran out of the smaller buildings into the main warehouse, several shouts could been heard as they scurried in a panic.

"Dammit! Whatever that was it spooked'em! Their gonna make a break for it!" Batou exclaimed angrily.

"Hurry! If we get back to the shaft we can still-"

"Major look!" everyone looked at where Togusa was pointing.

"...What the hell?!"

Down where the lights had emanated from around the corner of the tree-line, a group of people, teenagers by the looks of them, and a small child came walking around to the warehouse, followed by;

Something none of them had ever laid eyes on before, or were easy to describe.

Behind the teenagers were 9 ENORMOUS humanoid robots, two of which were over 30 ft tall, with three smaller robots, a skinny, spiky robot with spindly limbs that was smaller than the teens, and one shaped like a scorpion, the other was like a panther, with a hooded rider on its back.

"What the hell are those things?" Saito asked in surprise

"I don't know but I've got a very bad feeling about this" the Major frowned.

* * *

"Well a fat load of good asking directions did for us, this place looks like it hasn't been used in years" Ashley said from up on Ravages back.

"Seem's like no-one ain't been home in a long while" Jazz commented

"Well there's a dirt road over there, maybe that leads to somewhere" Darren pointed to the small road leading up and away from the warehouse.

"Uh guys? I think you better transform, I hear a chopper nearby" Sam said looking up at the forest, sure enough, the sounds of roaters could be heard approaching, but before the Autobots even had a chance to transform, a huge tiltroater aircraft came around the corner of the valley slope and came to hover some 500 yards away.

"What kind of plane is that?!" Hailey exclaimed

"It's a tiltroater aircraft, but it's not like the one's in the American navy or Air-force, it's way too big, plus I ain't ever seen that model before!" Glen replied

Then, from around the other valley slope to the group's right side, two dark gray helicopters appeared and hovered opposite from the tiltroater 750 yards away, the three craft seemed to be sizing the group up, and wanting to move in closer.

"Jazz, I'm getting some bad vibes here" said Deathshot

"I feel ya man, I don't like the looks of this!" the first lieutenant replied.

Hearing the bots exchange of words the kids moved to their guardian's sides, Morri lifted Annabelle up onto her hip and the Autobots slowly moved into a defensive circle around the kids, keeping their optics trained on the hovering air craft. Seeming to sense the defensive posture, both the tiltroater and the choppers backed off to a greater distance.

"What do you think they want? Miles called up

"If they had anything in mind I think they just thought better of it" Jazz replied.

Suddenly, a sound drew their attention back to the warehouse, at the base of the cliff-side a big wide door suddenly opened up out of the cliff and the sound of heavy machinery echoed out into the surrounding complex, the whole group watched in amazement as seven enormous black machines walked out and lined up in a row facing the group.

Each one had be at least 25 feet tall, and bore an uncanny resemblance to Scorponok, only beefier and more robust, they walked on four chunky armoured legs, had two arms with three-fingered claws at the front with a small white dome on top and at the rear, the tail was a cylindrical pillbox with a cannon protruding out of the side near the top. They were the weirdest things ever and their black colouration made them look highly imposing.

For a brief few seconds everyone paused, unsure what to do.

"W-What are those things? Danny exclaimed as he gawked at the metal behemoths

"What kind of machines are they? That's no human tech I've ever seen before!" Bluestreak said offhand

"What do they want?" Sam asked looking up at his guardian

Deathshot activated his left optic, the black patch swung up open and revealed a big golden yellow optic with three smaller ones alongside, one red, one purple and one green, it was his specialist set of optics, the ones he used primarily for sniping, among other things. Scanning the machines, he widened his stance.

"What can ya see D-man?" Jazz asked

"Whatever they are, their unmanned, there's no humans inside piloting them"

"Maybe their being controlled by a remote somewhere?" Darren offered

"Or their controlled by autopilot software?" Glen replied.

For a moment, neither the strange machines nor the autobots moved and a slight tension began to mount as neither side moved.

"Guys listen up; I think these things may only react if they're provoked, let's all just back away slowly and maybe they won't-" Jazz didn't have time to finish as the cannons on the machines suddenly reared up and aimed at them.

"Oh Frag! AUTOBOTS TAKE COVER!!" Jazz called out.

* * *

"What did it just shout?" Batou looked at the Major in concern as 10 of the strange robots suddenly took up a defensive formation, two of them, a yellow one and blue one moved to the back and formed a protective shield as the kids ran for cover behind them.

Then all hell broke loose.

The tanks fired a volley as they advanced forward, the rounds exploded in midair with a defining boom, seemingly hitting an invisible wall less than a few meters from the robots, sending up a vast cloud of smoke into the air.

"What!...did that-"

When the smoke cleared the robots were still there, without a single dent, the kids were on the ground having being knocked over by the blast, the section 9 operatives all gasped in amazement.

* * *

"Good call with the force field Trailbreaker! Okay, Scorpy! Ravgae! Frenzy! Get the kids to safety, AUTOBOTS! LET'S GO!!!" Jazz shouted and together the Autobots flexed out their weapons and charged forward as the tanks moved forward to fire again. Deathshot and Jetfire fired up their engines and took to the air above as Jazz, Trailbreaker and Hot Rod took the left flank and the twins, Bluestreak and Bumblebee took the right. "Okay! LET'S BRING THE RAIN!!!!" Sideswipe hollered as he and his brother ploughed into one of the machines with they're wrist blades, slicing part of its front right leg off.

The drones rushed to the kid's sides as they ran towards the forest, running faster as the fight grew louder and more violent, they were barely near the tree-line when a stray round from one of tanks exploded near the trees sending a small section of the forest up in flames, the explosion sent out a blast wave which knocked the kids to the ground, Annabelle screamed and Morri turn back and saw the Autobots making short work of the machines.

From up above, the two flyers circled hard and fast darting back and forth as they fired round upon round into the tops of the gun turrets, while the others destroyed them effortlessly in a hail of kung-fu-like moves, bullets and energy blasts, each tank was destroyed in less than several minute at a time. She gasped in horror as more of them rolled out of the cliff-face.

"CRAP! There's more of these's things?!" Glen shouted.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE THINGS!!" Danny shouted, pointing towards the door above the huge opening, a smaller door swung open and whole hoard of praying mantis-like robots shot out, each was about four feet tall and armed with semi-automatic rifles on their abdomens, they were wicked fast and manoeuvrable as they attacked the autobots like a swarm of angry hornets. Looking back and forth between the fight and the fire which was now spreading further along the field, the kids grouped together with the drones, trapped, scared and not knowing which way to turn, Annabelle was now crying into Morri's shoulder, Danny and Glen were close to a panic attack and Becky and Becca huddled as close to their older sister as possible, tears streaming from their eyes.

"We're trapped! What the hell do we do?!!" Darren shouted out.

Looking around Morri noticed the forest rose steeply up towards a ridge overlooking the warehouse.

"LOOK!..." she shouted, drawing everyone's attention up to the ridge.

"...That ridge up there! If we can get up behind there, it'll give us cover from the fight!"

"But what about the fire?!"

"It's spreading onto the grass! Not up into the woods! If we move now we can beat it!"

"Are you crazy?!! We can't outrun those flames!!"

Suddenly, a couple of the mantis-bots spotted the kids and ran in their direction, razor-sharp pincers at the ready.

"No choice! Scorpy! Ravage! Hold' em off, everyone, MOVE IT!!!"

With a spur of adrenaline, they picked up the pace, the kids sprinted like mad alongside the fire, steadily outpacing the rising flames, Morri pushed every ounce of strength she had to keep Annabelle held up on her side, Tom and Sam ran behind her, pushing her as she started of fall behind, Frenzy stayed at the rear checking to make sure they weren't followed meanwhile Scorponok and Ravage ripped the robots apart with little effort.

* * *

"Aright we're getting out of here before anything else happens!" The Major barked as she sprinted back down the slope.

"No augments here!" Batou replied as he stayed at her side.

"_Ishikawa! Bring the tiltroater down, we're aborting the mission and clearing out of here!"_

"_Rodger that! Major you wouldn't believe what I'm seeing from up here!" _

"_Actually, I think I do, Tachikoma where are you!"_

No response.

"_Tachkoma! Respond!"_

The Major stopped dead in her tracks, the rest of the team nearly collided into her back.

"Dammit! Where are th-"

"MISTER BATOU!!" the blue think-tanks squeaked as they came bounding up the slope from the other end of the complex (or what was left of it), they were all badly dented and scratched, Batou's tank was missing its right arm.

"Where the hell have you guys been?!" he shouted

"Sorry we took so long! We got pinned down behind the warehouse when the fighting broke out, we barely made it out! One of the tanks round' blew my arm off! And there are these HUGE mec-" it squeaked in a panicked tone as it flayed its arm around.

"Never mind that now! We gotta-"

The team looked down the slope as they suddenly heard branches and twigs snapping and voices shouted out in the distance.

"Hurry! We're nearly there guys!"

"Come on! One last push!"

Acting on impulse, the Major flipped on her thermoptic camo and leapt into the bushes, the others followed suite and hid in a line with their guns at the ready. From out of the bushes 60 yards away ran 12 teenagers and a younger little girl, probably about four being carried by an older brunet girl, following close behind them was a bizarre, four-eyed spiky looking silver robot that was shorter than the teens themselves, brandishing a set of what looked like miniaturised semi-automatics.

'What the hell is that thing?!' the Major thought as she eyed the strange thing

As the group ran towards their position, one of their number, a tall blond girl tripped over a tree root the wrong way and fell flat on her front "AAARGH!!!" she yelled painfully, quickly, two of the older boys and a set of younger blond twins turned to help, holding her by the arms they helped her as she limped along, every movement was painful as her face scrunched up and she hissed through her gritted teeth, trying hard to stop from crying out, finally they stopped meters short of the hidden, the group stopped a few meters short of the hidden S9 team and leaned over one another in exhaustion.

"Hailey! Hailey!.." the little honey-blond cried in a panic as she struggled out of the older brunet girls arms, the brunette came up alongside the blond and quickly and calmly set about looking at the injury like a professional medic.

"Hailey calm down! Your gonna be okay now let me see that ankle..." she said as the blond female began to whimper in pain, the two blond twins watched on in worry

"Is she going to be okay?" "Is her leg broken?" they both asked, the brunette felt the girls ankle up and down but every touch elicited a series of whimpers and grunts from the older blond

"What's the prognosis?" one of the boys asked, he had blond shoulder length hair

"It feels like it could be twisted ankle, but it's not swollen enough to tell whether it's broken or not, let's best play it safe and put a brace on it...I'm going to need a sturdy branch, a piece of wood, anything" She said as she threw the backpack off her back and took out a first aid kit, "Right right, everyone get looking!" one of the other boys said and the others all started to look around in the leaf litter and eventually another girl with black hair found a thick straight broken branch. "Will this do?" she asked as she handed it to the brunette "Yeah that's perfect, don't worry Hailey you'll be fine, Mikaela give me a hand with this please?" "Okay" she replied and the black haired girl placed the branch alongside the blonds injured ankle and wrapped it up with a wide bandage she pulled out of the green medical kit, the others all looked around cautiously as the fight echoed over the ridge some distance away.

"It-it-it sound's p-pretty ugly!" the robot stammered

'How the hell could they tell what its saying?' Batou thought

"I...I'm thirsty" the older blond whimpered as a tear fell down her face

"Hang on!, I've got water!" the blond haired boy said as he pulled his backpack off and pulled out a bottle of water and handed it to the blond, she began to drink in large gulps, all the while the little honey-blond clung to her waist, crying and sobbing as the two other older twins tried to calm her down.

"Hailey! ..'sob'...Hailey please don't die! 'sob'"

"Its okay Anne, she's not going to die, she's just took a bad fall is all" one of them replied, rubbing her on the back

" 'sob'...really?...she's not going to die?"

"N-No sweetie...I'm, just in a bit of pain" she said wiping her eyes.

"You'll be fine, we'll just wait for Scorpy and Ravage to catch up, one of them will let you hitch a ride and take the weight off that ankle" the brunette replied

By this time the whole group was sitting on the ground to rest with the robot keeping guard over them, the sounds of the fight still echoed around the valley walls, it seemed to grow louder and louder with gunfire and explosion after explosion, metal crashing against earth, rock and metal and other strange unidentifiable sounds, seemingly mechanical in nature.

The Section 9 team remained in their hiding places, watching the exhausted kids and jittery robot, wondering whether or not to move out before anything else happened, or to possibly apprehend them and take them with them. The teens looked up the slope nervously as they readied themselves to bolt; the fight seemed to grow more uglier, when suddenly;

BOOOM! BOOOM!

KABABOOOM BOOM!

BOOOM! BOOOMBOOOM!

BOOOM!

BOOOM!

With the final sharp exposition the valley grew silent and still.

There was a long pause before anyone spoke up.

"What was that?" the black guy nervously asked while looking up the slope.

"That was that was D's sniper rifle, he must have finished them off" the older brunet said sitting up.

'A sniper? But kind of sniper rifle can make a shot that loud?' Saito thought with a slight pang of confusion.

"Hay! Your okay!" the little happily exclaimed as the brunette and twins helped the blond up onto her feet "I'm fine, but still sore" she replied "Morri, you're the best doctor ever!" the little one happily exclaimed as she hugged the older girls waist "Ah I'm no doctor I just know first aid that's all" she replied "Well now what do we do? If the fight's over what happens now?" the young kid in a big red hoodie asked.

The sound of snapping branches echoed through trees as something came crashing up the slope over the rise; two of the black mantis-bots appeared, saw the kids and charged at them. The kids barely had time to scream as they scrambled to get up and run, the Major and Batou were about to fire at the things to draw their attention when;

Charging out of the bushes and attacking on sideways, a ginormous robotic panther leapt out and shredded the 4 ft mantis in one powerful snap of its jaws, to its side a giant metallic scorpion attacked the remaining mantis with one swift strike of its tail, the blade cut right through the mantis's neck, lopping the head clean off, striking the ground less than a few feet from the Major. She froze, realising just how lucky she wasn't any closer. The team watched the huge beasts as they stepped over to the relieved kids and nuzzled them like affectionate pets; in turn the kids patted and stroked them affectionately.

The panther was an impressive creature, strong and bulky with power packed into its armoured muscular body, as tall as a large horse; its intricate silver and gray armour was lined with protruding spikes along the back of the neck, shoulders and sides of the tail which was tipped with a four-bladed mace and what looked like a gun barrel, it had one large eye that glowed a vivid hue of red like luminous blood. It approached the boy in the hoodie and nuzzled his face with deep mechanical purr.

Togusa had never felt so petrified in his life, he felt like a mouse stuck between a rock and a very dangerously very big cat.

The others were no different as they watched the giant scorpion.

It was as large as the panther but longer with the tail; It had two enormous triple clawed pincers with three small intricate looking cannons within each claw base, on its head were a formidable double set of mandibles and two sets of glowing red eyes with a cannon set above at the base of its neck, it stood on three sets of double clawed legs and its intricate armoured tail stood 4 meters above its head, tipped with a 5 ft retractable blade. The twin girls and little blonde girl hugged and kissed it; in return it hugged them within its giant claws and chirped in a happy way, all the kids were happy to see these formidable predators.

Which really made the section 9 operative's gawk at the weirdly cute (and suicidal-looking) scene, the Tachikoma's though watched in silent fascination from their position behind the trees.

"Scorpy! Ravage! Thank god! What took you guys?" the hooded kid asked as he stroked the panthers head.

"Grrrawwwggrrrr" it replied

"That's understandable" one of the twins replied

'Wait, she understood what it said?' thought Togusa

The creature then turned its attention to the girl standing between the two twins, despite having no apparent nose; it sniffed her up and down in a concerned way.

"She fell and hurt her ankle; will you carry her for us please?" the hooded boy asked, the panther looked at the boy a moment, he looked up into the creature's one eye with a pleading look, it bowed its head and lowered its front quarters low.

"Sam, Glen, help me get her up..." together the three friends helped the girl up onto the panthers back, the hooded kid sat behind to make sure she didn't fall off, then it reared back up.

"Okay, now...do we stay here or move further up the slope?" a red-headed boy addressed the group.

"I say we stay put, the fight sounds like its over so the guys will now come looking for us" The tall older brunet boy replied.

"But what if there are more of those mantis things? We have to go further up!" the older blond girl said

"But what if-"

"Wait! the BSHB..."

"What?"

"...The BSHB...on our shoulder's, I think their active..."The older brunet said, one of the boy behind her pulled his t-shirt up, on his back a red light seemed to be flashing, the thing in question was too far away for the section 9 team to get a good look at.

"She's right, it's flashing red"

"Is it making any noise?"

"No"

"Then it's running in S mode, it sending a signal to D, relaying our vital stats, no doubt indicating the state of Hailey's ankle"

"How do you know that Darren?"

"I asked D about it last night, while we were at the drive-through, he told me about all the different signal modes and settings"

"I don't remember that, it must have been when we stopped off at Dunk' in doughnuts and Glen went in for seconds"

"Hay! I was feeling a little snackish!"

"A little snackish?! You had over 15 doughnuts and a twinkky!"

"So sue me!"

"Hay! I'd love to debate this further, but getting back to the situation at hand, since our BSHB are sending out a signal can I recommend we stay here and wait for the guys to come and retrieve us? Scorpy, Ravage and Frenzy are here now, whatever else come over that ridge won't last long with them around" the brunet girl said, the scorpion and panther both growled and chirped in response

"YEAH! Whatevercomes, wecantake'em!" the spindly robot cheered as he punched the air.

"Sounds like a plan" an older brunet boy replied

"I agree..." the black haired girl concurred

As the group turned to go back through the bushes the Major thought this would be a good time to get out of here.

"_Alright, it looks like this is our chance to move, as soon as their out of range, on my command we make a break for the tiltroater!"_

"_Rodger!"_

But as the female commander slowly rose to move, a twig went snap under her boot.

The panthers head snapped around with a growl.

Everyone froze as the giant predator watched the source of the sound; slowly, it turned to scan the bushes.

"What is it Ravage?" the hooded boy asked

The creature lowered its head and tensed its shoulders; it bore its sharp silver teeth and growled angrily at the bushes, it swung its tail over its body, ready to strike as it slowly paced towards the team with both its riders on its back. It suddenly dawned on the team that the panther had them pegged, and that if they tried to run, they didn't stand a chance against it.

For the first time, the Major and her team were truly scared.

"Whoever's there, you better show yourselves!" the boy rider yelled.

It paced forward more slowly, as if sensing their fear and savouring it, its head was now only mere feet away from the Majors head; it truly was terrifying how big it was up close, its eye scanned the bushes with all the menacing terror of some primal demon.

The Major felt her heart pounding in her chest, her ghost was screaming at her to run.

Batou watched in shier horror as it head slowly rose into position to strike and moved in closer;

And closer

Until...

The sudden sound of roaters up above made the panther step back and look up, above the trees the giant silhouette of the tiltroater flew overhead, sending a powerful downdraft of wind towards the forest floor throwing up all the leaf-litter and dirt, the panther swiftly returned to the group.

"Quick! Let's go!" the older black haired boy called to the other and together they ran down the slope back the way they came, disappearing into the undergrowth.

"_Let's go!"_ The Major barked.

Running hell for leather down in the opposite slope, the team soon returned to the grassy clearing where they first landed, the tiltroater swung around and came in to land, they leaped into the plane without haste and the Tachikomas waddled as fast as they could up the ramp and soon the doors closed up and the plane took off out of the valley.

* * *

The kids soon arrived at the tree-line where the forest met the fields, surprisingly the fire was gone, on the scorched ground, there was creamy white foam covering the blackened areas of burnt ground, Darren instantly recognised the thick foam. "Hay Trailbreakers put the fire out!" the kids turned round and saw their guardians running up to them from out of the smoke, Deathshot descended from out the sky, landing in front of the kids.

"D! Your okay!" Tom shouted as he, Danny and Morri ran up to him and leaped into his waiting hands.

"Oh my youngling! Thank Primus your alright! I was so worried!" he exclaimed in relief as he scooped them up and bought them up to his face for a cheek hug.

"Hailey! What happened?!" Bluestreak asked in a panic as he scooped her up off Ravages back and held her close to his spark "I fell and busted my ankle" she replied

"I know, your BSHB relayed your vital signs to me a few minutes ago, I'm was so worried it was something worse" Deatheshot replied as he held his charges close to him "I'm really sorry" Annabelle whimpered in a soft little voice. "Aw sweetie it's not your fault, really" Mikaela reassured her and lifted her up onto her hip.

"She'll be okay, anyway what happened? did you beat those things?" Danny asked, by this time the rest of the Autobots had caught up to Deathshot and their charges ran up to greet them in relief, thankful the danger was over, Jetfire landed close to the sniper and folded away his (newly up-graded) battle axe back into its walking-stick form.

"It was a tough fight but nothing we couldn't handle" Trailbreaker replied as Darren took his place on his guardians shoulder.

"Yeah, those things were tough, but fun to shred!" Sunstreaker replied with an evilly wicked grin.

"So now do we-"

Over the ridge the two helicopters reappeared, this time splitting up and flanking the group.

"Bah! What do they want now?!" Jetfire angrily grumbled. On both the choppers, a cylindrical domed gun turret swung down and aimed at the group.

"Bollocks to this! I'm too knackered to fight anymore today! All of you gather round we're getting the slag outta here!" The old seeker exclaimed, he raised his hands up over his head and a white light began to engulf the group and electric sparks began to fly

"Oh man!, BRACE YOURSELVES FOR-"

ZZZRRAAAAAAAKKK!!!

In a blinding sudden flash of light, the Autobots and humans were gone, leaving the pilots thoroughly confused and searching for their targets.

The sun began to set on the valley; the warehouse complex was now burnt, shot and completely levelled, the whole base of the valley looked like it had seen a small war take place.

* * *

The tiltroater was halfway back to HQ by now, all the way, the team sat in silence, going over in their minds what they just witnessed, and what happened, trying to make sense of it trying to get over the fear of nearly being attacked by that...thing.

Machines? Robots? Armoured exo-skeletons? AI's?

No, they were much more than that, their movements weren't clumsy, ridged or slow, no, they were fast, strong, had reflexes that left the tanks standing still, and destroyed them with weapons of unbelievable fire-power.

Whatever had happened, even if they couldn't make sense of it now, one thing was very certain.

They had a whole new case to investigate, and with sections 6 and 4 being present at the scene, The Major could practically feel the distant heat of the coming firestorm of controversy, what happened today would no doubt awaken a whole hornets' nest of trouble, and consequently, for as many questions that will be asked, there would be the demand for twice as many answers.

As for the Black Lotus, they had been completely forgotten.

And had long since escaped.

* * *

Wow. Everything just goes from here on out, R&R please! :)


	10. Chapter 9: Prioritys And Plans

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, Just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 9: PRIORITYS AND PLANS

The night had been long and restless, after waking up in a strange place, being attacked and caught in the middle of a fire-fight and being far from home the Autobot gang was not in high spirits this morning.

Jetfire's teleportation had landed theAutobots and humans approximately 10 miles south from where they were yesterday afternoon, in another section of the forest not far from a large freeway, the humans slept in their guardians for the night under the thick cover of the trees (much to Jetfire's and Sunstreakers distain) for safety, so if the choppers came back they could bolt at a moment's notice.

Having not slept well on account of still feeling a little traumatised from the battle they all got up early, the Autobots were just as distressed to see their charges looking so down, Mile's happy go-lucky attitude was suffering, Annabelle sat in Mikaela's lap who sat in Bumblebee's lap, tired, hungry and wanting her mum, dad and Ironhide, cuddling her favourite stuffed rabbit. Hailey had recovered from her twisted ankle and was currently being attended to by Morri by having the make-shift splint removed, both her sisters and Bluestreak were relieved her leg wasn't broken. Glen had just about recovered his nerves while Darren dozed in Trailbreakers warm cupped hands, his prosthetic leg sitting to one side on a rock, the drones simply sat to one side in silence.

Sam stood to one side with his arms folded watching the unhappy lot with a feeling of anxiety and helplessness, to his side, Morri came up to him with her first aid kit at hand.

"You okay?" she asked.

"What?...no I'm good thanks, is she feeling better from yesterday?" he replied gesturing to Hailey

"Much better, fortunately it was only a slight twist; a little rest will do her some good...this isn't good, I don't know about you but I'm starting to believe we really did get zapped into an alternate universe" she sighed as she put her first aid kit away

"Well if it is another universe and this is an alternate version of your planet, it's not much of an improvement; it's still full of dirt!" Jetfire grumbled as he picked some twigs from out in between his joints, Jazz came up and stood next to Sam and Morri, watching everyone with concern. Being the first lieutenant of the Autobot army he had been responsible for leading the Autobots in Prime and Prowls stead when on various missions. He knew the responsibility of the job and knew it demanded a level of order, discipline, honesty and teamwork on his subordinate's part as well as his, now was the time to be that leader again.

With a serious look across his face he stood up on a tall bolder and addressed the whole gang.

"Alright listen up guys! Gather round cuz we're gonna discus what we're gonna do now, cuz we ain't gonna last too long while we're all feel' in down an' out like this, so park yur skid plates here and let's talk this over"

They all got up, some transformed back into their mech-modes a sat in a tight circle in front of the bolder, the drones sat in the middle while the kids all took up perches on the Autobots shoulders or propped knees, once all settled, they looked up to Jazz in silence, whatever suggestions he had in mind had to be good alternatives to the situation they were all in now.

"Okay, let's start with what happened when we were in the DRD storage room..."

* * *

At Section 9

* * *

The last 13 hours had been long, tiring and very complicated. All throughout the night events had been unfolding behind closed doors. After the chief had been informed of what happened during the raid, and seen the playback of the team's memories for confirmation, he (along with the leaders of sections 4 and 6) had to inform the prime minister of what happened, since the mission had been ordered directly from her and the military had ordered section 4 in as back-up.

That was 2 hours after the team had arrived back from the botched raid.

Since then, the government had been in a state of heightened alert; the military was up in a panic over the strange humanoid machines and their unbelievable abilities, after seeing all three of the public security sectors initial reports they wasted no time in securing the location where the fight took place, all the IR systems nearest the sight had been tapped into and monitored and the GSDA was ordered to stay on standby, ready to apprehend the machines as soon as possible, although, considering how fast and powerful they fought, The military's top brass were sweating bullets at the prospect of encountering against them.

All the while, section 9 was square in the centre of attention, having been the ones to have witnessed the machines in action close up, and nearly being caught by one, all of a sudden they were worth paying attention to, the team members didn't know if that counted as a good thing or a bad thing at this point.

As the sun rose over the city casting its bright rays between the tall skyscrapers that dominated the cityscape, Togusa watched out the wide window of the HQ's small canteen (which really was just a small bar with a couple of coffee maker and vending machines), idly stirring his black coffee as his thoughts went back to yesterday's events. He felt a cold streak shoot down his back at the memory of that giant robotic panther and how close it came to blowing their cover, the sight of those silver teeth and that one red eye as it approached the bushes made his stomach clench in fear.

Hearing footsteps at the door, Togusa turned to find Saito standing at one of the coffee machines getting a cup of the black stuff.

"Hi, you okay?" Togusa asked

"I'm fine, but are you feeling better?" Saito replied, remembering how the near encounter in the forest last night had shaken up the detective, after the team gave their initial report the Chief ordered them to get some rest, hardly any of them slept and Togusa had to take a sedative to steady his nerves, fortunately it had seem to work, for he felt more calmer this morning.

Togusa looked back out the window as the sniper pulled up a seat next to him, they sat in silence for a moment, not sure what to say at first.

"I think it's fair to assume the shits hit the fan, and that pretty soon we're going to be in the middle of something big...again" The detective said in a solemn tone, Saito glanced at him and knew he was right but this was something they had never come across before.

"I think you may be right, since the Chief took our reports to the Prime minister last night he hasn't come back since, I think something's been going down in the cabinet, something that really shaken them up"

"And as usual we'll probably be the ones who'll be the last to know, and then when everything turns to bullshit we'll be asked to come in and clean up the mess" Togusa said sardonically.

"Yeah, it seems to be our trademark these days, hated by most in the cabinet and yet all it takes is for us to witness a giant robot death-match to finally be worth paying attention to" Togusa stared down into the black coffee as his thought resurfaced, thinking about the fight.

"Just what were those machines?...I know we see a lot of high end technology in our line of work, but...I've never seen anything like that before" he said more thoughtfully as he watched the skyscrapers

"I know, I couldn't believe how fast they moved, especially those ones that flew, how the hell do you design something that big that fly's so effortlessly? And the ones on the ground were just as impressive..." Saito replied

"I have to admit, they were amazing to watch, the way they moved, the way they fought, they didn't move like just any exo-skeletons or think tanks, they had a dexterity and flexibility that was so...human like, I've only ever seen the Major move like that"

"What bugs me is who those kids were, and what was their connection to the machines? Either they had an uplink direct from their cyberbrains, it could explain why that robotic cat responded to them the way it did, or it could have been an AI similar to that of the Tachikoma's"

"No...I got a feeling it was something more than that..." Togusa said, dropping his gaze

"Hm? how so? As I recall you were scared as hell" Saito grunted with a small smirk.

"Oh bite me! For once you were just as terrified, but right now that's not the point, what I mean is how could those kids treat those creatures like harmless pets when they could easily rip their heads off? What was their attraction to such a pair of...vicious war machines?"

"Who knows, but whichever way this situation turns, I got a feeling we will find out more than we bargained for...but then, since when has that never happened to us?"

"That's true"

* * *

Back in the forest

* * *

"So...we all agree that we fell through time and space to an alternate universe? I don't know it sounds...well..." Hot Rod said.

"We've already covered that! And I'm telling you that energy signature I detected was NOT that of a recent teleportation! It was something much bigger, a temporary rip in the space-time continuum itself!" Jetfire argued.

"You left that part out yesterday!" Glen retorted

"Yes well I was still getting my servos back in shape wasn't I?!" the old seeker retorted.

"Guys! We've covered this part already; we're starting to go round in circles... the issue we should address is what do we do now?" Mikaela called over the heated group, they all stopped and fell silent in thought.

For the past hour the whole gang had been trying to sort out the facts so as to find a plausible explanation as to why they woke up in a field in the middle of nowhere. They went over what triggered the DRD to activate, they argued who was at fault, but upon reaching a stalemate Deathshot recommended that for the sake of the group's current situation, being divided would prove costly to everyone's wellbeing so he suggested they all agree to disagree to which all (some more reluctantly than others) agreed to. Then they debated what exactly happened after they 'arrived' to this alternate Earth, namely what those machines were and why did they attack unprovoked, one thing they all agreed on was that they were no weapons any of them had ever seen before, human or cybertronian, even the Autobots agreed they had never gone up against machines like that before, having not reached any explainable answers they decided to leave the subject as is, least they'd go around in circles all day.

"Well if this is another version of Earth than it can't be all bad? I mean, of all the places in this universe to land in we could have ended up on a planet where there was no air or even in the vacuum of space or even nowhere near Earth at all, right?" Hailey suggested, all the group paused and glanced at her a moment.

"Hmm...That's actually a very good point, of all the infinite places of choice why 'Dirt'?" Jetfire said as he stroked hid metallic beard in thought.

"Earth" Miles corrected.

"Whatever" the jet replied.

"But what could it mean if we ended up here? And if this earth is an alternate version of our own does that mean it's filled with evil doppelgangers?" Ashley asked, to which most gave him raised eyebrows.

"Well it's Earth, we can see that, the air certainly isn't feel any different here, but Ashley may have a point in the respect that we don't know what this Earth is like, there may be dangers we're not aware of that the human race of this world knows" Tom said.

"Wait a sec, how do we know there are humans on this version of Earth anyway?" Hot Rod asked, this elicited a few bemused glances

"When those helicopters tried to corner us, I scanned them to see what their weapons capabilities were and I detected multiple human bio-signatures so there are humans in this world" Deathshot replied.

"You know, the fact that this world may be alternate to us could be because this planet and its human civilization evolved along a very similar path to our own but with varying key factors, such as key events in world history, the evolution and progression of science and technology ect, like those machines that attacked us, they could be one such example of human technology that evolved along a different set of principles of design, mechanism and engineering" Darren said.

"That's deep" Becky whispered to her twin, "I know" Becca replied.

"But in that case, we don't have anything to worry about, if this world has human civilization then we at least we have a very basic idea what to expect, after all, what better way to navigate and survive humanity than...well, humans, which we have plenty of!" Sideswipe grinned, his brother face-palmed and all the humans gave his deadpan looks.

"Even so, that's not a guarantee that we'll be okay, after all, for every sweet and innocent little old lady there's at least one murderous psychopath right?" Miles shrugged

"That's not exactly comforting to know Miles, but true our flip-side nature means if the humanity of this world is anything like our own, than there's no guarantee we're any safer in this world as we are in ours, with all the same risks and like crime, war, disease and general bad luck" Danny replied.

"Wait a sec...We've got an even bigger problem, if the DRD sent us into another universe, then how do we get back?" Trailbreaker said

"..."

The group paused at the sobering thought, for a long while no-one was sure what to say, They all slowly began to dread the thought of never being able to return home, until a spark of inspiration struck Morri's mind and a whole train of thoughts suddenly came to light.

"What if..." everyone looked at her.

"What if there is a way back home...we fell through into another universe one way, so it's probable there's a way back, and besides, Will's going know we're missing, he handed Anny to me and Mikaela to watch over so he at the very least will notice something's not right if he was only gone 10 minutes and came back looking for us only to find we were not around..."

"Hay yeah, and if he went to Red Alert to check the security cameras, he'll see we went into Wheeljack's lab and never came out, I remember Red made a huge fuss over the cameras outside the lab after you two geniuses decided to rearrange them, they should have been working" Tom picked up, glaring at the lambo twins who only diverted their gaze away.

"Exactly, and I'm willing to bet that somehow Wheeljack will work out what's happened and try to find a way to fix the DRD and bring us back" Morri replied

"Hang on! You're willing to rely on the bot who blows up everything he touches, to somehow, find a way of fixing the machine that sent us here in the first place?! It's suicide!" Sunstreaker exclaimed.

"Hay come on sunny that's not fair! He may not have the most delicate touch when it comes to handling chemicals but when he set's his focus on something important, he commits to it!" Becca yelled at the golden twin, who only glared at her.

"Yeah! Like that time when Blue accidently stepped on that magnetic plasma bomb during that training session with Ironhide and Brawn, He had to be kept laid down on a birth while Wheeljack tried to figure out how to disarm it! It took him over 7 hour, but he got it off in the end!" Becky replied

"I remember that, it was pretty scary" Hot Rod said

"Not as scared as I was! I didn't want to be blasted into a million scrap pieces over a 2000 yard radius, I thought-"

"Blue, stay focused"

"Sorry"

"Whatever's going on, whatever length of time it takes, the others will figure out what's happened and try like hell to find a way to get us home, com'on guys you know Optimus would never give up anyone, no matter what the circumstances or the odds, after all, he didn't give up on you Sam" Jazz said glancing at the teen, he nodded in response at the thought of the battle in Mission city and remembering how the great Autobot leader would have been destroyed if it hadn't been for him. All the while, Prime had never once said he couldn't do it.

"He's right, we can't lose hope, no matter how long we have to stay here, Wheeljack and Perceptor will fix that machine and we will go home, we just have to be patient and wait" Deathshot said.

"And on that data-note, as first lieutenant I'm assuming command of this situation in Prime's stead as of now, okay?" Jazz said standing up.

"Yes sir!" all the Autobots saluted.

"Good, now, our top priority is protecting you kids, no-one gets left behind on my watch and everyone pulls their weight and watches out for one another, alright, both human and Autobot?"

They all sounded their agreements, Annabelle stood up and saluted, which elicited some cheers of encouragement.

"All right, so, first order of business, what are we gonna do next? I'm all audios for ideas" the first lieutenant asked the gang. Everyone put on their thinking caps on and for a while it turned into a brainstorming session, with everyone swapping thoughts and ideas on what plan of action to take.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in New Port City

* * *

Everyone sat in the debriefing room waiting for the chief to return, they had received a message from the old ape informing them that they had been issued with new orders, one's had had top priority above everything else. As the team sat in silence, Batou's frowned face mirrored their thoughts for what might lie ahead; the chief walked in and took his seat at the desk without a word.

"So, what's up? You've been at the prime minister's office all night; did the cabinet have any opinions on what happened?" The Major asked.

The chief leaned back in his chair, sighing in exhaustion, he said nothing for a long moment, his expression reflected his tired mind; the others looked on in concern.

"The situation has grown much more serious than I imagined..."

This really didn't bode well

"...After the prime minister had read your initial reports, the whole cabinet has been in a state of heightened alert, everyone's been running around trying to find out what those machines are, where they came from and who designed and built them, but in the last several hours nothings come up, even the cabinet intelligence service and military intelligence couldn't find a single clue as to what those machines are...and the situation has grown more difficult, with sections 4 and 6 being on the scene and both units had witnessed the entire event, because this level of technology has never been seen before no one is willing to take any chances on this, but on the one hand everyone is eager to get their hands on them while at the same time their all fearful of how to engage them, after seeing how effortlessly the machines destroyed 21 HAW 206 tanks. So the prime minister has issued us with orders to locate those machines, put them under 24 hour surveillance and try to ascertain first-hand the level of danger they possess"

The group paused

"So in other words, the cabinet wants us to try and bring'em down, as if that'll be even possible" Batou said with a scowl

"It's not going to be as straight forward as you think; the prime minister had received requests from the CIS, military intelligence and section 6 to look into the matter, for all intense of purposes their all taking a firm approach to locating and finding the machines, which is somewhat strange considering the circumstances, but there are a couple of factors that been overlooked, for instance, the children that were with the machines, they had been overlooked by all but a few of the military intelligence officials, and just what were those strange lights before the fight kicked off? Several experts from the CIS have suggested that the Black Lotus are responsible in some way, but I'm not so convinced, when you look at the level of unbelievable strength, speed, dexterity and weapons capabilities those machines posses, even if it was possible to create a mechanism that specialises in any one of those features, current advances in weapons technology is nowhere even near the point where they could all be combined into one single mechanism, until now...whoever designed and built those things has probably created the next generation of machines that excels our current technology by decades if not over a century" the chief replied in grave tone.

The team sat in silent surprise, unsure what to make of the chief's opinion, if the cabinet was in a state of emergency and the CIS, military intelligence and section 6 were all vying to hunt the machines down, then the shit had already hit the fan and it could only grow into a worse situation from there on (at this point it really put the whole Dejima incident into perspective).

"So how do we handle this case? If those three agencies are involved and are all vying for this case then where does that put us?" Togusa asked

"It leaves us square in the middle, but we're not going to let ourselves stand out, unlike the other agencies, we're not going to take an aggressive stance on hunting these machines but we can't afford to let ourselves to be blasé about this, we've already seen their combat capabilities and there's every reason to not speculate they possess other ability's we're not yet aware of, so for the time being our top priority is locate those machines and the children and put them under 24 hour surveillance, whatever happens during the case will be reported to the prime minister directly and if the situation takes a turn for the worst, the GSDA will be called in to handle things from there on"

"Old man are you serious?!" Batou exclaimed angrily.

"Are you so sure that's a wise decision Chief?" the Major asked.

"I'm sorry, but like I said before, this is not a situation the cabinet's been placed in before, their taking no chances with this and if the machines come all guns blazing again then the GSDA cannot afford to take this as if it were a run of the mill attack by insurgents, I don't agree with the prime minister's ruling, but since we are the only ones capable of handling this delicately we were picked to have the head start in this. In the meantime we've got to locate those machines before the other agencies do, Ishikawa, Boma, you're both on data analysis, review the play-back of your memories and any other information relevant to what happened yesterday, try to find any clues as to help identify what those machines, plus, use the search functions of the IR systems to locate where they are now, Batou, Togusa, you'll be looking in those children's identities, find out who they are, where they come from and what possible connections to the machines they have, the rest of you will remain on standby until further notice, your dismissed...Major, a word in privet if you'll please"

Batou glanced at her curiously, to which she only shrugged, the others left the room and only she remained. The chief sighed heavily as he leaned on the desk with his head sitting on his clasped hands,

"Is anything wrong chief?" she asked, he dropped his gaze a short moment before looking her in the eye.

"I have a particular job for you in mind, when you were attacked by the A11 the psymech's had to make a copy of the virus in case the encryption barriers need to be re-enforced with a new set of barrier codes, we still have that virus under lock and key, if for whatever reason the machines prove to be a threat, then rather than risk an all out gun fight and potential casualties, we'll use the A11 as a weapon against them once the machines have been located, I want you and the agent Tachikoma's to see if it's possible to hack them using in the back door system and uploading the virus to them directly..."

"...That's a pretty ballsy move chief, we don't even know what to expect from these things and I can't try to hack anyone while the virus is still locked behind the encryption barrier in my main systems..."

"As if that's ever stopped you before" he raised an eyebrow at her, to which she smirked.

"Seriously though, I've got a feeling there'll be more to this as it pans out"

"I believe you're right, there's much more to this than meets the eye, but even so, this whole matter has to be resolved no matter what" the chief replied.

The Major headed out the room and down to the dive room, the chief sat in silence watching the clouds roll by the window and pass the other skyscrapers, he sat deep in thought, wondering just what lay ahead for him and his men, one way or another, only those machines and those children hold the answers to yesterdays fiasco.

And to what might really be going on.

* * *

In the forest

* * *

"Okay, our supplies are as follows; all 12 rack-sacks loaded with a week's worth of clothing, toiletries and other essentials, 22 bottles of hand sanitizer?: sleeping bags, sleeping mats, pillows and plenty of spear blankets, plus our smaller backpacks with all our personal belongings, 5 large duffle-bags containing the tents Swiss army knives and hunting knives, cooking equipment, water-proof tarps, folding shovels, laundry bags and detergent, maps, as if they're any use now, cell phone and laptop chargers, bungee cords and ropes, pegs, mallets and all the other tools..two first aid kits, one for basic first aid, and one advanced field medics kit, only to be used if you've had the training..." Morri said

"Which of course you have" Tom smiled

"Of course, plus emergency drugs and first aid manual, a set of cybertronian first aid kits with tools included, basic wilderness saviour's manuals and rechargeable electric lights, tilly lamps and glow sticks"

"And food?" Glen asked

"Uh...uht milk, peanut-butter and jam, chocolate spread, boil in the bag veggies, bread rolls, hot dogs and burgers, chicken breast and several stakes, rice, spaghetti and several packs of noodles, eggs, sausages, several packets of bacon rashers, a few bags of potato and corn chips with dips, 12 large bottles of water and three bottles of Pepsi with cups, marshmallows, chocolate bars and graham crackers, instant oatmeal, cornflakes, fruit loops, sugar, tea bags and coffee, sliced bread and butter, ice packs, fruit juice and fruit and several packets of pop-tarts" Mikaela said.

"Trust Glen to be put in charge of packing the food" Danny muttered.

"Wait! I wanna help with my stuff too!" Annabelle piped in, taking her little pink backpack off, she emptied out the contents next to all the lined up camping equipment.

"Okay, let's see; a colouring book, crayons and coloured pencils, Mr Fluffytail (the stuffed white rabbit she always carried with her), 3 juice boxes and 2 candy bars, 4 story books, a bottle of hand sanitizer and a packet each of band-aids and tissues..."

"It's not good is it?" the four year old honey blond sunk her head in disappointment.

"No not at all, it may not be much but it still counts and that's what's important" Morri replied as she patted Annabelle on the back and offered her a friendly encouraging smile, which brightened the four year old up.

"At least you younglings won't be short on fuel for a while" Jetfire said from his perch on top of the bolder.

"Maybe, but we only packed enough for a week and we don't know how long we'll be stuck here, plus we only packed our supplies, what about Anny? She doesn't have any spear clothing" Tom asked, Morri looked over at Mikaela who sat to one side with Annabelle on her knee. For over half an hour, the Autobots and their humans had discussed what would be the best plan of action to follow, one suggestion Mikaela recommended is that they review what supplies they had, so as to ascertain how long they would be okay for, but having not intending to take Annabelle on their camping trip, this left the four year old in a predicament.

"She can borrow some of our stuff" Becky offered.

"Yeah, I mean, it'll be a little big, but we're the second smallest in the whole group" Becky said.

"That's so kind of you girls, you don't mind do you Anny?" Morri asked

"Nope!" Anny replied.

"Okay, next item of business, in order to prevent confusion if there's an emergency everybody's gonna have a job to do, so the following positions are as follows; Mikaela, having been Ratchets apprentice for nearly three years now, you're our head Autobot medic, Darren, Glen, Frenzy and Danny, you're our tech support, Tom, Sam, you'll both be secondary mechanics, Morri you're our head human medic, Hailey, Beaky and Becca; you're in charge of the resources, the camping equipment, organic fuel and other provisions, and Ashley, you and the drones are to help with keeping everyone safely together, it's big responsibility so we're counting on you kid" Jazz continued

"Is that such a good idea leaving the wild horse in charge of our safety?" Glen asked, Ashley shot a glair at him

"He's got street smarts and a sharp upper cut, I trust him to have my back" Morri said, Ashley looked at her in mild surprise, she winked at him with a small smile

"Really?" he asked, "yes really" Morri replied

"What about me, do I get a job?" Annabelle asked

"You can be our little helper if you like" Hailey smiled

"Yeah!" Annabelle replied

"Moving on, that thing we saw over our heads when we woke up, if that was the rift we came through, is it still possible to somehow get back through it?" Tom asked offhand

"It's possible, I'd have to get another scan of the energy just to be sure and to check it the rift in question, I don't think it would be possible for us to back through but if it's the only way to our world then it would be prudent to stand by and wait for DRD on the other side to re-open it again" Jetfire replied

"But what if there are any more of those machines there?" Hailey asked

"Your right kid, we can't go back if those things are still there, but if the rift is still there then we're gonna have to find a way of securing the area for when the rift reopens, Deathshot, I want you to return to the area we were at yesterday and do a thorough scan of the whole valley, see if any more of those machines are still there and scan to see if the rift is still present" Jazz ordered.

"Rodger that" the sniper replied, he got up from where he was sitting among the bushes and stepped into the clearing of the trees.

"Be careful Deathshot" Annabelle said as she waved good bye.

"Of course little one, I'll be back soon" he smiled, and with a deep humming thrum, his engines fired up as he transformed into his alt mode, ascending into the sky and disappeared from sight, thanks to his invisibility stealth mode.

It was only 10 miles from where the rift opened up, not far for a cybertronian stealth-class sniper craft to fly, but as soon as he hit 500 feet, Deathshot's long range scanners picked up a lot of electronic activity emanating from out of the valley, namely communication signals. As he flew further to within 3 miles of the valley, he was surprised to find there were military type helicopters circling the area, and down below, moving along the dirt road which led to the warehouse, a long column of dark green military trucks slowly made their way into the valley

This did not bode well.

"**Jazz do you read me? I'm within 3 miles of our previous location and there appears to be military presences here, there are helicopters circling the valley..."** Deathshot said over the comm. line

"**A military presence? Can you verify what's going on over there?" **Jazz relied

"**I'll go down for a closer look..."**

As he descended in to the steep valley, Deathshot slowed his speed down until he gently hovered over the tops of the trees like a kestrel, without rustling a single leaf; such was the intended purpose of his ion plasma engines, silent and beautifully suited for absolute stealth (being a sniper, it was his primary mode of defence). Slowly, he invisibly crept along the forest treetops like a giant manta ray, the number of armed soldiers patrolling the ground seemed to grow in number the further he went along, his bio-scanners picked up numerous snipers hidden among the foliage at the top of the valley slopes, and the choppers passed over ever 8 or so minutes.

What was going on here?

As the Autobot sniper hovered over the ridge where the children retreated to, and came in over the field, the scene down below was certainly not what he was expecting to find;

The large section of the field were they woke up in had been completely hidden under an enormous white dome approximately 80 feet high and lined at the base with huge, re-enforced steel and concrete barriers, leading out of the side was a large tent corridor which led to another more smaller dome about 45 feet high. All around the perimeter, army trucks and larger yellow trucks with a biohazard symbol on the side were parked around the dome and coming and going up the dirt road, but next to the smaller dome were several armoured truck type vehicles, with armed guards flanking them. The area of ground where the battle had taken place, the burnt, dented and destroyed machines littered the burnt ground, some were intact with one or two parts missing, some were blown in half with the metal melted, and the rest were completely destroyed all together and all around were the remains of the smaller mantis-bots, the area was buzzing with activity as humans in bright orange hazmat suits combed the remains as if it were a crime scene, some were taking photos and samples, measuring the various bullet and blast holes while others went over the remains with, what appeared to be Geiger counters.

Realigning his scanners to penetrate the dome, Deathshot saw inside a series of complex machinery all arranged in a wide circle, pointing into the air, sure enough he picked up the energy signature Jetfire had detected before, it was small, about the size of an oil drum or water butt, but showed up clearly on his energy scanners, it appeared to be more predominant on the visible light spectrum. It then suddenly struck him that the rift was now visible, and that the humans inside the dome could see it, all the machinery had to be a collection of scanning equipment, trying to probe it so as to decipher what it was.

This was not a good sign.

Deathshot felt a flair of alarm go through his spark, the whole scene looked like something out of a Si-Fi flick he saw once, one that involved hunting down aliens, and it didn't have a happy ending for the aliens.

"**Jazz...I think they know they know what's happened..."** Deathshot said in a serious tone.

"**What do you mean D man?"**

"**Here, see for yourselves..."** Deathshot replied as he sent a data stream of what he was seeing to the other Autobots, for a long moment there was a silence on the comm-link.

"**Alright, it's too risky to go back there, there's too many troops down there, come on back and we'll think of something else"**

"**Rodger that, I'm returning now" **the sniper replied and swiftly took off back to the hiding place, by the time he arrived back at the section of forest they were hiding in, the others had already started swapping ideas on what to do, as he landed quietly next to the gathered humans and autobots, Morri, Tom and the other rushed up to him.

"Well what happened?" Morri asked

"You said there were military guys there, what was going on?" Miles asked.

Deathshot knelt down on the ground with a serious frown on his metallic face; Morri knew this couldn't be good as she hopped into his waiting hand.

"What was going on there man? If there's a military presence they must know what happened yesterday" Jazz said

"I think they know more than a fight took place...the area where we appeared has been completely sealed inside a dome, and for very good reason, when I scanned inside the structure I detected the energy signature you spoke of Jetfire, but when I did a detailed scan of the anomaly it showed up more clearly on the visible light spectrum..."

"...Then, that means..."

"They could see it, I don't think they know what it was because it was surrounded by a whole load of machinery, probably to try to scan and probe it, but either way, we can't go back, it would be far too dangerous with all those armed guards, and we can't risk storming the place in case they call in backup"

"So...we're stuck here?" Becky asked.

"Not necessarily, it just means we can't hide near that area is all, so we've got to think of something else, anyone have any bright ideas?" Sam asked.

Everyone paused in thought, even the Autobots couldn't think of anything off hand, as some sat down to ponder their options Morri leaned back against Deathshot's palm, looking up at the 30 foot sniper she admired how human-like his face was compared to the other Autobots, how flesh-like the metal looked, comprised of trillions and trillions of cybertainium-carbon based nanites, it was the most peculiar yet beautiful feature about him, even if it did make him stand out from the others.

Stand out?

'Wait, that's it!' she suddenly thought, sitting bolt upright as an idea struck her thoughts, she looked around over the group, and around the woodland that surrounded them.

"We stand out" she whispered under her breath.

"Hm? Did you say something?" Deathshot asked, bringing Morri up to his face he was a little puzzled when he saw the look of revelation upon her face.

"D, you told me once that one of the best forms of camouflage is the ability to hide in plain sight..." this caught the others attention

"Yes, what are you thinking?"

"...Well, look at us, look where we are...while these woods give us cover for now, sooner or later someone is bound to walk through here or drive by on that freeway there and wonder what a small collection of flashy cars, two jets and a giant robotic panther and scorpion are doing in the middle of the woods...we stand out, out here So it makes sense that we try to find somewhere we're more likely to blend in with without going to all the trouble of having to hide completely...somewhere we can hide in plain sight" She said eagerly, Deathshot's optic ridges shot up in surprise as the others looked at each other, their surprise quickly turning into agreement as they considered the logic of the idea.

"Hay yeah, we do transform into earth vehicles after all, we need to hide among other humans, somewhere like..."

"A city?"

"Yeah! That's exactly it! A city we can practically stroll right into!" Miles exclaimed.

"Sounds like a sound theory, anyone object?" Jazz asked, everyone sounded their agreement.

"Okay then, as basic as it sounds our plan for now is to find a city or a large concentration of humans, find adequate shelter and we'll work out what to do as we go along, Sound good?"

"YES SIR!" they all cheered.

"That highway down there, its four lanes going both ways so it's got to go past somewhere big" Ashley said pointing to the highway in the distance.

"There appears to be a sign over it..." Deathshot said, he flipped his optic patch open and zoomed in over the long distance to read the road sign.

"What does it say?"

"...It's in Japanese, I'll translate from my linguistically data bank"

"Japanese? We're in Japan?!" Danny exclaimed

"So not only did we get dropped into another universe, we're on the other side of the world too?" Glen said offhand

"Cool! I always wondered what Japan would be like to visit" Morri said

"I always wanted to try sushi!" said Miles

"I always wanted to try authentic drift racing!" Bluestreak smiled

"Authentic how?" Deathshot asked

"Drifting originated in Japan" Hailey replied

"Oh"

"Yeah, anyway, what does the sign say D?" Tom asked

"New Port City 60 miles"

"That'll do just right, okay Autobots, let's load up and roll out!" Jazz barked.

It didn't take long for the kids to pack up and within no time at all of Deathshot's sub-spaces were loaded up with all the camping gear again and other Autobots had made their way to the edge of the wood, transformed, allowed the kids to clamber in and buckle up while Deathshot and Jetfire (who allowed the drones to travel in his bomb compartment) took to the skies. The ground based Autobots travelled the short distance to the highway, found a small road which flowed up onto the outer lane leading in the sign posts direction of the city, they blended into the flow of traffic and disappeared, high above the flyers stayed above the clouds as the landscape rolled by below, Morri watched from the front cockpit seat, a smile curved on her lips as she allowed herself to feel good about this.

"Hay that was a stroke of genius you know, I think it could really work" Tom said from the seat behind.

"I don't see any reason why it shouldn't, it seemed a really plausible idea" she replied.

"So what do we do once we get to this New Port?" Ashley asked from the very rear seat.

"Jazz just sent me a data burst; I'll find us a lookout point once the city is in visual range, from then on, we'll stop there and I'll do a general sweep of the city, I'll probably need your assistance to go probing for a suitable dwelling, once we find one, I'll guide the rest of us to via visual navigation" Deathshot replied, as if he were on an official mission.

"Sounds good, I wonder what New Port will be like?" Danny pondered aloud as he watched the sky up above.

"Who knows, maybe it's a really nice place" Morri replied.

* * *

R&R please!


	11. Chapter 10 Hideout And Survailance

We see more of the Majors softer side here, but it's only because she and Batou make a great pair! (Not that there's any pairings here though, sorry)

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or Ghost in the Shell, just my OC's & the plot

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 10: HIDEOUT AND SERVAILLANCE

"WOW! It's incredible!" Glen smiled

"I've never seen a city so big before, and I've been to New York!" Darren replied

The 60 mile drive to New Port had been a long one which took up most of the morning, the flyers had kept pace with the ground based Autobots above, and once they reached the city's outskirts they decided to pull over to let the humans have a much needed bite to eat, they had found a gas station, behind which was a huge hill with a lookout post overlooking the city of New Port, the view of which the gang was enjoying right now (Over the hills curve to avoid being seen from the road and gas station).

Stretching all along the coastline from one headland point to another and far beyond, the city reached far up into the sky as seemingly countless skyscrapers, glistened in the sun while other strange and gigantically proportioned buildings dominated the lower levels. All around snaking in and out like a network of capillaries, highways, freeways and numerous roads directed the endless streams of traffic in and out of the vast metropolis, it was unlike anything they had ever seen before.

"I have to say, I'm very impressed, I've never seen any human city on a scale like this before" Bluestreak said as he sat on the grass.

"It looks very similar to Iacon...before the war, when its spires were still standing" Jetfire said

"It does, doesn't it...?" Deathshot replied

"Really?" Annabelle said looking up from in between Jazz's feet.

"Oh yeah, It was quite a sight back then" he replied.

"So where do we start looking for a hideout? We're certainly no short of options here" Hailey asked

"True, I was thinking we've got to be particular and choose the right place carefully, somewhere we can all stay in one place together, you know, safety in numbers an' all that? Somewhere dry and under cover, cus let's face it, sunny here ain't gonna be too pleased if it starts rain'in..." "You got that right" Suntreaker interjected as he glared down at the geek guru. "... yeah anyway, it's got to be somewhere you guys can hide easily and where no-one goes frequently, somewhere within reach of a grocery store for when our food and water eventual runs out, and if at all possible, somewhere with or near indoor plumbing" Glen said laying on his side with a smug look.

"It's unlikely we'll find somewhere that meets all those requirements, But seeing how big the city looks from here, it couldn't hurt to keep our fingers crossed" Tom said

"Keeping our fingers crossed?" Bumblebee asked

"Never mind" Tom replied

"Well which sector should we start looking in?" Trailbreaker asked.

"It would take too long to search the whole city" Hot Rod replied.

"Then perhaps we should stick to the original plan and do a general sweep, except maybe we should restrict it to general areas of least human inhabitancy, least that way we'll have a starting point on where in particular to look" Deathshot said.

"Sounds plausible, are you going to get a start on it?" Morri asked

"Might as well, I don't know how long we'll be and there's a lot of ground to cover before nightfall, Morri, Tom, you both ready to go?" Deathshot replied looking down at the teen and 22 year old.

"Can I come? Don't forget, I am in charge of your safety" Ashley asked with a broad grin.

"Alright, but stay close okay?" Morri replied, Ashley simply beamed with satisfaction as he stood by his cousin's side

"I'll go" Sam stood up.

"Me too" Miles said

"So that's me, Morri, Danny, Ashley, Sam and Miles, do you think that's enough?" Tom asked

"It'll be adequate, and I've already primed your BSHB's to tracker mode, I won't have any problem tracking you all" Deathshot said.

"Be careful Sam" Bumblebee said

"Ah don't worry Bee, I'll be fine" he smiled

"You too kid" Jazz said

"Don't worry, I got it covered" Miles replied

"Okay, We'll call you when we find somewhere, see ya later!" Morri called over her shoulder as she joined the scouting party in Deathshots cockpit, taking her seat at the very front and buckling up the cockpit canopy swung down and sealed shut as the Autobot sniper slowly hovered up in to the air and headed in the direction of the city.

"Man! This is totally awesome! First time ever in tha D-man!" Miles grinned.

"Yep, first time for everything" Morri replied as she watched the city fast approaching.

* * *

"Anything on your end?" Batou asked

"Nope, still nothing, I'll try the three remaining Interpol files" Togusa replied

"Man, where did these kids come from?" Batou sighed in frustration. For the past 3 hours, Batou, Togusa, Ishikawa and Boma had been in the dive room trawling the net for any clues, leads or even the slightest hints as to what these machines were and what they were doing in Japan, plus looking for any leads on the children's identities. Displayed on one of the main monitors were all twelve of the individuals, 6 older males, possibly between the ages of 16 and 25, 3 older females between 16 and 25, one young male possibly pre-teen, two female twins possibly pre-teen and one younger female around 3 to 5 years of age, their faces had been run through a facial analysis programme and were currently being automatically searched for via the IR systems and via in part by the global satellite intercept net.

"Well, how's it going?" the chief asked as he walked in, Ishikawa lifted the dive terminal up from his shoulders and rubbed his weary eyes.

"Not good, we've searched just about everywhere we could all think of, the designs weren't much to go on because of their uniqueness and we didn't have any references to begin with but the only factor that seems to tie them together is this symbol..."

The image of a strange red face, almost like a shield showed up on Ishikawa's monitor.

"...All the machines had it on them, so going on the hunch that whoever built these things had to have procurement for a lot of funds and equipment, I ran it through the UN's international anti-terrorist task force, looking for which terrorist organisation fits the bill, we turned over a good number of' em but no-one's got anything like this so we searched through other channels and tapped into a few back doors, we searched everyone who would have reason to build these things, but again nothing, even the Americans don't have these on their current weapons programme"

"And what of the children?" the chief asked.

"Going on the accents they spoke we know four of them are British while the others were American, so we ran their faces through all the airports security data logs, checking passport records for a match but nothing showed up, so we checked with Interpol to see if they came into the country illegally but they never heard of them or have anything on file, we also checked with The British and American authorities for any leads but their Intel turned up nothing too" Togusa said.

"It's the weirdest thing, we searched everywhere for these kids and no-one anywhere knows who they are or where they come from, and these machines, their completely unheard of, to be honest chief, it's like they just appeared out of thin air" Batou said.

Aramaki looked at the monitors a brief moment and frowned at the children's faces, kids just appearing out of thin air? This wasn't right; someone somewhere had to know who they were.

"Hmm, alright, try looking further if nothing turns up here, then try enquiring elsewhere that might have been overlooked, in the meantime step up the search functions of the IR systems" The chief said as he walked out, leaving the four operatives to their work, Togusa leaned back in the dive chair and watched as the various streams of data scrolled down the screen.

"We've been at this for hours, anyone want a coffee?" Batou asked as got up from his seat.

"Yeah I'll have another cup" Ishikawa replied

"Same here" Boma replied

"Nah, I'll pass" Togusa said.

Batou strolled out of the dive room, the coffee could wait, he had something else in mind as he paced down the corridor towards the elevator.

Up on the tiltroater landing pad, leaning into the wind as it whipped across the tops of the building, the Major stood by the railing watching the city far below, hearing a familiar set of heavy footsteps approach from behind.

"Getting bored of trawling the net already?" She asked

"Nah, just needed to get some air...and to see you" he replied as he leaned on the railing next to her.

"Really? You know if you make a habit of checking me regularly people will start to talk" she smirked.

"Oh bite me! Let'em talk fer'all I care...but seriously, how are you holding up?" He asked.

"In what way?" she asked quizzically asked, looking at him.

"Well, I just thought, with the A11 disabling your ghost hacking functions I'd have thought you'd be kicking a fuss over it"

"Well, I admit it is frustrating, it may be one of my main fortes but it's not my only option, don't forget you have to remain flexible in this business, we all may have our own unique talents but they shouldn't be our only ones, I guess this whole episode was an opportunity to get back in touch with my other talents perhaps" she said

"That's one way of looking at it, but all the same there's no vaccine for the virus and the encryptions barriers, as complex as they are, have to be reconfigerated at random to keep the bustard thing from breaking through, doesn't that even scare you?"

She paused a moment and looked up into the sky with an impassive gaze.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried on some level, even now I know what time I have left is only because the barrier is in place for the time being..."

Batou looked her in shock, he knew she was used to dealing with the worst case scenario, but this was different, she'd been putting up a front even though she knew death was an inevitability with the A11? Was it bravery or denial?

"...But please Batou, don't go thinking there's a solution to this because there isn't, I know there's no vaccine that can possibly pin down the A11, and yes, I know the encryption barriers data codes will eventually be cracked one day, and I know that if I try to swap into another body, it will either break loose or just come with me..."

He stared at her in shock.

"But...how could it go with you? It couldn't be transferred with the cyberbrain it-"

"Batou...when I was hacked, the hacker didn't just use the virus to hack my ghost barrier...he fused part of my ghost line to the virus's primary programming..."

Silence

The unbearable kind that follows as soon as you've been told you've got less than a month to live before you die of some horridious disease, or in this case, a lethal computer virus.

Batou didn't know what to say at first, as his head sank with a sense of despair.

"...then...that means..."

"The virus will probably break through the encryption barrier sooner than originally thought"

For a long moment they stood in silence, listening to the hollow rushing of the wind as it blew through the railings and over the air vents that led down into the building.

"So who else knows?" Batou asked solemnly.

"...Just you"

"Wha? But you should at least tell the chief or-"

"I don't want him to know Batou, I don't want anyone to know and you're not going to breath a word of this to the others" She said in a sterner tone.

"But...but you can't keep this from us! That's not fair!" he retorted.

"And how is it fair that I don't expect to as live as long as I hoped! That now some bustard hacker, in a shear act of maliciousness has condemned me to live for less than 6 months or a year at the most!"

"..."

"Whenever the virus does eventually break through, I want to be by my team's side...by your side Batou, either in the bar together laughing, or on a mission together taking down the bad guys, either way, I don't want my last moment in this world to be being hooked up to a barrier support system languishing away as the virus fades my ghost from existence, I'd rather die fighting, or not at all"

Another long pause as Batou considered his next choice of words whilst desperately fighting himself inside to curb his sadness and anger from bursting out.

"So, what will you do now?"

"Overall? I guess I'll have to put my affairs in order, and as much as this current case may prove to be bigger than what went down on Dejima, my ghost is whispering to me that we might arrive at a very unlikely place"

"Unlikely place? How?"

"I don't know, but if this does prove to be my last case, then I'm going to make the most of it" she smirked as she pushed off from the railings and made her way back to the elevator.

"Major..." Batou called out, she stopped.

He dropped his gaze for a few seconds and looked her in the eye.

"...Just...promise me...you'll let me be there when it's time"

She regarded him a moment, looking at the impassive stern face which she knew too well held a torrent of emotion right now; she smiled at him with that fair smile that always graced her looks.

"Batou, do you really have to ask? You of all people should know I wouldn't have it any other way" she replied, and turned to carry on back to the elevator, Batou simply leaned on the railings as he watched her disappear behind the elevator doors, he turned back to watch the city, his head filled with confusing and despairing thoughts.

'Damn, she really is fearless, damn those fucking Black Lotus!' he thought bitterly.

As his mind turned inwards he lost himself to his angry contemplations as the clouds drifted by. So lost in fact, he didn't notice behind him the enormous shadow of a four winged jet slowly glide across the landing pad and disappear.

* * *

"Hay check it out! There's someone on that building down there" Miles said pointing to a skyscraper with a huge landing pad.

"That building must take some pretty large choppers for a landing pad that wide" Danny replied.

"Practically every skyscraper we've seen has a landing pad of some kind, I guess choppers must be a fashion trend here" Ashley said.

"Personally, a hideout with a landing pad would be very nice for my wingspan" Deathshot said via the loud speakers at the front of his cockpit.

"Look guys, as impressive as the city centre is we still haven't found a suitable hideout yet, we've already checked out over 23 places in the last three hours and we still haven't found anything that meets the wish list"

"Maybe we shouldn't focus so much on the centre, maybe we should try somewhere a little more suburban?" Sam suggested.

"Okay, suburban it is, take us down D" Morri said.

"Rodger that" he replied and dipped his nosecone down as he flew in a steady downward descent.

As the sniper flew further away from the city centre, the height and structure of the buildings began to decrease until he flew over apartment complexes and high-rise apartments.

"I'm not detecting many life signs in this area up ahead, perhaps this might be worth a look?" Deathshot said as the image of a storage house complex appeared on the main monitor of his control panel.

"Okay, let's take a look, and pray this is the one" Morri replied

Going on a little further, the scouting party was now over a series of smaller apartment blocks arranged neatly along a network of suburban streets, stretching from the apartments outwards, vast wide acres of city parkland stretched far across and conjoined to the woodlands just at the edge of the suburban lands, marking the edge of the city.

At the edge of this vast parkland next to a huge lake, at the side of a small hill and hidden from sight among the trees were five old storage houses lined in a row.

"This looks promising, it's further out of sight than the last place we looked at" Miles said

"Well let's not hold our breaths, let's get down there and get a good look at the place, D, What can your scanners see?" Morri asked.

A tiny compartment under Deathshots nosecone flipped open and a blue lazar shot out and scanned the five buildings.

"No human bio-signals detected, it looks promising"

"Anything else?" Ashley asked

"Yes, numerous readings of mice and rats in those two buildings at the end there, plus if any humans had been here recently, their bio-signature would remain imprinted on the surrounding interior of the buildings for weeks at a time, whatever this place is, I think it's fair to assume it's been forgotten for a very long while"

"Alright then, let's get out and scout" Miles said.

As Deathshot came into land, he disengaged his invisibility mode and softly landed next to the third building of the row, his cockpit swung open and he bowed his nosecone down to touch the ground to allow the five kids to exit before transforming back to mech mode.

"Looks pretty spacious, about the size of a hanger wouldn't you say?" Tom said as he eyed the buildings up and down.

"Pretty much, let's take a snoop around and see if there's a way in" Danny said

"While you guys check out the building I'll check the area around the woods there" Morri said as she walked over to the tree line

"I'll go with ya!" Ashley called as he caught up to her.

They walked some distance into the woods along a small overgrown dirt path, all the while checking both the undergrowth for anything that would give them cause for concern, after a while they arrived at the shore line of the lake they passed over, it was a picturesque scene, in front of them was a small pontoon with a dilapidated boathouse, minus any boats. The water was jade green and the shore was lined with tall bulrush reeds and water lilies with dragonfly's darting all around, on the opposite shoreline were bright pink lotuses in full bloom with willow trees overlooking the water, dotted all around the scene were cherry trees about to bloom.

"Wow, its beautiful here" Morri smiled

"Yeah, and that water is screaming for a pool party!" Ashley grinned

"And look, at the end of the shore there's a river running into it, that'll be good for a fresh water supply"

"Guess we missed it when we passed over, these trees are quite tall so it should provide good cover for the guys, I can't even see D from here"

"That's good, and other than that hill next to the buildings it's fairly flat all around here, anyway, let's see where the path leads us from here" she said

Walking around the lake to the river, they followed it along until they came to a small bridge overrun with ivy vines, the planks creaked with every footstep as they crossed, prompting them to walk more slower until they reached the other side, Morri made a mental note to remind the others to be careful of it, if they decide to stay here. After walking through more woods, the trees opened out onto wide meadow with a path lined with lampposts with the city finally in sight just peeking over the tops of the trees.

"Seems we're getting somewhere at last" Ashley said off hand.

"Aye" his cousin replied. Following the more firmer path they began the wander through a more cultivated woodland, the grass was more trimmed, there were flower beds and the end of the path led to a intersection with a large fountain in the centre, of which several pathways were going off in different directions, one of these paths led a short distance to a row of large apartment complexes.

"Looks like this is as far as we go before we go into the suburbs...what does that sign say?" Ashley said pointing to a sign next to the path that lead to the apartments, approaching it she scanned the small English text under the big bold Japanese characters.

"'Kohoku public housing projects, apartments 10-50' it's a residential area so nothing but apartments here, lets follow that path and see if it leads us to any shops, I can hear traffic coming from over there" she replied

"Okay, you know, looking back, we've walked a fair distance from the site and I can barely see it from here" Danny said

"I know, and we didn't run into anyone in the wilder part of the park where the lake was, and there's barely anyone around here" Morri replied

"Yeah, guess we finally hit pay dirt on this one huh?" Ashley replied

"Indeed, but please take that hood off when we go into the town, you look like your about the mug someone" Morri replied as she tugged his red hoodie off his head

"As if I haven't been told that before" he replied flatly as he followed close behind, watching a plane fly by overhead.

But what he didn't see was the security camera post among the trees overlooking the fountain, zooming in on their faces as they walked away.

* * *

"Where is Batou with that coffee?" Ishikawa sighed

"Good question, he's been gone for over 15 minutes" Togusa replied looking at his watch.

"Has anything turned up?" The Major asked as she walked into dive room.

"We've just finished looking in the last possible places we could think off, and still nothing's come up, not even a hint or anything remotely similar to these machines has been heard of anywhere" Ishikawa said.

"Same here with the children, no positive ID's anywhere and no records of them coming into the country, illegally or otherwise, all we have to go on is their faces" Togusa said

"No hits on them anywhere? Children don't just show with apparently no ID or history so something's got to be up..." she said looking at the kids faces on the monitor.

"You think someone might have tried to cover up their identities? We thought that was a likely possibility too so we tried inquiring backwards through all the known yakuza traffickers that trade in various black market goods, you know, the one that often use kids of that age as runners and messengers on the streets as go-betweens for clients and other thugs, but we came up with nothing, not even first-hand facial identities kept by the high-ranking wise guys" Ishikawa said, the Major leaned against the wall in thought as she pondered the remaining available options.

"Major, we found them! Well, two of them at least!" one of the Tachikoma agents squeaked as it popped up on the main monitor.

"What? Where?" she replied approaching one of the dive terminals.

"These two here were captured on camera less than 5 minutes ago walking near the outskirts of the Kohoku public housing projects in the Yanagi-Meiro park, the IR systems search functions have confirmed a 100% match..." the Tachikoma said as the images of the boy in the red hoodie and the older brunet female appeared next to a playback of video footage which clearly showed the two kids talking next to a fountain before walking away.

"That's not far from where I live, that park is literally around the corner from my home!" Togusa exclaimed

"Tachikoma, where are they now?" the Major barked

"They're both currently on Ichiba Street in the Kohoku district"

"Stay on them, if they go anywhere else tell me immediately..._Chief, we found two of the kids" _the Major said switching over to the cybercomms.

"_Good, keep close tabs on them, start tailing them immediately, I'll leave selection of the surveillance team to you"_ The chief replied

"_Rodger that, alright, listen up, as of now we're on round the clock surveillance, if these two kids are here than their friends can't be far behind, so everyone saddle up and report down to the Tachikoma hanger, we're moving out immediately"_ she barked

"_Rodger"_ they all replied and she flew out the door without haste, Togusa, Ishikawa and Boma followed close behind, as they approached the elevator, Batou came walking down the opposite corridor with a scowl on his hardened face.

"There you are! Where have you been all this time? I had to finish off the rest of the work by myself...hay, you okay?" Togusa asked as the elevator went ding and opened up. Batou said nothing.

"What's wrong?" Boma asked as they all entered.

"It's nothing" He growled.

'Yeah right, if I had a dime for every time I heard him say that while warring that face...still...' Togusa thought as the elevator descended down, wondering what had gotten on his partners mind to set him in that mood.

* * *

"Hi Miles?" Morri said into her cell phone.

"Hay Morri, where're you guys at?" He replied

"We're in the town, we walked through the woods which led to a park and followed a path into the town and for the last half hour or so we've been looking round the streets"

"Really? What's it like?"

"Pretty good, the woods are wide and vast and the trees provide plenty of cover, it took us 20 minutes to walk from the site to reach the outskirts of the park, and judging from the level of undergrowth it looks like no-one's been around for a while, anyway, what's the place like?"

"Dude, it's got everything we need and more; the whole place hasn't been used in years! And check this out! There were like stacks and stacks of these crates in all the storage-houses, with practically everything you could think of! Clothes, mattresses, furniture, computers, even car wax!"

"Sunny's going to love that! What's the road leading to the place like?" she smiled

"It's a small dirt road that goes through the woods; it's overgrown and hasn't been used in like, forever"

"Anything else to know?"

"Uh yeah, we checked out the hill next to the site and it slopes smoothly up one side and steeply drops off behind away from the city, it'll be the perfect cover for D and J to land and take off without anyone seeing'em"

"So we got ourselves a hideout?"

"Totally dude! Oh, and D says to head on back here and guard the place while he goes' an fetches the others, we gotta make the place a little more homey for when the homie's show up!"

"Okay, we're on our way; we'll see you guys then, bye!"

"Bye!" Miles replied as the line disconnected.

"So?" Ashley asked eagerly

"It's perfect, we're keeping it!" Morri grinned.

"Brilliant!"

"Yeah, but we gotta get back and guard the place, D's gone to fetch the others, so we're going to clean up the place a little"

"Cool, so tell me, what did he say it was like?" Ashley asked

As Morri relayed what Miles said they started walking back the way they came, once they reached the park they stepped up the pace to a brisk walk, unaware that the security camera by the fountain followed them as they passed by.

Outside the city, per Deathshot's message the Autobot gang had started to make their way to the storage houses following the route according to Deathshot's directions, the sniper hovered high over the city, using his long range topographical scanner to read the landscape below, working out the most direct route to take while simultaneously keeping an eye on the scouting party via the BSHB tracking mode. Jetfire passed close by with a roar of his engines with Frenzy waving from the cockpit, which took the sniper by surprise, just how the jittery little hacker managed to persuade the old seeker to let him ride shotgun in his cockpit was an enigma (he'd have to ask later)

"**Straight on ahead?"** he asked over the comm-link

"**Yeah, just follow the BSHB ID codes, they'll be waiting behind the hill for you there" **Deathshot replied

"**Good, we'll be there in less than 5 minutes"** the seeker replied

Down below, the long convoy of Autobots pulled off the highway and took to the city's back roads, passing through a mix of suburbia and countryside, the teens watched in fascination at the differences between Japanese suburbia and American suburbia, Annabelle was especially enthralled as she pointed out all the different things she saw from Bumblebee's back seat, he thought it was fascinating to see how she found delight in even the most simplest things, such was the nature human sparklings at that age.

Stopping at a crossroad, Jazz was about to pull out when a large gray van, two other cars and four strange blue spider like robots sped by nearly clipping his head light, in the driver seat Glen inhaled sharply in shock.

"Those maniacs! They could' a clipped yer' light's right off!" He exclaimed

"Well if their late for whatever, it's their own fault" Jazz replied as he pulled out onto the small road, followed closely by the other.

"But what were those things following them?...They kinda looked like giant blue spiders?"

After nearly clipping a silver car at the intersection, Batou sped the surveillance van down the road towards the location the two suspects in question had been last sighted, followed closely by Pazu and Boma in the car right behind and Saito and Togusa in the other with four of the Tachikoma's in tow, according the AI operators at HQ the teens had made their way back to the park they first appeared in and had disappeared into the woods. Finally arriving at a street which joined onto the park, the Tachikoma's engaged their therm-optic camo and took up their posts on four nearby buildings that offered the best vantage points. The team got out of their vehicles and gathered by the van.

"So what's the plan?" Batou asked

"We'll split up, Togusa, Saito, Pazu, Boma, you go and inquire at all the stores the suspect's visited, question the store owners and ask if they saw two youngsters with British accents looking around, Ishikawa I want you to stay here and monitor the situation with the Tachikomas, notify us immediately if they or any other of the suspect's show up, Batou, you'll be with me, we'll go to the park and try to pick up their trail in the woods and see just where it is they were going, let's go" The Major ordered.

"Yes ma'am" the team replied, and went off about their duties. 'She's pretty gun hoe today' Togusa thought offhand as he and Saito walked up the street.

As the Major walked away, Batou hesitated for a second before catching up to her side; he hadn't been able to shake the impression the Majors revaluation had had on him, even now he was trying to stay focused on the job at hand.

"Are you alright?" she asked glancing back at him

"Is that supposed to be a joke? How do you expect me to feel?" he growled, she paused, not sure what to say initially.

"You asked me weather I was afraid of death, would you rather I'd have lied? Come on Batou how many years have we worked together now? We both know we can't keep little secrets from each other for long, I know you would have only grown more concerned if I didn't satisfy your curiosity"

"All the same, it still doesn't change the fact that you're..." He sank his head and dropped his gaze to the path, unable to finish the sentence.

"I know...it's not fair, but like I said before, I'd rather make the most of the time I have left than curl up in a corner in misery and wait for the inevitable..."

She stopped in front of him and looked him in the eye.

"Batou, listen to me...whatever happens, I have no regrets in my life left to confront, and I have no doubts to carry to my grave, but as your commander and your friend, I want you promise me one thing..." he nodded and she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"When I go, I want you to remember me for all the good times we shared together, not the fact that I won't be around anymore, and I don't want you to think relying on anger will push the pain away, because it won't, hold your head high and live the rest of your life for you..."

He stared at her in amazement, she really was fearless, to be ready for death with all the grace and courage of a true solider and not go out kicking and screaming like many are prone to do when confronted with their own mortality, in that brief moment of open honesty, he felt a small sense comfort inside, knowing she wasn't afraid, in turn he forced himself (for her sake, and peace of mind) to push his anger and sorrow aside. A small smile curved at the corner his mouth as he looked back into her crimson eyes.

"I...I'll, try..." he replied honestly.

"Thank you, now, let's go find those kids "She replied and together they followed the path along to the meadow, they walked across the grass until they came to the tree-line and stopped.

"This is roughly were they disappeared, why would they go in there? Batou thought aloud.

"Batou..." she directed his attention to a small dirt path with the over grown foliage moved aside and pushed out of the way, a clear sign someone had been trampling through the undergrowth recently, treading carefully they followed the trail deep into the thick woods, both wondering what lay at the other end.

* * *

"Nice to see your finally here, are the others far behind?" Morri asked Jetfire as he stood up from his transformation sequence.

"They should be arriving soon enough, anyway where are these storage units? Hope there not too small" he grumbled

"I think you'll like the accommodation" Ashley replied from Ravages back as he trotted towards the site, Jetfire had landed behind the steep side of the hill as Deathshot had pointed out, the sniper had returned to the storage houses to wait for the other Autobots, of which had just arrived, let their human friends out and transformed.

"Looks like you guys found us a cool set of cribs, solid work guys!" Jazz beamed to the assembled scouting party as he looked the buildings up and down.

"Their all more or less the same size as the hangers on the base back home, if we move several of the larger crates from out of that one over there, we should have enough room to all fit in" Tom said pointing to the building in the centre of the row.

"We're ALL going to be recharging in THIS dingy little compartment?..." Sunstreaker said with distain as he looked at inside the dirty windows into the dusty interior.

"We found a whole crate of car wax" Miles chimed.

"...Then all the place needs is a clean-up" The golden warrior replied in a lighter tone, which elicited a few eye rolls from the others.

"Figures he'd be willing to stay in a dusty storage compartment for a few cans of wax" Hot Rod sniggered, Sunstreaker glared at the Dodge Charger.

"He'd be willing to stay in a slag heap if it earns him a free carwash!" Sideswipe giggled, his brother simply whacked him over the back of the helm.

"Okay guys, we got work to do, we gotta get about clearing out that storage unit before nightfall" said Jazz

The Autobots opened up the shutter doors on three of the buildings and set about the task of moving most of the crates so as to make enough floor space for them all to recharge in, with enough space for the humans too.

The roof's of the storage houses rose high off the concrete floor, at the back of each building was an adjoining smaller set of rooms which consisted of a dusty dinghy office with a broken desk and smashed up computers, at the back of each of the storage houses themselves was a series think metal platforms and wide concrete rumps, obviously used for loading up trucks or other delivery vehicles, the kids had reasoned that it would be a good place to sleep, as it would avoid getting under the Autobot's feet.

As the Autobots started to move the larger more heavier creates; the teens opened up and rummaged through the much smaller ones, finding a myriad of junk, some useful, some not. As Morri was going through a crate containing cooking pots Mikaela tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hi, do you mind taking your turn to watch Anny? Only Hailey's busy with the lunch and I've pretty much watched her all morning..." she asked

"Sure, I don't mind, we'll go an' play outside" Morri replied.

"Thanks Morri, Anny, its Morri's turn to watch you now, so have fun, alright?" Mikaela cooed as she handed her charge off into Morris arms.

"Okay Anny, how about we go and stretch our legs outside and have a little fun" Morri smiled.

"Yeah! An' can kitty and Ashley come too?" she asked

"Sure, let's go find him" Morri replied as she carried the little girl out the building.

"Uh guys? What are we going do about the bathroom? There's no running water in the lavatories" Tom asked

"I got an idea for that, Scorpy can dig a latrine out the back" Darren replied

'What's a latrine?' Scorponok thought

* * *

R&R :)


	12. Chapter 11: Strangers In The Woods

A/N: This chapter's a little short in my opinion, but after watching the very beautiful Tales of Earthsea I had a really huge spiritual inspiration for this chapter, plus, I wanted to do something with cherry blossoms.

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers, Ghost in the shell or Starbucks, just my OC's and the plot

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 11: STRANGERS IN THE WOODS

He crouched low to the ground, relying on the undergrowth for cover, watching his two quarries as they walked through the trees, at his side, Ashley mimicked him moves as best he could, learning all there was to know of stealth and stalking, Decepticon style.

Ravage nudged the boy on the shoulder slightly, signalling to start stalking from behind while remaining in the prey's blind spot, keeping low and laying every footstep down softly, they silently creped forward together, parting slightly so as attack from both left and right flanks.

The prey didn't stand a chance...until

"Kitty!"

"Damnit!" Ashley exclaimed as he stood up, Ravage shook his head and grumble-growled in disappointment.

"What? Were you two going to sneak up on us again?" Morri asked, surprised to see them there.

"Uh, maybe?" Ashley replied sheepishly

"You two are as bad as each other, especially you Ravage" Morri said, the panther only replied with a toothy, sheepish grin.

"So what are you doing out here?" Ashley asked.

"It's my turn to babysit Anny, speaking of which, her royal cutesiness here would like to play with you two, how about it?"

"Please kitty Please?!" Annabelle pleaded, looking up at drone.

He stared down at her, feeling hesitant if not worried about letting her clamber all over him. Back when he had first been allowed to approach the humans after defecting, Scorponok had given him a few pointers on how handle them and how to let them approach him, From the moment he was first introduced to Annabelle he had not been allowed to be with her alone, and for good reason, The numerous spikes and sharp edges on his armour were a hazard to her, the older children and soldiers knew where to safely pet him, but because of her little hands, she could easily trap her fingers between the sharp armour plating. And now neither her father or Optimus were here and he wasn't entirely sure about this, seeing Ravage hunch over in hesitation, Morri stepped forward and gently placed a hand on his face plate.

"What's wrong Ravage?" she asked

"I think he's a little worried about letting Anny touch him" Ashley said, the big cat looked at him in surprise and felt a sense of relief that this kid had gotten to know him so well.

"How do you know that?" Morri asked

"You remember a few days after we arrived at the base and we joined Bluestreak and Bumblebee to play with Scorpy and Ravage, and remember Lennox made sure Anny didn't stroke their armour the wrong way?" Ashley said

"Oh yeah I remember, Are you worried Anny will trap her fingers in your armour, is that it?" Ravage nodded

"I won't let my fingers get stuck; I'll try to be careful I promise!" Anny said stepping up to his and stroking his leg.

Morri and Ashley looked at each other, then Ashley smiled as an idea crossed his mind, knowing her cousin and his sometimes impulsiveness, Morri suddenly didn't feel comfortable.

"Hay Anny, how would you feel, if I taught you which parts of Kitty's armour is safe to stroke and which parts are not..." Ashley bended down to her eye-level "I could, even show you how to ride him"

"Really?! You can show me!?" She eagerly replied

"Sure thing...and Ravage, How about we show you how to handle her, you up for it mate?"

The panther looked back and forth between Anny and him, was this a good idea?

"Com'on, I trust ya, we both do"

"Yeah, I mean, your gentle when it comes to stalking, you can easily apply the same gentleness to letting Anny stroke you" Morri added reassuringly.

Ravage looked at the three humans, since they were in this current situation it might be useful to know a little more on how to handle human sparkling carefully (should any unforeseeable emergencies crop up), deciding not to make an issue of it he shook his head.

"Aww! Thank you kitty!" Annabelle squealed and hugged his leg.

"Come on, I know a good place we can teach you both" Morri said and lead the way through woods.

"Where're we going?" Anny asked

"A really pretty place" Morri replied

* * *

Following along the overgrown path, The Major and Batou steadily followed the trail of broken and pushed aside undergrowth, after crossing an old bridge (or jumping across in their case, after putting one foot on the structure and hearing how loudly it creaked, The Major knew it wouldn't hold the weight of their heavier cyborg bodies) they picked up the trail again and carried on even further.

"_What the heck would those kids be doing in here?"_ Batou asked.

"_We'll see when we catch up, the grass and plants have been pushed back in the other direction, meaning they can't be far ahead now"_ she replied

Up ahead, Batou saw the path leading alongside the river led into a lake, just peeking through the trees, he could see some sort of movement on the other side.

"_Major, do you see?"_

"Yeah, I see it_, Ishikawa; we found something, get ready I'm going to send you my vision data in real time"_

"_Rodger that"_

Reaching for their guns and flipping their therm-optic camo on, the pair made their way silently through the trees, as they moved closer to the lakes shore they could see on the far side something moving, shining like silver as it steadily paced along, it looked like some kind of animal with two riders on its back, but the reeds were too high to see through clearly.

"_Let's take a look from up top"_ the Major said

Silently they jumped up into the trees, carefully climbing up as high as possible, once they found good perches, they both watched in amazement at the site down below.

It was the giant robotic panther from the other day; it was walking in wide circle with the hooded boy and the little blond girl riding on its back with the elder brunette female walking alongside the creature, both the cops increased their sense functions, focusing their hearing and vision in on the kid's conversation.

"Your doing great kid, just remember, always hold these two ridges between his shoulder plates and you won't catch your fingers while he's moving and remember to keep your legs pressed to his sides so you don't fall off, got it?" The hooded boy said

"Got it!" a little voice replied, it must have been the little girls, they both had their backs to the agents.

"Think you're ready to try a little trotting?" he asked

"Yeah! Yeah!" she replied eagerly.

"Okay Ravage, just a slow trot now" The brunette said.

The panther broke into a light trot, as it moved around, The Major suddenly realised the older kids were teaching the youngster how to ride it, the boy was giving instructions to the little girl as she sat in front of him.

"...Don't grip too tightly, let yourself move with him as he strides forward"

"Faster kitty faster!" she cheered as the panther sped up a little.

"Not too fast! This is your first time Anny, we don't want you fall!" the brunette prompted.

"I won't fall!" she called back "I can do this!"

This carried on for another 8 or so minutes, after which the riders dismounted to take a break.

"You did very well kid, but remember, this was your first time, you'll get better balance with practise"

"Then can we practice some more?"

"Eh I think Ravage would like a break for now, maybe later" The brunette chucked as she sat down in the long grass, the boy joined her by her side and the creature lay down and rolled on his side, soaking up the sun with a loud content purr.

"Man, this is a nice spot, maybe we could go swimming here tomorrow?" the boy said as he took his hoodie off.

"That's what I was thinking" The brunette said

"Can we?! Can we, can we pleeeeeace?!" the little blonde pleaded.

"We'll have to see what everyone else wants to do, but I'd still go" the brunette replied

"I'd certainly join you, it's not that far from the hideout anyway" the boy said

'A hideout? Bingo!' the Major thought with a smile

"True, and besides, after all the worrying and drama of this morning I think we need to chill a little, we may have to wait a while for the rift to open up but in the meantime, I don't see why we can't think of this as an extended holiday..." the brunette said with a smirk "But don't go thinking that's an excuse for you to sneak away for a late night prowl about the town" she said turning to face the boy.

"Aww come on, not even once? It's not like anyone in this world knows us anyway" the boy replied

"Maybe, but the last thing we want is to draw unnecessary attention to ourselves, last night with those machines was a close call, even if we didn't provoke them on purpose"

'So they are the ones from yesterday' Batou thought

"That was really scary," the little one replied as she got up and wandered around picking daisies.

"I know, I was scared too" the brunette replied

'You could have fooled me' the Major thought

"Even so, just because we're keeping a low profile doesn't mean we can't have a little fun can't we?" the boy smirked

"Your idea of fun usually means stalking the village at all hours of the night getting up to God knows what, you kid are incorrigible when it comes to sticking to the rules and encouragable when it comes to pranks, once a hellion always a hellion" the brunette said

"Damn right I am!" the boy proudly replied in a devilish tone

"Look, if you want to go for a little trip about the city we'll talk it over with the guys, I know I want to see more of it myself, when we were scouting we passed over some really cool places and the down town area looks really terrific, we don't know how long we're going to be here so personally I figured we could try turning lemons into lemonade and have a bit of an adventure" the brunette said offhand.

"Sounds like a plan!" another voice called out "I'm all for a trip round this city!" another one said enthusiastically, the three youngsters turned around and saw coming from out of the trees a young male with spiky dark brown hair and a teenaged male with long blond shoulder length hair, both looked roughly the same age group as the older female.

"Hay guys, whatcha doing here?" the younger boy asked

"Taking a break, Sunny got into an argument with ol' Jetfire so we decided to clear out before we got stepped on, besides, we've hauled some pretty heavy creates so I needed a minute to rest and just take my leg off" The spiky haired one said as he sat down on the grass next to the brunette.

'Take my leg off? what-'

As the Major tried to figure out what he meant she saw the boy pull back his trouser leg and unveiled a prosthetic leg, antique by today's standards, a modal like that has been out of use for well over 15 years, pretty much unheard of these's days. It was just a simple black pole with a stump bucket at the end of the amputated limb and a sock and sneaker on the foot, why would he settle for it when there were much better, efficient modals available? (Unless he had a soft spot for the human liberation front's ideology in the non-use of cyber prosthetics)

"Ahh! It's good to take the weight off your foot!" he sighed as he flopped down in the long grass with the older blond joining in.

"So tell me, what's this about having an adventure? You think' in we might go and explore this city?" the older blond asked

"Sort of, but I don't know what Jazz will say, he is in charge don't forget" the older brunette replied

"I think it's a great idea, for two main reasons, first off, it'll be a great opportunity to see what universal differences this version of earth has compared to our own, for instance, you know back home we have Starbucks coffee?...well, when we left the highway earlier, we passed a service station that had Starchild coffee, it was totally unreal!..."

"Yeah! It had the exact same colour green, logo an' everything, only half the name was different!" the blond interjected

'What the hell are they talking about?' Batou thought

"Yeah that, and secondly, doing something other than hanging around will help keep the cabin fever at bay, considering we've got the lambo twins with us; plus an impatient speed loving Hot Rod, a cranky old seeker, two cheeky drones and an even more hyped up hacker, and us the humans, namely your cousins who...well after the triple prank whammy, need I say more? Factor in those elements to our current group dynamics and minus any stimulation to give an even balance of social harmony and you end up with the inevitable result that even an idiot can work out"

"Wow, even an egghead like you can turn the obvious into science fact" the hooded kid said

"Grrrreeerrooaw Grrecececetracccgraw" the panther replied

"I agree" the boy replied

'What kind of language is that?' the Major thought bemused

"You also forgot Bumblebee, Bluestreak and Jazz, they get bored too quickly too y' know, plus the Waineright twins who take whatever opportunity they get to pull off a quick prank" The blond boy said

"Very true, but my point is, we'll get bored just hiding" The spiky haired boy said.

"And I agree with you..." another, much deeper voice sounded out from between the trees, this voice made the two section 9 cops look up in surprise, something about it sounded very familiar.

The sound of branches snapping and twigs breaking echoed around the lake as something enormous strode through the woods with very heavy footsteps, the two cops froze in their places as a huge humanoid shape appeared out of the trees and stood before the children and panther, they all looked up at the thing with welcoming smiles.

"...I believe a little fun couldn't do us any harm, as long as it's within reason" it replied as it smiled down at the kids.

The Major and Batou instantly recognised it as one of the humanoid machines from the fight, one of which flew; they both were blown away by how BIG it was. It was only about 80 yards away but from their position in the tree it must have been over 30 feet tall.

It looked and moved remarkably in a human-like way, its shoulder's were broad and had, what looked like 4 swallow-like wings protruding out of its back with four strange blue lights underneath, plus three tail fins at the base of its back, it stood on bird-like legs and it's forearms each had a pair of what looked like a pair of gun barrels pointed outwards, but it was the robot's face that caught their attention.

Its face looked like pale pewter silver, as if it were living mercury; it had one right glowing blue eye and a black patch over the left while the top of its head and temples were black.

"_Major, its-"_

"_...Saito"_

The giant leaned down and knelt down next to the kids; the brunette stood up and placed a hand on its knee.

"You got tired of lifting crates too?" she asked looking up at it.

"Actually we've finished, there weren't that many crates to move, and I think you'll like how Sam and the others have arranged the living accommodations, I'm afraid there's no T.V though" it said in a friendly tone, it's voice sounded remarkably like Saito's, except it had more of an electronic ring to it.

"All the more reason to go' an explore this place if there's no in-house entertainment" the youngest boy peeped in

"Maybe, I would love to see this city too but we're all in this together youngling, we must discuss this with the rest of the group" it replied.

"I bet you there won't be that many who'll disagree" the older blond smiled, next to the giants side the little girl approached him and tapped him on the leg, he looked down and smiled at her as she held up something to him.

"I pick these fer you" she smiled.

"Thank you Annabelle" it replied and gently manipulating its index finger and thumb, it grasped something from the little ones hand, Batou zoomed his vision it on the object, it was poesy of daisies, the robot brought it up to his face and smiled as it inspected the flowers.

"That's very kind of you Anny, say, why don't we check out our new hideout?" the older Brunette asked as she put a hand on the little ones shoulder.

"Yeah! And can I have a snack please?" she asked

"I don't see why not" the brunette replied as she took the little blonds hand and walked her back through the wood up another path,

"Actually, I think I'll have a bite too" the younger boy replied as he followed close behind

"Me too, gimme a minute while I put my leg back on!" the one-legged boy called out, and he clicked the leg back in place of the stump bucket and quickly caught up.

The robot gently stood back up and carefully manoeuvred back through the trees and the panther took off after them, waiting until the giant and the cat were well out of range, Batou and the Major creped down out of the tree and stood for a moment before following the wide trail of broken branches and flattened undergrowth.

"_Are you sure this is a good idea?"_ Batou asked

"_When we find their hideout, we'll hang back and watch from a distance, if those machines are here then we won't take any chances"_

"_That thing's face..."_

"_I know, this complicates things but we'll worry about it when we get back, for now, we concentrate on finding their hideout"_

Up ahead through the trees, five large storage houses stood in a row, the middle one's main door was wide open, and standing all around were the rest of the machines, now at ground level they really were much bigger and far more imposing, all around their feet, hanging around the open storage house were the rest of the children. As the pair watched from the bushes they noticed how the children weren't put off by the giant's size, in fact most of them were talking, even laughing and joking with them! The Major saw the Saito-faced robot talking to a smaller, but still fairly well built silver robot that looked like it was wearing a visor, the elder brunette female was sitting on the taller robot's shoulder listening in on what they were saying. It was a totally surreal sight to watch, but what was even more peculiar was that they didn't behave like combatants with a sense of discipline, nor did they behave like emotionless, unfeeling robots or androids, if fact, they were very human-like as they interacted with the children, some sat on their shoulders, some in their hands, one, the older blond female, was riding on the back of the giant mechanical scorpion.

It was totally unreal, and yet, strangely happy, like watching a family mingle and bonding together, they were all content in each other's company.

This was a really weird bunch.

"_Major, we-"_

The Saito faced robot snapped its head up suddenly and looked all around, the hubbub of activity suddenly stopped as all the robots and kids looked to the one machine in the centre of the group.

"What's up D-man?" the silver robot asked

"I thought I detected a comm signal..." it replied with a puzzled expression on its face

Without another word, the Major and Batou silently and swiftly returned to the woods and quickly made their way back to the van without a trace.

* * *

"Is it something to worry about D?" Morri asked

Deathshot looked up and scanned the air all around and shook his head.

"No, probably a stray signal from somewhere else that must have been on the same frequency as mine, it happens sometimes" he shrugged.

"Well, getting back to what you were saying, I think a little down time to explore this place might be interesting, but we should arrange a roster so at least two of us are here to guard the place, It's only fair we all take equal turns" Jazz said.

"I'll take up the position of sentry, I'd rather sunbath my wings than spend my time running around after a bunch of impetuous younglings" Jetfire grumbled as he leaned on his cane.

"Better him than us!" the red twin quipped, to which the seeker promptly clipped him over the back of his helm with his cane.

"AOW!"

"Ahh! Quit yer' whining! You've had worse than that!"

"One other rule I must impose, no-one leaves the hideout by themselves, always take a buddy or two with you, got it?" Jazz said

They all nodded in agreement.

"Maybe we could go out tomorrow?" Becky said off hand.

"Or what about at night? the dark will provide plenty of cover" Miles replied

"Yeah, cover for us an' all the other weirdo's and perverts that roam any city after dark" Glen retorted

"Oh yeah, good point"

"What do we do now?" Miles asked

"I'm going to see what the internet here is like, I'll get my laptop" Darren said as he waved good bye

"Hold up, I'll get mine too" Glen said as he followed him in

"I going to grab my swimsuit and go for a swim" Morri said

"Swim where?" the Waineright twins asked

"You'll see" Ashley smiled

* * *

When they got back to the van after their long sprint through the woods the pair disengaged their therm-optic camo and leaned against the van in relief, Ishikawa came out the back door with a surprised look on his face.

"Major, Batou, are you-"

"We're fine, we made sure we weren't being followed" she replied

"We saw everything Major! Did you see that robots face? It looked just like Mr Saito!" the Tachikoma squeaked in her mind.

"I know..."

"Why would that thing have Saito's face?" Ishikawa wondered aloud.

"I don't know..."

"Could whoever has built that thing have known about Saito somehow?" Batou asked

"Who knows about me?" the sniper asked as he and Togusa walked around the van, the three paused in surprise, not sure how to tell him what they saw, Saito felt a pang of concern sweep through him for a brief moment as he saw the surprised faces of his teammates.

"Um?...what's wrong?" Togusa asked in confusion.

The Major motioned to Saito to follow her into the van, Ishikawa and Togusa followed them behind, Ishikawa sat at the computer and bought up the recording of the Major's eye-view, as the footage played out the snipers hard cold face slowly turned to shock, Togusa's wasn't much different, by the time the footage ended Saito stood there in silence.

"I...what the hell is that?" he finally said, his voice shaking slightly

"We don't know, this only makes things more confusing" the Major said

"Could it be an AI with a similar processor and interaction capabilities as the Tachikoma's? Someone could have duplicated your brainwaves to create an AI with human characteristics, that would explain why it interacted with the kids the way it did" Ishikawa said as he frowned at the footage.

"But how would those brainwave patterns be obtained in the first place? I know when I first had my Hawkeye implanted the psymechs had to record my brain patterns so in the event I decided or have to go full cyborg they could create a brain case with full cyber-neural compatibilities, but those patterns as well as my DNA are suppose to be kept under lock and key at Megatech?"

"They are, I'm going to go back to HQ and request to check in with Megatech to see if they've had any data leaks concerning you Saito, in the meantime, I want you to stay on the surveillance. I'll be back by this evening so Ishikawa, I want you check out that storage facility and who owns it, the children have apparently set it up as a hideout so they won't be going anywhere for a while" The Major said as she existed the van.

"What about the robots Major? Should we try and stake out the storage facility and monitor their activities up close?" The Tachikoma said as its avatar agent popped up on the monitor

"No, stay in your current positions, that thing detected our comm. Signal and very nearly discovered our presence, for the time being we hang back and keep an eye from here until where able to gather more Intel on the group"

"And how do we do that if we can't use our comms?" Togusa asked, as the Major turned to leave she gave a knowing smirk.

"Well, apparently these kids are planning to take a tour of the city to beat the boredom, when they leave, we'll tail them then, see you guys later" and with that she left, Batou stepped in and watched and sighed as he saw the footage of his eye-view played on a loop.

"This just doesn't make any sense, why would someone want to use your face and voice?" Togusa said offhand

"If it's someone's idea of a joke I'm not laughing" Saito replied impassively as his cold gaze returned with a frown as the three cops watched footage play over and over again.

* * *

As the rest of the afternoon slowly crept by, everyone had decided to kill the rest of the afternoon swimming and hanging out by the lake, Morri and her cousins, Sam and Miles were swimming in and around the lilies and lotuses while Mikaela and Hailey watched Annabelle and the twins playing with Scorponok and Ravage in between the trees, Glen and Darren were on their laptops while sitting on Trailbreaker's shoulders, nearby, Jazz, Bumblebee, Hot Rod, Frenzy and Bluestreak lazed about on the grass, in the water Deathshot's head and shoulders were just above surface with Ashley and Tom using his air intakes as a diving board. Considering everything that had happened up until now, the drama of yesterday's battle and this morning had been mostly forgotten as the whole gang chilled out under the sun.

"Hay check this out! There's going to be a festival here tomorrow!" Darren called out to everyone

"A festival? Where?" Tom called back as several of the others came up to Trailbreaker to see what the young hacker progeny was talking about, he slid down his guardians arm and onto the grass.

"According to this, New Port's going to be celebrating the start of its annual cherry blossom festival tomorrow, there's all kind of stuff happing all over the city and one of the hanami parties is going to be here in Yanagi Meiro park"

"Yanagi-Meiro? That's the name of the park beyond the trees?" Tom asked

"Yeah, according to the City's map, Yanagi Meiro Park is New ports second largest park next to Niihama-shi Chushun-no park, it's over six miles long with three cherry tree avenues and is one of the city's best location for the annual cherry blossom festival" Darren said as he read out the information on the screen.

"There's a festival for worshiping a tree?" Hot Rod raised an optic ridge.

"The blossoms specifically, the cherry blossom is a sacred flower here in Japan, every spring people sit under the trees to watch the blossoms bloom and eventually shed their petals" Darren said.

"Humans in Japan throw a festival just to watch a flower? What's with that?" Hot Rod asked puzzled.

"It's not just to watch the flowers bloom, it's to admire their fleeting beauty, cherry blossoms only last a few weeks so their very symbolic because of their brief lifespan, for the Japanese their a metaphor for the mortality of life personified in the beauty of the moment of their existence, it reminds us that the most precious things in life are often the most brief, and therefore are worth making the most of while they last" Deathshot said

Everyone looked at him, surprised the sniper had such an interesting and poetic way of using of words.

"That's pretty deep" Jazz said

"So, does that mean that humans admire the cherry blossoms because they're beautiful for only a short time?" Bluestreak thought aloud.

"Exactly" Deathshot replied

"But why?" Trailbreaker asked

"Because it's spiritual, and for us, something we can never fully grasp, the cherry blossoms beauty transcends that which we Cybertronian's perceive to be mortal, because we live for far longer than any of the life forms on this world our idea of mortality is far different and far more taken for granted, death is something we don't fear as much as we should, but for humans the cherry blossom reminds them that they are finitely mortal and that the knowledge of their mortality is in itself a precious gift to them, one to be cherished and held in grace, in the human mind, a life may be brief but in the moment of time it is there, its existence echo's in eternity" Deathshot replied

Everyone stared at the sniper for the longest moment, no-one said anything as they regarded him with a sense of awe, behind his cold face Deathshot felt a well of emotion stir up in his spark, Morri could tell as his features hardened, he was trying to keep the feeling of overwhelming sadness back, she knew why he said what he said.

She knew how he came to learn the true meaning of those words.

And how much he suffered for it.

Hot Rod stared at the sniper, a profound sense of wisdom passed through him and touched his spark, then just as quickly as it came, it vanished in an instant, but its effect stayed on his mind as he dropped his gaze to the ground.

"Uh...I...that ...was..." for the first time ever, Bluestreak was a t loss for words.

"That. Is way deep D-man" Jazz said

"But...We know we going to die eventually too, humans aren't the only beings in the universe that fear death" Hot Rod pleaded

"Yes, but we take it too much for granted...when was the last time you lied on your birth at night and felt the hollow pang of your mortality in your own spark, knowing that you wasted it on something like hatred and revenge, not caring for anyone or anything, being reduced to a level even lower than your worst enemy and at the end of it all when you finally realise all the mistakes you've made and all the unspeakable things you've done, you realise it was all for nothing and you gained nothing from it, and even worse, you realise just how much of your life you really wasted. Longevity may be about living a long, long life, but it's not necessarily a happy one"

A pause...a very long sobering pause

"Is, that what you feel, sometimes?" Mikaela asked cautiously, Deathshot regarded her a moment and his face softened.

"Not as much as I used to" he replied solemnly.

"What happened?" Sam asked

"...I learnt, after a long while, to enjoy the time I do have, however long it will be, and always remember that my life is full of cherry blossoms " he replied with a smile, as he looked down at the humans he saw Morri smiling warmly up at him.

"That's so...wow...does that mean we, spiritually speaking ...could we be cherry blossoms to you guys?...metaphorically speaking" Ashley asked scratching his head; everyone paused in their current train of thought as they looked at the boy.

"To me, Yes" Deathshot replied

"Cool, we're cherry blossoms" Miles smiled, Sam simply rolled his eyes.

"We're pwetty flowers!" Annabelle cheered, which elicited a few giggles

"So, does this mean we can go to the festival tomorrow?" Becca asked

"After this little poetic Ophra moment? Hell yeah!" Glen said as he wiped his eyes

"Aww Glen..." Hailey cooed as she put an arm around his shoulder

"Poetic Ophra moment? What?" Ashley said in bewilderment

"He's never heard of Ophra?" the twins asked in surprise

"We don't get that many American re-runs on the box back home, even during the mid-morning chat shows" Danny replied thumbing over his shoulder.

"Oh..."

"I'd certainly go, I've only heard about this festival and would love to see it firsthand" Deathshot smiled

"I'd like to go too" Bumblebee said

"Me Too" Bluestreak and Trailbreaker sounded

"Me too, I wanna see da pwetty flowers!" Annabelle called up.

"Then I guess we're all going, cus I'm going too" Jazz smiled.

"Sweet! So we'll be going to watch the cherry blossoms watch the cherry blossoms" Miles said with his usual goofy humour.

"Yeah, that's exactly it Miles..." Sam smiled as he lead his friend back into the lake, the others went back to what they were doing before, only a little less boisterous, Morri jumped into Deathshots hand and when he bought her up to his face she landed a little kiss on the end of his nose plate.

"I'm proud of you, that was a very brave thing to let yourself be open like that" She whispered with a smile.

"I know, and it doesn't feel that bad, to be honest, I feel a little better for it" He replied

"Well, I glad you feel that way, cus you know, we'll always be willin ta' listen to ya if you ever want ta talk..." Jazz said as he put a hand up on the snipers shoulder.

"Thank you Jazz" Deathshot replied

"Hay D! We need your air in-take over here! We're short one diving board!" Tom called out from the water.

"Excuse me, duty calls" he said and hovered off the ground and carefully slipped back into the water, careful not to disturb the water too much.

Off to one side, Hot Rod wandered over to the other side of the lake and over to the cherry trees, he stopped just short of the outstretched braches covered in delicate pastel pink blossoms, they were so tiny compared to him and as a breeze rustled through the trees is shook a few of the petals loose and they fluttered down into the water, he watched as they swayed on the branches, his mind still imprinted with Deathshot's words.

"What's on yer processor kid?" Jazz said as he came up behind, the Dodge Charger didn't turn around.

"I never thought about it like that before, us cybertronians taking life for granted so easily?" he solemnly replied

"Yeah well, considering what we are and how long we got to live compared to humans, it's understandable our perceptions of life and death are very different" Jazz replied

"But then, how is he able to appreciate how humans view their mortality? Why and how is he able to reach their level of perception and understand why they do what they do?" Hot Rod replied turning to face the first lieutenant, he paused a moment before putting a hand on the Autobot scouts shoulder answering.

"I don't know the answer to that, I know that somehow he's a very open minded bot when it come to humans, which is saying a hell of a lot considering who he used to be, I know he's not the same Deathshot I heard about during the war" he replied

"I know, when I first heard about him showing up on Earth, I figured it couldn't be true, going on the old data files from back in early years of the conflict he didn't care for his fellow Autobots let alone other sentient beings, what could have changed him so much that a few millennia ago he hated everything he laid his one optic on, to now not being able to get enough of Earth and humanity?" Hot Rod asked perplexed.

"Well whatever happened between now and then is something only he knows, but I do know Morri and her cousins probably had the most profound effect on him of all and for all he's apparently learnt and atoned for, I know that despite what some of the other bots back on the base think of him, Optimus holds him in high respect and is very proud of who he has become" Hot Rod sighed and dropped his head in confusion.

"Look kid, don't let the whole mortality thing get ta'ya, it'll only make yer CPU glitch and eventually crash, leave that kinda thing ta Red Alert, like he said, enjoy ya life, and knowing you kid, I'd say you'll get back to enjoying it very soon" Jazz smiled as he went back to join the group.

Hot Rod looked back at the cherry blossoms, as the sun accentuated their pink fluffy heads, the notion of Deathshot's wisdom passed through his mind once again,

'They may only live for a short while, but they still live their lives never the less'

He smiled and turned back to join the others, who were still playing and lounging in the sun, and the rest of the day slipped away with the laughter of friends echoing through the woods.

* * *

So, Saito has a lookalike, what does it mean? 0_0 R&R please


	13. Chapter 12: Cherry blossoms

A/N: I had originally written something completely different from here on, but after watching one too many Hiro Miyazaki films I decided to hell with it and have a whole load of fun instead! Plus, I thought it would be sweet to bring Togusa's daughter in.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 12: LOST AMONG THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS

The sun rose in a steady arch across the morning sky, its golden rays cascaded through the trees bathing the early morning mist in a radiant yellow glow, the grass glistened with dew as the sounds of the city waking up echoed through the woods. The main door to the hideout creaked and strained as it opened up and out strode Ravage with Ashley, Annabelle and Frenzy on his back with Bluestreak following close behind with Hailey and the twins on his shoulders.

"Com'on guys! We don't wanna hit the crowds!" Ashley called over his shoulder.

"We're coming! Will you be patient for like 1 minute?" Glen replied as he walked out eating a pop tart

"Yeah, its 9:30 in the morning, we've got the whole day ahead, just chill okay?" Morri said as she walked out, with everyone else following out close behind.

"According to the park's online map, the cherry blossom avenues are way over the other side of the park from here, but fortunately the dirt road we came up yesterday runs right alongside the park so we can travel up that without being seen" Darren said as he adjusted the straps on his backpack.

"That's fine but how do we get close to the festival once we get there?" Hot Rod asked

"We're in luck, there's a small clearing near one of the avenues, if we move now, we can probably nab it before someone else does" he replied

"Then let's go already!" Ashley whined

"Okay Autobots, transform and roll out, now are you guys gonna be okay together? Cuz you remember the last time I left you three alone it ended up with you two sharing a cell in the brig" Jazz said as he directed his attention to Jetfire and the lambo twins.

"Don't worry, I'll keep these two idiots in line" Jetfire replied as he glared at Sunstreaker

"Well just remember, your guarding the hideout for us so don't go falling out, keep the door shut, monitor the perimeter and don't let anyone see you in mech mode, got it?"

"Rodger that" they replied

"Are you sure you two don't want to come with us?" Becca asked

"We're fairly sure, a festival just for a flower isn't really my thing" Sunstreaker replied as he folded his arms

"I'd come, but apparently these guys have the strange notion in their CPU's that I can't be trusted for some reason" Sideswipe grinned

"You fully know ALL the reasons why" Deathshot said with a deadpan look, Sideswipe only grinned

"Just stay outta trouble and we'll see you when we get back" Jazz said as he transformed

"See you guys later" Bumblebee called behind as he drove off with Sam and Mikaela, in minutes all the Autobots had their charges inside them and had sped off down the dust road, Jetfire turned to look at the twins who stood before him like a couple of rebel teens.

"Alright listen up you two glitch-heads! I'm going to take a light recharge and monitor the children's emergency cell phone line in case of trouble, I want you to watch the perimeter, no arguments!" and before the twins had a chance to protest, The old seeker had transformed into the Lockheed Blackbird and sat out in the open.

"Whatever..." Sunstreaker sighed and the pair walked off.

* * *

"Any change?" the Major asked as she stepped into the surveillance van

"Nope, no movement all night but I did manage to pull up some info on those storage houses their squatting in, the property use to be owned by Trade Home Inc. A company that used to run a moving van business, the buildings were where they used to store the home-owners belongings during transit they planned to expand the business and add more storage units but they couldn't procure the right finances and they went broke two years ago, for some reason no-one came forward to retrieve the stored goods, it's basically full of junk left to gather dust" Ishikawa replied.

"One man's junk is another man's treasure, and in this case I bet they thought they hit the jackpot finding a hideout with all the comforts of home readily available" she said watching at the monitors.

"So how are we going to do the surveillance with the cherry blossom festival? With all the crowds going in and out of the park they could easily slip in and out" Boma asked

"We'll keep watch near the path that leads into the woods; if they come out we'll tail them and see what they get up to"

"Major, the subjects have already appeared in the park!" the Tachikoma said onscreen

"Where about?"

"On the edge of the east side of the park near the cherry tree avenues"

"How the heck did they get all the way over there?" Batou asked as he frowned at the screen as the video feed from the IR system showed the children emerging from the bushes.

"There's an old road that runs alongside the park that leads to the storage facility, they could easily use that to cross the length of the park without being seen" Ishikawa replied

"What are those cars doing there?" Boma asked, everyone noticed on the main monitor, behind the children a row of rather flashy looking cars slowly rolled out onto the dead end of the road not far from the park entrance, with no drivers in the driver seats, a few of the children leaned over the hoods of some of them and seemed to whisper something to the cars, this was very peculiar, the cars weren't any modals Batou recognised (and knowing his love of both classic and modern modals he pretty much knew them all).

"Looks like they have the cars AI's on the fully automatic settings for them roll out like that without any drivers" Ishikawa said

"_Alright, Batou, Saito, Togusa, Pazu, your with me, we're going go over there to see what their up to, Ishikawa, Boma, run a match on those vehicles plates" _

"_Rodger"_ they replied, Batou followed the Major as she hopped out the van and strode towards the park, the others caught up to her side.

"What's the plan?" Batou asked.

We'll split into two, Batou and Togusa, go and check out the area where they appeared, Pazu and Saito, your with me, we'll tail them from a distance and see what they get up to"

"Yes ma'am" they replied

"You know, considering what those kids were discussing yesterday, I can't help but there might be one or two surprises in store" Batou commented

"Too True! I wonder if that giant scorpion robot will be around?" Batou's Tachikoma said as it joined the five section 9 operatives

"Hh? Why do you say that?" Batou asked.

"Oh no particular reason" it replied, Batou raised an eyebrow but didn't enquire further; to his side he noticed Togusa was looking a little nervous.

"What's up with you?" he asked

"Just a bit nervous, my family's going to be at the festival today, I'm just a little worried what might happen" the detective replied

"If those kids are smart they won't try anything with hundreds of people around, still, we'll see what they get up to, this could be a good opportunity to see what kind of profile they have" the Major replied as the five operatives and AI joined in the growing crowds as they made their way to the other side of the park.

* * *

"D? Can you read me?" Morri said into the earpiece as she adjusted it in her ear

"Load and clear Morri, I'm over the east perimeter of the park" he replied

"Okay are you sure you guys are going to be okay here?" Sam asked

"We'll be fine here, it's a good view from here anyway, at least it's not a non-parking zone" Bumblebee replied

"You kids go' an enjoy yourselves we'll be fine here, and remember, call if there's an emergency" Jazz said

"We know, see you guys later!" Miles waved as the humans walked off and joined the crowd of other humans as they steadily filed into the park, walking some distance until they came upon the centre of the festival and gasped in amazement.

The main event was a wide orchid of various cherry tree species, some pink, some white, some tall and stout like oaks, some wide with weeping branches like willows, all around the roots were family's and other people sitting on picnic blankets and in deck chairs admiring the blossoms overhead, along the pathways snaking in and around the trees were various food vendors selling snacks and even ready-made picnic hampers, market stools were selling a wide range of cherry blossom themed gifts and knick-knacks, a few arcades offered a choice of games as well as several street performers entertaining the growing crowds and a whole range of artists and photographers lined the pathways photographing and painting the endless sea of pastel pink, so much was going on and it was only 9:50am.

Wow! This is incredible!" Mikaela smiled

"I've never seen this much pink before in my life!" Annabelle said as she looked up at all the trees, "me neither, and I have a lot of pink stuff back home!" Becky replied.

"It's all p-p-pink!" Frenzy squeaked from Darren's back pack

"So where do we go first? There so much going on here there's no way we can cover it all in one day" said Danny.

"Maybe we could split into two groups; one goes one way, while the other goes elsewhere" Darren suggested.

"It's an idea, are you cool with that D?" Morri said

"Its fine, just try not to go more than 200 yards apart" he replied over the ear piece.

"How will we be able to tell if we're too far apart?"

"We got that covered; our cells have a tracking device attuned to D's BSHB software, we can track each other across the park" Darren said as he, Danny and Glen whipped out their cells and showed the tracker programme on the little screens.

"You guys have been playing around in Perceptor's lab haven't you?" Morri grinned

"He had a few interesting little things that caught my eye we decided to make good use of" Darren smiled.

"Okay, so who's going to go with who?" and as they discussed how the group would split up, three strangers walked along the path some 40 yards away, stopping just out of hearing range.

* * *

"There they are" the Major said drawing everyone's attention to the group of kids standing in a small circle talking to one another, then they split up into two groups and walked off in directions, waving good bye to each other as they walked off.

"Saito, Pazu, you take the ones going south, I'll take the ones going north"

"Rodger" they replied and calmly walked among the crowds tailing the two groups some several meters behind, across the parks green meadow outside the orchid Batou, Togusa and the Tachikoma walked across the grass towards where the cars were parked.

"You've been pretty quiet since yesterday, anything on your mind?" Togusa asked.

"Nothin much, just, thinking about that machine we saw yesterday" he replied, in part he was being truthful, but it was the Major he was really thinking about, he was tempted to let Togusa in on the Majors last request, but thought better of, remembering it was her choice.

"It must have been totally amazing to see it up close! I bet it must have a cyber brain installed to have such human-like capabilities!" the Tachikoma said

"Maybe, maybe not, if it is has got a pilot inside then whoever it is must think he's the luckiest bastard in the world to be able to control a thing like that" Batou replied. As they came back onto the path, they approached the east entrance and found, parked in two rows one behind the other were five sleek stylish good looking cars, all laid out as if in a show room.

"Wow, pretty sweet-looking rides" Togusa said as he looked at one silver hardtop.

"But the question here is where did these come from? Because I got to say, I've never seen models like these before" Batou replied

"Maybe their new designs that aren't available yet? Probably proto types?" Togusa said

"Perhaps_, Ishikawa, have you turned up anything on the plates?" _

"_No, we got nothing, they don't even show up as stolen" Ishikawa replied_

"_Can you run these modals through all the data bases of the major car manufacture's to see if there are match's on any new models due for release?"_

"_Sure, just give us a few minutes"_ he replied, as Batou scanned his cybernetic eyes over the cars features, something caught his attention.

"Togusa, look at this" he pointed to the badge on the hood of the bright golden car with black racing stripes, Togusa instantly recognised the red face-like shield.

"_It's that symbol"_ Togusa replied

"_Yeah, and look, they've all got it"_ Batou pointed to the rest of the cars, sure enough, on all the hoods was the strange face-shield in black and red, the two cops stood looking at the mystery vehicles with strange feeling that these vehicles had to be connected to the machines somehow. All around, Batou noticed the cars were getting a lot of attention from passers-by, stopping to admire the fine looking models and their paint jobs. With this many people around it would extremely difficult if not impossible to do anything conspicuous like placing a tracking device under one of the hoods.

"What do we do now?" Togusa asked

"_Batou, I've checked all the car manufacturers here in Japan but no luck, I'll try the European and American company's but considering how this is going I doubt we'll turn up anything"_ Ishikawa said over the comm.

"_Okay, Major, what do you want us to do?"_ Batou asked

"_That depends, what did you find out from the vehicles?" _She asked

"_Other than the fact the modals are unheard of, they all have that weird red face shaped shield on their hood badges, it's the exact same one the machines had on them"_

"_...The exact same symbol?"_

"_Yes"_

"_...If the car's AI's are activated and are on full auto control then there might be someone controlling them from somewhere, pop the hood and check to see if one of the AI's is rigged to a receiver"_

"_We would if we were somewhere more private, but there's too many people around"_

"_Alright, Ishikawa, try and get a lock on any signals being emitted or sent to those vehicles, if anyone is linked up to them, isolate the signal and put a tracer virus on it"_

"_Rodger that" _Ishikawa replied

"So now what do we do?" the Tachikoma asked

"I guess we sit to see what happens next" Batou said as he sat down on a nearby bench seat Whilst the two men sat nearby the vehicles, up in the undergrowth, two strange entities watched them and rest of the people entering the park.

"Hmm, if anyone is controlling the cars, do you think their nearby?" the Tachikoma asked offhand

* * *

From their hidden positions in the thick bushes and undergrowth, Ravage and Scorponok idly watched the crowds pass by, then, Scorponok noticed the strange blue spider-like robot walk up to the edge of the tree line and all of a sudden, everything around him seem to fade away.

It...No...not an it, a femme, only a femme could have such smooth curves and firm lines, such dainty claws and a sweetly rounded abdomen and thorax with an impressively looking cannon protruding out the front, her optics were like the earth's moon, round white sphere's with three small lens in each one, her voice, it was the sweetest sound any vocaliser could produce and her blue paint gleamed like liquid sapphire.

She was...beautiful

He felt his spark begin to flutter, as if it had wings, like butterflies, he suddenly realised the meaning of the human's funny saying, he also felt his processor begin to heat up.

He had to know who she was

"**What are you doing gawking at that thing?"** Ravage said over their comm-link, this comm-link was different to the regular comms in as much it was one only the drones shared between each other, on the regular comms and aloud, it sounded like primitive cybertronian animalistic sounds, but they managed to overcome the problem of miscommunication with the other bots and humans by using a basic cybertronian version of Morse code (Thanks to Glen who introduced them to Morse code in the first place, now most of the children had a basic understanding of what they were saying aloud most of the time, in part thanks to Darren who gave them all a crash course in 'dronese').

"**Thing!? That's not a thing, it's a femme!"** the scorpion angrily replied

"**A femme? How can you be sure?"**

"**Well...look at her! Those smooth curves and those sweetly shaped legs, that's a femme if ever I saw one!"**

"**But it's not even a cybertronian; she looks like human-tech to me"**

"**I don't care, cybertronian or not, she's hot!"**

"**Whatever you say, but don't come crawling to me with a broken spark it you find out you can't interface with it, how are you going to talk to it with those humans there?"**

"**I'll think of something"**

"**Yeah? Well think about it later, right now, I just fancy some peace and quiet"** Ravage replied and laid his head back onto his curled up paws.

* * *

"They're so cute!" Annabelle squealed

"I know, they look way too pretty to eat" Morri replied as she surveyed a selection of wagashi, she, along with Hailey and the twins, Mikaela, Sam, Tom and Annabelle had wandered through the cherry tree orchid until they stumbled upon a collection of food stands, one of which had a large selection of colourful wagashi beautifully laid out like a piece of artwork.

"I wonder how long it takes to make them like that? Being that small they look so delicate" Mikaela said

"Maybe they have little fairies make them?" Annabelle peeped; the others gigged in amusement, Morri then noticed the stall holder behind the counter watching them with a slightly impatient look on his aged face, as if he was tempted to say 'well are you going to buy something or not?'. "Hay look there's some more stalls over there" she said "We've been looking at stalls the last 20 minutes, let's see what else there is" Sam said as the group moved away from the stand and walked over towards one of the parks open spaces, all around various families were sat on the grass under the cherry trees, the more open was occupied by other family's playing around and several street performers, Morri felt a tug on her trouser leg and looked down at Annabelle who had a pleading look on her face

"Morri I need to go potty" she whispered, keeping her legs tightly closed, Morri wasted no time in lifting her up onto her side and walked off in the direction of the public toilets."Be back in sec guy's nature call's" She called over her shoulder, Tom simply waved to her through the crowd, as she passed along at a fast pace she failed to see the shady looking gentleman in a brown suite following close behind.

* * *

"_Where's she off to?"_ Saito asked

"_The public toilets, don't worry I'm right behind her"_ Pazu replied

Saito sighed as he watched the kids from some distance away, he and Pazu had been tailing them for over 2 hours, not that anything drastic or alarming had happened, the kids had wandered around the different stalls and vendors, more relaxed and curious than anything else, which really didn't make any sense considering they had been running for their lives the day before yesterday. But that wasn't the only thing on his mind. For most of the night he had been lost in his thoughts thinking about that one humanoid machine that a good replication of his face. 'Why would someone want my face?' had been the one question he kept returning to, if it was an old enemy out to get him in some way (considering his line of work he certainly wasn't short of them) they had certainly got his attention, it seemed the obvious answer but considering the unusual nature of this particular case it probably wasn't the answer. As the kids walked along the open field he followed along the path at the edge of the grass, smoothly slipping in between the crowds like a shadow whilst keeping his one eye on them.

He remembered watching the video feed from the Majors eye-view and how much the machine resembled him, his face, his voice, even the robots stance seemed similar to his own. But the one thing he couldn't stop wondering about was just how kindly and warm it sounded when it spoke to the children, as if it were really alive. There had to have been a pilot inside, or someone controlling it cybernetically from somewhere for that kind emotional sentiment to be spoken. And why was it that one robot had a human face while all the others had more mechanical, almost alien-like faces?

Usually Saito wasn't one for letting a case become personal, he was always professional and straightforward, not letting anything deter him, but as he watched the kids across the grass chatting and laughing together, he tried to press his thoughts to the back of his mind and concentrate on the job at hand. But his inner frustration began show as he walked along the path a couple of people stopped dead in their tracks, frozen with dread as they caught a glimpse of the cold look on the snipers face.

* * *

"Okay, feeling better?" Morri asked as she stepped out the stall with Annabelle close at her side

"Much better" she replied with a sigh of content, Morri stopped before they left.

"Actually, I better go myself, stay right here and don't go anywhere okay?"

"Okay" Annabelle replied as Morri disappeared back into the stall. As the sounds of the festival echoed into the lavatory curiosity began to peek the four year olds interest, she kept one hand on the door and leaned over to watch what was going on outside the entrance. But her view was blocked as a lady with a push chair stopped outside, she had a little boy sat in the chair fast asleep, at her side was a little girl roughly about her own age with short light brown hair held back with little purple clips.

As Annabelle watched in curiosity, the girl turned around and noticed her, the girls stood and stared at one another in usual curious non-rude manner that four year olds were inclined to do. As Morri stepped out of the stall, the lady outside walked away and the girl followed her away, waving goodbye as she disappeared.

"Alright, we'll go and catch up with the others" morri said as she washed her hands at the sink

"I wanna go on the swings we passed"

"Um, Okay, but I have to call the other's first and let them know we'll catch up, come on..." Morri said as she took the little one's hand and together they made their way over to the playground area they passed on the way to the toilets, it was a large area with an enormous jungle gym shaped like a Japanese castle surrounded by slides, climbing frames, roundabouts and swings. "Just play around for a minute while I call Sam" Morri said as she sat down on one of the benches and dialled in the number into her cell-phone "Okay!" Annabelle called back as she ran towards the roundabout and joined the group of kid spinning around on the giant colourful wheel.

"Hi Sam? Just a quick word to say we'll catch up later, Anny and I are at the playground at the corner of the field, see you guys later" She said and flipped the phone shut, sighing with frustration

'Typical Sam forgetting to flip his cell on' she though and got up and wandered over to the swings, Annabelle saw her and ran over but half way across something caught her eye. Outside the playground across the path and a little distance across the green was a vendor selling balloons, seeing all the bright colours made her change her mind immediately.

"Morri! There's balloons!" she called over and rushed out the playground in a flash. "Anny wait up!" Morri called out as she took after her but as she was about to run across the path four vans passed slowly by prompting her to stop, when they finally passed Morri looked around but couldn't see the four year old anywhere.

Suppressing the alarm bells ringing in her head, Morri calmly stepped across the path and carefully surveyed the crowds for her charge, having been a babysitter for most of her neighbour's kids she'd had some experience in how to handle this kind of situation, and sure enough she spotted the bunch of balloons and headed over there. 'It's always balloons, never fails to grab their attention' she thought but as the balloon vender came more into view she saw all the helium filled balloons were tied to the back of a bike, to which he mounted and cycled off. As he sped away, Morri caught a brief glimpse of honey blond dart through the crowd, instantly she ran off in hot pursuit following the child as they ran, but trying to run through the dense crowds was tricky, like trying to swim up a flowing river but she didn't lose sight of the small figure, finally she gained more ground until she reached out to grab her by the shoulder.

"Anny! Don't ever run off like that! I-" but she stopped as she turned the child around and was surprised to see it wasn't Annabelle, it was another girl the same age dressed and in the same kind of denim dungarees that Annabelle was wearing, Morri removed her hand and let the girl run off. She looked around with worry when she saw how far she had run "Shit" she said under her breath and quickly ran back the way she came to start her search again.

* * *

"_Major, we might have a slight problem, I lost one of them"_ said Pazu

"_Which one?"_

"_The youngest one, the little blond girl"_

"_Keep an eye on her babysitter, I'll have the Tachikoma's run a search if the IR system"_

"_Rodger"_

* * *

Meanwhile, back on the far eastern side of the park Batou, Togusa and the Tachikoma were sitting some way off by the park entrance still keeping an eye on those vehicles, Togusa was about to say something when his cell-phone went off

"Hello?" he answered

"Oh thank god I was able to get a hold of you! You have to come here quickly!" his wife said down the other end, her voice fraught with worry.

"Whoa calm down, what's wrong?" he replied sitting up, Batou quirked an eyebrow and the Tachikoma listened in

"You have to come here right now! Mizuki is missing!" She replied, Togusa frowned

"Where are you now?"

"At the north east corner of the north field, just past the playground, please come quick!" as the line went dead, Togusa got up, stuffed the cell-phone back in his pocket.

"What's wrong?" Batou asked

"That was my wife, our daughters gone missing somewhere in the park, I have to-"

"Just go, we've got it covered here!" Batou replied, but Togusa had already sprinted off through the crowds and had disappeared from sight.

"_Major! Togusa's daughter has gone missing in the park, he gone to try and find her; me and the Tachikoma have got things covered here!" _said Batou

"_...Understood"_ she replied

* * *

As the crowds moved this way and that Annabelle looked around for the familiar faces of her friend's, she had chased the balloon vender on his bike but hadn't been able to keep up with him, then she'd seen Morri run by after him, she had tried to catch up and call out to her but her voice had been drowned out by the noise of all the people. So now she was wandering around on the grass trying to spot any familiar landmarks that would be a point of reference to indicate the route she had come, she was so lost in her searching that she didn't the other girl in front and walked right into her with a bump.

"Uh sorry, I didn't see you!"Annabelle said, when both girls brushed themselves off Annabelle recognised her as the girl she saw outside the toilets, she was just as tall as her, wearing a dark blue pleated skirt with white knee high socks, a pair of red buckle shoes and a pink sweater.

"Hay I know you, I saw you outside the bathroom!" the strange girl smiled

"I saw you too!" replied Annabelle

"Do you know where my mommy is? I lost her and I'm trying to look for her"

"I'm lost too, I'm trying to look for Morri, I saw her run away and I tried to call out to her but I don't think she heard me...hay! Why don't we look for them together?"

"Okay, you know you talk funny, where do you come from?"

"I come from America!"

"America?"

"Yeah, but it's really really far away from here, all the way across the ocean!"

"Wow, what's your name?"

"I'm Annabelle!"

"Annabelle? Heheheh! Ha ha ha! That's a funny name!"

"Is it? What's your name?"

"I'm Mizuki!"

"He hahahaha ha ha! That's an even funnier name!"

"Really? Wow! Come on, let's go and find my Mommy!"

"Okay, and then we go and find Morri" Annabelle replied and together both girls held hands as they made their way back through the crowds across the field and back to the cherry tree orchids.

* * *

On the other side of the vast field, more towards the centre of the park, the Major was keeping an eye on the five other boys who were currently enjoying watching the fire breathers perform for the crowds, two of the kids were arguing and taking bets on who could pull off the dangerous stunts while the others were simply giggling at how silly the argument was getting. So far the morning she had spent surveying them had been rather uneventful, the boys had wandered around the avenues of cherry trees taking in the sights and joking about the differences between the American and Japanese cultures. These kids were a peculiar bunch for sure. She watched as a cell phone rang in one of the kids back packs, he tapped the back pack and a small silver spiky and spindly arm extended out and handed him the device over his shoulder, the Major's eyes widened in surprise, she increased her hearing functions to listen in on the conversation.

"Hi Morri what are you....what?......when did it happen?........okay well have you told the others?...alright, we'll be there soon, is D running a bio-scan sweep?....Alright, we'll see you guys there and start looking" he flipped the cell closed, placed it on his shoulder and the strange limb crept out again and took it back into the bag.

'Okay, that was peculiar' the Major thought

"Guy's we have to go, Anny's gone missing" the kid said as he tapped the others on the shoulder, they immediately stopped arguing and looked at the boy in surprise.

"What?"

"Come on, we have to go and find her!" he replied and starting running eastward across the field with the others close behind, the Major followed a little further behind still staying within hearing range.

"How did it happen?" the hooded kid asked

"Apparently she ran after some guy selling balloons and she lost her in the crowd, the others have joined up and are looking for her where Morri last saw her" he replied

"Is D looking for her?" the black guy asked

"Yeah, but she's not got a BSHB so it'll take him a while considering he's got all the other humans in the park to sieve through, let's just find the rest of the gang and get searching" he said as they picked up the pace.

* * *

"**Jazz, we've got a problem, Annabelle's gone missing somewhere in the park, the children are looking for her and I'm commencing a bio scan of the area where she was last seen"** said Deathshot

"**Okay D man, we'll keep our scanners open for if she comes this way, we can't do anything here with all these other humans around but I'll send Ravage and Scorpy out to patrol the park perimeter, you just keep look' in from up top" **Jazz replied

"**Copy that" **the sniper replied, Jazz switched over the comm-link frequency to the drones privet line

"**You still there in there in the bushes guys? Listen up guys, lil'Anny's gone missing, the kids and Deathshot are looking around the park but I need you guys to scout the perimeter in case she tries to find one of you guys"**

"**Copy that Jazz, we're on it" **Ravage replied, up in the woods well away from the park entrance the two drones moved through the undergrowth with stealthy precision, quietly creeping as near to the park boundary as possible without alerting anyone, but no-one saw anything, they were just moving shadows created by the wind blowing through the trees.

"**I hope she hasn't gone too far, she is only a sparkling" **Trailbreaker said

"**True, but you know Anny she's just like her creators, she won't be scared so easily, if anything I bet she's found something fun to do" **Bumblebee reassured him

"**Maybe, but Mikaela did warn us that there are some humans out there that have unhealthy liking's for other human sparkling's, I believe their called perverts?" Hot Rod**

"**Yeah, she said they're the ones you've got to watch out for" Jazz replied**

"**Uh guys? not that I'm not worried for Annabelle's well-being, but that human with that weird blue robot is still sitting over there, they've been there since we arrived"** Bluestreak said

"**Maybe their waiting for someone?" **Hot Rod offered

"**For over 2 hours? Either he's very patient or his spark mate stood him up" **Trailbreaker replied

* * *

"I got here as fast as I could, where did you last see her?" Togusa asked, half out of breath as he screeched to halt in front of his wife after running all the way from the east of the park to the centre in less than 10 minutes.

"Just by the castle playground, I only turned around for a second and had..." she couldn't get the last word out as she tried to contain her worry; Togusa placed his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eye.

"We'll find her don't worry, let start with where you last saw her" he reassured

"Alright, I just hope she's not gone too far" she sighed as she led Togusa back the way she had come, their son had woken up from his nap and was looking around for his older sister, but she was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

"... I followed the kid thinking it was her but when I finally caught up to her it was a completely different kid, so I ran all the way back and searched the whole field but she was gone" Morri explained to Mikaela as they passed along the path looking for their missing charge, all the kids had gathered together and had split up into pair to search a wider area, Deathshot was currently hovering over the field invisibly, his bio scanners swept over every small child he spotted.

"Hay don't beat yourself up over it, It's not the first time something caught her attention like that, one time me an' Sam took her to the mall and she ran after one of the little RC cars outside the toy store and disappeared, we looked everywhere and after 2 hours found her in the mall's ball-pen, I thought I'd have a heart attack" Mikaela replied

"Yeah well I've lost kids while babysitting back home too, but considering we're in a country where English is not the first language I'm a little more concerned she might ask for directions only to become even more confused" Morri replied as she scanned the crowd, just then, her cell phone went off, she tapped a button on her ear piece to answer.

"Hi, have you seen her yet?" Tom asked

"Not yet Tom" she replied and the line disconnected, tapping a few buttons on her cell-phone she called Deathshot on his direct line.

"D, how's your search coming on, anything showing up on your scanners yet?" she asked

"Nothing so far, I've just completed scanning the whole east side of the park, I'm about to start scanning the centre towards the north side, there are some more designated recreational areas she might have gone to" Deathshot replied

"All right, just remember when you see her don't do anything, just call me and we'll rush right over, we don't want a repeat performance of what happened in Falmouth last year, that was way too close for comfort"

"Copy that, and I'm still sorry for that incident" he replied

"I know, just keep looking" she replied and tapped the earpiece again, disconnecting the line, she stopped to catch her breath a minute, Mikaela palled out of her bag a bottle of water and handed it to her "here, have a sip" she said.

"Thanks...listen, I have no doubt D will find her, but all the same it doesn't make the situation anymore easier" Mikaela said as Morri took a large swig of the bottle

"I know...I know, but we have to keep looking, we're not exactly in a position to get the police involved" Morri replied and motioned over to a pair of policemen walking by.

"I know, if they take down our details they'd have to ask where we come from, and if we say America and they run a search and nothing shows up, then we'll be in a real mess"

"Which is why we'll handle this ourselves, besides, Anny's just like her dad, she's a hard kid to scare, and chances are she's probably having fun somewhere in the park"

"But what if someone-" Mikaela suddenly stopped, realising what she was saying, she and Morri exchanged worried glances and quickly picked up the pace.

Not too far behind, a one eyed stranger followed in their footsteps.

* * *

"_Tachikoma, has anything showed up on the IR system yet?"_ the Major asked

"_We're still searching for her ma'am, and we're keeping an eye on all the other suspects too, they haven't found the girl either"_ the Tatchikoma replied

"_Alright, increase the IR's search functions to cover the whole park and surrounding areas"_ she replied

"_Rodger!"_ they replied

"_What do you want us to do Major? At this rate looking for that girl is like looking for a needle in a hay-stack"_ said Saito, the Major stopped where she was and looked around, it was nearly midday and the crowd numbers were now at their peak and they would remain that way for the rest of the day, it was now pretty pointless looking for the girl on foot. But as she turned to leave the elder blond girl and the twins she had been following, she couldn't help but feel sorry for the kids, when they grouped together to form a strategy to look for the girl they were all genuinely worried for her safety, especially the older brunette girl who had been watching her in the first place.

_Alright, return to the van and let's see what the Tachikoma's turn up, Batou, you too, we'll worry about the cars later"_ she replied

"_Rodger"_ they all replied

* * *

R&R please!


	14. Chapter 13: Lost And Found

A/N: I was in a really fluffy mood when I wrote this, I was feeling generous and decided to add a heap of sugar to the friendship between Annabelle and Mizuki :3

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 13: LOST AND FOUND

As the morning of the cherry blossom festival slipped into the high noon of the day, many of the people had started to congregate at the food vendors and nearby cafes for much needed refreshments and to rest their aching feet from trailing through the seemingly endless avenues of cherry trees. Overhead the sun beamed down with a nice warm touch and the wind blew with that cool spring freshness, blowing the petals of the countless blossoms high into the air, only to let them rain down like snow, by now the entire park was a beautiful stark contrast of fresh green and scattered areas of pastel pink.

Far over on the south side of the vast open space, the park was boarded by the various apartment buildings that made up the many residential districts, near one of the entrances to the park under a particularly small maple tree, Annabelle and Mizuki sat resting side by side resting together. For the last three quarters of an hour they had gotten sidetracked from trying to find their babysitter and mother and had gone off exploring together. Mizuki was amazed at how much Annabelle didn't know about life here in Japan, one such example presented itself when the pair passed a stand that had rows and rows of colourful origami cranes strung together, when Annabelle saw these and she asked what they were Mizuki was flabbergasted, and vice versa, Annabelle was surprised not to find a single hot dog stand anywhere.

But regardless of cultural upbringing the pair had spent a really fun time together, they had joined most of the other kids trying to catch the cherry blossom petals as they fell, trying to stroke the large koi fish in one of the parks many ponds, chasing after pigeons, wandering around the games arcades and pointing out their favourite type of cherry tree (there were over 20 hybrids species as well as several original breeds in the park).

In the course of all their excitement they had lost track of where they were and had found themselves well away from the main events taking place near the centre of the park and to the eastern side where the cherry tree orchid was, but despite not finding their babysitter or mother, they didn't feel lonely or lost in each other's company, if anything they had began to feel like they had known each other for far longer. Annabelle reached into her little pink and yellow back pack and took out two juice boxes and handed one to Mizuki.

"Thank you Annabelle" she replied

"So where do we go next? We must have seen the whole park by now?" Annabelle smiled as she played with one of the scarlet red maple leaves

"Well, I could show you the playground I always go to, it's not far from my home" Mizuki replied as she gulped down her juice

"Where is your home anyway?"

"I live in that place there, with my mommy and daddy and my little brother Haru" she said pointing to one of the larger apartment complexes that had balcony gardens protruding out the sides of the structure.

"Up there? That's a long way up from the ground!"

"I know, you can see the city for our place...hay! I just remembered my neighbour Mrs Yamamoto is in today! I bet she can make something to eat for us, I'm getting hungry!"

"Who's Mrs Yamamootoo?"

"Mrs Yamamoto, she looks after me and my brother when mommy and daddy go out, she's always lets us do whatever we want when we stay over"

"Do you think she'll like me?"

"Sure she will! And she always makes the yummiest rice cakes!"

"What are rice cakes? Does she make brownies?"

"What are brownies?"

Hehehe! Never mind, come on, let's go and see Mrs Yamamoto!" Annabelle giggled as she finished up her juice box and followed Mizuki along the path out of the park along into a courtyard with a large signpost in the centre pointing the way to all the various apartment buildings.

"You know Annabelle, you're my bentest friend" Mikuki smiled putting her arm around Annabelle's shoulder

"Your my bentest friend too Mikuki" Annabelle replied and bought her arm up too as they walked through the courtyard and onto Mikuki's home.

* * *

Back in the park the mood for the Autobot gang was starting to grow more dire with every minute that pasted, the kids had searched practically one whole half of the park, going back and forth checking and rechecking areas they had already looked, now they had gathered together again to try and think of a new way of finding Annabelle.

"We've searched everywhere we've been already, I say we try looking further afield, towards the other areas of the park" Darren suggested as he leaned forward to catch his breath.

"M-m-m-maybe we should b-bring the other's t-to help as well?" Frenzy peeped from out his bag

"Jazz called in 10 minutes ago to say Scorpy and Ravage are checking out the park perimeter and that D had swept the whole eastern and central side of the park with no luck"

"Then we check out the western side, com'on guys!" Sam said as he paced off in the direction of the main pathway that ran through the middle of the park

"So we split up again and basically search over the main paths?" Glen asked

"Yep, same as before" Sam replied and the group split up into their pairs again and jogged off in different directions away from the festival towards the much more open areas of the park.

Some several meters away, a security camera high up on a lamppost zoomed in on the group.

* * *

Back in the surveillance van, Ishikawa and Batou were watching the kids as they searched for their missing little one, as the group passed another camera, the shot zoomed in on their faces, highlighting the worry and distraught they were feeling, Ishikawa passed a heavy sigh.

"Poor kids, I hope they do find her" he said

"I hope so too, but what do we do if we find her? Do we take her in or let her go?" Batou asked

"It all depends, on the one hand she might be the only link we have to finding the machines, but on the other keeping her in custody might cause a few problems if she's classed as material witness or a suspect. A kid that young you'd think the minister of home affairs would have a little more sense than that, but whatever happens next will probably determine our next move" Ishikawa replied

"You might be right there" The Major replied as she stepped into the van

"How's Togusa's search going?" Batou asked

"I asked the Tachikoma's to run a search for his daughter, hopefully she won't have gone far" she replied, looking out the back of the van Batou saw across the street Togusa trying to comfort his distraught wife as she sat on a bench next to Saito with two police officers standing nearby.

"At least he's with the right outfit to look for her, such are the perks of this job, being able to have the right hook-ups to get a job done twice as fast" Batou sighed

"Yeah, but what could be done faster is Boma hurrying up with those pizza's" said Ishikawa looking at his watch.

A few streets away up in the town, Boma was walking along trying to find a decent enough place that did take-out pizza, as he rounded the corner he saw two officers talking to a couple of women and showing them a photo of Togusa's daughter, the big cyborg sighed and hoped that somehow she would turn up okay.

As he bought his gaze back up, he noticed two young girls skipping along in up ahead of him, they both looked young for their size, probably four or five years old."Hay! Look at that!" one on them said as they pointed to something in a nearby shop window, as they ran over and stared into the window Boma caught a look of the sides of their faces and stopped dead in his tracks.

"_Major, tell Togusa I just found his daughter" _

"_Where is she?"_

"_On Sakura Street, about 400 yards from the van"_

"_Alright, stay with her and let her know her parents are coming over"_

"_Uh there's one slight hitch..."_

"_What is it?"_

"_The missing kid, the one our suspects are looking for? She right here with her"_

"_...Follow them and see where they go, we'll be right over"_

* * *

"You know, for a four year old she can certainly go some distance!" Glen huffed as he started to lag behind the faster paced Darren.

"I know, that's the first big mistake when you watch a kid that young, NEVER underestimate how much energy they've got, like this one time, my mom asked me to watch my little cousin Violet for a whole afternoon, by the time she got back I had to try and explain how the family room ended up looking like a recreation of Stalingrad" he replied

"What happened?"

"I got grounded for a week, but seriously, how do you explain how a five year old can crawl across a ceiling? And the hardest part is trying to keep up with them when they're on a sugar high, it's like you need one of those tracking devices you see on the National Geographic channel, you know the one's you implant via blow dart?" he said offhand, Glen suddenly stopped and face-palmed.

"CRAP!!!" he exclaimed

"What? What is it?!" Darren quickly turned around on his prosthetic leg to see what was wrong

"Aww Man how the hell could I forget!!"

"What!?"

"You remember that little pendent Optimus gave Anny for her first birthday? You know the one that was given to all of us to signify our loyalty to the Autobots?"

"Yeah, I still got mine, what about it?"

"I just remembered, they were all implanted with a tracking device in case of an emergency like now!"

"You only now just remembered that little feature? And why didn't I get told about it?"

"Guess you didn't get the memo huh?"

"Obviously, com'on we have to call the other's, D can track the signal from up top" Darren said as they ran over to Sam and Tom some distance away, whipping out both their cell phones ready to contact the others.

* * *

"Wow, this is a really big place!" Annabelle said as she watched the scenery slow descend downwards as both girls watched through the glass window in the elevator's side.

"I know, come on this is my floor" Mizuki replied as the elevator wend ding, they both stepped out and Mizuki lead the way along a row of doors facing the park down below, not far behind a tall broad shouldered cyborg with red prosthetic eyes exited the next elevator and followed them at a slow pace, careful not to let them spot him.

* * *

Meanwhile, The Major, Batou and Togusa paced quickly down the street towards the apartment complex where Togusa lived, Togusa was keeping pace with the Major, nearly breaking into run as his anxiousness to see his daughter was now more intense than ever.

"_Major, the girls have just entered one of the apartments, number 196 on the 37__th__ floor"_ said Boma

"That's our neighbour Mrs Yamamoto, she babysits the kids when we're not in, thank god Mizuki knew to go there" Togusa sighed as he slowed down slightly

"That's a relief, but what do we do about the girl?" Batou asked

"At this point let's just check she's okay, I'll contact the chief to see what our next move is" the Major replied as they approached the building and headed to the elevators.

* * *

"You only remembered that little detail just a few minutes ago?! We've been running around all over this bloody park when we could have just picked up the tracking signal?" Ashley exclaimed with frustration as the kids stood in a small avenue of maple trees.

"Look it doesn't matter now; the important thing is we now have a means of finding her..." Morri replied putting a hand on Ashley's shoulder to calm him down and tapping the side of her ear piece.

"D, are you tracking the signal right this minute?" she asked

"Not yet, I had to ask Jazz for Annabelle's signal code which he's data-burst to me just now, I have to send out a probe signal which will activate the pendants tracking signal, it might take a minute or two" he replied

"Alright, do it"

Up 300 yards in the air, hovering silently and invisibly , the only inclination of Deathshot's presence was a sudden wave of blue light which only lasted for a tenth of a second, no-one on the ground even noticed it. As the signal went out over the area a blip started to flash on his long-range scanners.

"Got it! I have a confirmed signal; she's approximately 457 yards south of your current position, and 245 feet up in the air"

"She's 245 feet in the air? What's going on?" Morri replied, the others all glanced at one another bemused and leaned in to listen more closely.

"Hold on, I'll go and see exactly where she is" the sniper replied as he swung around and headed in the direction of signal.

* * *

When she opened the door, Hina Yamamoto was surprised to see her neighbour Togusa standing there with another woman and a tall imposing man with pale ash blond hair and prosthetic eyes; she knew the reason why he was here.

"Togusa, thank goodness your here, Mizuki's here, apparently she got separated from her mother at the festival and came all the way back here..." she said as she stood aside to let the detective and his friends come in

"I know, thank goodness she had the sense to come here, is she okay?" he replied.

"She's just fine, she's in the living room and she bought one of her friends along too" the silver-haired middle aged woman replied as she lead the way through to a spacious living area with a couple of sofa's, a small TV in the corner, and seated around the large central coffee table scribbling into some colouring books were his daughter and the little blond girl. Mizuki looked up, and with a big smile got up and ran over to hug her daddy.

"Daddy!" she happily exclaimed as Togusa scooped her up into a bear hug, his worry completely faded into content as he held her tight, Batou smiled as his own anxiety for the girl's well being faded away. While the Major was relieved in her own silent way. She watched as the other girl looked on at the happy reunion.

"Mizuki...don't run off like again okay? You made mommy really scared, and you scared me too" Togusa said as he stroked her hair.

"I'm sorry daddy...hay you wanna meet Annabelle? She's my new best friend!..." she replied as her father put her back down an she ran over to where Annabelle was sitting, the little honey blond stood up and approached the grown-ups with Mizuki, seeing the unsure look on her face, Togusa knelt down closer to her level.

"Hi Annabelle, nice to meet you" he smiled warmly and she in turned smiled back

"Hi" she replied sheepishly

"She got lost like me daddy, she's looking for Morri" Mizuki peeped in

"Morri?"

"She's one of my babysitters, I lost her in the park and I tried looking for her but I couldn't find her anywhere, but then I met Mizuki here and we had a really fun time together!" Annabelle beamed

"You did huh? Well at least your both okay, Mizuki, why don't you go and play with Annabelle for while, daddy's gotta talk with the grown-up's...can you watch them a minute please" Togusa asked Hina as he stood back up and headed back out into the hallway with the Major and Batou, she nodded and went into the living room shutting the door behind her.

"_So now what do we do? Do we let her go back to the other kids or do we take her into custody?" Togusa asked_

"_Chief, are you there?" The major asked_

"_I'm here, Ishikawa's just filled me in on the details on what's happened, I've checked in with the minister of home affairs and he's made it clear that any clue that could lead us to finding those machines cannot be taken lightly no matter how unlikely it may seem and as of now that child is the best and only lead we have" the chief replied_

"_But what about the other suspects? Their still looking for her and by the way they've been searching I doubt they'll be willing to give up" Batou replied_

"_Alright, then track them down and arrest them, the CIS and the military are starting to search for them too so watch your back" _

"_Will-do, chief?, one last thing, about Saito's facial data at Megatec, has there been any word of any data leaks?"_

"_As of yet no, I did inquire with them earlier to ascertain whether they had picked any suspicious activity on their security barriers, they're still checking the systems for any sign of possible back-hacking but it will take a while before anything conclusive shows up, in the meantime, keep your eye on that girl"_

"_Rodger that" _the Major replied as the cybercomm fell silent, for a minute no-one said anything as the uneasy feeling of uncertainty began to creep in, Togusa bought his gaze back up to look at the Major, in the background the laughter of his daughter and her friend could be heard behind the door, making his uneasiness feel more like a taunt.

"So how do we go about arresting them? If we approach them and tell them we have their little friend their only going to be suspicious and suspect foul play on our part" Togusa asked

"And there's no way we can storm their hide out with those machines there, it would be a complete suicide mission, but we can't let the kid go back to her friends if she's now a primary lead in the case" Batou conquered

"We've got to draw them away from the hideout and the machines at the same time...I'm not particularly keen on the idea but we might have to use the girl as bait to lure them out, if they're so worried for her then they will come looking for her, and if we give them the chance to follow her we could apprehend them more efficiently" the Major replied doubtfully.

"It's a sound theory but will the girl be willing to co-operate?" Batou replied

"That all depends, Togusa I want you to keep the girl around for a while, talk to her and see what you learn about her friends and those machines, she's more likely to be responsive while she's in a more relaxed environment and with someone she's familiar with" the Major said

"Since when did you become the expert of how to handle kids?" Batou grinned, she simply shot him a look, Togusa only grinned.

"I'll talk with Mai, I'm sure she'll be okay with letting Annabelle stay for a while, speaking of which I better call her and let her know to come on up" Togusa replied as he stood off to one side and got his cell phone out, the Major and Batou peered through the crack in the door at the two four year olds laughing together as they played.

"You really think using the kid as bait for the others is really a good idea? How can we ensure her or the kids safety if things get dicey?" Batou asked in hushed tone

"It'll be a risk, but if we play our cards right we can safely take them into custody without causing a stir, the last thing we need is for the CIS and the military to wind of the fact we've got one of the prime suspects in custody" she replied, just then, something around Annabelle's neck caught her attention.

"Batou, look at the pendent she's wearing..." she said, motioning to the little one, Batou focused his vision onto a little gold pendent Annabelle had around her neck, in the centre of the pendent was the red face like shield that was on the machines and the cars.

"She's got to know something if she's wearing that" the Major said, as the two agents watched the four year olds play together they had no idea that something else was watching the girls from the balcony.

* * *

"I am directly outside the section of the building Annabelle is in, it would appear she has made herself a little friend, there's another human sparkling approximately her own age in there with her, plus her father and three other individuals" Deathshot said over the direct comm-link to Morri's cell-phone, the kids were all still gathered behind the maple trees, listening to the sniper via the cell-phones loud speaker.

"How can you tell it's her father?" Mikaela asked

"My bio-scan confirms the other girls DNA sequence is a 50% mach to one of the men in there" he replied

"What are they doing now?" Ashley asked

"So far Annabelle and the other girl are playing together, the four other individuals are in the kitchen area of the apartment, my bio-scan's registering that Annabelle's vitals are well within normal human bio-parameter's, she's healthy and unharmed"

"That's a relief" Hailey sighed

"Yeah I guess, anything else going on in there D?" Morri asked

"Two other individual's have just entered the apartment, a female and a male protoform..."

"A mom and her baby?" Becca asked

"Yes a mother and child, the other girl seems very pleased to meet her, their greeting one another with hugs and kisses"

"Must be her daughter" Danny said offhand

"She is, the woman has a 50% DNA match to the girl, and the baby had a 75% match to her too, which would make him her brother"

"So the whole family's together then? Question now is how do we get Anny back? We can't exactly stroll up to the front door and ask, of all the apartments in that one block and we just happen to know she was in that one? It'll freak' em out" Glen said

"Good point, anything else we should know D?" Morri asked

"Yes, they've moved into another apartment, it would seem the one they were in belonged to a neighbour, this one appears to be the family's true home, it's only one apartment along from the previous one, Annabelle is still with them and two of the strangers have walked outside to the front of the apartment"

"Can you hear what's going on in there?" Sam asked

"Only just, there's a lot of ambient static about, the mother is inviting Annabelle to stay for dinner tonight, the other girl is quite delighted by this, and so is Annabelle" replied Deathshot, the other's all looked at one another.

"...Well look on the bright side, there are much worse situations she could be in?" Danny shrugged

"That's true, but while I'm relieved she's with responsible people we still have to address the issue of how we get her back...any thoughts?" Mikaela suggested everyone glanced at each other, wondering what options were open; Darren raised his head with a serious look on his face.

"Anny may not be that couple's kid, but if anything happens they'll try to protect her as best they can if anything drastic were to occur, and if we to just show up and asked for her back they'll want some form of proof, which of course we don't have...I know this may sound a bit drastic guy's, but I think we might have to consider an emergency type 2 evac..." he said, everyone looked at him with uncertainty, not sure what to make of the idea at first, Morri peeked around one of the maple tree at the building where Annabelle was in and wondered whether it was really the right course of action to take.

"It is drastic, but do we really not have any other choices?...D, what's the layout of the building and the surrounding area like?" Morri asked

"The apartment complex has four elevators with two main stairwells, with the apartments themselves lining the main structure, each with its own balcony, but the surrounding area is a network of interconnecting alleyways, pathways and courtyards, it would be easy to get lost or trapped if it were a ground-based evac, if it were airborne all we have to do is wait for Anny to come onto the balcony and I could extract her easily" the sniper replied

"Maybe, but if we run with that plan then we'd have to wait for the right opportunity to do it, we need to make sure Anny's safe but we've got to consider the couple and their kids too...I think, for time being we head back to the hideout and formulate a proper plan, D, can you stay here and keep us updated on what's going on up there?"

"Of course Morri, have you got something in mind?"

"Actually, I've got half an idea, Frenzy, are you listening up?"

Y-y-y-yes?" the hacker replied and peered all four of his blue optics out the side of Darren's back pack

"Frenzy, Can you get up to the apartment somehow? Try and get Anny's attention and tell her we're coming to get her back, keep your comm-link open and stand by for any updates, when we have a plan in place we'll call you and let you know what to do" said Morri

"I-I can do t-that!" he squeaked

"Alright, we'll drop you off next to the building, Glen; can you call the guys and tell them to pick us up nearby? It's too far to walk back to the hideout from here" Sam said, Glen got out his cell-phone and dialled Jazz's direct line as the group started walking in the direction of the building.

"You think it will work? I mean, trying an Autobot-style evac?" Sam asked Morri

"Well, D does have a great big anti-gravity field I have no doubt we can do something with that, actually getting her won't be the problem, it's how we get her out without anyone noticing that'll be the real challenge, but we need to make Anny aware so that she can help us out, hence Frenzy going up" she replied, as the group left the park and approached the residential district, they paced their way across the street and followed the road along, keeping the apartment complex in their line of sight.

Not far behind, the occupants of a large gray van watched the children walked by with suspicious eyes.

* * *

"_Major, the kids just walked past the van, their heading over your way"_ said Ishikawa

"_All together? They're not still looking for the girl?"_She replied

"_Apparently not, their all together and not in a panic anymore"_

"_Tail them, see what they do next"_

"_I'm on it Major" _Saito replied and smoothly existed the van and followed the kids several meters behind. On the terrace outside Togusa's apartment, the Major and Batou watched the large parking lot down below, waiting for their quarry to come into view.

"What are they up to now? Weren't they worried about the kid not 10 minutes ago?" Batou thought aloud

"Something's up or they wouldn't be coming this way, look..." the Major gestured to the small group of kids walk around the corner, across the parking lot and stopped in front of the building. The two agents watched as the kids looked the building up and down.

"Do they know she's here?" Batou said offhand

* * *

"Wow, I wonder how much the rent goes for on this place?" Hailey said as she scanned the building up and down

"It looks pretty spacious, must be a five figure price tag I bet" Sam replied

"This is the side is just the front doors, the balconies must be on the other side, com'on, let's go and see..." Morri said as she walked along a path around the building, Looking all around to check no-one was looking, Darren slipped the backpack off his back and cautiously opened the flap, Frenzy popped his head up and looked around, "looks like no-one's around buddy, come on out you come..." he said and he eagerly jumped out and stretched his cramped limbs.

"Aaah! Th-that's b-better!" he said

"I bet, come on let's see what's round the back?" Darren said and the jittery hacker followed close behind, staying low and hunched over, ready to jump into the nearby bushes if anyone came walking by. Once around the other side of the building the kids saw how the balconies stepped upwards like wedges stacked on top of one another at an angle, from their position on the ground it looked larger than it actually was, and with many of the balconies covered or lined with pot plants and shrubs it was hard to tell which apartment was which.

"Which apartment is Anny in D?" Morri asked over the earpiece

"Walk another 60 yards along..." he replied, Morri walked along, looking up to try and spot the right balcony, "...a little further...alright stop, it's the 37th balcony up from where your standing" he said.

"This is it?" Morri said offhand, the others all looked around at the layout of the grounds. The building sat in a huge circle alongside five other apartment complexes, the area they were in now was a larger circular courtyard garden with a view of the park, the city and a far off highway.

"It is a pretty large space here, loads of room for a type two evac" Darren said offhand

"Okay Frenzy, it's the 37th balcony on this row of apartments here, climb up and wait for when we call, in the meantime try and find a way to grab Anny's attention and tell her we're coming and to stay put, okay?" Morri told the hacker as he looked up and down the building

"37th floor, t-try to tell her we're c-coming, g-g-got it! See y-y-ya!" he replied and in several fast paced leaps he bounded up the side of the building and over each of the balconies, disappearing among the railings and greenery, every now and then the only sign of him was a silver glint.

"I have Frenzy in my view range, and the others have arrived outside the building, don't worry younglings she's okay, and we'll make sure she stays safe, I'll update you with any new developments" Deathshot said over the direct comm-line "okay D, we'll be back later" Morri replied and switched the cell-phones loud speaker off, she took a deep breath and sighed a long deep sigh, the others all looked at each other, feeling somewhat helpless for being able to do anything more.

"Com'on, there's nothing more we can do here, D's in place and Frenzy's even closer on the balcony, let's go back and see what we can come up with" Sam said as he started walking back the way they came, as they came back into view of the parking lot, they saw their Autobot friends waiting for them, as the other's got in Mikaela stopped with her arms folded and sighed a solemn sigh, Morri stopped and laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"What's up? She's okay that's all that matters for now, there's no need to worry" she said

"I know, I'm just...I'm exhausted is all, and the fact she's okay somehow doesn't seem enough to make the worrying go away...is a type 2 evac really necessary? I mean, I know D's anti-gravity field is effective at lifting anything off the ground but, what if it's too dangerous? and what if-"

"Mikaela, she's going to be okay, we just need to organise how we do it that's all, she's with responsible people who are parents themselves and she's not hurt or up-set, and she's made a new friend with the family's daughter to keep her company so we can afford to take our time with this. And besides, D's got his eye on her, don't forget he's a sniper this kind of stake-out is right up his ally of expertise. Look, we both know worrying won't help us now so let's go back to the hideout see what we can plan out alright?" Morri replied, Mikaela looked up at her and sighed with a smile, "Alright...thanks" she quietly replied and putting her arm around the brunette they walked over to Bumblebee, got in and drove off.

However, they failed to notice the one eyed stranger standing behind the thick bushes.

* * *

"_Major, we got a problem, the kids know where the girl is and just said their going to attempt to get her back" _Saito said

"_How do they plan to do that?" _Batou asked

"_I don't know, they said something about a 'type 2 evac'?, but that weird silver spiky robot was with them and just scaled up the apartment balconies, I think its outside Togusa's apartment right now, I couldn't get a good look it moved too fast to keep track of and apparently there's a sniper posted nearby watching the apartment"_

The Major and Batou both looked at one another in surprise

"_Where are the kids now?" _Batou asked

"_They just took off in those unidentified cars, they're going to come back for the girl later, and somehow they know she's safe with Togusa's family"_

The Major frowned in concern

"_Alright, get back to the van and get your equipment, try and locate that sniper and neutralize him, the rest of you remain on standby for further orders, Tachikoma, come over here and keep watch around the perimeter of the building, notify us immediately if they show up again" _she barked

"_Rodger!" _they all replied

"Looks like our opportunity to nab them will come sooner than expected" Batou said

"It looks that way, but at this point it's that sniper we need to be concerned about, if he's watching all that's going on and he saw us in the apartment he'll alert the kids and something could go wrong, for the meantime I want you help Saito catch that sniper, I'll help Togusa keep an eye on the girl and at the same time try to look for that weird little robot, he can't be too far away" The Major replied

"Alright, but how are we going to lay out the trap? If these are only kids we're going arrest then it should be pretty simple"

"If it were any other time I would agree, but something's telling me to careful about this lot, my ghost is whispering that there's more to those kids than what we've just seen so far, and don't forget, if they decide to bring their oversized pets along than we'll be in real trouble"

"That's for sure" Batou replied, the Major turned and quietly re-entered Togusa's apartment, Batou watched as she closed the door and headed over to the elevators to wait for Saito.

* * *

R&R please!


	15. Chapter 14: Waiting

Things are starting to get interesting now.

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or Ghost in the Shell, just my OC's and the plot

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 14: WAITING

"Can I have the pink when you're finished? Becca and Becky's cheeks aren't pink enough" Annabelle asked as she scribbled into her colouring book

"Sure, who's Becca and Becky?" Mizuki asked, "their Hailey's little twin sisters, although I don't see how their little cuz I'm shorter than they are, look..." she replied, showing her friend a picture of a tall girl in pink and two shorter girls decked in blue, in the middle was a big grey, blue and orange robot.

"Who's the robot?" asked Mizuki

"That's Bluestreak, he's Hailey's, Becca's and Becky's guardian, he's really sweet and he likes to talk all the time"

"Cool"

"My, you girls are certainly on roll, look at all these pictures you've drawn; don't you two want to take a break?" Mizuki's mother smiled as she brought in a tray with milk and cookies and sat it down on the coffee table where the girls sat, "Yeah!" they both replied and eagerly grabbed a glass and a cookie each. For the past hour or so Annabelle had been enjoying her stay with the Nobuyoshi's, after Togusa explained to his wife that the little honey blond lost her babysitter in the park she was more than happy to let the girl stay until her parents could be found, she also didn't mind the Major hanging around nearby. But Annabelle wasn't in any rush to go anywhere just yet; she was having too much fun with her new best friend to even think about trying to get back to the hideout. As Mizuki's mother took a seat on the coach next to her daughter Togusa walked in from the kitchen and sat down opposite Annabelle in one of the armchairs.

"So Annabelle, tell us where you live?" Togusa asked as he reached for a cookie

"I live on a farm near Tranquillity" she replied as she took a gulp of milk and started scribbling again.

"Where's that?" Mizuki asked

"In Californian, that's in America, I live there with my mommy and daddy and..." the honey blond suddenly stopped, remembering that her and family's guardian Ironhide was suppose to stay a secret, as well as all the other Autobots, "...my dog skip!" she smiled, hoping that they'd buy into it, no-one seemed to notice so it must have worked.

"You came all the way from America? Are you here on vacation?" Mei asked with a motherly smile

"Kinda" she replied with a hint of uncertainty in her voice

"Well do you know which hotel you're staying in? Maybe we can find your parents there?" Togusa suggested

"We're not staying in a hotel" she replied, starting to feel a little uncomfortable about where this was going.

"Oh? Is it somewhere else then?" Mei asked

"Yeah, it's kinda big, like a house but bigger, I don't remember where it is, we've only been here a few days so I don't remember where it is"

"Oh, well do know where you think your parents might be?" Togusa asked, Annabelle said nothing for a moment as she thought about what to say, she knew where her parents were but knew she couldn't say without explaining that she and her friends fell through a hole in the universe (as she thought of it), she remembered the first night she and the other kids spent together in their new hideout, and remembered what Jazz told her as she sat in the palm of his hand, shortly before she went to bed.

'...Now remember kiddo, I know you've had a real tough day but we're all in this together, you got our back and we've got yours: but remember, if whatever reason we lose you or you get separated from us while we're here, your not to tell anyone where our hideout is, and more importantly, just like back home your not to tell anyone about us Autobot's bein' aliens, okay?'

'Okay Jazz, I won't tell anyone'

She cast her gaze down to her picture, "I don't know where my parents are" she replied quietly, unable to think of any other answer, Togusa and Mei glanced at each other with concern, on the one hand Mei was genuinely worried what would happen if her parents couldn't be found, But Togusa had a feeling the girl knew something else but didn't want to say, Mizuki put a hand on Annabelle's shoulder and smiled.

"Don't be upset, my daddy's a policeman, he can help find your mommy and daddy, right daddy?"

"Well we can certainly try" he smiled; a soft whimper could be heard from one of the bedrooms, which then turned into a cry.

"Oh dear, I better go and see to Haru, excuse me I'll be back in a minute" Mei said as she got up and walked towards the bedroom at the end of the apartment, Togusa leaned over the table and scanned the various pictures that the girls had draw, Mizuki's were all the usual stuff a typical four year old would draw, but Annabelle's were mostly of different people and strange looking robots, some of which had a vague resemblance to the machines he saw on the evening of the botched raid on the Black Lotuses base, one picture that caught his attention in particular was a crude drawing of a grey cat like creature with a big red spot on its face, long spikes on its shoulders and neck and a huge mace like hammer on the end of its long tail, on its back were two riders, one in a red hoodie and a smaller one that looked similar to her, next to the creature was some words saying 'me and Ashley riding kitty'. He also noticed the pendent Annabelle was wearing, and the familiar res face shaped shield on it.

"Okay Haru's all settled down again, I have no idea what on earth spooked him like that" Mei replied as she came back into the room

"Something spooked the little guy?" Togusa asked

"Maybe, I walked in and he was pointing at the window, nothing was there though, it must have been a spider" She replied sitting back down on the sofa

"An iddy biddy spider scared Haru?" Mizuki grinned

"It would seem so dear" Mei smiled, as the family sat together talking, Annabelle glanced over at the glass door that led out onto the balcony, and wondered just what the others were doing right now, unaware that two of them were closer than she thought.

Outside on the ledge above the Nobuyoshi's apartment, Frenzy sat wedged behind two large plant tubs containing some miniature furs and the railing of the baloney right above the apartment he knew Annabelle was still in, he kept his head leaned over the side so as to keep two of his four eyes trained on what was going on inside. For over an hour he had waited patiently for an opportunity where the four year old was by herself, so far he found the bathroom window so that would be his best bet, and it was obscured from sight from the balcony door by a couple of tall bushes, he also peered into one of the other windows but found it was occupied by a baby who was fairly surprised to see him there. Once or twice he had to scurry back up the ledge and hide when a woman with purple hair came out onto the balcony, she seemed to be looking for something as she scanned the terraces, but went back in again. Deathshot had also maintained his position several meters away from the balcony, while he had his scanners trained on the apartment, some strange goings on had caught his attention a few doors along.

"**H-h-how's everything l-looking through y-your scanners?" **the jittery silver bot asked the sniper over the comm-link

"**Nothing's changed, but something's going on in one of the other apartments along the building; there are two men stationed at the window and one of them must be a sniper because there's a high powered 50 calibre long range rifle set up"** Deathshot replied

"**Sh-should we be worried?"**

"**I don't think so; he's aiming at one of the apartments in the building behind me, whoever he's intending to kill obviously hasn't shown up yet"**

"**Sh-should we do anything?"**

"**No, as much as I'm tempted to step in and stop him, we can't blow our cover, don't worry, if anything happens I've got it covered, don't forget I am a sniper myself I can handle him easily...but there is some sort of comm frequency going in and out of that room" **he replied smoothly

"**A c-c-c-comm frequency like ours?"**

"**No its frequency wavelength is not anywhere as complex as ours; this is a much more primitive kind of comm-link"**

"**H-humans w-with comm-links?"**

"**Apparently so, we are in another version of earth after all, it would seem Darren could be right about an alternate version of humanity possessing and alternate kind of technology...quite fascinating" **

"**What are t-they s-saying?"**

"**I didn't tap into the frequency so I don't know what's being said; besides we've got our priorities to be concerned about, you keep your optics on Annabelle"**

"**Yeah yeah! I-I-I g-got it covered!" **the hacker retorted as he went back to spying on the family, in the apartment five doors down from the Nobuyoshi residence a different set of events was going down.

* * *

"I don't get it, that apartment is the only place with a clear line of sight to Togusa's place but no-one's home, the only other place with a clear view is the adjoining building and the Tachikoma's already have that place covered" Saito sighed in frustration as he peered through the scope of his rifle at the apartment of the building directly across the way.

"Is it possible could he be anywhere else?" Batou asked as he stayed low to the floor

"He could, but all the other likely places only give sideways views, there's no way he could tell what was going on inside from those angles" the sniper replied

"I know the girl said he was a sniper but what if he's not looking to shot anyone? If it's only the girl they want and he's simply using his sniper skills to spy on the apartment then surely he wouldn't risk the kid's life if they want her back alive?" Batou said offhand

"Maybe, but if they want her desperately enough then the guy might be armed and ready in case anything happens, but I don't see why he'd try anything, from all the most likeliest positions the winds not in his favour today, he wouldn't be able to squeeze off a clean shot in any direction; besides, if he's watching the kid from a place we don't know about then this guys a pro who knows what he's doing"

"_In that case it might be an idea to spread out the search and cover a larger area, we don't know when those kid will show up again and we need to have our nets set in place ready to catch' em"_ Ishikawa said

"Right now I doubt they'll do anything in broad daylight, but the question is how are they going it? And from what direction?" Batou replied

"_At this point I'm not ready to say it's anyone's guess, it's been over an hour and I still can't find that damn robot, wherever he is it's a damn good hiding place" _said the Major

"_Well I saw climb up in the direction of Togusa's apartment, maybe he's-"_

Saito stopped dead in his tracks when he carefully peered out the window along the balconies and saw what was crouched low to the ground behind some fir trees.

"_Saito? What's wrong?" she asked_

"_Major, I just caught sight of him; he's on the balcony above Togusa's place behind the bushes"_

"_What's it doing?" _

"_I don't know, it's just sitting there not moving" _he replied, both Saito and Batou watched from their positions as they saw the Major slowly step onto the balcony and the robot carefully crept back along the upper balcony, keeping its body low and it's head down, making sure to stay out of the Major's line of sight.

"_He's crept back along the balcony, Major what do we do now?" _Batou asked, the Major thought for a moment before replying; _"Let's keep an eye on him and see what he does, if he's watching the girl too then he's probably in contact with the sniper, wherever he is" _she replied

"_Does Togusa know?" Saito asked_

"_Don't worry, I'm not worried about him, it's Annabelle I'm more concerned about" _He replied

"_Why's that?" _Batou asked, dropping his gaze

"_We've been talking for a little while now and I think she knows something she doesn't want to say, she's either afraid or trying to protect her friends"_

"_Why not just ask her up front? If she knows something about those machines just tell her to tell you" _Saito asked curtly

"_What good is that going to do? She's already uncomfortable talking about it as it is I can't push her, plus my daughter hasn't left her side for one minute, I can't say anything with my family still in the room" _Togusa replied, slightly annoyed at the snipers attitude.

"_It doesn't matter what she says now, we'll be taking her back to HQ as soon as we arrest her friends, they'll be able to give us everything we need to know about those machines, for now, we keep on surveying the apartment, you two keep your eyes on that robot but also keep looking for that sniper"_ the Major replied, Batou sighed and leaned against the wall.

"What's up with you? Bringing on the attitude like that?" the big cyborg asked

"What? I was just saying if she knows something why doesn't she just tell us?" he replied impassively, his face not betraying his frustration at how tedious this situation was.

"She's only a little kid Saito, pushing her to tell us anything more is only going to make her feel even more uncomfortable, we can't rush this you know that"

"I know...it's just, I can't stop thinking about why my face was on that machine is all" the sniper sighed

"It's weird I'll admit, if it's some kind of revenge for a past sin that's understandable"

"But it wasn't just my face that thing had, it had my voice, and more I think"

"Now you're starting to get paranoid, don't let it get to you we'll find out the reason why when we nab the kids" Batou smiled

"Don't worry, I intend to listen in on that interview" Saito replied as he peered through the scope of his rifle again.

* * *

"**Deathshot, Frenzy, how's Anny doing over there, any changes?" **Jazz asked over the comm-link

"**She's still enjoying herself with the family, how's the planning coming on?" **the Autobot sniper replied

"**That's what I'm contacting you two for, listen up cuz we got a plan in place on how we're gonna do this..." **

"**G-g-go on" **Frenzy replied

"**We're gonna go along with the type 2 evac as originally thought, which mean's your gonna do the actual extraction D-man, but first we're gonna need you to send out a low-level EMP field over a five mile radius to take out all the lights so as the drones can slip in, their gonna both be bring'in Sam, Mikaela, Tom, Morri and Ashley, Ashley will be with Ravage and Scorpy on the ground in case the family take Anny down to the ground level, Tom and Sam will by the elevators in case she's able to come out the front and Morri and Mikaela will be on the balcony in case she can get out the back. Deathshot, in order for this to work we're gonna need to know, when Ratchet installed the BSHB receiver did he mention anything about being able to disengage any of the settings?" **Jazz asked

"**He did say that the disks security protocol programming can be switched to autonomous mode so as the disks wearer can be in full control of the anti-gravity field, repulser force-field and shied, but in order for the disks functions to work in autonomous mode without losing power too quickly I'd have to give the disks an infusion of some of my type 4 nanites, you know, the ones that can interface with organic matter? Plus they'll enable the wearers to fully control the functions themselves" **the sniper replied

"**Alright, Ravage and Scorpy will bring the kids to you, you'll hoist 'em up into your under-carriage and give the shot of nanites and then drop' em off at their posts, Frenzy, your gonna have to step up your efforts and try and get a hold of Anny's attention, tell her we're comin to get her and to be ready to go, tell her to try an' find a way out through either the front or the back, if she can't get out by herself then try an' find a way to sneak in an' give her a hand. Either way this whole op is goin' down at midnight tonight so maintain your positions and stay sharp" **the first lieutenant said

"**Copy that" **they both replied as Jazz's end of the comm-link went silent.

"**M-m-midnight tonight? Q-q-quite a wait until then" **the little hacker said offhand

"**Indeed, but doing the extract under the cover of darkness would be the best policy, and with a low-level EMP field to take out all the lights we will have all the cover we need" **Deathshot replied

"**Y-yeah...hay! s-she's going to the bathroom!" **he squeaked

"**Go!" **the sniper replied and Frenzy quickly crawled down the side of the ledge and crawled along the underside of the ledge until he was hanging upside down in front of the bathroom window, inside he could see the familiar shade of honey blond through the frosted glass window.

* * *

As Annabelle washed her hand in the bathroom sink a light tapping on the window caught her attention, through the frosted glass she saw the familiar shape of Frenzy's head peering in upside down.

"Frenzy!" she hissed and quickly climbed up onto the toilet to reach the window and open it, Frenzy quickly climbed in and perched on the side of the bath tub.

"What are you doing here?" she whispered, glancing over at the door, worried that the others might overhear, Frenzy quickly caught on and replied in a hushed voice.

"I-I-I came t-t tell you that t-the other's are coming t-to bring you b-back" he whispered

"Bring me back? When?"

"At m-midnight tonight, y-you need to be r-ready, Sam, Tom, Mikaela and M-M-Morri are gonna come and g-get ya and Deathshot's gonna airlift us outta here"

"Where are they now?"

"Still back at t-t-the h-hideout a-and Deathshot's r-right outside the balcony, l-l-listen, can you try an' f-find a w-way outta here?" Frenzy asked, Annabelle was answer but dropped her gaze with a sad face, glancing over at the door and hearing Mizuki and Haru giggling together in the lounge.

"W-w-what's wrong?" the hacker asked, dipping his down in front of her to catch her attention

"I...I don't know if I want to go just yet, Mizuki's my best friend and Mr and Mrs Nobyoshi are real nice people, do I have to go back to the hideout Frenzy?" for a minute the hacker wasn't sure how to respond at first, then, thinking that her more sympathetic nature might get the better of her, he clasped his clawed hands together and replied in a soft sympathetic manner;

"W-w-well?...e-everyone's been l-looking for you a-all day, w-we searched all o-over the park for y-you all morning and Mikaela and Morri have been so upset, e-e-everyone r-r-really m-misses you y-youngling, and b-besides, wh-when Prime and the other's come looking for us, what are w-we gonna say when we go h-home and you're not w-with us? Wh-what will we t-tell your creators? They'll be so u-upset to never see you again"

"Never see mommy or daddy again?"

"Youngling, I-I-I'm sure t-these people a-a-are really nice a-and f-f-friendly, but w-w-we are your f-family, do we not m-m-matter to you too?" he pleaded with the best puppy eyes he could muster.

"Of course I care about you..." she replied, she turned her eyes away for a brief moment in thought and looked back up again, "...how upset is everyone?"

"They m-m-miss you a l-lot...b-b-but you're not in t-trouble, e-e-everyone just wants y-you back s-s-safely"

"If I go back, can I see Mizuki again some time?"

Frenzy paused a minute

"I-I-I d-don't know...you'll have to talk with Jazz..." he replied, the sound of approaching footsteps outside made him leap back up to the window, he quickly leaned back down next to the girls face.

"R-r-remember, we're comin at m-midnight, wait, till all the lights go out and t-try to get out, if y-you can't g-get out, come i-in here and open the w-window to let me in a-a-and I'll help you out, remember, T-Tom and Sam w-will be out the front b-by the e-elevators and M-Morri and Mikaela will be on the balcony, j-j-just be ready to go at midnight, got it?"

"Okay, I'll see you then, bye!" she called after him as he climbed back out through the window and disappeared over the ledge of the balcony above, a knock on the door got Annabelle's attention.

"Annabelle, it's me, who are you talking to in there?" Mei asked

"No-one, just talking to myself" she replied as she opened the door and walked back out into the living room, around the corner standing next to the spare bedroom, completely invisible thanks to therm-optic camouflage , the Major peered around the corner and watched the girl the rejoin Togusa's family, and smiled a secret smile to herself.

* * *

"_Did you all get that?" _she said over the open cybercomm line

"_Yep, loud and clear" _Batou replied

"_So they're going to attempt an airlift? How are they going to do that? The balconies don't allow much space for even a chopper to land nedalone try and hover overhead, and even then it's not a very stealth way to grab a kid" _Ishikawa said

"_Perhaps, but he said two of them will be out the front and two of them will be on the balcony and he said to wait until the lights go out, are they gonna try to cut the power to the apartment?" _Batou asked

"_If they do then they probably don't have therm-optics, or not good ones at least, if the place is blacked out then it's a pretty desperate way to snatch her back, which could suggest their not very experienced" _the Major replied

"_Well they are kids after all, if their wet behind the ears then grabbing them in the act will be a piece of cake" _Batou replied

"_Even so, but don't forget, we've got a four year old right in the middle of all this so we've got to be very careful how we handle this, not to mention Togusa's family, we'll have to let her escape out of the apartment and make her way to one of the waiting kids" _the Major said

_So until then we sit tight and wait?" Batou asked_

"_Pretty much, oh and Togusa, do you think your wife will object to Annabelle having a little sleepover tonight?" _the Major asked

"_I don't see why not, I know Mizuki will be delighted" _the detective replied

"_I'm sure she will, and don't forget to leave the bathroom window open tonight, we'll try and catch that robot too, for now everyone maintain your position, but come back to the van at 22:00 hundred hours, we'll get ready, debrief and take up our positions around the apartment, one way or another, we're getting those kids" _she said firmly.

* * *

R&R please!


	16. Chapter 15: In The Dark Of The Night

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, Just my OC's and the plot

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 15: IN THE DARK OF THE NIGHT

The afternoon waned away quietly and uneventfully, the cherry blossom festival had carried on well into the evening and as the sky turned gold and crimson with the setting sun the sounds of the festival drifted over the tops of the tree's, towards the forgotten storage houses, forgotten to all but a group of kids and their alien robot guardians. Sitting on the roof watching the changing colours of the sun light up the sky, Ashley sat with a serious expression on his face, a sense of anticipation for tonight was making his stomach tense and his mind was too deep in thought to notice the sound of footsteps behind him.

"What vexes your thoughts youngling?" Ravage growled, speaking in 'dronese', the language he and Scorponok used to communicate with the humans, Ashley jerked his head up in surprise and acknowledged the horse sized panther with a small smile.

"Thinking about tonight?" he asked as he sat down beside the boy

"Kinda, you know, I'm a little surprised Jazz said I can go along with you and Scorper's as back-up, I was kinda expecting someone to step in and say something like, it'll be too risky or I might be too young to do something so risky..." he said in thought

"It's because your reliable that you were chosen, don't worry about it, it's not like we're preparing to go behind enemy lines" the cat chuckled, "don't worry, all we'll be doing is making sure no-one's around to see us. Some may be doubtful of your abilities but I'm thinking this night will be a good chance for you to prove them otherwise"

"You think?" Ashley asked

"Indeed, remember that prank you, me, Tom and the lambo twits pulled off on Red Alert the week before all this happened? You displayed quite a knack for stealth and guile, and good loyalty for not ratting anyone out, a job like this is right up your way of that kind expertise" he growled in response

"You know, to be honest, I'm surprised Jazz put me in charge of everyone's safety while we're stuck in this world, not that I'm complaining" Ashley said quietly

"He thinks the responsibility will help to tame your impetuousness"

Heh, as if that'll ever happen, nope, I'll never be tamed, I'm a rebel without a cause through and through!" the boy chuckled

"Indeed, I'd certainly wouldn't want it any other way, you and me, we're a cut above the rest youngling" Ravage growled in satisfaction and nuzzled the boy on the side of his head

"Yeah..." he replied petting the cats head, as the sun turned crimson red, the whole forest seemed to radiate in ember light, Ravages armour glistened with tints of pink and red, his one red optic seemed to burn even brighter in the dyeing light of the day.

"So what else is glitching around in that organic processor of yours?" Ravage purred, Ashley gave him a sideway's glance and looked back at the bright red sun. "Nothing in particular, just a feeling of how tonight's going to go down...I can't explain it but something's telling me to be real careful about this, like's something unexpected going to happen..." he replied, uncertain of his answer.

"You'd be a fool to ignore those feelings; it's only natural to be apprehensive on your first time doing something like this, your young so a little first-hand experience will do good to shape your intuition" the cat replied, he gazed his one red optic across the tree tops, watching the crows fly in to roost in their nests, their cawing cries echoed across the top of the forest as the sounds of the other Autobots could be heard moving around in the storage house down below, Ashley turned around to face the distant cityscape peering over the trees, far away the tall skyscrapers of the central metropolis sparkled and glowed in radiant hues of reddish pink and orange as the low-lying sun lit the whole city up as if it were a blacksmiths ever-burning furnace.

"Wow...the city looks like its on fire..." he said offhand, Ravage turned around to see what he was talking about; the radiance of the scene caught the cat's attention too. There they both sat together quietly as the sun dipped below the horizon and the sky slowly turned from red and pink, to periwinkle and lilac to a deep cobalt blue, the evening star twinkled like a precious diamond in a veil of deep blue velveteen, in the distance the city began to light up as the all the street lights illuminated the roadways and the numerous skyscrapers lit up the sky in shades of orange and green.

"We better start making the final preparations for later" said Ravage as stood up and stretched out his front quarters.

"Yeah..." Ashley replied as scooted over to the ladder at the edge of the roof and started climbing down, Ravage simply stepped to the edge and leapt down to ground in one jump.

Far across the park, in the residential district, Annabelle stood on the balcony watching the city come alive with the coming of the night, the metropolis seemed to take on a different personality as the sun went down and the stars began to emerge from the darkening sky, the sounds, the smells, even the people seemed to change, down below all the crowds going in and out of the park had thinned out and the festival was now illuminated by a series of colourful flood lights, all the cherry trees looked like fluffy clumps of cotton candy. It was a beautiful sight, but the little honey blonde wasn't smiling as a more pressing matter weighed on her young mind.

"Beautiful sight isn't it?" Togusa said as he strolled out into the night air,

"Mm hmm" she replied as she watched him approach.

"You know, when we first moved here into this apartment, we didn't mind it being small as long as we had this view to look at, it always makes us smile" he grinned

"It is pretty; I've never seen a city this big before, even Tranquillity isn't this big back home" she replied quietly, for a long moment they stood watching the scenery down below, overhead a news chopper flew by into the vast maze of skyscraper's. As Togusa leaned on the railing, he noticed the clouded expression on the honey-blonde's face, as if she was worried about something.

"So what's on your mind? You didn't speak much over dinner, you missing your mom and dad?" Togusa asked

"Kinda" she simply replied, Togusa dropped his gaze of a moment as a feeling of doubt came over his thoughts, he didn't want to mislead to her but unfortunately duty called first.

"Well, tomorrow, we'll go to police HQ and we'll try and find your folks, they've got to be out there somewhere in that big ol' city" he smiled sympathetically.

"Yeah" she replied in a whisper of a voice and dropped her head in a sulk, knowing her parents weren't anywhere out there, that they were far further away than anyone could imagine.

"There you are!" Mizuki beamed as she skipped out onto the balcony, Annabelle smiled as her friend came up to her side and hooked one arm around hers, her mother followed out close behind with a couple of sweaters, "you girls will catch your death of cold if you don't put these on" she smiled as she helped Mizuki put hers on, Annabelle slipped hers on over her head easily, "thanks mommy, can we watch the fireworks now?" Mizuki asked, "Fireworks?" Annabelle asked. "In the park, they have a fireworks display as part of the cherry blossom festival, we always watch it from here every year" Togusa replied, "Have you ever seen fireworks Annabelle?" Mizuki asked, "Of course, ever year on the fourth of July we have fire fireworks" she replied, speaking of which, look! The display's starting!" Mei smiled as a streak of orange light shot up over the cherry trees and exploded in a blast of pink and yellow lights, the blast echoed off and around all the buildings. The two girls watched in excitement as the sky lit up in a rainbow of colours and one by one every explosion was as dazzling as the last, Annabelle allowed herself to feel a small measure of happiness despite her uncertainty about what would be going down later.

On the ledge above the balcony Frenzy watched the family as they enjoyed the spectacle and Deathshot had maintained his position several meters away from the balcony, being this close he watched Annabelle and the family as they lost themselves in the excitement of watching the fireworks display, he couldn't help but smile in amusement, it was amazing how humans always found delight in such simple things like low-level explosive pyrotechnic devices to amuse themselves, it was one of those strange little quirks that never failed to make him smile, if anything it was and part and part of what made him warm up to humanity in the first place and it gave him a small measure of reassurance to know that the human race of this world didn't appear to be any different than the humans he knew back in his world. The family watched the show until it finished 55 minutes later, at which time they wandered back inside out of the night air as the temperature steadily dropped, the Autobot sniper kept his high-end scanners tuned on Annabelle's bio signature, watching her every move through the walls of the apartment as she moved along into one of the other rooms, he also noted the presence of another older female in the apartment that had been there since Annabelle first arrived to the apartment.

Inside the apartment, the Nobuyoshi's were getting ready to bed down for the night. "Here you go Annabelle, you can borrow Mizuki's spear pyjamas, and I'll go and find a spear toothbrush in the bathroom closet" Mei said as she exited the kids bedroom, "Thanks Mrs Nobuyoshi" Annabelle replied, at one end of the room little Haru was fast asleep in his crib and laid out on the floor next to Mizuki's bed was an inflated air-mattress with a large sleeping bag sitting on top with a pile of pillows at the head of the make-shift bed. After Togusa had read the girls a bedtime story and tucked them in he turned out the lights and glanced back at them with a fatherly smile.

"Night night girls, don't stay up too late chatting now" he chuckled

"Night night daddy", "Night night Mr Nobuyoshi" they both replied as he gently closed the door, as Mizuki shuffled around under the sheets she noticed the distant look on Annabelle's face as she watched the kitty faced clock on the wall.

"What's wrong?" she asked, Annabelle glanced back at her, then at the door to make sure it wasn't open, she opened the sleeping bag and scooted over to the edge of the bed, beckoning Mizuki to come closer.

"Mizuki, can you keep a secret?...can you cross your heart and SWEAR on your life you won't tell anyone anything I tell you?" Annabelle whispered

"I swear I won't tell" she replied, crossing her heart

"Okay listen...I'm going to be leaving here at midnight"

"You're leaving? Why?" Mizuki asked in surprise

"Cuz my friends know I'm here, they're gonna be coming for me tonight to take me back to our hideout, they know I've been here the whole day" Annabelle replied, a little nervous that her friend might think she was running away to upset her.

"If they know you're here why didn't they come earlier?" Annabelle paused a minute, wondering how to reply, one the one hand she knew she was bound not to tell the truth about the Autobots but at the same time she knew she couldn't lie to her new best friend, with a nervous gulp she took a deep breath and sighed.

"Listen Mizuki...You know those robots I drew earlier, the one's I told you were my imaginary friends?"

"The Autobots? Yeah I liked them" she smiled

"Well...I only pretended they were imaginary....their actually real"

"The Autobots are real?"

"Yeah...and their my friends, that's why their coming for me tonight, they want me to be safe is all, and Morri and Mikaela and Sam, Tom and Ashley are coming too"

"Didn't you say Morri was your babysitter?"

"And Mikaela too, they've been really upset since I went missing earlier today, and I don't want them to be upset anymore...Their my best friends Mizuki, I can't just leave them"

"But I thought I was your best friend?"

"You are my best friend Mizuki and you always will be, but....this isn't my home, and my mommy and daddy are waiting for me to come home....you said earlier that you'd help your daddy find my friends, did you really mean that or were you just saying it?" Annabelle pleaded as tears threatened to well up in her blue eyes, Mizuki looked at her best friend and wasn't sure what to think, was it really fair of her to keep her away from her friends? Or even her family? She wanted Annabelle to stay to stay here and be her best friend, she was funny, she liked the same things she did and they both agreed on everything, but then, a feeling of guilt began to pang at the back of her mind and she thought of how it would be if she was in the same position. With a sigh and a heavy heart, Mizuki replied;

"No, I wasn't just saying it, we're best friends and best friends don't just say something and not mean it"

"Thank you, so, I need to find a way out of here, can you help me please?"

"We'll wait until mommy and daddy are asleep and I'll unlock the front door"

"Actually, Morri and Mikaela are gonna be on the balcony, I just need to sneak out the bathroom window"

"Alright...but, how are they gonna get on the balcony?"

"I don't know, but all I do know is that I'm gonna be airlifted outta here"

"Cool!"

As the girls continued to chat, Frenzy watched them from on top of the ledge above the bedroom window.

"**H-h-how much longer d-do we h-h-have to wait?" **he said in an agitated mood

"**It's only 20:00 hours, we've got another four hours to go yet, just be patient" **Deathshot replied with a sigh, Frenzy certainly wasn't cut out for such long-term surveillance, as the sniper kept one of his scanners on the girls, he noticed all the adults in the apartment were congregated in the kitchen, talking about something, the decibels were too low for him to pick up, even at this close range, then, the mother went back into one of the bedrooms and both the father and unidentified woman went to the front door and left the apartment together. Strange activity for this time of night but not classed as a threatening concern, Deathshot trained his scanners back on the two young girls.

* * *

3 ½ hours later

* * *

The crowds had long since vacated the park, tired and worn from the day's activity, everyone from the tourists to the diehard Hanami enthusiasts had retreated to other places, be it home or elsewhere. The cherry trees were still illuminated by the multicoloured lights, the rest of the park however stood in silent darkness with only the moons silver light lighting up the vast wide fields of glass and street lamps lit up the main pathways with a pale greenish tint, candy wrappers, drinks cans and other such pieces of trash lay discarded around the overfilled bins and the countless small piles of cherry blossom petals lined the flowerbeds, pathways and fields, no-one was around, not even the trash collectors. On the edge of the park the trees that designated the park boundary stood tall and still, no wind was blowing tonight and the long shadows they cast made the forest beyond look like a dark and forbidding place, as if creatures from a dark fairytale were lurking about within.

From out the pitch blackness of the trees, two large shapes moved silently towards the park boundary, stealthily moving through the undergrowth like some strange ethereal spirits, from out the blackness a round red light glowed like a dyeing ember on a fire, attached to it was the shape of a large panther-like creature with two figures on its back, next to it a set of four red eyes glowed with intensity, they belonged to a huge scorpion shaped creature with three riders on its back, their heads just under a long sword like stinger, the panther stepped forward into the far off light of the street lights and took a long look all around, it's front rider leaned forward and tapped the button of a small earpiece.

"Okay D we're in position and ready to move, requesting clearance to move in on target location" Ashley said as he looked around at the park from on Ravages back, Scorponok stepped forward a little too, revealing Tom, Sam and Mikaela all dressed in black and with their sweater hoods up, Ashley and Morri who sat on Ravage's back were also in black.

"Requesting clearance to move in on target location? Where do you think you are, Vietnam?" Tom chuckled from where he sat on Ravage's back, even the scorpion couldn't help but giggle a little, to which Ravage shot him a glance which promptly shut him up.

"Hay I'm just trying to be professional! Jazz did let me join the team after all, and in case you forgot, me and the guys here are responsible for looking after you guys" the 12 year old retorted, Ravage growled in agreement.

"I'm still not wholly sure what Jazz was thinking when he gave you that job" Sam said

"Hay! I-"Ashley was about to mouth off when he felt his elder cousins hand land upon his shoulder, he promptly shut up before he said anything else.

"Hay come on, we've got a job to do and it's nearly time, Deathshot, are we clear to go yet?" Morri said into her earpiece, speaking over the direct comm-line to the Autobot sniper.

"**Hang on one moment, I'll do a final scan of the area"** he replied

From his position up in the air, the sniper silently moved into the centre of where all the building complexes stood and opened his scanner range to cover the whole area down below and all around; as he slowly scanned he picked up the many bio-signatures of sleeping humans, their brain activity, heart rates and breathing rates ware all half of what they were when they were awake. Everything seemed alright at first but as his scanners swept over one far off building, a worrying reading suddenly flashed in his processor, he focused his scanner in on the anomaly and was surprised to see it was the sniper from earlier with same 50 calibre long range rifle, with the gun aimed at the apartment complex Annabelle was in, a flair of alarm quickly shot through his spark as he noticed the sniper hadn't taken his aim yet, who or what was his target going to be?

"**Younglings, we have a problem, there's a sniper in one of the buildings in full view of the apartment complex" **he said,the kids all looked at one anotherin worry, as they too heard him over their own ear pieces.

"What's his target D? Where's he aiming for?" Morri asked

"**He's not taken aim yet so he's still waiting for his target to come along, I highly doubt he's here for us but just to be safe come around from the north east side of the courtyard, from his potion the buildings are too close together to squeeze off a clean shot and the trees should provide you plenty of cover, other than that your okay to go, I'll be sending out the EMP field at 23: 45 hours, from where you are it should take both Ravage and Scorponok approximately 13.35 minutes to run here at full speed, we'll rendezvous on the far north side of the courtyard, from there, I'll upgrade your BSHB's and direct you to your positions"**

"Alright, the second the lights go out, we'll make a dash for it, see you there D" Morri replied

"This is kind of exciting, almost mission impossible kinda exciting" Sam said as the butterflies in his stomach started rise up

"Slow down Tom Cruise we're only getting Anny back, we'll be in and out before anyone even realises we're there" Mikaela replied

"And it's because no-one knows us here that will make this all the more easier" Ashley grinned as he held on tight to Ravages armour ridge.

* * *

"_Alright, is everyone in position?" _The Major asked over the cybercomm.

"_We're in position in the south stairwell" _Pazu replied

_Us too, we have all the entrances to the courtyard on lockdown!" _the Tachikoma's replied

"_We're in position in the north stairwell"_ Batou replied

"_Good, that thing said wait until the lights go out, so that's when we get ready to roll people, Ishikawa, keep an eye on the main power distributer stations nearby, if they're going to turn off the power but causing a blackout they'll go to one of three nearest one's first, from there they'll head straight here" _the Major said, Batou could practically hear the smirk in her voice.

"_Rodger that" _Ishikawa replied, the Major watched the small spiky robot from inside the apartment along from where the robot was, as it moved slightly the moonlight glinted off its metal body, making it look like a moving pile of sharp silver glass shards, it's face was insect like with four blue lights on the ends of stalks, it was creepy, almost alien in design. She wondered how something that thin and looked like a spiky skeleton could possible function, she couldn't see any visible battery pack, or anything else that was recognisable, she bought up the internal clock in her cyberbrain and saw it was 23:40, suddenly; the robot started to twitch erratically and stopped still, as if something spooked it.

'Looks like the shows about the start early' the Major though to herself, she readied the gun that she held in the heads and got into position.

* * *

"**I-i-i-is that sniper g-gonna be a p-problem?" **Frenzy asked, twitching erratically

"**No I can easily take care of him, but right now that unidentified woman from earlier is standing at the window of the next door apartment" Deathshot replied**

"**Wh-what's she doing?"**

"**I think she's spotted you"**

"**WH-WHAT!"** he squeaked and froze still, slowly he turned around to the window along the terrace and saw, standing in the darkness of the room by the window was the silhouetted outline of a woman.

* * *

The Major froze as the robot slowly turned its head around face the window, for the longest tensest moment the thing looked straight her, like a cat caught in the headlights it's four blue eye-like lights glowed out of the darkness, she didn't move for fear off spooking it. The thing slowly turned its head back around and gently crawled towards the edge of the balcony.

* * *

"**Sh-she d-d-d-did see me!, what do I-I do now now?" **Frenzy squeaked in a panicky voice as he leaned over the side of the balcony ledge, edger to get down to the bathroom window

"**Hold your position and stay calm, my scanner shows she's armed with a fully loaded semi-automatic rifle"**

"**I-i-is she aiming at me?"**

"**Not at the moment, but stay still, if she aims I'll take care of the weapon, you just get ready to wait for Annabelle, the other's will be hear shortly"**

**Yeah well j-j-just h-hurry up and send out that E-EMP a-already!!" **The hacker nervously retorted.

Back on the outskirts of the park, the little retrieval group stood ready to move, Sam looked down at his digital watch which showed the time to be 23:44 pm

"Any minute now guys" he said

"Hold tight, I'm going to be going pretty fast" Ravage growled

"Don't forget to lean in on the curves, that way you won't fall off" Scorponok said waving one claw

"Yeah well I'm still worried about falling off at the speed you guys go" Sam said as he gripped the scorpions armour tightly.

"Ah you don't take enough risks in life Witwicky, try being a little daring once in a while!" Ashley grinned

"Easy for you to say wild horse, Not all of us are worried about breaking our necks while doing 80 miles per hour on the back of a giant alien scorpion" Sam retorted

"Stow the chatter you two! We move the second those lights go out" Morri hissed, the group fell silent as they watched the streetlights shining down on the pathways.

"Wait for it...." Ashley said as he flipped his night vision goggles on, building up the tension as the drones tensed up, the kids all felt the adrenaline begin to rise in anticipation for the sudden burst of speed they knew they would accelerate to, they gripped the armour tightly, squeezed their legs tightly around their bodies and leaned as far forward as they could go.

"**Alright younglings, EMP field going out in 5...4...3...2...1..."**

* * *

"_Batou, I think that thing spotted me, it-"_The Major didn't have time to finish as a sudden flash of blue light emanated from some distance outside the window followed by a sharp burst of static on the cybercomm, the Major gripped her head as a white hot pain shot through her head and down her spine, the static sounded more like a high-pitched scream, for a second she nearly fell over backwards from the shock but just as quickly as it came on the pain swiftly disappeared leaving a numb feeling of relief in its wake, the Major looked around and noticed the all the lights in the district had gone out.

"_B-Batou? Are you still there" _she said groggily

"_Uuh...what the hell was that?" _he replied, sounding like he was half drunk

"_I don't know, did anyone else feel that just now?"_ she asked

"_Yeah we got it" _Pazu replied

"_Me too, I nearly fell down the stairs"_ Boma replied

"_What the hell was it? _Togusa said

"_It felt like a bolt of lightning just went through my head" _Saito said

"_Major! Our bodies have lost all power! Our agent functions are still intact but we can't move or do anything on the ground!!!" _the Tachikoma's yelped in a panic, the Major stopped a second, trying to absorb what she just heard, she was about to say something else when Ishikawa came in over the cybercomm.

"_Major! All the lights everywhere have just gone out and all the computers and dive terminals here in the van have lost all electrical power, the cybercomms are the only thing still working!" _

"_Alright, everyone maintain your positions, we'll worry about what just happened after we apprehend the suspects!" _the Major barked

* * *

The lights suddenly went out across the residential district and the whole park everywhere was turned to instant darkness. "Okay, let's GO!" Ashley shouted and in an instant the drones were off like a shot, Ravage galloped at break-neck speed across the park as Scorponok kept pace close behind him, as both drones speed towards into the residential area the kids held on tight, moving in sync to the undulation of the drone's bodies and leaning into every sharp twist and turn, at the speed they were going at and the smoothness of the drones quick-paced movements, it was like riding on the jet-stream, it was fast, dangerous, but so enthralling and exhilarating as they flew over the pathways, flowerbeds, in between the trees and into the residential district.

In the apartment, Annabelle was putting on her shoes while Mizuki was packing her back pack for her. "That's everything, you're ready to go" Mizuki whispered, "Okay" Annabelle replied as she threw on the backpack and stood before Mizuki.

"I guess we better find a way out now huh?" she said

"Come on, I'll open the bathroom window for you..." Mizuki said as she softly tip-toed out the bedroom with Annabelle at her back, together they tip-toed to the bathroom and gently closed and locked the door, seeing that the window was already wide open, "I better check to see if they're here first" Annabelle whispered as she climbed up onto the toilet and leaned out the window, she smiled when she saw Frenzy's face peering down at hers from the ledge above.

"Frenzy! Are the others here yet?" she hissed

"N-n-n-nonono! S-stay put!" he replied

"Okay..." she came back in a and carefully climbed down "Their not here yet, we can wait a few minutes"

"Okay....Annabelle?"

"Yeah?"

"I want you have this..." Mizuki held out a small pendent with the black halve of the yin-yang symbol on it, Annabelle noticed she wore the white halve.

"Even if we don't see each other again for a really long time, I want you to have this, my mommy says this is a very special pendent, when the two halves come together they make a whole....they're two people, but they become one by their friendship...my mommy said I can give it someone who's my very bestest friend, and even though we only meet today I feel like I've known you my whole life..." Mizuki smiled, Annabelle was amazed as Mizuki tied the pendent around her neck; she smiled as a tear fell down her dimpled cheek.

"You can keep the pictures I drew today, as long as you don't tell anyone what I told you about them, promise?" she sobbed softly

"Promise!" Mizuki replied and pulled Annabelle in for a hug, Annabelle squeezed her tightly.

"And...Promise you won't ever forget me?" Annabelle asked

"I promise I won't..." Mizuki whispered fondly. As the two friends held each other in a warm embrace Frenzy stuck his head in through the widow and peered down, Mizuki's eyes flew wide open when she saw the spiky insect faced robot, Annabelle looked up and smiled.

"Oh, Mizuki this is Frenzy, Frenzy meet Mizuki, she's my best friend" said Annabelle as the hacker climbed in and perched on the edge of the bathtub, Mizuki looked him up and down in fascination, Frenzy was equally intrigued by the four year olds curiosity.

"H-hi!" he waved

"Are you really an Autobot?"

"Y-y-yep!"

"Wow!"

"W-w-we don't have t-time to chat! We have t-t-to go, the o-others are h-h-here!" he hissed as he strode over to the door.

"Aren't we going out the window?" Annabelle asked

"Ch-ch-change of plan's, we're going out the front, we w-w-wait until w-we're clear to go" he replied

Down on the ground, as the drones quietly trotted towards the north side entrance Ravage stopped as he noticed something in the middle of the walkway.

"What the heck is that?" Ashley said offhand, adjusting the focus on his night vision goggles.

"What? What is it?" Morri asked, as Ravage carefully paced forward Morri shone her torch on the large object, revealing it to be a huge blue spider like robot slumped on its side, apparently dead. Scorponok scuttled around to its side to get a better look and was surprised to see it was the same robot he saw earlier that day, he tapped it on the leg, trying to 'wake' it up but it didn't budge, it simply sat there.

"What the heck is that?" Tom said offhand

"That. Is the most beautiful femme in all of creation" Scorponok purred as he stroked its arm, Ravage simply sighed and shook his head and carried on towards the courtyard, Mikaela and Morri giggled at the thought of Scorpy having a crush.

"How do you know it's a girl?" Ashley asked

"I just know these things" Scorponok replied smoothly as he bowed to the object of his affection and scuttled after the panther.

"Do you know her?" Mikaela asked

"I saw her in the park this morning, don't know why she was there but she looked hot never the less!" he replied eagerly, Mikaela grinned in amusement and Sam rolled his eyes.

"Never mind that! We've got a job to do!" Ravage retorted, Scorpy gave a sharp electronic huff in frustration. Through the darkness the two drones carried on into the wide circular space stopping just short of the centre, Morri looked up at the tall buildings, wondering with a cold sense of dread where the sniper was hiding.

"We're here D" she said in a hushed voice into the earpiece

"**I can see you, stay where you are I'll bring you up into my undercarriage" **the Autobot sniper replied

* * *

From his position in the apartment Saito watched the courtyard via the inferred night vision headset he was wearing, he was in the middle of pondering what that bright blue light was outside Togusa's apartment was; where did it come from? And what was producing it? According to his Hawkeye data nothing was there and that didn't any sense, suddenly a movement at the edge of his range of vision caught his attention, on the north side of the courtyard something was moving behind the trees, then, he saw it was the panther and scorpion robots with five riders on their backs stepping into the courtyard centre, their heat signatures showing up on the headset clear as a bell.

"_Major, five of the other kids just showed up in the courtyard outside the apartment complex, their riding that robotic panther and scorpion" _he said

"_I see them, can you try and neutralize the robots?" _she replied

"_Not at the moment, the trees are in my way, and the buildings are too close at this range"_

He adjusted the gun to aim in their general direction, waiting for the robots to step out into the open, watching through the sights; he saw the kids dismount and walk over to the centre of the courtyard, they stood in a circle holding hands together.

'What on earth are they-' the snipers thoughts suddenly stopped when a pale blue light appeared outside Togusa's apartment, it hovered in midair several meters away from the balcony, it seemed to be the opening of some kind of hatch or door, like the sort on the underside of an aircraft, there seemed to be some kind of movement around the light as a blue shaft of light shot downwards and engulfed the children in a radiant aura-like glow. The snipers jaw dropped in complete shock as the children slowly began to float into the air and descended up into the whitish light until they disappeared from sight, the door shaped light vanished as quickly as it had appeared while the robots remained out of sight behind one of the buildings. Saito slowly withdrew his eye from the sights as a cold feeling shock and confusion swept over him, his hands shook while beads of sweat began to run down his temples and his mind began spinning, trying to make sense of what he just saw.

"_Uh?....M-Major?...you're not going to believe what I just saw" _he stammered, trying not to let his nervousness show.

"_I think I would Saito" _she replied, sounding equally as shocked, which at that moment surprised the sniper somewhat, he had never heard the Major sound so nervous before, in fact, she was NEVER nervous.

"_Huh? What are you guys talking about? What just happened back there?" _Batou asked, the Major shook herself from her shocked stupor and tried to concentrate on the subject at hand.

"_No time to explain, get ready, the kids going out the front" _she barked

* * *

"**D-D-Deathshot, d-do we move yet?"** Frenzy asked as her peered down the corridor towards the bedroom, making sure Mizuki's mother didn't wake up, together he and Annabelle stood by the front door while Mizuki tried to unlock the door as quietly as possible, when she finally unlocked the chain latch, she put her hand on the door ready to open it.

"**Not yet, I'm just upgrading the children's BSHB's then I'll take care of that sniper, just hang on a little longer" **the sniper replied, inside his undercarriage subspace the kids floated in a circle, held gently in place by silver string like treads as all around the subspace was dimly glowing with a strange blue light, no corners or walls could be made out and all around Deathshots internal mechanisms could be heard clicking, whirring and grinding, echoing all around as if in a bottomless cave, the whole sub-space was certainly not like the sub-spaces the other Autobots had. As the kids hovered in mid-air, their BSHB's were connected to the sniper via large fire hose like cable with a plunger shaped clamp attached to their skin.

"You know Deathshot you could really make a real estate killing if you were to rent this space out as an apartment" Sam said as he looked up at the flashing lights and ports that the cables run up into.

"I keep telling him that, I don't know why we decided to go camping when we could have slept in here, it's warm, it's safe-"

"And there are no onboard facilities for disposing your bio-waste products, so unless there's a place with indoor plumbing nearby don't go getting any idea's, besides, if the Waineright twins heard of the idea I'd never hear the end of it" Deathshot sighed, his voice sounded even more electronic and echoing inside the sub-space.

"Come on D it wouldn't be that bad! You could fit a whole house in here!" Sam smiled

"Technically I could fit 7 Boeing 747 passenger jets in this particular subspace if the opening were large enough"

"Seriously? You can fit seven passenger planes in here?" Mikaela said in surprise

"Yes I can, but right now your upgraded BSHB's are ready..." the sniper replied as the cables dethatched from the kids shoulders with a light hiss.

"Alright listen up, the disks are now running in autonomous mode which means they're not completely under my control anymore and the security features are now basic 'augmentations' to your present organic design, the protective shield, the repelling force-field and the antigravity field will automatically respond to your conscious motor commands which means, for instance, if you want to activate the anti-gravity field you simply have you imagine something like a bird or even yourself flying and you will be floating in no time, the same goes for the other features too" he said, the kids all looked at one another, their looks of surprise slowly turned into wide grins of satisfaction.

"You do realise we're gonna have some serious fun when this is over right?...and of course the others will be wanting in on this too" Ashley said with a wide wicked grin plastered across his face

"I took that into consideration and have several additional nanite batches sorted away, but keep in mind these up-grades are strictly for your protection, they're not meant for your amusement" Deathshot replied sounding like a father figure

"Sorry dad, we'll try and stay out of trouble" Ashley grinned peevishly, "yeah, we'll be good" Tom concurred in an equally wicked sounding tone Morri rolled her eyes and huffed, she knew they'd find a way to have some fun with new upgrades and at the back of her mind, she was secretly thinking the same thing they were, but there was no way she'd ever admit it in front of her guardian.

"I'll worry about you later, right now, are you all ready?" the sniper asked

"Are you kidding? With what you just said we can do now I'm pumped!" Sam exclaimed eagerly

"Alright, let me see to that sniper first and make sure he won't be a problem to anyone else, **Ravage, Scorponok, I need both your help, I need one of you to move to the centre of the courtyard so that sniper can take his aim, keep your heads facing eastward so he doesn't have a clear headshot**" Deathshot said, switching over to the comm-link

"**Why not take him out now while he's not aiming?" **Ravage growled

"**Because I need to see the angle of his aim, I only want to take out his gun, not him and I can't move in any closer than here without breaking my cover anymore than I have already with bringing the children up here"**

"**Alright, I'll go, but you better make the shot count the first time round!" **the panther snapped

"**Don't worry, I'll handle him carefully, you just keep your head down and face eastward"**

"**Copy that"**

* * *

As Saito managed to regain his composure, he peered back into the sights and saw the giant mechanical panther walk sideways towards the courtyard centre; he tilted the gun's aim into position but saw the cat had its head bowed right down and facing in the opposite direction, completely obscuring the line of fire for a headshot. He frowned, what was it doing? Why did it have its head down like that? And why was it facing-

What a second, did it know he was there and that he was lining at a shot?

That had to be it! There was no other way to explain why it has keeping its head out of HIS line of fire.

"_Major! Their on to us! The panthers-"_

SMASHKEERASHTHWOKCRACKTHUMP!!!

The whole scene seemed to turn upside down as one moment he was poised in position to shoot, the next second he was on his back on the floor with a hard pain in his side and a small trickle of blood slowly dripped down the side of his arm, glass everywhere on the floor and imbedded in parts of his dark gray body armour and his gun sat next to him, bent in half slightly at the bolt carrier with a large partially melted silver bullet in the partially warped metal. Gripping his side in pain he stayed down and lied still in case the sniper decided to take another shot to finish him off, he breathed in hard and hissed through his teeth as the pain in his side slowly began to settle into a dull cramp, he pulled his hand away from his side slightly and was greatly relieved to feel it wasn't wet and hot, the first signs of heavy external bleeding.

"_Saito! What happened?" _the Major called over the cybercomm

"_The sniper, he got me, I'm alright but he took out my gun"_

"_Are you badly injured?"_

"_No, just a few cuts from the window as the glass blew in"_

"_Alright, stay down and stay put we'll come back for you when we're done here, the rest of you maintain your positions" _she replied

"_Rodger that" _the sniper replied, he lay back down and sighed in frustration, where the hell did that shot come from? And from what range? He looked over at the gun and the bullet hole that was right in the bolt carrier and wondered if he was really the target, to pull off a shot like that and not kill him was a real feat of marksmanship. Whoever took that shot was real pro alright.

'Shit!' he thought

* * *

"**The sniper has been safely neutralized with minimum injuries sustained, now let's go and get Annabelle back, Frenzy, you're clear to head out the front"**

"**C-c-c-copy that!" **the hacker replied, he nodded to Mizuki to open the front door, as Ammabelle stepped out Mizuki followed her out

"Can I come and say hello to the other Autobots, and say goodbye?" she whispered, Annabelle looked over at Frenzy with a pleading look in her big blue eyes, Frenzy knew he couldn't say no to that look.

"Aw Alr-r-right! B-b-b-but you have t-to be quick!" he replied, the two girls smiled at each other in delight and they stepped out into the night air together with the hacker close by their sides, he looked up and down the terrace of front doors, satisfied there was no immediate danger he stepped out and gently closed the door.

Up above Deathshot slowly moved around to the other side of the building, almost as soon as he caught sight of Frenzy and Annabelle with the other girl, several alarming readings flashed in his processor, in his sub-space the kids watched on a floating holo-screen of what the Autobot was seeing, the image showed the building in various colours as his scanners swept back and forth, registering the different wavelengths of light, energy and structural density, among other things; flashing in red were five human figures, a pair in each stairwell and one on the terrace directly above Annabelle and Frenzy, the scanners showed them all to be dressed in body armour and armed with some sort of semi-automatic rifles, the kids gasped as they saw they were on the same floor as Annabelle and Frenzy.

"This isn't good" Sam gulped

"Who are they? And what are they there for?" Ashley asked

"We might have to rethink this, I was originally going to ask Frenzy to take Annabelle up to the roof and we'd retrieve her there, but with them there blocking both the stairways I'm not keen on letting Annabelle go anywhere near them" Deathshot replied

"D, can the protective shield extent to include other people inside?" Morri asked

"Yes, as long as you're in physical contact with the person, and it can repel bullets too" he replied

"In that case, Mikaela, you and I will go down to check on Anny and make sure she's okay, you boys cover our backs and be ready to throw up a protective shield either side in case these guys come at us from either side, I doubt they're here for us but we better just careful all the same, sound good?" Morri said, everyone nodded in agreement.

"Alright, D, move in as close as you can and open up, we're going in" Morri said

"Okay, I'll have your backs but be careful!"

"Hay! When have you ever known us to throw caution to the wind?" Ashley grinned; Tom rolled his eyes and grinned

"Just get going!...okay, let's see what this anti-gravity can do" Morri said.

* * *

Togusa swallowed the lump that had formed at the back of his throat as he nervously watched his daughter stand beside Annabelle and the strange robot, alarm bells were going off in his head as his paternal instincts screamed at him to run over and snatch her away to safety, with a deep sigh he suppressed the urge rush in as he and Batou stood inside the entrance of the stairwell no less than 40 feet away with their guns at the ready.

"Don't worry, she's going to be fine" Batou whispered

"Easy for you to say you're not her father, it's just parental instincts telling me to step in is all" he replied

"We'll be stepping in soon enough, I've got a good view of the robots head from here I can take it out easily-" Batou was interrupted as a bright blueish light suddenly appeared in midair above the terrace, it looked like a strange door or hatch that 'unfolded' out of the air itself like a lotus, the two agents watched in stunned silent shock as five glowing human shapes appeared from the light and drifted own onto the terrace next to the two girls and robot, the shapes reviled themselves to be the five kids, the two girls smiled in happy relief as they kneeled down to make a fuss of Annabelle while two of the three boys stood close by watching the stairwell.

"_Wh-what the hell?" _Togusa stammered

"Are you angry with me?" Annabelle asked as she looked up at Mikaela, her babysitter simply smiled down at her with warm blue eyes

"No honey we're just happy to see your okay" she replied, Morri smiled at the little brunette girl at Annabelle's side, "Are you Annabelle's friend?" she asked

"Yeah, I'm Mizuki, are you Morri?" she asked

"I sure am, it's nice to meet you Mizuki, thanks for looking after our Anny for us, we've been worried all day what happened to her" the older brunette replied with a smile

"We've been having a great time together; we've done all kinds of things today haven't we?" Annabelle grinned

"We have!" Mizuki beamed

"Well we're grateful, please tell your mum and dad we said thank you for looking after Annabelle for us, and we're sorry we can't stay any longer, but we really need to get back home" Morri said sympathetically

"That's okay, I understand, I know I would really sad if I never saw my mommy and daddy again" Mizuki replied, Frenzy patted her on the shoulder and gestured his thanks with a polite nod. Mizuki looked up at the bright light that hovered above the terrace; a deep thrum could be heard all around in the air as the light shined with a strange kind of radiance, as if it were not from this world.

"What's that light?" she asked, for a brief moment Morri and Mikaela exchanged uncertain looks and simply shrugged, so what if one little kid knew of the Autobots, it couldn't hurt to indulge a child's natural curiosity .

"That's Deathshot and he's one of the Autobots" Annabelle smiled, Mizuki looked up at the light with a newfound sense of awe.

"Wow..." she breathed.

"**Younglings, we mustn't linger around, we have to go" **Deathshot said over the comm-link on the earpieces

"Listen Mizuki, we're going to have to leave now, if you two want to say goodbye now's your chance" Mikeala said

"I'll miss you" Annabelle said as she hugged her best friend, "I'll miss you even more..." Mizuki replied

* * *

From they're position in the stairwell Batou and Togusa watched the two older girls talking with Mizuki, even though he was initially taken aback by the sight of the strange light and the kids floating in midair, something about the older kids made Togusa relax a little, they were pretty much what they saw in the park earlier that day, just a bunch of kids that had been so worried and were now happy to finally be back with their little friend, they weren't aggressive or negative in anyway.

"_Major! Are you seeing this?"_ Batou exclaimed

"_Seeing it? I'm standing right in front of it!" the Major replied_

"_What do we do now? This isn't exactly what we were expecting you know, at this point I think it's fair to assume anything else could happen"_ said the ex-ranger

"_I'd have to agree, but we have orders to take the kids in, we'll just have to try a more gentler approach of apprehending them" _she replied

"_Major, let me go in maybe I can try talking to them, they're quite friendly with Mizuki by the looks of it so that's something to go on" _Togusa said

"_Alright, but stay sharp, Batou you stay put and cover his back"_

"_Got it!" _He replied, Togusa unclipped the semi-automatic from the strap around his front and handed the weapon to Batou who took it in the other hand, he stood up and cautiously and slowly stepped around into the doorway of the stairwell, trying to let his presence catch their attention, the kids noticed him and looked puzzled more than alarmed.

"Daddy?" Mizuki called over as she let go of Annabelle. At that moment the light intensified and slowly engulfed the whole terrace in a radiant pale blue light, the children disappeared as their bodies were bathed in the blue aura again and the thrumming grew deeper and louder all around the building. Fearing for his daughter Togusa ran forward into the light and disappeared as a blue aura too.

"TOGUSA!!!" Batou shouted out as he rushed forward, to hell with whatever the light was his friend along with his own kid was in some kind of danger. As he got with 10 feet, the light abruptly disappeared plunging the whole terrace back into silent darkness. Adjusting his cyernetically enhanced eyes, Batou peered into the gloom and was relieved to see Togusa standing there, hugging his little girl close to his body with his eyes tightly shut.

"Togusa! Are you okay?" Batou asked putting a hand on his shoulder, running from the opposite direction, Pazu and Boma joined the two other agents, the Major jumped down from the upper terrace above and was immediately at her men's sides, Togusa opened his eyes, surprised to see his teammates all standing around with stunned looks on their faces, he looked down at Mizuki who looked up at him with a wide grin on her dimpled face.

"Wow! That was amazing daddy!" she beamed, the Section 9 team exchanged confused glances, what the hell just happened? Suddenly all the lights on the terrace came back on, all around the neighbourhood the street lights and apartments lit back again and within a few seconds the whole district was glowing with the city again. The Major looked over the railing and down below she saw the robotic panther and scorpion run off towards the park in a blur, at this point she knew chasing after them now would be a waste of time.

"What just happened?" Boma asked

"_Major! The power in our bodies is back on! We can move around again!" _The Tachikoma's squeaked

"_Major? Everything in the van is back online again, but the batteries were completely dead a minute ago, I don't get it" _Ishikawa said in a perplexed tone.

"_You're not the only one Ishikawa" _the Major replied in an uncertain tone

As Togusa put his daughter back down, he realised he had something grasped in his clenched fist, opening his hand he saw it was a thin black wire connected to an old fashioned cell phone and an earpiece receiver.

"Huh? Where'd you get that?" Batou asked

"I must have grabbed it accidently when I reached out to Mizuki" he replied, a little unsure if he was right or not.

"You mean you're not sure?" the Major asked

"I did, I mean I don't.....know..." Togusa replied, bemused at the sound of his own uncertainty, the team simply looked at him in a mix of curiosity and concern, the Major frowned, something had obviously happened to him when he ran into that light, all around the neighbourhood people were starting to poke their heads out of their front doors, wondering where the light came from.

"_Ishikawa, bring the van around to the front, we're pulling out of here" _the Major ordered

"_Rodger that" _he replied

"Well...what now? How the heck are we going to explain this to the chief? There's no way in hell he'll believe it, even with our external memories as proof" said Pazu

"You let me worry about him, for now stand down and get ready to pull out, Togusa, I want you and your daughter to accompany us back to HQ we're going to get to the bottom of what just happened" the Major said as she turned to leave.

"Huh? Can't we do that in the morning Major?" he pleaded as he gestured to his daughter who leaned against his side as she began to nod off, the Major watched as the four year old succumbed to tiredness and with a sigh she replied;

"...Tell your wife to bring her to HQ at 9:00am tomorrow; you on the other hand will be spending the night in the infirmary's cyber-analysis department, something happened when you were in that light and I want to make sure it's not a cause for concern"

"Thanks Major" he replied as he scooped Mizuki up into his arms

"Don't thank me just yet, we've haven't got the kids but we just witnessed something that's going to cause a real stir, there's going to be a lot of questions that'll need answering and none of us have the answer...for now let's just get back to HQ, we've got our work cut out for us" she replied as walked off towards the stairwell, followed by the others, "That's an understatement" Boma replied, Batou stopped as Togusa entered his apartment with Mizuki fast asleep.

"I'll only be a minute, I need to put her to bed" he said in a hushed voice.

"Sure, I'll wait up" Batou replied. He stepped over and leaned on the railing, as he gazed over between the buildings towards the park, a mixed sense of dread and uncertainty began to form in the pit of his stomach and his mind began to spin with a thousand questions, trying to rationalise and make sense of what just happened here tonight. As the wind blew across his face he could practically smell the smoke of doubt and suspicion blowing through the city, the fires of controversy and political scheming couldn't be far behind. In the back of his mind his thoughts turned to feelings of both restlessness and a general feeling of being purely pissed off as memories of the Laughing man and Dejima began bubbling to the surface. Had the cycle of political corruptness and manipulation began to spin once again somewhere? After all, a case was never a case in Section 9 unless the worst case scenario was looming on the horizon.

'Shit....here we go again...so what kind of crap are we going to be digging up this time?' Batou thought to himself with a scowl as he watched the stars shining high above the glow of the city.

* * *

R&R please!


	17. Chapter 16: Rain

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 16: RAIN

"Hum, I have to say it seems your British tradition of making it precipitate extends even to parallel universes" Jetfire grumbled in a sullen mood

"I know, we're pretty good at that" Tom replied in a dull tone, both he and the old seeker sat near the main door of the hideout watching the dark skies unleash a torrent of heavy rain down on the dry earth, the forest across the tarmac seemed darker than usual and the city in far off distance seemed to appear and disappear as rain-front after rain-front swept through the concrete canyons like misty veils of gossamer, the dark clouds hid the tops of the skyscrapers from sight, it had been like this for three days now, the night they retrieved Annabelle rain clouds began forming around 2:00am and it hadn't stopped pouring down since. From his perch on the seeker's shoulder Tom looked back into the storage house and saw most of the other Autobots were generally lazing around, somewhat bored and un-stimulated (the lambo twins being no acceptation), in the corner however Darren, Glen and Danny had their laptops plugged into the side of Trailbreaker and Deathshots helms with additional devices, (both human and cybertronian tech) laying all around plugged into the laptops, they had been working for the last three days trying to locate and access his cell phone, the one that Mizuki's father had pulled out of his ear the night he helped retrieve Annabelle. As a precaution Jazz had ordered everyone to stay put in the hideout until the cell-phone could be located, not that anyone really argued, no-one was keen to go out into the foul weather anyway.

"I just don't get it; we should have picked something by now, the cell must be somewhere insulated or deep underground for the signal not to reach us" Glen huffed in frustration

"Well the last clear signal we got was from this area of the city here, since then either the battery went dead or the signals blocked somehow, though I don't see how either of those options are possible considering D upgraded our cells to include nanite technology which of course sources ambient energy from the surrounding environment giving it a battery life of forever and that the signal is strong enough to penetrate lead like paper" Danny said with a sarcastic undertone as he pointed to an area of the city on an online map on his laptop

"I know that! Don't take it out on me just because you haven't managed to get any hits on the signal" Darren retorted, Danny took a deep breath and sighed as he leaned back against Deathshots leg and ran his fingers through his bright red hair, his guardian loomed overhead and gave him a sympathetic smile, Danny returned the gesture with a weak smile of his own.

You've all been working for well over six hours now, why don't you all take a break and chill for 15 minutes?" Morri called down from Deathshots shoulder

"Yeah I guess you're right, I think I need another shot of caffeine anyway" Glen sighed as he got up and headed over to the designated kitchen area of the storage house, next to the three hacker's station Frenzy was fiddling around with an old TV set, as he plugged in a car battery and adjusted the antennae a partially fuzzy image appeared on the screen.

"H-h-hay! I g-got the TV w-w-working!" he called out, everyone congregated around the set, both eager and relieved that there was now an alternative to the tedious boredom.

"Anything good on?" Miles asked

"Looks like the news is coming on..." Hailey pointed out as the partially fuzz image showed a news channel's open credits, some of the kids sat down on some crates to watch as the anchor man rolled off the headlines;

"Good afternoon, the time is 1:00pm on Thursday the 15th of May 2033..."

"The year's 2033 here!" Glen exclaimed

"SHUSH!!" everyone replied

"...The top headline today. Police and local authorities are still investigating the circumstances behind the mysterious blackout that occurred over the Kohoku district and surrounding Yama and Kawagishi districts at 11:45pm on Monday the 12th, the blackout occurred over an estimated 20 mile radius and took out the power to all buildings, street lights and power grid distributer centres, even the AI systems in vehicles around the vicinity and all robots and androids were taken out too, experts at the water and power authority are still trying to pinpoint the cause but have so far turned up no obvious problems with the grid system. The incident is further highlighted as over 100 people in the affected areas have claimed to have witnessed 'a strange bright blue light' appear over one of the apartment buildings in the Kohoku district, reports have stated that the light hovered over the building for a few brief minutes before rapidly ascending into the sky..."

The image of a shaky home video came up next to the anchor man, it showed the obscured image of apartment buildings in darkness, over one of the building's was a strange blueish lights hovering steadily and then suddenly zoomed off up into the clouds

"...experts have reviewed and studied the individual eye witness accounts and have unanimously agreed that there has been no evidence of virus infection or brain washing and authorities at Niihama international air port have reported that there were no aircraft appearing on radar over that area of the city on the night in question, although the theory of the incident being a UFO sighting has been initial dismissed by the authorities the residents of all three district are calling for a formal investigation into the strange occurrence, this has been met with both strong support from certain UFO-ology groups and criticism from police officials saying that the incident was most likely to have been a highly organized well staged prank by unknown individuals. The investigations into the blackout are still continuing at this time. In other news-" the signal went dead as the car batteries ran out of power.

"Well, it could be worse; it's not the first time you guys have been caught on camera and gotten away with it" Becca shrugged

"At least you couldn't tell it looked like D" Danny replied

"Maybe, but I don't recall my EMP generator being that powerful? That field I sent out should have been enough to only cover a 5 mile radius not 20" Deathshot replied, slightly puzzled

"Maybe the grid's wired up differently here? And maybe the power flow run's on a different level too?" Morri offered

"Perhaps, but I don't see how a difference in voltage could be a factor for letting the EMP go as far as it did?" he replied

"You don't think anyone suspects anything about us do you?" Becky asked looking up at Jazz

"At this point I don't think so, we were luck this time but we better stay in the hideout for a little while longer, just until it blows over, if the humanity of this world is anything like you guys back home then a headline about a UFO won't stay in the news for long" Jazz said folding his arms

"That's very true, urban legends may make for good culture gossip but a hot tip on them goes cold very quickly in the mainstream media" Darren commented

"Did any of you guys hear the man say it's the year 2033 here?!" Glen asked in a panicky tone, everyone paused a moment and looked at each other in mix of confusion and mild worry.

"2033?...then if it was 2009 back home then that means we're about 23 years ahead in the future!" Danny exclaimed in a slight panic

"So what does that mean? For us I mean, cuz if we're all 23 years ahead of everyone back home and we're in a different time and place, does they mean it'll be harder for them to find us...or...not at, all?" Miles asked with a wince, not wanting to sound like the harbinger of doom with that one question.

"Maybe....time just moves faster in this universe? And back home it could still be 2009?" Hailey offered

"Yeah, I mean think about it, Wheeljack said the DRD was created to cause a rift in time and space right? Well if he helped to build it surly he must have taken into consideration that if someone were to go into another space that they'd also be going into another time too?" Hot Rod said

"But he said he didn't get chance test it, for all we know being transported 23 years out of our own 'time' might not have been considered or even taken into account, don't forget, the science of manipulating the space-time continuum is similar in principle to meteorology, you can only calculate so far ahead, even with high-end cybertronian technology" Jetfire suggested

"But if the difference in time and space wasn't taken into account, and Wheeljack tries to reopen the rift, does it mean they'll end up coming here in a different 'time'? Like, either in the future ahead of us or behind us in the past?" Hailey asked

"It maybe speculation at this point but that is highly unlikely to happen, time and space exist side by side in a state of uneven parallel flux, meaning that they both go at more or less the same speed when confined in a relative dimension; you can teleport from one end of the dimension to another by manipulating the space but not necessary manipulating the time, what would take a lifetime to do can take a mere moment, but in order to reach another universe by surpassing the time and space of your universe you have to wield both simultaneously and at the same relative level to allow a stable transit" Jetfire replied, wagging his finger like an old head teacher during a lesson, everyone quirked an eyebrow/optic ridge.

"How can you be sure?" Sideswipe asked

"Because the energy readings I detected after we 'arrived' here were similar to that of the energy dispersal after a teleportation, if the DRD was build to function along the same relative principles as a teleportation device then technically Hailey may be right in as much it's still 2009 back in our universe and we've been teleported into another universe where time is simply 23 years ahead" he replied

"I was, right?" she replied, bemused that she was actually right about something to do with high-end science.

"In theory, perhaps youngling" he replied

"Cool! And I always used to get D's and E's in science!" she said cheerily

"But, even if the others do find a way here and come looking for us, what do we do about that dome the rift is under? And the military presence protecting it? What happens if they come through and ran straight into that?" Deathshot asked, another uneasy silence followed as everyone wondered about that overlooked fact.

"If you're worried about the humans trying to open it I wouldn't worry too much, I highly doubt the humans of this world even have the technological capacity to even attempt to probe it nedalone open it!" Jetfire retorted

"You said the dome was full of equipment so they were obviously up to something?" Sunstreaker replied with a sideways glance

"And if it's the military it can't be good, since when does ANY military anywhere do anything with sincere and honest intent?" Glen said folding his arms

"Uh? How about NEST back home? Their actually helping to defend the earth!" Becky retorted

"Oh, yeah..."

"That maybe true to some extent, but the rift is something they've obviously never seen before, otherwise there wouldn't be such a heavy military presence around there, they're just trying to figure it out" Bluestreak said

"Yes, but what's going to happen when the other's come and they emerge right in the middle of that military presence? Don't forget I saw a lot of heavily armed weaponry around there, what if a fight ensues? I know the others aren't likely to come unarmed but still, fighting's not the best way to say hello" Deathshot replied

"I agree, for our part I suggest we stay put and out of sight, it's no use going to look for a fight if the military presence was as big as you stated then we'll easily out-numbered and out gunned, plus it's far too much risky for you kids, even if we upgraded all of the BSHB's it still wouldn't be enough" Jazz said

"So we just sit here and wait?" Tom asked

"It may sound like we've not many choices but right now, that's the only logical one we have, and besides, it's not like were helpless here, we're good at thinking on our wheels and you kids are pretty good at improvising on your part" he smiled

"That's true; if we can get away with something like that incident in the mall 6 months ago then we get away with pretty much anything!" Miles chuckled

"Not everything, don't forget we barely got out of there in one piece! And the only reason we didn't get caught was because those two security guards were already drunk while that cop was locked in the restroom!" Becca replied

"Yeah but we still managed to get away, and I won a whole box of Twinkies!" Miles replied, the twin sister's simply rolled their eyes

"Anyway, we don't know or can say what's going to happen next, all we can do is keep each other safe and try not to cause a stir, the last thing we need is to inadvertently create a panic in the local population here" Deathshot said

"My thoughts exactly" Jazz replied

As the other's started to diverse from the current topic and started chatting about other things, Ravage, who had been listening in the corner, got up, stretched and casually strolled towards the main the door and out into the rain, watching the distant city shrouded in a gray mist a noise in the building at the far end of the complex caught his attention, strolling over and peering around the door he saw Ashley standing in the centre of a circle of empty oil drums in the relatively empty storage house, bar a few crates scattered here and there.

"What are you up to youngling?" the panther growled as he strode in, Ashley greeted him with a wide beaming grin as he stretched out and stood in a fighting stance.

"Watch this, I've been practicing all morning and I finally cracked it!" He grinned

"Cracked what?" he asked, as Ashley held out his hands his whole body began to glow in a pale blue aura as he slowly began to float up into the air and hover a few feet off the ground, Ravage watched in surprise for a moment before displaying a rather toothy grin.

"Ahh, you've learnt how to manipulate the BSHB's anti-gravity field haven't you?" he smoothly purred

"I finally learnt how to control it, remember D told us that the BSHB's will now automatically respond to what our brains say? And that imagining yourself as a bird would automatically trigger the anti-gravity field? Well, it turns out it's not enough to simply imagine a bird, you have to picture yourself as a specific bird for a specific movement, like this..." he said as flew in a fast tight circle around the panther, "...is the humming bird, and this..." he shot off and upward into the empty space of the building, flying in a tight figure of eight "...Is the swallow and I've got some great ideas to try something like the eagle or the falcon when the rain stops, IS THIS WICKED AWESOME OR WHAT!!!" he shouted pumping the air with his fist as he gently floated back down, the second his feet touched the ground the aura around his body disappeared.

"I'm impressed, what else have you learnt to master?" Ravage asked

"I've been trying to somehow activate the repelling force field but I can't seem to find the right trigger, I've tried pretending to be my favourite superhero, a bolt of lightning, I even tried imagining myself as an atomic bomb going off, you know, trying to imagine the power coming out from within, but nothing!" he huffed as he looked over at the oil drums, Ravage stepped forward and 'sniffed' the BSHB as the scanner in his optic swept over the devise.

"Hmm, did you perhaps consider that this feature might work a little differently?" Ravage purred

"How so?"

"Well, maybe it's not enough to simply picture the repelling force-field coming out from your body; maybe a different type of trigger is required, maybe something more, emotionally propelled?"

"Emotionally propelled?"

"Yes, a driving force to lend you strength, instead of thinking about triggering the repelling field, try to 'feel it out' with a powerful thought or memory, your friends get a rush from driving around in their guardians on the race track back home do they not?"

"Yeah, I remember that day we raced Hot Rod and the lambo twins and Hot Rod let me race a lap in him that was so intense I felt like...like a storm, a comet or even like D when he raced the F14's" Ashley smiled, remembering the sheer thrill of riding in the dodge charger as he zoomed across the dessert like a streak of lightning.

"Well, try to remember that feeling of intenseness, the rush of speed through the sands and letting your adrenaline levels heighten your senses and strength...try to let that feeling flow into your being once again and maybe something might happen..." the panther suggested. Ashley frowned as he turned to face one of the drums, both he and Ravage stood in silence with only the sound of the rain outside echoing all around the inside of the huge building. The boy closed his eyes and breathed in deep the fresh earth-scented air as he concentrated turning his mind back to the memory of that exciting day; he remembered the roar of the engines, the screeching of tires and the intense adrenaline fuelled ecstasy of the sheer G-force of the Autobot's speed. As he let the feeling flow through his mind he felt his heart began to beat harder and a strange feeling of warm water flowing over skin began to creep down his left arm, opening his eye's he was shocked to see a mercury like liquid was covering his entire left arm like water trickling down, from shoulder to fingertips him entire limb was coated evenly in the strange silvery substance and began to glow in the blue aura again as a series of glowing cybertronians glyphs began to run up and down along his arm. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the BSHB had now morphed into a weird passion flower-like structure with tiny tread like tendrils waving about from the base.

"Wow...it worked...man! That is awesome!" he smiled, turning his arm around to get a good look at his now silvery limb

"It would seem you've unlocked the main security software, now let's see what you can do" Ravage said as he came close again to 'sniff' the glowing limb, "Hay look, those glyphs say 'plasma-fire disperser?'" Ashley said as he read three large glyphs on his palm, suddenly, an idea came to mind; he outstretched his arm in the direction of one of the oil drums. Concentrating he pictured his arm as huge powerful gun, he imagined the rain tapping on the roof was the sound of distant gunfire and the feeling of a trigger-finger was caressing his index finger, sure enough, the silver liquid all over his arm began to ripple and a warm sensation began to fill up the palm of his hand. Then, the aura's glow intensified and a wave of light and energy began to ripple across the limb, a blast of blue and white energy shot out from his palm and blasted the oil drum across the building with a loud clang as it hit the corrugated iron wall. Knocked backwards from the recoil of the blast Ashley quickly regained his balance and looked down at his arm in amazement.

"YEAH!!! Now we're cooking with fire!" he shouted in sheer excitement as he punched high into the air, inadvertently floating up into the air again, Ravage nodded his head in great approval.

"Well done youngling, now that you know how to unlock the weapons system, all you have to do is practice wielding it correctly, and see if we can unlock any other features that little disk is hiding" he purred with a satisfying tone, Ashley floated down and patted the giant panther behind the ears.

"Thanks Ravage, I couldn't have done it without you..." he smiled, Ravage grinned and nuzzled the boy on the neck, his deep mechanical purr resonating through the lad's ribcage, the ex-Decepticon would be caught dead and his spark chamber ripped out before he would admit his true feelings to anyone, but Ashley had known the panther well enough by now to know this kind of nuzzle was his way of saying 'your welcome'.

"So, what else can you teach me? I want to know just else I can do with this" Ashley grinned as he clenched his silvered limb, forming another intense aura.

* * *

The rain was beating heavily against the window as the rain front moved through the cityscape like a gossamer veil, the rest of the city with shrouded in the darkest shade of gray he could recall, everywhere for miles around there didn't appear to be any colour anywhere. The mood of weather reflected him own feelings as he stared out into the gloom, a familiar set of heavy footsteps could be heard approaching from down the corridor and stopping at the door.

"So this is where you've been hiding away this whole time? You're not leaving all the work to Ishikawa and Boma again are you?" Batou grinned as he walked into the canteen and took a seat alongside Togusa who acknowledged him with a sideways glance and a weak smile.

"Nah, just taking 5 minutes to clear my head" the detective replied

"You mean 20"

"Huh? It's been that long?...funny, I didn't notice the time had flown by so quickly..." he replied, Batou sat in silence for a minute as he watched a particularly dark rain cloud sweep past the building. In the last three days, the whole subject of the strange machines and the mysterious children accompanying them had gone from being a search for a bunch of war machines to a complex, sensitive and top secret hunt for...something that was entirely beyond anyone's belief and description.

After seeing the team's external memories of what happened the night they tried to apprehend the children the chief had been stunned by what they saw, the blackout that covered a 20 mile radius and everything losing power, including the Tachikoma's, the children floating up into the strange light, and descending down and out of the light to retrieve their charge, and more importantly, Togusa's external memory, which had gone completely blank when he ran into the light, despite a thorough scan and structural analysis by the pysmechs and technicians, no problems with his cyberbrain were detected but no external memory of that one moment had been found either, which had been very baffling to say the least. But what was equally as strange was the fact that Saito had been shot at from a long distance by the unknown sniper, the worst injuries the one eyed sniper had received was a shallow cut to the side of his neck from a stray shard of glass and a badly bruised arm from where the butt of his gun had hit him on impact, the shot itself had destroyed the gun but hadn't been powerful enough to penetrate the weapon and kill him, it was clear whoever took that shot didn't intend to kill him but merely render him out of action.

And as if considering what to do next had been difficult enough, an hour after the lights came back on in the Kohoku district; video footage had started circulating the local news net that showed a so-called UFO above one of the buildings in the area during the blackout, from there, everything went from bad to worse for everyone. After presenting his report about the incident to the prime minister and the military officials, everyone was now more confused than before, but it was much more that, behind closed doors in the prime minister's residence tensions were high as all the high ranking military officials waited on the Military Intelligence Department to turn up something, Section 6 and the CIS was also digging around to find a lead. But it was Section 9 everyone had their eyes on now, having been the only ones to witness the strange event's of three night ago the prime minister still held confidence in the section's ability to carry out their orders with absolute discretion and secrecy, but now they were under pressure from all sides to turn something up, but for all the show of strength the cabinet tried to display, the truth was even though everyone was now more worried than ever, after seeing the video footage on the news channel it hadn't quite reached the point where using the words 'UFO' and 'aliens' were starting to be become scary thought for everyone, including Section9.

"The Chief called in a while back, he's finally done with that secret meeting with the PM and military top brass" Batou said

"Really? I thought he'd never be able to get away from there after everything that happened three nights ago" Togusa replied

"As if everyone wasn't tense enough now their one step away from running around like headless chickens, I know we've been in dire straits before but I think this whole situation is starting to get to the point where things could real bad if someone somewhere screws up"

"What worries me is not so much if the military come across those...machines, but if we find them first, what do we say or do?....because if they are really aliens, then...." Togusa asked with slight hesitation, Batou leaned back in the chair for a moment while he considered what to say next.

"I know...and on that note, I know you said in your report that you don't remember what happened when you ran into that light, but, I get the feeling that's not entirely true...." he asked quietly, Togusa looked at him with a sideways glance and gave a small smile.

"...When I saw Mizuki disappear I just went into full father mode, nothing else at that point mattered...but when I stepped into that light I saw her floating..."

"Floating?"

"Yeah, alongside the kids, I leapt up to try and grab her but I felt something else, that must have been when I grabbed that cell phone...but then, at that moment, this blue light completely engulfed me and I felt my whole body buzzing with this weird sensation, like electricity and water combined into one, through the light I saw Mizuki coming back to me and I tried to reach out to her, but..." Togusa hesitated, unsure if he should go on

"What? What did you see?" Batou asked eagerly, Togusa turned to face him with a look of uneasy tenseness.

"She was sitting in a giant hand..." Togusa replied

"A hand?"

"Like a robot, it was all metal and mechanical but strangely smooth and human-like...I hesitated before I reached out to grab her, I couldn't believe the size of the thing, but when I took her back the blue light became more intense and as I felt my head becoming lighter, I saw Annabelle waving goodbye to us, and then I heard someone call out and everything went black, and the next thing I saw when I opened my eyes was you" he said, Batou averted his gaze back to the window and watched another rain front move past the building.

"If this case was entirely different I'd have said you were hacked pretty badly, but after seeing what happened on the terrace..." Batou sighed, Togusa reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, after unfolding it, Batou noticed it was a typical child's wax crayon drawing; it showed a large dark blue smiling robot holding a girl in its hand with a bright circular light shining out from its 'chest' and five other child-like faces smiling and waving goodbye, next to the girl in the robots hand there was a man in dark gray and black clothing.

"Did your kid draw that?" Batou asked

"She gave it to me this morning" the detective replied

"Is that what she saw?"

"I don't recall seeing any giant robots, but she insists that's what was there when I ran towards her...you know, even though I don't know what the hell happened that night, the one thing that stands out in my mind is that none of those kids were dangerous in anyway, I've got a feeling that when, and if, we ever catch up to them, they'll probably turn out to be just your average high school kids" Togusa said

"I'd have to agree, when you stepped out and they saw you, they didn't react aggressively in any way, if anything they looked more bemused than anything else, and another thing that's weird is that how our mystery sniper was able to take Saito's gun out without killing him, the range and angle of the shot should have been impossible without the sniper having to abseil down the side of apartment complex, and that wouldn't have been a bright idea considering we would have spotted him first, but no-one was there" Batou replied

"Yeah, but it makes you think, why didn't the sniper kill him? Why let your enemy live?" Togusa pondered aloud

"That's what I said the other day..." Saito replied as he stepped into the canteen and took a seat beside the detective.

"...What I don't understand is why he let me live, he made his point of proving he's pro by taking out my weapon, but if he's looking for a challenge then he's out of luck, because I intend to put the fear of God in him the next time we meet" the sniper continued bitterly, Batou and Togusa looked at each other in surprise, they had never heard Saito sound so ire before, true his cold glair was enough to freeze most people in their step, but today, he was a positively freezing the place.

"Really? Don't you think he might have just taken that one shot to try and tell you back off? After all, it makes sense that if he actually saw you a real treat he would have killed you there and then" Togusa offered

"Perhaps, but I think he was showing off more than anything else, and that pisses me off" Saito replied with a frowned

"Not one for accepting a challenge huh?" Batou said offhand

"I'm not in the mood for playing games, the next time me and that show-off meet, one of us will be getting a bullet through the head, and I can tell you guys right now, it's not going to be me" Saito said in a dark tone, Togusa suddenly felt cold, as if the ambient temperature around the sniper dropped by 10 degree's. What was playing on the sniper's mind? It wasn't like him to be so bitter about being beaten to the punch, Batou was about to say something else when Ishikawa interrupted over the cybercomm.

"_Batou, Togusa, if you are not too busy playing hookie we could use some help down here"_

"_On our way" _Batou replied

"_On another note, the boys in the analysis room say the results from the analysis on that bullet should be ready later on" _Ishikawa continued

"_Rodger that" _Saito replied

* * *

4 hours pass by

* * *

"What's for dinner?" Danny asked as he walked into the designated kitchen area.

"Fried eggs and spaghetti, we need to use the egg's up before they go off and D can only keep them on cooling tanks for so long" Mikaela said as she cranked open another egg into the frying pan that was sitting on top of the little gas cooker, Becca walked in with a pan full of water.

"Here's the water for the pasta, with all that rain coming down it filled up pretty quickly" she said

"I bet, Morri, is there any veggies left? Anny needs to have some greens tonight" Mikaela called up to Morri, who was inside Deathshot's lower subspace on his hip plates, the sniper casually looked down at the pair of human leg protruding out of his side and raised an optic ridge.

"How much longer are you going to keep using me as a refrigerator to keep your organic fuel cool?" he asked wearily

"Until we run out of the stuff that needs to be kept cool, speaking of which, we're going to have to cut back on how many portions we dish out, we're starting to run low on the meat and carbs here" she yelled over her shoulder as she slid back out with a packet of boil-in-the-bag veggies and a bottle of cola. As she climbed down the side of Deathshot's leg a loud clang sounded from the storage house next door, Morri stood on Deathshot's knee and listened as another series of clangs and crashes echoed across the space between the buildings.

"What on earth is Ashley doing in there? He and Ravage have been in there all afternoon" Morri said offhand

"I'm not sure, with his BSHB running in full autonomous mode I can't quite tell what's going on, all I can tell is that his adrenaline levels have been somewhat high" Deathshot replied in a lazy tone as he closed his optics and dozed in a light recharge.

"Well as long as he's not up to anything too extreme, I know how pumped he can get at times" she replied as she leapt down and handed the veggies to Mikaela. From out the rain Ravage strode in, shook the water from his armour like a shaggy dog and casually paced over to the make-shift tent that the Waineright twins had made for him, treading carefully in a circle before curling up on the dust sheet bed.

"Finally, where have you been all afternoon?" Jetfire grumbled as he eyed the horse sized panther from his seat on the concrete loading platform.

"Teaching the youngling how to fight" he purred

"Fight? He already knows how to box and do karate and judo" Tom said from his seat on an old sofa.

"Ah yes, but he's made few improvements to those particular styles" Ravage replied as he licked his paw

"Improvements?" Morri asked, her curiosity piqued, "Oh yeah! Way better improvements!" Ashley said as he entered the hideout, everyone watched in stunned surprise as the 12 year old flew into the building encased in a bright blue aura and his left arm covered in silver with cybertronian glyphs and several silver tendril's were floating about from out his BSHB, which still looked like some strange alien flower. As he circled above the girls in the kitchen area, a collective wow went up among the kids and Autobot's, Deathshot sat bolt upright with his jaw dropped.

"What the hell..." Glen said off hand as he watched the lad drift around effortlessly in the air.

"Whoa man! You have so gotta show how to do that!" Miles grinned

"Ashley's flying! Ashley's flying!" Annabelle cheered as he flew over her head

"What do you guys think? Pretty awesome huh?" Ashley said in a boastful tone as he drifted over to the lambo twins and flew around Sunstreaker's head, the golden warrior tried to lightly swat him out of the way, but the grinning 12 year old flew circles around him like an annoying house fly, Sideswipe and Hot Rod couldn't help but giggle at the funny sight of a human flying through the air, Deathshot got up from his position on the floor and quickly, but gently, caught the boy in one hand.

"Look at you..." he breathed

"Yeah I know, it's way cool!" the lad replied

"No I mean, how did you manage to access the main security software so effortlessly?"

"It's simple, I concentrated"

"Concentrated?"

"Yeah you know, kinda like meditating, or getting ready for a fight in the ring"

"I don't understand, I know I adjusted the BSHB's neural interface receiver to work one way so it responds automatically to your conscious motor functions, but how did the BSHB setting for a two way responder control come about?" Deathshot asked as the patch covering his left optic opened up and he scanned the alien device on Ashley's back, the tendrils twitched in response to feeling the presence of the scanner.

"Uh, don't know? I just kinda did it?" he replied as he sat in the snipers palm, gazing down at Ravage, the cat gave him a wink (albeit a blink because of one optic).

"Just did it? Or did you have help from a certain someone?" Jazz said folding his arms and looking down at Ravage with that knowing look, Ravage simply got up and paced over to Deathshot.

"So what if I did help the boy master the security software? Is it not better that he knows how to control it and use it wisely? Rather than not know, and inadvertently make a mistake, or cause an accident?" the panther purred, Jazz and Deathshot looked at one another.

"He got a point, and as cool as the flying trick was, is it a good thing or a bad thing?" Darren asked, Ashley shot him a glair, trust Darren to raise an issue.

"It depends, what can you do with it?" Jazz asked, Ashley sat upright with a wide beaming grin and flew out of Deathshot's hand, "Come on! I'll show you!" he called over his shoulder as he flew out the building and back next door, the kids all got up and ran out with the Autobots close behind. After making a mad dash through the rain, they all entered the empty storage house and found Ashley floating over the concrete floor, which has several dented and bent oil drums lying around, there were some in the corner that were split or cut clean in two, Deathshot was now very curious as to what his charge had been up to all afternoon.

"Okay, first off, I can control the anti-gravity field like this..." Ashley said as he extended one arm out and the blue aura that encased him extended outwards to one of the oil drums, the drum began to float up into the air and fly around in the air as the 12 year old rebel controlled its direction and altitude with a series of single hand gestures, everyone was floored they looked on in amazement, even Sunstreaker was mildly impressed (though he was good at keeping it well hidden).

"Wow, that's impressive" Sam smiled, Ashley proudly grinned in response, finally when all the drums were stacked in a row on the loading bay at the opposite end of the room, Ashley landed down next to Morri.

"...And I can control the weapons setting like this..." he said with a wicked grin and with another wave of his arm Ashley fired a blast of energy at the first drum. For each target he showed off a series of different attacks, one particular blast sliced one of the drums clean in half, another punched a hole straight through one drum and out through the wall of the building, three other shots sent the drums flying and the final blast sent the last drum right through the roof. With every shot the tendrils on the BSHB curled around Ashley's arm as wave after wave of energy rippled across his arm and was fired from his fingertips, Deathshot watched with a raised optic ridge, amid the wow's, sighs of awe and cheers of amazement from the kids and other Autobots he noticed how Ashley kept a firm stance and a strong fight-like poise, not once did he flinch or get carried away, through the connection to the BSHB, the sniper could sense the boy's calmness of mind blended with the elevated adrenaline levels coursing through his system, he was impressed, but a tiny pang of doubt lingered at the back of his mind, Jazz was quick to notice his clouded expression.

"WOW!!! That was friggin awesome man!" Miles shouted as he pumped one fist in the air and gave Ashley a hard pat on the back

"Totally wicked!!!" the Waineright sisters exclaimed in complete zealousness.

"So, need I ask what you think?" Ashley asked Morri in a devilish tone, she grinned and wrapped an arm over his shoulder

"You always were quick at learning new tricks, but I got to say, I thought you would completely go nuts with that" she said, gesturing to the device on his back as the tendrils now began to retract back into the base while the flower like structure morphed back into the original round disk.

"Well, I guess that shows you're not right about everything" he grinned; Ravage came up behind him and nuzzled the back of his shoulder with a deep purr of approval.

"Maybe, what do you think D?" she asked, their happy expressions quickly turned in a look of confusion when she saw the impassive look on his silver face.

"What wrong big guy?" Ashley asked quietly, the Autobot sniper sighed through his air intakes and kneed down in front of the kids, his one optic focused on the horse-sized panther

"Did you really teach him how to control the BSHB?" he asked in a mildly serious tone, the kids all exchanged bemused glances and Ashley suddenly had a bad feeling about where this might be going, Ravage stepped forward and looked up at the sniper impassively.

"If you're implying that I somehow managed to tap into the device then no, I'm good at hacking most devices but you're nanite technology is far too advanced for even my reedman drone to hack into...no, all I did was teach him some basic concentration techniques, and a few additional tips on reading cybertronian security software data" Ravage purred in reply as Morri stroked his neck.

"You know how to read security software data? But isn't that a little bit advanced for a drone like you?" Sideswipe asked bemused, Ravage looked up at him with a low growl of annoyance.

"I know a few things about advanced software data, and on that note, I may be a drone but a sentient being is still a sentient being, regardless of what form it takes! Besides, the nanite technology maybe hack proof but you apparently still apply the software setting's according to the old specs from 25000 years ago, they're so redundant that it was no surprise that a human youngling could learn the manual control settings so quickly" Ravage retorted, Deathshot blinked in surprise, how could he miss that little over sight?.

"So technically, me, Tom, Sam and Mikaela can access the devices too?" Morri asked, Deathshot hesitated a moment before answering as the kids looked up at him, wondering if they themselves could access such an amazing set of abilities from the BSHB's.

"With the upgrades I installed three nights ago technically yes, but if you're all wondering if I'll upgrade yours too then the answer in no, in case you've all forgotten we're meant to be hiding here and the last thing we need is for someone to see one you flying over the park, I may have added new features but a full spectrum distorting camouflage field was not one of them" he said in a serious tone, the kids sighed in disappointment.

"He's got a point kids, after what happened three nights ago we have to stay as low as we can, and even though we don't know how long we're gonna be here, we now know we have to be vigilant, I'm sorry guys" Jazz said sympathetically

"Eh, I'm not too keen on heights anyway" Glen shrugged, trying in vain to hide his disappointment, Danny placed a hand on his shoulder and grimaced in sympathy "For what it's worth mate, I sometimes suffer from vertigo" he said, "Still, it would have been totally cool" Becca said as her sister patted her shoulder.

"So, what are you going to do about me?" Ashley asked cautiously, a brief moment on uneasy silence passed between the 12 year old and the sniper, Deathshot looked down at him then stood back and sighed.

"Jazz, Ravage, Morri, can I talk to you for a few minutes? I'll speak to you in a while Ashley" he said as he strode out the building, "Everyone stay here for the moment, we'll be back shortly" Jazz said as he followed him out while Morri and Ravage both looked at concerned 12 year old. "What's going on?" he asked in a hushed tone, "I don't know, we'll be back soon enough" Morri replied as she and the panther hurried over to join the first lieutenant and sniper back in the hideout.

"What do you suppose they need to talk about?" Bluestreak asked offhand, "I don't know, but I've got a feeling it's going to end with them agreeing to take away the new upgrade" Ashley replied, "I don't see why they would do that? You were pretty awesome back there" Hailey replied. "Yeah man, you totally had it nailed, I mean, you could pass for being a Jedi or something!" Miles grinned, "You think?" Ashley asked "Totally!" the Waineright sisters replied, "Well, whatever happens, it was fun while it lasted, even if it was for one afternoon" Ashley shrugged, "Come on kiddo, it'll be alright...hay, how about we have some s'mores later? We've still got the marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers, how about it?" Mikaela said as she put an arm around Ashley's shoulders, "We can have s'mores! We can have s'mores! Yay!" Annabelle cheered, "I'd like that" Ashley replied with a small smile as he watched the rain fall down from the steadily darkening sky.

* * *

As Togusa walked into the analysis room, he found the rest of the team was assembled in the main lab, all looking bored and looking like they had been waiting there for hours on end, the Chief followed close behind, looking more serious than he usually did. At that moment the head technician walked into the lab looking rather nervous and unsure of himself.

"Alright, what did your analysis of the bullet show that you have to tell us before you submit your report?" Aramaki asked

"Well, for starters, I haven't written the report sir, at least not yet..." the technician replied, sounding uncomfortable, everyone looked at him with raised eyebrow while Aramaki frowned, all the recent work had really tested his patience so he was in no mood for excuses.

"And I assume you have a good reason for filing the report yet?" he asked in a serious tone

"Indeed, It's just...what we've found...well, come and have a look for yourselves" he said awkwardly as he lead the team over to one of the isolation rooms, the ones that were specially insulated to block out all electrically signals, as the team entered the huge white room, they approached a large long white table with a series of small bulky looking laptops and microscopes, the cell phone Togusa had grabbed and a small tray with the mangled bullet sitting on top. At the far end of the table two other technicians were standing nearby, both looking as uneasy."You're using insulated software systems?" Ishikawa asked offhand

"Yes, you'll see why in a minute, sorry about the cramped space but this was the only place we could conduct the analysis, because the results from the metallurgy tests showed something...very, very unique about the nature the weapon the bullet was fired from...and...The cell phone is even more unique..." the head technician said, hesitant that the team wouldn't take him seriously.

"Unique how?" Batou asked folding his arms

"Well first of all, take a look at this...we ran a sample of the bullet through our analysis database and these were the results we got, I knew it couldn't be right so we ran the tests again and even a third time, but the results still came back the same..." the technician said, as he typed a few keys on one of the laptops, a large window of data came up, showing a long list of results from the metallurgy tests, each result had the word 'unidentified' in red letters next to it, Ishikawa scrolled down the screen looking over each one and was surprised to see no matches.

"You tested the bullet against each of these? How many did you compare it to?" he asked

"All of them" the technician simply replied

"All of the ones in the database? But they're all the common metals used in weapons and ammunitions manufacturing, how can there not be any matches?" Batou replied

"No, after the first test came back negative we ran it through some more thorough tests, the comparisons you're looking are all the known metals everywhere, we even ran a chemical analysis for good measure and turned up nothing, whatever that bullet is made of, it's nothing found anywhere on the periodic tables"

"What are you saying?" the Major asked quizzically

"I'm saying that whatever metal that bullet is made of, it didn't come from anywhere on this planet..." the technician said, leaving the last word hanging, as a cold silence passed over the assembled team members Togusa began to get a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach as the memory of what happened three nights ago began to pang at the back of his mind, suddenly, what happened on the terrace that night began to make sense in a creepy kind of way. Batou's own thoughts weren't that different as his face mirrored the detective's inner shock.

"Are you saying that...that metal came from somewhere in outer space?" Boma asked cautiously

"If you have any doubts to that, then take a look at this...during the analysis we found the metal reacts...in a particular way when an electrical current is passed through it...watch this" one of the other technicians said, he pushed the tray with the mangled bullet forward and bought up onto the table a set of electrodes attached to a small monitor, he stuck one of the small electrodes to the side of the mangled metal and flipped the switch. The Chief and his team watched in stunned awe as the metal began to glow in a bluish aura and began to float up into the air, completely free from the effects of gravity, as it floated higher the electrode broke free but the strange glowing metal kept on floating up until it gently bounced off the ceiling and drifted across the room, no-one could take their eyes off it.

"...It will keep on floating like that for another 5 or so minutes, apparently it doesn't need many volts to make it float like that" the head technician continued as his assistance's reached up to try and grab it.

"That...is floating around?" Togusa said offhand

"How many earth-found metals do you know that can do that?" the technician replied, the team looked at him in complete stunned shock

"And further more...this was the one thing we couldn't run a complete analysis on because we had no idea where to start..." the head technician said as he picked up the cell phone and with a tiny screwdriver, gently removed the back cover. Instead of seeing the usual circuits, chips and wires that would have been very typical of such an antique device, instead, a vivid bright blue glow emanated out; leaning in closer for a better look, the team saw what looked like a tiny polygon the size of a hazelnut connected to a series of strange wires that looked more like plant tendrils, and other strange unidentifiable shapes with strange hieroglyphs on the sides, the wires would twitch slightly every now and then, giving the appearance that they were alive somehow.

"What the hell is that?" Saito breathed

"...We have no idea, but...watch..." one of the technicians said as he took a pen out of his pocket and held it gently above the glowing device, suddenly, some of tiny wires disconnected themselves from their connections and gently reached up to caress the pen, as if trying to identify what it was, seemingly satisfied they retracted back down and reconnected back into the glowing polygon.

"Whoa..." Pazu breathed as his eyes flew open with amazement.

"That's defiantly not the kind of stuff we see in our line of work" Ishikawa said as he wiped the sweat off his brow with the back of his hand. As the technician carefully replaced the back cover to the cell, the team all stood back and looked at each other in shock, their expressions were a mix of shock and awe, even the Major was visibly surprised."This is going to put this case in a whole other league" she said offhand

"You think? A metal that's found nowhere on earth and can defy gravity and a cell phone with...I don't know what that was, but am I the only one here that's thinking-" Togusa said before Batou cut him off abruptly "Aliens?" the whole group was silent for a minute, no-one knew what to say...and everyone was too nervous to concur with the detective, this was so incredible...and unbelievable, after a moment the chief regained his firm composure and turned to face his team with a deep frown etched on his face.

"So now what do we do?" Togusa asked

"...I don't have to tell you this is something we, or anyone else has ever come across before, from everything we seen so far on this case it's now a very likely assumption that something far greater is at work and we don't have the complete picture yet; for the time being doctor I want you to keep those things under lock and key at all time, don't let anyone know that they're here and don't breath a word to anyone about what you've seen...the same goes for the rest of you, no-one is to say anything about what we've seen in this room here today, considering the sensitive nature of this evidence we are now treading on very dangerous ground and it has the potential to turn into a real worst case scenario, but this isn't something we can keep to ourselves anymore so the prime minister as well as the military will have to be informed; Ishikawa, Boma, go back to the dive room and put the section's network and the Tachikoma's agent functions on alpha-1 level security lock and gather all the results from the test's on the bullet and cell phone as well as all our external memories and visual data of the last hour, print out the test results on paper and bring it straight to me, we can't afford to let anyone catch wind of this, as soon as you have everything in place I'll take it straight to the prime minister's residence, Major you'll be accompanying me, the rest of you focus you attention on surveying the storage house where our suspect's are hiding, keep an eye on them but don't approach or apprehend them" the chief replied

"But what if one of the other agencies tries to take them in? With all the camera's in the park there's no doubt that that either the CIS, section 6 or the military Intelligence department have managed to ID their face's by now" Batou said

"Which is why I suggest we get started, on the double!" the chief barked

"Yes sir!" everyone replied

* * *

The sky outside was now a dark shade of greyish blue as the last of the day's light slowly turned into dusk, the rain was now coming down heavier than before as the corrugated iron roof sounded like it had thousands of ball barring being poured down on it, the noise was almost defining as it echoed around the storage house. Inside the Autobot's and their human friends waited in silence, watching the retched weather come down, finally, Jazz and Deathshot walked back in with Morri and Ravage at their heels, everyone got up and approached, edger to know what their ruling on the state of the BSHB's upgrades were going to be, Ashley stood at the front of the group, feeling vaguely like a prisoner on his way to the gallows, but when Morri stepped forward with that knowing look in her eyes, his concern steadily slipped away, Jazz kneed down next to the 22 year old to address the boy.

"Okay, here's the deal kid; the D-man here's gonna let you keep the upgrade, but only on the condition that you use it responsibly and with discretion, you've got some real skills but your technique need's a little wax and polish, therefore, I'm appointing Ravage here to be your tutor, from what he told me you two got it real tight so I think he'll do a good job at showing you how to work the BSHB's security settings, as well as showing you some combat skills" Jazz smiled, Ashley's eye's flew open in surprise and a grin began to creep across his face as Ravage stepped up to him with a satisfied look in his red optic.

"Are you sure letting the drone teach the youngling how to fight is really a good idea? And what does his guardian have to say about it?" Sunstreaker asked with a narrow glair directed at the panther, who only returned the favour with a deathly glare of his own.

"I'm alright with him training my charge" Deathshot replied folding his arms and glancing down at the panther.

"You would trust a Decepticon to train your pet squishy?" Sunstreaker retorted, everyone stayed silent as the tension between the sniper and melee warrior began to rise, Deathshot never took kindly to having his charges insulted like that.

"EX-con you prick! And yeah, I trust him!" Ashley called up to the golden warrior in distain

"Look, are you guys sure that's a good idea? I mean, did you thoroughly think it though when you guys were talking about?" Hot Rod said in an effort to try and defuse the situation, Sunstreaker only glared at him while Deathshot simply looked at him impassively.

"We did think it through...it's been just over two years since Ravage defected, and in all that time he's been with us, he's never given us real cause for concern. True he can beat you two geniuses at your own pranks but he hasn't done anything that warrants us to speculate he's still a Decepticon" Jazz addressed the twins, Ravage discreetly nodded in agreement

"And how can you be sure he still isn't a Con at spark?" Sunstreaker retorted curtly, Ravage stepped forward angrily and was about to say something when Jazz stepped in;

"I don't...but there are times when you give someone the benefit of the doubt, that you have to let them prove their worth on their own, this many not be the most convenient situation but this is one of those times and I think it's time we gave our newest allies the chance to prove their worth as Autobots" the first lieutenant said, Scorponok and Frenzy both looked up at him with appreciation in their optics while Sunstreaker huffed trough his vents and folded his arms, "You've been hanging around Prime for too long" he replied impassively, "Perhaps, but I know it's what he'd do" Jazz replied.

"That's true" Bumblebee said offhand

"Hang on a sec, what about our upgrades? Me, Mikaela, Tom and Morri have them too" Sam asked

"We talked about that too, Mikaela and Morri can keep theirs; being the medics they might need them in case of an emergency, and being the secondary mechanics you and Tom can keep yours too, but you will have to learn how to control them, so until you're comfortable with controlling the anti-gravity field, the repelling force field and the shield at the very least, you'll be learning alongside Ashley" Deathshot said

"Hang on; I don't recall Ravage having any knowledge of the BSHB or its function? How is he going to be able to teach Ashley how to use it?" Bluestreak said.

"Simple, with the basic settings layout I allowed him to download from me" the sniper replied

"Just one other thing kid, we're letting you keep the upgrade while we're stuck here, but when we get home, Ratchet's gonna have to remove it, okay? But while we're here, your still responsible for helping the drones keep us safe, and if being in control of the BSHB's weapons settings helps you to be more effective at your task then that's okay with me, alright?" Jazz said looking down at the 12 year old, Ashley's attitude turned impassive as he dropped his gaze to the floor in thought, after a moment he looked back up at the first lieutenant.

"Okay...But, why did you put me in charge of helping Ravage and Scorpy protect you guys in the first place?" he asked

"Because you could use the responsibility, and it's a good excuse to keep you out of trouble, it's better than being bored if you've got something occupying your time right?" Morri said

"I guess" Ashley shrugged

"Well, this should be interesting" Jetfire smirked

"Indeed, now youngling's, I recommend you get some recharge early tonight, we start combat practice first thing in the morning" Ravage grinned at the kids

"Man, I'm suddenly feeling very relieved I didn't get the upgrade" Glen said in a hushed voice to Darren, "You think? I think our friends have got their work cut out for them" Darren smiled folding his arms.

* * *

R&R please!


	18. Chapter 17: First Contact

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 17: FIRST CONTACT

The distant sound of birds singing was the first thing he noticed as his systems booted up and came online, and the roof was silent too. As Bumblebee transformed and stood up, he saw bright rays of golden sunshine streaming in through the dusty windows of the hideout, in the humans sleeping area he saw Glen and Miles snoozing in their sleeping bags, near the kitchen area Hailey and her little sisters were preparing the breakfast while near the main entrance Annabelle was sitting on Scorponok's head affectionately scratching him, he chirped and trilled with pleasure as her little figures hit just the right spot.

"Morning Bee" Hailey called up

"Good morning girls, where is everyone?" the young scout asked, noticing that no-one else was in the building.

"With the rain finally gone everyone's out stretching their legs by the lake, except for the twins and Hot Rod, they went for a drive down the dirt road, they'll be back any minute for breakfast" Becca said as she put another rasher of bacon in the frying pan, a small noise from behind caught the young scouts attention and noticed Darren sitting behind some large crates with various circuit boards, computer chips and wires laid out in his lap with his laptop sitting to one side, connected to several small black and gray boxes, and nearby his little tool kit was laid out with his prosthetic left leg next to it.

"Are you not too cramped in there Darren?" Bumblebee asked, Darren sat bolt upright, taken by surprise at the Autobot's voice.

"Ah, uh, hay Bee, didn't see you there" he replied, and put his screwdriver down to take a break from the work.

"What are you doing in there?"

"He's still looking for Tom's cell phone, though I don't know why, I think it's long gone by now" Becky interjected

"We have to find it because it's got some of Deathshot's nanite tech in it, if anyone finds out about it we could be in trouble" Darren replied

"But you've been searching for nearly a week now; don't you think it's starting to become just a little bit futile?" Bumblebee asked

"Maybe, but I still gotta try" the young hacker replied as Bumblebee watched him go back to work, "Suite yourself" he shrugged and walked over towards the main entrance. As he stepped out into the open, the fresh morning air felt good as he inhaled through his vents, up above the sky was the clearest shade of blue and in the distance the city of New Port glistened in the morning sun, the numerous towering skyscrapers reflected the morning light in such a way it looked like they were coated in gold, all around the fresh green undergrowth was sparkling with raindrops hanging on the branches and sitting on the newly sprouted leaves like tiny perfect diamonds.

'How wonderful, even in a different universe Earth is still as beautiful as ever' Bumblebee thought to himself, as he stepped out into the undergrowth, the branches of the tree's gently brushed against his shoulders and the sides of his face, the wetness of the foliage dripped and splashed onto his armour as he strode along towards the lake, up ahead he could hear the voices of the humans and other Autobots chatting and laughing, he was about to call out to Sam and Mikaela when something landed onto his shoulder, jumping in surprise he was about to swat off whatever it was when he saw it was Ashley, squatting on the ridge of armour behind his shoulder with that devilish grin spread across his face.

"Wah? Ashley don't scare me like that!" the yellow scout reprimanded

"Come on Bee lighten up! I'm only practising" Ashley grinned; he turned around and like a monkey he back-flipped off, bounced off against the trunk of the tree and landed in the grass, Bumblebee blinked in surprise.

"Primus! Where did you learn to do that?" he asked, at that moment Ravage silently crept out of the bushes and stood beside his 'pupil'.

"It's just one of my more basic moves, one that's quite adequate for a biped-based being to master, and I have to say, my student here has proven to be an excellent learner" he purred. After the matter concerning the BSHB upgrades had been laid to rest, Ashley, along with Sam, Mikaela, Tom and Morri had been taught by Deathshot and Ravage how to use the upgrades, and how to apply them in an emergency, the older kids had caught on pretty quick and had learnt to use the anti-gravity field, repelling force field and shield with relative ease within a day, but it was Ashley that had proven to be the most talented with the alien device and Ravage had taken a keen interest in his appointed job as tutor to the young rebel. For the last three days he had put Ashley through a tough military-style regime, every morning started early with a full workout, and with the help of some old gym equipment Miles and Sam found in one of the other storage houses, he had been practising his boxing, judo and karate, honing and refining all that he knew and combining it with his upgraded BSHB's abilities to create a whole new unique fighting style, one that didn't fail to wow his cousins and friends, and one that even impressed Sunstreaker (though he never showed it, he'd be caught dead before he was seen giving praise to a human sparkling). Today was the youngster's fourth day of training and with the rain finally gone Ravage had decided that today would be the start of field training, in other words, accompanying him everywhere and learning on the spot.

"Only because you're a great teacher" Ashley replied as he patted the panther's head, being careful to avoid the blades on the sides of his jaw.

"Quite, and now, I'd say we've practised enough arboreal stalking for now, go and have your organic fuel, we'll be patrolling the forest perimeter later" Ravage told the youngster as he nudged him in the direction Bumblebee just came from, "Alright alright, see ya in a bit!" Ashley waved him good bye and started jogging back towards the hideout, once he was out of sight, Bumblebee turned his attention back to the ex-decepticon with a raised optic ridge.

"You know, I'm a little surprised, I wouldn't have figured you for being the educational type" Bumblebee said frankly, the panther merely looked up at him with a plain look, his emotions being hard to read (though he was always hard to read on account of his one optic and singular silver face plate). "Are you trying to pry a confection of sentimental feeling from me?" he growled, "No, merely making an observation, you and Ashley have really become best of friends these last few weeks, he was barely on the base 24 hours when he first arrived, yet within several hours you were letting him ride you, up until then you never let anyone ride you...what is it about him you find so...appealing?" Bumblebee asked. Ravage dropped his gaze as his mind turned back to that first day they first meet.

He had been strolling through the desert on the boarder of his territory, having lost interest in the party that had been raving in the hanger for most of the day, he returned to his den (a basic burrow carved out of the dry dusty ground that Scorponok had made for him) and was surprised to see sitting in the deep wide hole the young human boy who was one of the new arrivals, what was he doing in there? Ravage didn't stop to ask and growled angrily at the youngster, he never liked it when anyone crawled into his den, even Scorponok; despite his best display of teeth baring and loud growling, the young human simply stared back at the horse-sized panther with his own venomous glair, the sun had been beating down hard that day and clearly he didn't take kindly to being kicked out of the only shade around for hundreds of meters. Deciding to put the human boy in his place Ravage reached in, grabbed him gently in his jaws and was about to toss him aside when the youngster took one huge swing of his free arm and punched the panther square in the optic. With a yell of pain Ravage dropped the boy, who promptly stood back up and got in a fighting stance, readjusting his sight he took one look at the boy and couldn't believe what he was seeing. A human sparkling challenging him to fight, this human was either unbelievably brave or incredibly foolish; but more than that, he wasn't put off by the fact he was facing off against a hunter-class drone, one that could easily rip his head off with one bite, or worse. Ravage couldn't help himself and fell over laughing hysterically (although it sounded more like a cross between a deep belly laugh and hoarse mechanical cackle, which sound particularly strange, and creepy) the boy blinked in surprise and with a load war-cry he leapt up and tackled the panther by the neck, Ravage only laughed harder and longer as he flicked off each of the boy's attacks and tackles, he found the boy's tenacity and spunk amusing to no end. This went on for well over an hour until the youngster was too exhausted to fight anymore, but even when he was panting for air and his shoulders started to sag he still tried to tackle the panther. After Ravage regained himself he took pity on him and let the boy rest in his den, for most of the day they just sat there watching the day pass by and listening to the distant sounds of the party drift over on the hot winds. The boy spoke of himself a little; he introduced himself as Ashley, told him of his home, his family and his guardian and a few other things. During the time Ravage spent listening to Ashley, he began to get the impression this kid was out of place somewhat compared to the other human children, he was bold, outspoken, rebellious, and somewhat wily (that pleased the drone). Of all the humans he had come across, Ravage was surprised to find such a like-minded being, one that liked to make his own way in the world and wasn't keen on following the rules, he had no doubt that if this young human were born a cybertronian, he would make for a most fitting Decepticon, even a fellow drone. From that day on, he allowed the boy to follow him around, and gradually they grew to be best of friends.

But to now find himself here as the boy's combat tutor...this was something he wouldn't even conceive of thinking some 1000 years ago, back then he enjoyed nothing else than ripping Autobots apart and devouring their circuits and drinking up their oil and energon. But now he was an Autobot and had both human and Autobot friends, all because of the Allspark being destroyed. Life certainly had a strange way of turning things around for the better, there was no doubt life was certainly better as an Autobot, he had his den, the run of the desert and all the energon he could wolf down, it was certainly a lot more freedom than life with the Decepticons had allowed, and a lot more respect. He looked back up at Bumblebee and turned to head back into the undergrowth.

"My reasons are my own..." he growled and slipped back into the bushes silently as a shadow, disappearing among the greenery. Bumblebee simply shook 'I'll never understand him, he's been an Autobot now for over 2 years, why is he still so secretive?...I guess old habits die hard when you've been a con for so long..." Bumblebee thought to himself, suddenly he felt a tap on his head, spinning around he was mildly surprised to see Mikaela floating in midair at his eye-level, encased in a blue aura with the BSHB on her back glowing in a soft white light.

"Morning Bee!" she beamed

"Morning Mikaela...I thought Deathshot said you weren't allowed to use that for fun?" he replied, gesturing to the device on the back of her left shoulder

"I'm just practising, as long as we don't go above the tree's he's cool with it, you know, we've been practising with this for several days now and I'm still can't get over how awesome this is!" she smiled as she floated down and sat into Bee's waiting hand.

"I don't think I'll ever get bored of this!" Tom called over as he drifted through the trees like a fish in a coral reef, close behind Sam came flying through and circled around the top of his guardians head like an irritating house fly.

"Yo Bee! Check this out! I finally got this superman gig nailed man!" he grinned with an over enthusiastic attitude, Bumblebee watched him fly around while Mikaela simply rolled her eyes, he had been like a little kid in a candy store ever since he got the hang of controlling the anti-gravity field, 'I suppose it's better than Mile's, he'd go completely nuts with it' she thought. Deathshot came walking through the trees with Morri and Tom floating by the sides of his black helm weaving in and out between the branches while his wings were folded as back as they could go in order to avoid bumping into and grazing his wings on the trees, he held up both his hands and both his charges drifted down into his silver palms.

"Very good younglings, your manoeuvrability has certainly improved since yesterday" he smiled

"It's actually not that hard, not all that dissimilar to learning how to ride a bike, it's all about balance I think" Morri said

"Perhaps, but having not ridden a bike myself I wouldn't know...now, your reading are signalling it's time for your morning refuel" the sniper said

"Breakfast D, and actually I am feeling a bit hungry" Tom replied as a small gurgle from his stomach quietly rippled through his abdomen, sharpening his present hunger pang. Some distance away the sound of high octane car engines rumbled loudly and the screech of tires could be heard as three familiar vehicles screeched to a halt.

"Sounds like the three speedsters are back from their morning drive" Morri said offhand

"It's barely 8 o' clock and I bet their already causing trouble" Deathshot sighed through his vents, as the sounds of transforming echoed through the woods and several load shouts could be heard as Jetfire let off a string sharp sounding cybertronian curses.

"Sounds like you spoke too soon" Bumblebee chuckled.

* * *

As the glass wall elevator steadily rose up the side of the building the morning sunshine shone upon the various skyscrapers lighting them up with a radiant hue of golden yellow, everywhere all around the countless windows sparkled and glistened like a thousand crystals and high up in the pale blue sky there wasn't a cloud to be seen anywhere, after all the rain of the last four days, it was a welcoming sight. 'With a sky like that, you could practically smell the fresh air from in here' Togusa thought with a small smile, it felt good to think of something else for once, not having to worry about all the pressure this case has bought upon him and his teammates, if it could even be called a case anymore, now it was practically a full blown conspiracy with Section 9 smack in the middle.

After Chief Aramaki submitted his report, along with the 'alien' evidence to the prime minister, the whole cabinet had gone from being in a near panic and declaring a state of emergency to suddenly stopping dead in their tracks and trying to figure out what the hell to do next, the cell phone and mangled bullet were rushed to the GSDA's applied science and weapons division for further testing, within 24 hours the GSDA had confirmed Sections 9's original findings, the materials the items had been made from had not originated from anywhere on earth. So now, for the last three days the cabinet were at a standstill and at a loss at what to do After going over Chief Aramaki's reports, from the evening of the botched raid on the Black Lotuses base to the incident in the Kohoku district, all the members of the cabinet, including the prime minister herself, had been scratching their heads trying to figure out how to handle this situation. Were those machines really aliens? Considering all that had been seen so far it was somewhat safe to say a lot the mysterious facts hadn't made sense before now began to make sense in a rather uncomfortable kind of way, but if the machines were aliens, then the big question was what were they doing here? Were they friendly or hostile? What are their true intentions? And how did the children fit in to all this? Where they helping them or were they hostages?...or were they something else too? Questions like these and many more had been spinning around within the walls of the prime minister's residence and after the last few days of debates over the subject the cabinet had split down the middle, one half argued they should take the peaceful approach and attempt to make contact with the subjects and establish a line of communication, while the other half argued they should take no chances and have the subjects subdued and neutralized. So far the prime minister was voting for the peaceful solution, but only because she didn't want to provoke any unforeseen circumstances to crop up at an inconvenient moment whether it be the machines themselves or anything else, least it could cost innocent lives if anything got out of hand.

Meanwhile, under direct orders from the cabinet, Section 9 had spent the last three days being questioned by government officials on the specifics of the evidence they acquired the night they tried to apprehend the suspects, statements were taken and external memories examined to determine there were no telltale signs of brain washing or ghost hacking, or any other signs to suggest the whole thing had been staged. Although the officials had been informed of the Major being infected by the A11 Alpha virus, it had been determined that the encryption programme keeping it in place was still functioning properly and had not been breached by the viruses random data configuration. While it was understandable that the facts had to be confirmed and proven in this case, the team had not taken kindly to being treated with the usual contempt that was typical of the top brass, and the Major especially did not take kindly to the implication that she shouldn't be on active duty with the world's most dangerous virus locked down in her systems, she had been in a bad mood ever since and with the surveillance of the suspects to juggle, plus the cabinets undecided attitude, this was getting just too complicated and it was dangerously close to the point that if something went wrong, it could bring about a real worst case scenario. When the elevator eventually went ding, Togusa made his way along the corridor down towards the dive room. Upon entering the dimly lit room he found Ishikawa and Boma sat at a set of terminals in one corner while the Major sat on the opposite side in the main terminal with various wires protruding from the ports in the back of her neck, Ishikawa noticed the young detective approach and take a seat next to him.

"So they finally decided to cut you lose huh?" the veteran hacker asked

"It's not like they had anything new to ask, if there's one you can say the military intelligence have perfected to a fine art it's that their experts at going around in circles" Togusa sighed

"Guess they didn't have anything new to go on" Boma said offhand, Togusa nodded in agreement.

"So Mister Togusa, do you think there really are aliens here on earth? Because I gotta say, the nearest star besides our sun is the Alpha Centauri system and that's over 1.37 light years away! If there is a planet out there somewhere there that is capable of sustaining sentient life, then why would they come all the way over here? It's a very, very, very long way to travel! How could they survive such a long journey?" the Tachikoma said as its avatar popped up in the corner of his monitor. "After what happened outside my home and after seeing that bullet float around the analysis room, I can't really say no" Togusa replied, he noticed on a couple of the spare terminals screens some windows displaying various cult science websites on UFO's and supposed alien activity on earth, Togusa rolled his eyes and sighed, trust the Tachikoma's to get all worked up and excited about this, at that moment Batou strode into the room, the stress of the last few days made itself evident on his face in the form a rather sour scowl, 'looks like it's going to be one of those days' Togusa thought as the ex-ranger cyborg took up a seat next to the Major.

"Good to see you finally showed up" she said

"As if I had much of a choice, you said you have something important we can use so what have you got in mind?" he replied curtly

"Before the GSDA took our evidence away I was able to get a few numbers off that cell phone, one of those number's was listed under the name 'Morri', and didn't your daughter speak of quite highly of her Togusa?" the Major asked

"Well yeah, she spoke of a few others too" Togusa replied

"I wondered if it's worth you giving her a call and asking if Annabelle would like to come along for a little play-date with your daughter? We're starting to run low on options on how to get our suspects out into the open, despite the fact that aliens may be a factor in this that fact still remains that we need answers, and the only way to get them is to interrogate one of those kids" the Major said, the other team-members exchanged glances and looked back at her.

"Bit of a ballsy move Major, what if they suspect something and another 'bright light' appears over our heads?" Batou asked, she paused a brief moment before answering.

"If we weren't under pressure to find something new on this case then I'd be willing to wait until the right opportunity comes along, but with the cabinet breathing down our necks we don't have much of a choice, we're just going to have to arrange this so we have the advantage over the home ground, I've already spoken to the chief about it and he agrees this might be the only option open to us" she said

"Alright, so what's the plan?" Ishikawa asked

"Well first, me and Ishikawa have been setting up a tracer virus for the cell line, Togusa you'll talk to this Morri and set up a time and place with her and Annabelle, it's got to be somewhere open and where we have a clear sight to the suspects, once they arrive at the designated location we'll safely try to apprehend them" she replied

"Anywhere in mind for this op to go down?" Batou asked

"I've already got somewhere in mind, it's away from the park and offers a good range and allows for plenty of space with little obstacles" she said

"What about Annabelle Major?" Togusa asked

"Don't worry, we're going to do this as gently as possible, if our quarry's are not combatants as we suspect, then it's safe to assume they won't try anything at the sight of a gun, our top priority on this will be to bring them in both alive, for now let's set up the trap…make the call" the Major replied and tossed Togusa a phone with a twin set of wires connecting it to the terminal, Togusa put the phone to his ear and listened as the dial tone began to ring.

* * *

"Okay, so we've been hiding for four days now and nothing's happened, do you think it's safe to assume we can go out again? Cuz I gotta say being cramped up in here is starting to get real…well cramped!" Becca said as she took another bite of her toast

"I agree" Becky replied, all the kids were sat around a collection of tables lined in a row, their guardians sat on the floor cross legged watching over them while they went about eating their breakfast.

"Besides, we're gonna have to consider going out soon because we're officially on our last rations and if we don't find something we won't have enough food and water to last us through to the day after tomorrow" Hailey said

"But we don't have any money, I mean, I have some change in my rucksack but it's not the right currency" Darren called down from where he was perched on Trailbreakers shoulder, still busy on his laptop and various other gadgets.

"Well that won't get us much" Tom sighed

"Maybe we can eat wild food? Me and Ravage found some rabbit burrows near the river earlier and the rivers full of fish we can catch" Ashley suggested as he wolfed down another fried egg

"The fish are one thing but if you expect me to skin and gut a rabbit then forget it!...besides, it may be alright on a short term basis but we don't know how much longer we'll be staying here, we should have a variety of foods in order to stay healthy and while fish are good for protein and omega oils, they don't provide fiber, carbs, calcium of any other vitamins and the last thing we need to be dealing with in the long run is any illnesses brought about by nutrient-deficiencies" Morri replied

"But I thought you humans had an emergency back-up energy supply stored under your armor? What was it called again?...fat? Yeah fat! According to Ratchet it suppose to let you go up to 1 earth month without refueling" Sideswipe recommended

"It can, but it's not healthy do try it, and the fact we can't go more than 48 hours without water doesn't help either" Morri replied, looking up the red warrior with a slight glair.

"Oh…" Sideswipe replied

"Then what do we do? If we can't buy any food, catching it won't get us far and starving certainly isn't an option, how are we going to get a bite to eat?" Danny asked, everyone paused in silence for a moment as they tried to think of something.

"Maybe we can ask someone for help?" Annabelle said

"Like who?" Bluestreak asked

"What about Mizuki's daddy Mister Togusa? He was really nice and let me stay for dinner at his place, maybe we can ask him if we can come over for supper again?" Annabelle replied with a wide smile, Morri and Mikaela both looked at each other and sighed, they both turned to the four year old who sat in between them.

"Anny sweetie? I'm sure mister Togusa was really nice and it was very kind of him to let you stay over at his place, but we can't ask him for food, it wouldn't be polite" Mikaela replied as gently as possible, Annabelle only gave a confused look.

"And don't forget, he saw us on the terrace that night we took you back, how do we explain what happened if we see him again?" Morri concurred

"She's right kiddo, we don't want to cause any unnecessary trouble for anyone, unless anything happens that dictates our actions otherwise, we can't afford to get mixed up in any trouble…I'm sorry, but it was a good idea" Jazz said, Annabelle bowed her head with a feeling of dejection, Mikaela put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a hug.

"Hay's its okay, it was a really good idea, but we don't want mister Togusa getting into any unnecessary trouble do we?" She cooed

"No" was the four year old's simple reply

"We'll be okay, we just gotta think of something else that's all" Morri said patting her on the shoulder.

"Well we could-" Sam didn't get to finish what he was saying as Morri's cell phone began to ring, drawing everyone's attention to where it sat on the end of her sleeping bag, everyone exchanged surprised looks glances.

"Who's ringing?" Hailey asked "Someone's found my phone?" Tom said as Morri got up and picked up the cell, she frowned when she saw who, or rather who wasn't calling.

"It says number unlisted" she replied

"What? That can't be right, toss it up here, I can put a trace on the other end, we can finally find out where it's gotten to" Darren called down, Morri threw up the cell to the young hacker and he plugged a silver wire into the base of the device, he plugged the wire into his laptop and the other end into the side of Trailbreaker's helm, into a small port under his audio.

"'Scuse me buddy but I need to borrow your modem and tracker software" he asked

"No problem" the black warrior replied, Darren typed several keys and brought up a window of information, showing a tracking program on the cell phone. The kids all looked up in silence and the Autobots leaned in closer.

"Okay, let's see where this call is coming from" Darren sighed as he flipped the phone open and pressed the speaker phone button.

* * *

"Looks like we got a bite" Ishikawa said as a green light flashed on the phone that Togusa was holding, he typed away on the keyboard of the dive terminal, bringing up the window of data that showed the progress of the tracker virus, as the dial tone went click, the virus automatically activated and instantly went down the line to the receiver.

* * *

"What the hell is that?" Glen said offhand as a strange electronic sound emanated from the cell phone.

"Kinda sounds like Ironhide that one time when he over-energized and tried to whistle in cybertronian" Bluestreak said. Deathshot frowned as scooted over closer to Trailbreaker, Darren's laptop suddenly began to bleep and a red warning window popped up in the centre of the screen, his eyebrows flew up in surprise and he started typing away feverishly with a determined look on his face, Trailbreker blinked rapidly and tried not to shake his head.

"Oh man, I know that look! What's wrong?" Glen called up

"Trailbreaker's firewalls just caught a virus that was somehow sent down the phone line, it's holding for now but this is a real little beast, I'm gonna need some help up here!" Darren called back, "I'm on it!" without hesitation Glen and Danny rushed to their rucksacks and got out their laptops and USB plugs.

"You okay buddy? The virus hasn't reached your CPU's central processing core has it?" Jazz asked in a worried tone

"N-no, the firewalls are s-s-s-still in place, b-b-but I think I-I-I might n-n-need help" Trailbreaker replied, the viruses effect make itself evident with his slurred speech, the other Autobots began to worry as Deathshot tapped the side of his helm and a small silver wire popped out from a small opening at the side of his forehead, he plugged in the wire to another spare port in the side of Trailbreakers helm. "Hang on, I'll give you a hand, my class 3 trans-electro nanites will take care of it" the sniper said, "No wait! Don't eliminate the virus just yet! I want to see how this was sent down the line and who sent it, can you program the nanites to keep it in place while I set up my tracker program?" Darren asked, "alright" Deathshot replied.

"Okay, what can we do?" Danny asked as he and Glen where lifted up onto Trailbreaker's opposite shoulder courtesy of Hot Rod, they set up their laptops, plugged them into each other's devices and threw their connecting wires across to Darren, who promptly plugged them in.

"How do you send a computer virus through a cell phone?" Becca asked offhand

"That's what I want to find out" Darren huffed as he typed away, Frenzy clambered up and sat next to him, watching the data fly across the screen in curiosity.

* * *

"What the?..." Ishikawa said as he tried to get the virus back under control, by this time the Chief, Saito and Pazu had entered the dive room.

"What's wrong?" The chief asked

"The virus just got caught in a firewall, and judging from the data I'm getting from the feedback it's a pretty good one…it's now been frozen somehow, I can't seem to establish the data uplink" Ishikawa replied

"Did you try by-passing the firewalls main programming with an attack barrier?" Boma asked

"I'm trying to do that right now, but the firewalls so vast I can't get lock on the encryption" he replied, the chief leaned in curiously as the hacker tried to regain control of the tracker virus.

"This is a quality firewall alright, whoever created this must be real class A pro, you can't create a firewall of this size with this many variable's written into the program without knowing how to counter an attack barrier with simple counter-encryption data, I'll go to the receiver and upload a four layer attack barrier to try and break through the firewalls main program structure" the Major replied as she analyzed the sketchy data coming up on the main monitor, she brought her dive terminal down and jacked into the main system, she felt the familiar sensation of being shifted from the real world to the virtual world as her Chroma avatar materialized onto the network, her vision shifted to encompass the virtual either that was the net, it was something she had long since taken for granted, three of the Tachikoma agents appeared by her side as she entered the net and stepped onto the line that connected the tracker virus to the sections network.

"Alright, as soon as we come within range of the firewall I want you to set up a perimeter block, we'll use that as a decoy and put the four layer attack barrier in place, when the firewall sets it sights on the block we'll throw the attack barrier up, Ishikawa, once the tracker virus is free I want you to try and hack whoever's on the end of the line" the Major said

"Rodger!" both Ishikawa and the Tachikoma's replied, back in the dive room, Togusa suddenly got that cold feeling in the pit of his stomach, the kind that told him something was about to happen. He looked around the room and took a deep breath, what could possibly happen?

* * *

"Hang on hang on…something else just showed up…" Danny said, by this time all the kids had taken their seats on the guardians shoulders and where watching the three young hackers work feverishly to try and expel the virus from Trailbreakers system, "my nanites have frozen the virus in place, but I sense this new program that's just approached is something else entirely" Deathshot said.

"Your right, and it's not just one but four…it looks like their working in sync with one another to set up some kind of shell program to try and distract the firewall" Darren said as he watched the data scroll down the screen.

"Are they trying to hack in some other way?" Glen asked

"Looks like it, judging from my external spyware program it looks like their setting up some kind of firewall with four layers of encryption software, but it seems similar in structure to a worm, if it tries to penetrate the firewall Trailbreaker will be in real trouble, whoever's doing this is no amateur, they know what they're doing" Darren replied with a frown, he was now getting agitated that someone somewhere was trying to hack into his guardian, whoever they were, he was in no mood to go easy on them.

"Then in that case I'll go in, go to the hackers source and confront them, Trailbreaker I'll need to by-pass your CPU's security unit in order to re-enforce your firewall and get onto the net" Deathshot said

"Alright, but p-p-p-pl-please h-h-h-h-h-h-h-hurry!" the black warrior stuttered, Bumblebee placed a hand on his shoulder as is hands began to twitch slightly.

"Hang on! Can you open a back-channel for me so I can have a clear line to these creeps? I want to take a peek at just what they've got in their online arsenal" Darren asked

"Alright, I'll send down my class 1 trans-electro nanites to hack into the hacker's base systems, you bring up your avatar and stay close behind" the sniper said

"Got it, you know I still find it hard to believe you know all this" Darren smiled

"Well I did work alongside the Autobot reconnaissance division for a few hundred years, stuff like this was sparkling's play, now, get ready, I'm uploading the nanites, Because of the difference in data alignment compared to the internet our world I'll have to modify my online formatting to deal with the demands of this system..." the sniper replied. As the wire connecting him to Trailbreaker began to glow blue the three young hackers watched in amazement at the changing data on their laptops, the figures Deathshot was putting out showed his online avatar settings were reformatting and transforming into a completely different set of system interaction programmes and online CPU function.

"Wow...that's incredible!" Danny breathed with a huge grin

"What's going on? What's incredible?"" the Waineright twins asked

"This is!" Glen grinned and held up his laptop to show everyone, they kids all simply looked at the figures in confusion, not having the same tech-knowhow made it somewhat tricky to keep pace with the three biggest geeks of the group.

"See that? Ain't he a work of art!" Glen continued

"We'll take your word for it" Sam replied with a slightly confused if not bewildered look.

* * *

"M-M-MAJOR! what the heck is that?!" the Tachikoma's squeaked, the Major looked to where they were pointing and saw, what had to be the most incredible sight she had ever seen, suddenly appearing before her on the net was...something on-one could easily put into words.

Instead of a usual circular icon with an arrow, or even an online 3D avatar of a person in full profile, instead was as what appeared to be gigantic terminal-like structure, but instead of a typical sphere shape with access gates on all sides, it was a massive great stellated dodecahedron type shape, all bathed in a most radiant and vivid shade of blue, with each pointed panel being covered in strange hieroglyphs and symbols, the vast 3D shape seemed to continuously collapse in on itself and reassemble from the inside out over and over again, it was weird and visually made no sense, all around the outside circulating around and around were countless bands of more strange hieroglyph like symbols and barcodes in neon reds, yellows and blues. The whole structure was so vast that its width went far beyond the range of the Majors virtual vision. She froze in a mix of awe and fear, unable to think what to do next, all she did (all she could do) was float there in cyberspace, but she was so lost in hypnotic rhythm of the thing that she failed to notice one of the bands of data broke loose and snared her like an octopus catching a fish.

"MAJOR!" the Tachikomas cried as they tried to pull her back, but they only got snared themselves, the Major tried everything she could to break free, even turning off the security encryption on the program that kept the A11-alpha virus locked up, she could feel the virus snaking its way out of her system like a worm crawling out of the ground, trying to get out. But it was to no avail, several more bands of data wrapped around her and stopped the virus dead in its tracks, over the connection to the section's network she could Batou and the other's calling her name, their voices echoed the further away she was, as the vast structure pulled her in, she found all her capabilities had been frozen, closing her eyes she gently sighed and smiled a small smile.

'So this is how I die? Huh, funny, I have to admit, there are more boring ways to out.....well, good bye my friends....good bye Batou...' she thought as she steadily became enveloped in a blinding white light.

* * *

"Okay, I've got the four programs frozen in place, one of them just released another virus, this one's way more powerful then the last, the nanites managed to put a freeze on it before it could spread, I'm gonna try to put a 'vaccinate' it, you take of the hackers base" Glen said as he worked on his laptop

"Alright, D, do we have a lock on the hackers?" Darren asked

"Yes, let's get to work" the sniper replied

* * *

"Major! Major! Come on snap out of it!" Batou shouted as he shook her by the shoulders, as her online signal went dead she had collapsed in dive terminal and the team had lost contact with her and three of the Tachikoma's, something had appeared just before they lost the them and now Boma and Ishikawa were working furiously to try and pull them back, they couldn't disconnect her from the dive terminal for fear of severing the connection between her ghost line and net connection.

"What the hell was thing?" Boma exclaimed

"I don't know, but whatever it was, it's huge!" Ishikawa replied

"Where is it now?" Batou said as he sat down and jacked into the spare dive terminal.

"It still outside the firewall, it's....hang on...hang on, it's coming this way, it's following the Majors connection back to our network!" Ishikawa said in a slight panic as he watched the strange online entity approach.

"Cut the connection! Quickly!" the chief barked

"I can't! It's filtering the Major's data systems only one way, it's using her like a tracking device to retrace her online steps, it's....its here!" Boma exclaimed, bringing up the data on the main monitor, the whole team watched in silence as the humongous blue entity approached the main gate of the sections online network, for a few moments it simply hovered there in cyberspace, like a vast whale looking down upon a small shoal of fish. As they watched the vast strange shape fold in and out on itself, one by one several bands of the strange data began to circulate around the main terminal gate like ribbons on a breeze, hacking into Section 9's mainframe with very little effort, Ishikawa, Boma and the remaining Tachikoma's tried to counter-attack it with everything they had, then all around alarm signals starting flashing and beeping.

"That things going to break through any second! Can't you stop it?!" Batou shouted as he watched in worry.

"We're trying; we're throwing everything we've got! But it's too big and fast!" Ishikawa shouted back, as though he were fighting the thing hand to hand, the strange thing kept advancing, dissolving the barriers and barrier mazes like acid, bit by bit the programmes were completely taken apart and 'absorbed' into the vast morphing shape.

"Dammit! What the hell is this! Its disassembling all the programmes as it advances forward and tearing down our defences!" Boma shouted, one by the one all the monitors began to flicker, a strange electronic static began to come through on the audio speakers, slowly, as the system began to fall under the thing's control, the static began to sound more and more like a collection of electronic voices speaking in a strange unrecognisable language, the Chief, Saito, Pazu and Togusa watched on helplessly as their top hackers faced off against this far superior foe.

* * *

"Okay, I'm in...I can talk to the hackers directly, Darren, you do what you have to do, I'll sync the data as you scroll through it" Deathshot said

"Okay" Darren replied

"Just remember D man, keep to the basics and don't let on too much, though I think their gonna be in for a real big surprise" Jazz said

"I think your right" Deathshot replied with a small smirk, Morri, who was now sitting on his shoulder, recognized that look. "What have you got in mind?" she asked

"You'll see youngling, I'll keep my speakers on so you can hear all the action" he replied

* * *

"Mr Isaikawa! We just lost the barriers on all levels! We're not getting any response from the network!" the Tachikomas squeaked as they ran around on the screens in a panic

"DAMIT!!! What the hell's going on?!" Batou shouted angrily

Just when it seemed it couldn't get any worse, the unexpected and unbelievable happened within a few short minutes.

The monitor displays completely changed, now the weird blue hieroglyphs were scrolling across the screens in the thousands, a constant river of complex unknown data streamed by at an unbelievable rate, by this time the chief had called in the phymechs to help out, but they were at a loss at what to do, never the less, they all persevered on, trying to rally the network back.

And then it got even weirder, and much more terrifying.

The hieroglyphs sped up until they were a blur, glowing bright white, they illuminated the whole dive room, then, a strange electronic whirring noise began to fill the room, the team looked at the key boards in horror as a strange mercury like liquid encased in a blue aura began to seep out from in-between the gaps in the keys, and out of all the plug-ins and ports, even the spare dive terminal's jack ports.

"WHAT THE HELL!"

Immediately, Saito and Togusa cut the connections to Ishikawa and Boma's terminals in the nick of time, but as Batou and one of the psymech's rushed to the Major's side, they got there 1 second too late to cut her off, the strange silver substance began to seep through the ports in her neck, they both jumped back in horror and stood dumbfounded, at a loss at what to do all around the strange glowing liquid began to morph and form into tentacle's, tendril's and strange forms that seem to resemble peace lilies, all of them tried to reach out to the horrified team members, Pazu and Boma reached for their guns and aimed at the strange things, at the far end of the room the silvery liquid flowed and trickled up the across the main terminal and monitor, some of the finer and thinner tentacles and tendrils criss-crossed one another, as they slithered and squirmed around they began to for the shape of large humanoid face, it was neither young nor old, male nor female, it was just...alien, and didn't seem to have anything that particularly distinguished it a human face. As the team watched the incredible entity take form, they knew exactly what it was.

"It's them..." Togusa breathed

As the face became complete, its eyes flew open and looked upon the stunned group, no-one moved or spoke as several uneasy and tense seconds past by as the strange entity gazed upon the frightened humans, it's eyes were just bright vivid orbs of blue light, all across its mercury-like skin the strange hieroglyphs gently scrolled across like sunlight distorted by water ripples. Pazu and Boma gently lowered their weapons, realizing that they were no longer in control of the situation; finally the alien face lifted its gaze up and seemed to breathe in a deep sigh.

**"WHO ARE YOU?" **it spoke, everyone, Saito especially, stared in shock, it was the voice from the robot that had the snipers face, all of a sudden, there was no doubt in everyone's minds about the machines really being aliens, but it was more than his voice, the voice sounded more like dozens voices speaking as one, as if echoing across the net, everyone watched on nervously as the Lillie-like entities tried to reach for the humans.

**"WHO ARE YOU? AND WHY DID YOU TRY TO INFECT US WITH YOUR VIRUSES?" **the weird voice boomed, echoing all around, as if the computer's themselves were talking, Batou swallowed hard, trying to regain his composure in order to reply.

"We, we thought you were an enemy..." he said, trying not to let his nervousness show in his voice.

**"WE ARE NO ENERMY" **it replied, the team all looked at one another, suddenly the face looked directly at Togusa and its expression seemed to soften.

**"ARE YOU THE ONE CALLED TOGUSA?" **it asked, Togusa nearly jumped out of his skin, all eyes were suddenly on him as he nervously stepped forward to answer.

"Y-Yes?" he replied

**"I REMEMBER YOU, WE MET VERY BREIFLY UPON THE TERRACE OF YOUR HOME THREE NIGHTS AGO...."** Togusa suddenly felt a large lump well up in the back of his throat as his nerves nearly shot through the roof, Batou suddenly realised what the entity was talking about.

"You were the one that came and took the kid away aren't you?" he asked

**"I AM, AND I THANK YOU FOR KEEPING HER WITHIN YOUR VIGULANT CARE TOGUSA, WE WERE SO RELEAVED TO FIND SHE WAS IN SAFE HANDS..."**

"Um, th-thank you...but, why did you come for her? And the other kids that were there on the terrace that night" Togusa asked, the face frowned

**"THE CHILDREN ARE ENTRUSTED TO OUR CARE, IT IS OUR DUTY TO PROTECT THEM...BUT WHAT IS YOUR INTEREST IN THEM?"**

"Uh, your children are the prime suspects in a case we're working, we're the police..." Batou said

**"THE POLICE?..."** The face looked surprised.

"Yes, we've been following you, because...we believed you posed a danger to the public, and, we just want to, protect everyone" Togusa said, trying to stay level-headed

**"...IT WAS NEVER OUR INTENTION TO HARM ANYONE; WE ARE A BENEVOLENT SPECIES, WHO HOLD RESPECT FOR ALL FORMS OF LIFE, ESSPECIALY HUMAN KIND..."** the face replied in a forlorn tone, as if ashamed, its expression softened even more and its gaze dropped as if feeling guilty.

"Human kind?..Wh-what are you? An alien of some kind?" Togusa asked

**"YES, WE COME FAR FROM YOUR WOLRD, FROM FAR BEYOND THE STARS, BEYOND ALL YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE UNIVERSE AS YOU KNOW IT..." **the voice boomed, the silver tendrils waved with every syllable spoken, the whole team stayed well away from the keyboard panels.

"Then...what are you doing here?" Ishikawa asked, the face turned sad for a moment

**"...WAITING..."**

"Waiting for what?" Boma asked

**"FOR THE REST OF US TO COME AND TAKE US HOME...ALL WE WANT IS TO GO HOME...TO SEE OUR HOME AND THE ONES WE CHERISH ONCE AGAIN..."**

"So...t-there's more of you?!"

**"YES"**

"When are they coming?" the chief asked

**"WE DON'T KNOW...WE ARE WAITING...WE CANNOT GO BACK THE WAY WE CAME...WE ARE STRANDED...ALONE TOGETHER..."**

The team looked at one another a moment, Batou stepped forward with a more serious expression.

"Listen, are you were the ones that got into a fight with those tanks over a week ago?...were you just defending yourselves?"

**"YES, AND OUR CHILDREN..."**

"Are those the kids that were with you?"

**"YES"**

"What are you to them? And what are they to you?"

**"WE ARE THEIR GUARDIENS, SWORN TO PROTECT THEM FROM OUR ENERMIES AND ANY HUMAN TREAT, THEY ARE OUR FRIENDS, OUR FAMILY, THEY ARE SPECIAL TO US, AND WE INTEND TO KEEP THEM SAFE"**

"Safe from what?"

**"FROM ALL THAT INTEND TO HARM THEM, OUR TOP PRIORITY IS TO ENSURE THEIR SURVIVAL, UNTIL WE CAN SAFELY RETURN HOME TOGETHER"**

"Together?...You mean...your taking them back with you?"

**"YES, THEIR TRUE HOME IS ALONGSIDE US"**

"B-but why? What does your home offer for them that ours cannot?"

**"OUR HOME IS EARTH......BUT NOT THIS EARTH..."**

A deathly silence filled the room

"W-What do you mean?"

**"THE CHILDREN ARE HUMAN LIKE YOU...BUT THEY DO NOT HAIL FROM THIS WORLD...WE BOTH COME FROM ANOTHER UNIVERSE...ONE MUCH LIKE YOUR OWN, AN ACCIDENT SAW US END UP HERE BY MISTAKE...WE HAVE NO WAY BACK FROM HERE SO WE WAIT FOR THE RIFT IN TIME AND SPACE TO BE REOPENED...SO WE MAY LEAVE THIS WORLD AND RETURN TO OUR OWN IN PEACE..."**

Trying to absorb what was just said, the team looked at one another, surly this wasn't real? Suddenly getting an idea, the chief frowned, looking at the strange glowing eyes of the face for a moment and stepped forward

"Listen, are you really not out to cause any trouble for anyone?"

**"YES...ALL WE INTEND TO DO IS WAIT...AND HIDE"**

"In that case are you willing to listen to a proposition? A possible solution to your situation?"

The face looked at him curiously

**"...GO ON..."**

"We're not the only ones that have been searching for you, there are others that know of your presence here, but unlike us, their intentions may not be so honourable, we only wanted to find you to learn the truth about who you really were...if you're only waiting for your friends, then maybe we can help..."

**"...HELP HOW?"**

"We can offer safe protection for your children and you...let you hide away from anyone that poses a threat, if it can be arranged maybe we can help you get home?"

The face frowned

**"WHAT MAKES YOU THINK WE WOULD TRUST YOU SO WILLINGLY? WHAT PROOF OF YOUR WORD CAN YOU OFFER US?...WE HAVE BEEN HIDING AWAY FOR NEARLY A WEEK...AND WE WERE DOING JUST FINE BEFORE YOU KNEW OF US..."**

"Unfortunately I have no proof that I can offer of whether I'm telling the truth or not, but if you're smart you'll listen to reason, we've seen you fight first hand and we know that if we engage in combat with you we don't stand a chance, even with heavy firepower, our job originally was assess what true level of danger you pose, but if all your doing is waiting to return to your home...then, if it can be arranged, will you be willing to let us take you into protective custody? We know where you've been you're hiding, your current location may be well hidden, but it won't be long before you are discovered, even if you escape, where will you go? Do you really want to leave your children's safety to chance by running the risk of hiding somewhere else and hoping you won't be found out? We're willing to treat this with the upmost care and attention, but there are those in the government that may not so understand of the situation" the chief implored

The face looked at the chief for the longest moment, its eyes narrowed slightly, as if thinking about what he said; the others all looked on, waiting for the entity to respond.

**"YOUR LOGIC IS SOUND, BUT DON'T THINK WE WOULD WILLINGLY RISK THE CHILDRENS LIVES, HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT IS OUR SPECIALITY SO HIDING WITHIN THE CITY WAS A GOOD STRATIGY FOR US....BESIDES...WHAT POSSIBLE THREATS DOES YOUR GOVERMENT POSE...OF WHOM DO YOU SPEAK?"**

"Public Security section 6 and the Cabinet Intelligence Service along with the JGSDA's military intelligence..."

**"...AND YOU, WHAT DIVSION DO YOU SERVE?"**

"We're Public Security Section 9, we specialise in counter terrorism, we answer the minister of home affairs and to the prime minster directly..."

The face looked surprised, but then looked at the team in a serious way

**"....YOU ANWSER TO THE HIGHEST AUTHORITY THERE IS?...EVEN IF YOU COULD ARRANGE SANCTURY FOR US WHAT GARANTEE CAN YOU GIVE THAT WE WILL NOT BE IN ANY DANGER IF WE SURRENDER TO YOUR CUSTODY?"**

"I have none, you're just going to have to trust my word as is, if you do not feel you can trust us completely, then we'll back off our investigation and leave you alone, but remember, you will be chancing your luck if you go it alone, if the military, the CIS or Section 6 catch wind of you, they won't stop until your all caught, and even then, how easy do you think it will be to convince them of your plight? The fact that you're not of our world will not be an excuse for them to stop" the chief said

**"THAT'S MOOT..."**

"Really? Humour me, if you get caught and someone in either the military or the CIS get's it in their head that there's something to be gained in reverse engineering your technology, what do you think the repercussions will be if that technology is applied to weapons designs, satellite technology or even military grade prosthetics? And what of the children? In all likelihood they will be separated from you and forced to reveal information about your technology, or worse..."

**"IS THAT MENT TO BE A THREAT?"** The entity glared at him

"No, simply a statement of the most likely scenario, you may not realise it, but your presence here has caused a massive stirring of unrest for the government, no-one has ever seen anything like you before, this is a wholly new situation for everyone and in truth no-one is sure how to handle this..."

**"....EVEN YOU?..."**

"....Yes...even me" the chief said

The face paused for a moment, as if considering what the just chief said

**"...SO YOU WOULD BE WILLING TO ASK YOUR PRIME MINISTER TO ALLOW YOU TO GRANT US SANCTUARY AT OUR OWN RISK...WHEN YOU AND YOUR MEN WOULD BE WILLING TO PLACE YOURSELVES IN DANGER FOR US?...EVEN THOUGH THE MILITARY MIGHT TRY TO OVERIDE YOUR AUTHORITY AND SEIZE US ANYWAY?...WHAT DO YOU STAND TO GAIN FROM THIS?"**

"Nothing"

**"NOTHING?...SINCE WHEN HAS ANY HUMAN IN A POSITION OF POWER BEEN WILLING TO LEND A HELPING HAND FOR NOTHING?...NOT EVERY HUMAN HAS AN HONRABLE SPARK...HOW CAN WE BE SURE YOUR NOT UNDER THE CONTROL OF SOMEONE ELSE AND HOW CAN WE BE SURE YOUR NOT DECIEVING US?"**

"You can't, but can you say you're being honourable by denying your children the right to be safe? If your top priority is their wellbeing, then surly you would be willing to risk your own lives for them?"

The face looked at the chief for a long moment, its face softened with realisation

**"....YOU WOULD REALLY BE WILLING TO OFFER US PROTECTION...UNTIL THE REST OF US COME TO TAKE US HOME?....IF WE AGREE TO THIS, WILL YOU ALLOW US SOMEWHERE SAFE TO STAY...WITHOUT CONDITION OR RESTRICTION?..."**

"I don't make promises I can't keep, but I will see what can be arranged"

Another pause as the face looked at him, it then saw Saito, its eyes held a curious gaze and it seemed to tilt to the side slightly, as if curious to see him, it then straightened up and looked back at the chief.

**"....VERY WELL....WE CANNOT AGREE TO YOUR PROPOSAL AT THIS TIME...WE MUST DILIBERATE ON THIS, IT IS A SERIOUS DECISION FOR US TO MAKE, WHEN WE HAVE REACHED A UNANIMOUS CONSENSUS WE WILL CONTACT YOU...AS A SIGN OF GOOD FAITH WE WILL LEAVE YOU WITH A PARTING GIFT...BUT IN THE MEANTIME, MAKE SURE NO-ONE TRYS TO FIND US....I BID YOU FAREWELL...FOR NOW..." **And with that, the face looked up towards the ceiling and a loud buzzing sound filled the room, the silver tendrils and tentacle coiled up and the whole room went black as the screens switched off. The team waited in silence to see what would happen next, then, the automatic reboot programme fired up and all the screens came back on, the strange hieroglyphs were gone and the strange mercury substance had disappeared from the key boards, including the face.

"W-wha-what the heck just happened?" the Tachikoma asked as it reappeared back on the main monitor

"Uuh...wh-what...what just happened?" the Major asked groggily as she stirred in her seat, "Major! Are you alright?" Batou asked as he rushed to her side and helped her up out of the chair, she stood in a half dazed stupor, as if still jacked into the net, the others all looked on with concern written across their faces.

"Get her to the analysis room and have the tech team do a full structural analysis of this place! On the double!" the chief barked, without question everyone got to work, as Batou and Ishikawa lead the dazed Major down the corridor to the analysis room Togusa stopped and looked over at the main terminal where the strange entity had appeared from, he couldn't help but think just what they had gotten themselves into.

* * *

R&R please!

A/N: it's going well so far, but just a little heads head up, I have been thinking about adding a Decepticon or two, but I already have the formula of the plot laid out so if any cons do make an appearance (& I'm sure I can squeeze them in somewhere) it won't be until much later in the story, as for the black lotus, again they won't appear until much later but I've got some real plot twisters in mind for them! Trust me, you won't see it coming! ;) 'naff said, so keep on reading if you want to find out!


	19. Chapter 18: What Do We Do Now?

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 18: WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

The Autobots and their charges stared at Deathshot in silent surprise, as the signal connection was cut off and the wires that lead out of his helm disconnected from Trailbreaker, Glen hit a button on the side of his laptop and the USB wires disconnected from Darren and Danny's laptops.

Over the last several minutes the gang had heard everything that was said between the mysterious hackers and Deathshot via the snipers speakers; the strangers had revealed themselves to be an anti-terrorist organisation, and that indeed they had seen them fighting those machines (How were they supposed to be tanks no-one knew), two others, This CIS and Section 6 were after them, plus this idea of the military chasing after them unsettled all of them, but what got their attention was the proposal of being offered somewhere safe to stay. The whole gang exchanged uncertain looks, unsure what to say, although the offer sounded too good to be true and that it could well be trap, the old guy seemed to put forth a good point of pointing out that they ran the risk of been caught, and what would happen once they (and if they ever did) fall into the military's custody.

Would the military really treat the Autobots as common machines, nothing more than weapons of mass destruction with no feelings, thoughts or sentience? Would the kids really be separated from their friends and locked away in the bowls of top secret military facility and forced to reveal whatever secrets they had by force....or (heaven forbid) under torture? The thought of it made them uncomfortable, Bumblebee remembered that awful day when sector 7 captured him and tried to freeze him into a near-lifeless specimen, he remembered the fear, the panic, the thought of never seeing his friends again, a coldness gripped his spark at the thought of never seeing Sam and Mikaela again.

But would they be safe with this Section 9? If they were legit on this, was it worth the risk? And would they keep their word?

So many questions went through their minds, as Darren slid off Trailbreakers shoulders and down into the black warriors waiting hand, he sighed heavily; his exuberance gone, replaced with an unsure sense of concern, but he was glad to see his guardian smile down at him with relief.

"Uh....what do we do now?" Hailey asked

"Do we take them up on the offer?" Becky asked

"Defiantly not! It's got to be a trap! I say we stick it out by ourselves and hold on for Prime and the others to arrive" Sunstreaker argued

"I have to admit it sounds too good to be real, we could be risking a lot if we to go to them" his brother said in a rear moment of seriousness

"Why the frag did you accept to listen to him!" Sunstreaker glared at Deathshot

"I was only being fair, they had already known about us being here so bluffing wouldn't work" the sniper replied

"Either way he knew where we are, what you guys are and the situation we're in, I'd say we've not got a whole lot of options to work with here" Sam said folding his arms

"So in other words they've got us backed into a corner with the facts" Glen said as Deathshot lowered him down to the ground

"Well hang on, was he telling the truth when he said that this Section 6 and CIS were searching for us?" Danny offered

"I don't know, but don't you think it's strange that the old guy just give us his word he would try and arrange something for us when he has no way of proving that he's on the level with us? Either he's very ballsy or very desperate" Ashley said

"But was he telling the truth about those other government agencies? That CIS and section 6? Would they really come after us all guns blazing?" Becky asked with worry, her twin sister put a reassuring arm around her.

"If their searching for us in the manner that he was hinting at, then it really won't matter where we hide or how fast we run or how far we teleport, they defiantly won't give up!" Glen said sullenly

"That doesn't mean we can't fight them! I'm not going to let them get us no matter how hard they try!" Sunstreaker growled

"Come on Sunny, what good will that accomplish? Our main priority is to protect each other, if we get into a fight we'll put everyone's life in danger and if they come after us with everything they got, we won't stand a chance" Jazz said

"But if Section 9 weren't the only ones to see us fight those 'tanks', then surly they won't even attempt to take us down if they saw how deadly we were?" Sideswipe reasoned

"I think even if they saw you do your worst it won't put them off from trying, after all, the old guy did point out that there is the possibility that if you guys are captured and studied in a lab, there is the likelihood that they may try to apply cybertronian tech to human weaponry, and considering the firepower you guys are packing it's not something that bares thinking about" Tom said

"Your right, if sector 7 spent all those years studying Megatron, and reverse engineering his anatomy gave rise to the technology of the modern age in our world, what's to say history can't repeat itself here with us?" Darren added, the group paused for a moment as they pondered the logic of this

"But how do we know Section 9 can be trusted? Even if they only want to check us out, what's to say their legit?" Miles offered

"It may be presumptuous but I think they may be telling the truth, for a few good reasons: first, the old man said that they only answer to the Prime minister directly, so to be employed by the highest authority around means they must be high level professionals in order to be entrusted to carry out missions only assigned by the prime minister themself, secondly: if he said they'll be willing to only offer us sanctuary and protection and nothing more, then I believe they must hold a level of respect for our ability's already, to approach us with such a simple offer with nothing for them to gain seems to hint that they know nothing good can come from getting on our bad sides, also, he said that they saw us fight those machines so they know our capabilities anyway, but thirdly, and most importantly; all the while he was talking, I detected no discrepancies or fluctuations in his vocal patterns to suggest he was lying" Deathshot said

"If that's true and their serious about helping us, they must be aware of the gravity of the situation but they also run the risk of getting themselves into trouble, don't forget, he said they were the police, and if they take us in and the military finds out, they could barge right in and take us away anyway, after all, the military does have superior jurisdiction over the police" Darren said

"But if Section 9 is under the command of the prime minister, than surly they have higher authority over the matter?" Sam argued

"That maybe true, but there's still the off chance that if we turn ourselves in, and everyone finds out, what's to say it won't turn into one huge jurisdictional mess with everyone from all sides vying for authority over us while we're precariously in the middle?" Ashley said

"That's a good point" Hot Rod said

"Look, regardless of what all the agencies do we've still got the issue of whether hiding out here any longer is really a good idea, for one, our food and water supply won't last 48 hours, we don't have the option of stealing or scavenging and if we go into the city we're bound to get spotted..." Morri said

"Spotted how? A city that size will have millions of humans within it, you'll blend right in" Sideswipe said

"...Not when there will be thousands of security cameras on every city block! Don't forgot there were camera's at the park too, that's how we got spotted in the first place, when I back-hacked their main network I found some image profiles of our faces that they somehow took at the scene of that fight outside the warehouse, they ran them through a facial recognition programme and waited for a match to show up, they got even more info at that festival, they had kept tabs on us all the while we were there" Darren said

"Oh..."

"Another hazard I don't think we can leave to chance is if the Military or whoever catches up to us and we get caught in a gun fight, we run the risk of serious injury from a stray bullet or worse, and my first aid will only be able to help so far, and even if we got to a hospital for help, I'll bet they'll track us down there" Morri said

Jazz folded his arms across his chest and dropped his gaze in thought as he weighed the options and considered the logic at hand.

"Look guys, I know you're all capable of taking on an army, Decepticon, human or otherwise any day of the week, and I know if Will, Epps, the Rangers and the rest of NEST were here then I have no doubt we could make a firm stand if anyone came for us, but we've got Anny plus the twins and Ashley with us and if worse comes to worse, a gun fight is no place for a kid to get caught in the middle of, no offence kiddo" she said, "It's cool" Ashley nodded "...look, I'm not saying we should swallow our pride and turn ourselves in like criminals, I'm simply asking you, is trying to prove we can slugging it out by ourselves out here really worth running the risk of getting caught by the wrong people?" Morri continued, Jazz rubbed his chin plate for a moment.

"But what if they want us to think that, and really their luring us into a baited trap?" Jetfire said

"Weren't you listening old timer? Deathshot said when he talked to this Section 9 he could tell they weren't lying" Hot Rod replied

"Even if that old dude was telling the truth, we run the risk of putting you kids in harm's way if we take up his offer, the prospect of going along with this without knowing whether or not we have the dude's word is a judgment call I'm not willing to make" Jazz replied

"But he also said that if we say no, they'll back away and won't keep tailing us anymore" Becca said

"Yeah, but it won't mean the others won't back off" Becky replied

"Listen, we're only going on the words of an old codger here, I think we could make a much better decision on what to do if we found out some facts and figures for ourselves" Ashley said

"A good suggestion but where would we start?" Deathshot asked

"This is going to sound really ballsy, but what if we contact Section 9 again and ask for a meeting?..." the young rebel suggested

"What?!"

"Listen, he said that he wouldn't make any promises he can't keep, so what if we agree to their proposal, but only on our terms"

"Do you seriously think they'll agree to that?" Bumblebee asked

"I think so, if we try and hold the upper hand over them, they won't be prompted to try anything cocky, especially if they know they're going to be playing host to 12 alien robots, they said so themselves they now know what you guys really are, and if they follow the usual line of human thinking when it's elevated to the levels of instinctive fear, they probably won't try anything rash, and don't forget, after witnessing that little stunt with your nanites D, I don't think they'll have any issues with doubting what we can do" Ashley replied with a wily look in his eyes

"That is pretty ballsy, how can you be sure that approach will even work?" Tom asked

"Well think about it, we've got them scared of you guys, and fear, no matter what level it takes, can be used as a means to bend your opponent to your will, especial if you give that one look that tells him if he tries anything he'd better be scared" Ashley grinned

"I like the idea of that!" Jetfire replied

"Aren't you forgetting the guy said their an anti-terrorist organisation? if they deal with terrorists on a near regular basis their gonna be a pretty hard ass, tough-as-nails bunch that'll snap your neck as soon as look at you, if we bunk with them and they get to see how we do things together, then they're gonna quickly grow their balls back and realise we're the furthest thing from terrorists as you can get!" Glen said

"A good point, but reversing back to a more basic note, what if we arrange a meeting with them and just lay everything out on the line as is? Instead of wondering what'll happen and what'll won't happen, the fact remains that in their eyes we have the upper hand anyway because you guys are aliens, this is new to them and for they know you guys could easily call down a whole fleet of spaceships! So for as long as it can last, we make the most of their uncertainty and keep the guessing, after all, what they don't know could work to our advantage as Ashley suggested" Morri said, Ashley folded his arms with a content smug smile

Everyone exchanged glances for a moment

"But what if they say no to our conditions?" Mikaela asked

"Then we go back to the hideout, pack up our things, teleport far away from here and find a new hiding place" Miles said

"But the old dude said we'd run the risk of getting caught by the military if we stay out here" Becca said

"We do, but if we don't maintain the upper hand with section 9, we're not going to have a lot of leeway in terms of what we can freely do, don't forget, we've barely got any food left and we the risk of injury if we get caught to keep in mind, if these guys can at least provide, food, a warm shelter and a few decent garages and at least a hanger for you guys, I'd say it's worth the risk if it means we've all got somewhere safe to stay together" Hailey said

A pause, as everyone thought about it for a moment

"Can we at least contact them and arrange a meeting?" Sam asked

"Don't ask me, ask Jazz, he's the leader here" Morri replied

Everyone looked at the first lieutenant as he kept his head bowed in thought, thinking long and hard about the gang's options, the logic and reasoning presented, and what would be the best course of action to take. The Autobots and humans looked to him in silence, waiting for his response. Outside the main door of the hideout, Ravage had been listening to everything that had happened, he turned back to look at the cityscape in the distance and wondered just what lay ahead.

* * *

Things had taken a turn for the weird

After the incident in the dive room the whole of Section 9 had been on lock down, the sections network had been temporarily taken offline while the maintenance crews did a full check of all the computers and dive terminals to see if any trace of the strange mercury like liquid was left, after triple checking the entire mainframe, not a single trace was found and when the system network was checked to see what damages there were to the on-line defences, everyone was surprised to find all the barriers and firewalls had been completely restored to their original state, as if nothing had attacked them in the first place.

For the rest of the morning everyone did what they could to get their nerves back in order;

The first thing Togusa did was call his wife to tell her and his children that he loved them, as if it were the last time he'd ever hear their sweet voices.

Ishikawa and Boma helped the psymechs in the analysis room, ploughing themselves into the work in an attempt to keep the shock at bay, they both knew it would eventually catch up to them, but this was what worked for them.

Pazu had hidden himself away somewhere in the base for a (few dozen) cigarettes

Saito sat in the canteen watching the city down below, even though the weird metallic tentacles coming up through the key boards and seeing and hearing the alien face was a shock, what grabbed him the most was hearing his voice like that, it sounded very much like his voice in terms of pitch and tone, except more, basso and electronic in rhythm, his head spun with confusion...that thing...was really an alien? And it seemed to recognise him that moment just before it disappeared, initially he had been scared but now, for some strange reason, he felt his fear giving way to a peculiar sense of curiosity, whatever lay ahead, he secretly hoped he would find an answer.

In the analysis room, the Major had recovered from daydreaming state and was now fully aware of the situation as she sat in one of the analysis chairs with Batou and Togusa at her side, she had various wires connected to the four ports in her neck, Ishikawa, Boma and the psymechs worked nearby running every test there was to see what had happened during the time she had been 'enveloped' by the alien entity, several various structural analysis's and scans had been run, but like in the dive room there was no physical trace of the alien mercury.

As Batou sat in silence, his mind was a mix of...he didn't know what to think, if it had been a human hacker doing this, he would have gone beyond being livid, seeing her like this again, he would have been out for blood...but this?...being hacked into by an alien?(seriously, what were the chances?) This whole situation had suddenly been turned on its head now that a lot of suspicions had been laid to rest with one of these aliens revealing themselves, although the encounter in the dive room could have gone either way, he was thankful that it, they, or whatever had listened to them, especially the chief.

Speaking of which, chief Aramaki sat alone in his office waiting for the results of the Major's analysis, staring out the window, he wondered just what he had gotten himself and his team into? If he wasn't so shrewd he would have been at a complete loss, one principle he always worked and lived by was that you shouldn't take any one course of action without a level of understanding and respect for what might and might not happen, circumstances could change in a heartbeat and one must always be ready for anything.

Easier said than done, when anything includes aliens from another world, and another universe.

He knew that if Section 6, the CIS and the military caught up to the children and their 'guardians' it could turn into a worst case scenario, so at the time, it made sense to offer them the chance to come to Section 9 of their own free will, but would they? The entity that possessed the main dive terminal had listened to him alright, and seemed to sense his sincerity, but would its friends agree? And just what was he going to report to the prime minister? Who in the cabinet would believe him? If any at all? (Not likely) With no physical evidence of the encounter in the dive room he had very little in the way of backing for a report, from here on, he was going to have to take this in measured steps, being cautious all the way, his team's well being had to come first, they had been loyal to him for the better part of nearly eight years now, he just hoped they would have enough left in them to see this through to the end.

"_Chief, we're finished the last of the analysis on the Major"_ Ishikawa said

"_I'll be right down" _he replied and promptly left the office

Once down in the analysis room, he saw Batou, Togusa, Ishikawa, Boma and one of the psymechs standing by one of the main computers, in the analysis chair, the Major greeted him with a weak smile as she watched him walk in, the Chief returned the smile as he approached with cautious optimism.

"How are you feeling?" he asked

"Like I've just been squeezed in a vice, to be honest I don't really remember what happened, the last thing I remember seeing was a bright white light, and then, waking up in the terminal" she replied, feeling a little unsure of what she was saying, even though her stupor had worn off her head was still spinning a little bit.

"Well the important thing here is that you're safe and back with us, so what are the results?" he asked

"Their just coming up now sir, we shou-" the psymech doctor stopped dead in his tracks as the results of the test scrolled down the screen, his face turned pale and his eyes shot wide open in disbelief.

"Huh? What's wrong?" Ishikawa asked

"I-I-It's g-gone!" he stuttered

"What's gone?" Batou asked raising an eyebrow, his stomach clenched in fear

"T-the alpha A11...it's gone...It's been vaccinated!"

"WHAT!" they all rushed around to look at the results, the Major tried to get up but a sudden dizzy spell made her think otherwise, sure enough, on the screen the data showed the Majors ghost barrier was fully restored and the virus completely purged from her systems in its place was a full vaccine programme.

"But I thought there was no vaccine for the A11?" Togusa asked in astonishment

"There isn't! But when that thing attacked the virus, it was able to isolate its random data configuration codes and work out it veritable settings!"

"But how is that possible! Even if someone tried to isolate those settings with the military's quadruple layer encryption barrier in place, the random order of the core programming was designed so it would take even the finest wizard-class hacker at least 10 months to crack!" Ishikawa exclaimed in astonishment.

"Well according to the results, it was cracked in less than 6 minutes" the doctor replied nervously, everyone gasped in amazement and stared at the data on the screen in silence for a moment, the Major could only listen to what was going on behind her in the chair, it sounded too incredible to be true, the A11-alpha was gone? She didn't have to face the prospect of facing an early death anymore? By all rights she should have been overjoyed, but the fact that the virus was cured by an alien entity only made her wonder if there was something more to simply being shown an act of mercy.

"No way...that thing...the alien...really did that?" Togusa stammered in amazement

"After what happened earlier, I don't think there's any doubt left to be had about what we're dealing with" the chief replied

"But if it could crack an impenetrable virus, what else can it do?" Boma asked rubbing the back of his head

"Practically anything it wants, as a machine in the real world it's a powerful force but on the net, it has no limits" The chief said gravely, the gravity of the whole situation suddenly felt a whole lot heavier on his shoulders.

"What the hell were you thinking when you made that deal old man! Just what have we let ourselves in for?!" Batou growled angrily

"It wasn't my intention to simply stand gawking in shock when an opportunity to prevent a worse case catastrophe made itself present, by offering these entities and their charges the opportunity to take shelter, we prevent the other agencies from finding them and screwing things up, and if the military were to show up on the front door of their hideout then all bets would have been off! If we take them into protective custody and let them wait for their friends to come and retrieve them, then at least no harm can come to anyone, besides, if the military were to capture or even kill them, what do think is likely to happen when their friends finally show up and find them dead? If a search party's coming then they're going to show up with large numbers and possibly re-enforcements!" the chief sternly replied, the others all stared at him in amazement.

"You do realize what you just said sound's totally insane?" Batou said, still with a gawking expression on his face

"Do you have any better suggestions?" the chief retorted

"Geez...I knew you were good at thinking under pressure...but...wow..." Togusa said, leaning against the desk

"But the question is will the aliens take you up on the offer?" the Major asked

"Whether they agree or not depends on how well their able to access their current situation, for one, they now know their at risk from being caught by individuals who's intentions are likely to be less than honourable, and if they know they're going to be tailed no matter how well they cover their tracks, they're not going to have many alternatives to fall back on if they decide to find a new hideout" the chief replied

"Yeah, but even if they agree and we find them somewhere to hide, what's to say the military or someone less than wise get's on our back and tries to get the upper hand over us? Ever since Dejima the PM's given us a lot more leeway than before, but even if she somehow believes what went on here today what's to say no-one will take advantage of the situation?" Batou argued

"If anyone in the government or the military is smart, they'll at least keep in mind they're just as vulnerable to the aliens power as we are, if these entities can manipulate technology as easily as we can breath, then that's a power worth giving a hell of a lot of respect to, but one thing to keep in mind is that even though these entity's retain the upper hand, they've proven themselves to be capable of compassion, if this vaccine is their sign of good faith, then we have to return them the favour in fairness" the chief replied

"So rather than incur the wrath of an alien civilization, we keep their friends safe rather than have them killed and accidently spark off an intergalactic war? Makes sense to me" Batou shrugged, Togusa, Ishikawa and Boma looked at his with deadpan looks, even the Major rolled her eyes.

"Geez Batou you make it sound like we're about to face down Armageddon" Togusa replied in a deadpan tone the chief was about to say something else when suddenly, one of the computers's sounded an alarm and all the screens went black

"What! Not again!" Batou exclaimed, scanning his eyes over all the screens

Then, a series of the strange hieroglyphs scrolled down the screens, watching in amazement as the symbols morphed into English.

We're ready to talk

Meet us at 5:00pm today on the old dirt road intersection north of the park; look for the boy in a red hooded sweater

Make sure no one follows you.

* * *

R&R Please!


	20. Chapter 19: Meet The Autobots

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 19: MEET THE AUTOBOTS

"Okay, so is everyone cool with how we're gonna do this?" Jazz asked the whole group, the kids nodded in reply as they lined up by the roadside, and their respective guardians at their sides.

"We'd better go and wait at the junction, they'll be here soon" Ashley said to Ravage, as he sat on the panthers back

"Do you remember how you're going to greet them?" Tom asked giving the 12 year old a reprimanding look

"Of course! It's not like we're gonna pounce on them from up in the trees!" he retorted, Ravage gave a light snigger

"Alright off you go then" Tom said and Ravage took off at a steady pace down the road with his, slashing the puddles as he sped along.

"Are you still okay this? I know I said it couldn't hurt to inquire them about this offer they have, but...are you sure you're up for it, because to be honest, I'm starting to regret what I said" Morri asked Jazz as she wrung her hands with worry

"Don't worry, I'm cool with it, It doesn't matter now anyway we're just gonna have to run with it and try to think things through as we go along, don't worry about it kid, we'll be okay" he replied

"I hope your right" she replied

All day long, the hideout had been noisy with the kids and Autobots debating, deliberating and planning for this afternoon, after Jazz agreed to allow the group to contact Section 9 and asked to meet up, they had been going over every possible subject that might be raised, no doubt these people were going to have a few questions after witnessing Deathshot's stunt with his nanites, that was this morning, it was now 5:42pm and no knew what to expect from this meeting so the gang weren't going to take any chances, they were going for the diplomatic and peaceful approach, but all the same, anything could happen, Deathshot was currently circling the air space over the hideout, making sure there wouldn't be any unwelcome visitors to the meeting..

"You needn't worry about them sneaking up on us, when we hacked into Section 9's systems; I took a peek at their comm signal ID codes and frequencies, so even if they try anything D will detect them coming long before they even come within 10 miles of here" Danny grinned, still feeling the little buzz from earlier

"Anything else you peeked at, per chance?" Morri asked, giving her cousin a sideways glance

"Not a lot surprisingly, seeing as we're going to try and approach these people on good terms, I thought it would be best to keep a level of honesty...but of course, if they're not who they claim to be, we have the option of listening in on them" Darren replied, stretching back on Trailbreaker's hood.

"Speaking of which, D just said he detected their comm signal approaching from the southwest heading this way, we'd better get ready, he's gonna land in a few seconds" Jazz announced

* * *

After receiving the strange message informing them of the alien's decision to speak with them, Section 9 wasted no time in preparing for the rendezvous, after being cleared by the psymechs, the Major imminently took charge as field leader again, after watching Batou's memory of what happened to her during the time she was 'held' by the entity she was initially shocked, and yet she had been spurred into action by what happened edger to see these aliens first hand and do this right, no–one knew what was going happen so no-one was going to take any chances with this. It was now 5:46pm and the tiltroater was within 12 miles of the location, inside the team was geared up, armed and ready for guard duty, the chief had come along to see this meeting in person so they were going to make sure there were no interruptions during this meeting.

As the dirt road came into view, the tiltroater began its descent; as the team prepared themselves for the mission ahead, the Major checked her gun and placed it in the holster on her belt, Batou came up to her and sat by her side.

"How are you feeling? You didn't say a lot earlier when you checked out of the analysis room" he asked

"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure; this whole thing has gone completely beyond what any of us expected of this case, to say that I was shocked is an understatement to say the least, but worrying about it won't help anyone" she said with her vision cast down at the metal floor in thought

"For sure, but what I mean is, are you sure you want to do this?" he asked, the Major looked at him with clear eyes and a small smile

"If you're worried about me wondering how to feel about being cured of the virus...well, I can't say I'm not thankful, but considering who, or rather what did it, I can't help but feel this maybe a one-off gesture of demonstrating their superiority...but then again, these aren't humans we're dealing, not all of them at least so we're anything but in a position to gage this the way we usually do" she replied

"Chief, we're at the intersection" Ishikawa said from his position in the dive chair behind the cockpit, the chief stood up from his seat at the debriefing table, the team took this as their queue to get ready.

"Alright, Major, your with me, Batou, Boma, Pazu, Saito, Togusa, your on guard duty while we talk, Ishikawa, you stay here and monitor all comm channel frequency's, if anyone approaches, notify us immediately, there must no interruptions to this meeting and remember, anything is bound to happen so be on your guard, now, let's get to it!" the old ape barked

"Yes sir!"

* * *

Ashley stood in the middle of the dirt road 60 yards from the intersection where the tarmac turned to dust, dried soil and gravel, overhead he saw a giant tiltroater aircraft fly overhead, it was impressive by no means, he grinned watching it come to hover over the intersection and land in the road's centre.

He watched as a large ramp opened up at the rear of the aircraft, out came four large blue spider-like robots accompanied by six people dressed in black and dark gray combat gear, one stood out as wearing a black trench coat, once they were on the ground the aircraft took off over the woods, two of the blue robots stood at the intersection while the other two accompanied the group, they stood for a moment, watching him here he stood, despite his age Ashley was one not to back down from a tense situation, if anything he felt a rush of excitement go through his body, he grinned in excitement, wondering how this will play out.

* * *

The chief and his team stepped out the tiltroater with four of the Tachikoma's following behind, once out, Ishikawa and the tiltroater took off in the direction of the park.

"Alright, Tachikoma, keep watch at the intersection, make sure no-one tries to come up here" the Major ordered

"Rodger!" two of them replied

"Major, look" Pazu pointed down the dirt road, they all looked and saw standing some 60 yards ahead in the middle of the dirt road, a young boy in a red sweater, his eyes obscured by the hood.

"Damn, where the hell did he come from? He wasn't there when we passed over head" Batou said

"He must be the boy we're supposed to look for, but is it just him here or is he here to lead us somewhere?" Togusa asked

"There doesn't appear to be anyone else, but I highly doubt he's alone so be careful, the tree's are thick here, if that cat or anything else is nearby we're going to be flanked easily" the Major said

"It's a risk we're going to have to take, just keep an eye on the undergrowth, let's go" the chief replied, immediately the team took up a protective flanking position around the chief, the Major and Batou took point to the left and right, behind them were Togusa and Saito and behind them were Pazu and Boma with the two other Tachikoma's bringing up the rear.

As they approached closer, the boy didn't move from his position, despite his young appearance the Major and Batou kept their guns aimed at him while the others kept their aim at bushes and undergrowth, the trees grew close together in this part of the wood, providing excellent cover for anyone or anything hiding in there, the prospect of meeting the mechanical panther again didn't sit well with Togusa, but at least feeling the semi-automatic in his hands gave him a level of reassurance, all the while the chief kept his focus on the boy, years of being an old school military man gave him an edge, it would take something pretty amazing to shake him from his composure.

When they finally got to within 20 feet of the kid, he regarded them with a small grin and lowered his hood, revealing a young pre-teen boy with spiky light brown hair and eyes like blue slate, he had a firm expression on his face, much like Batou's but with a devilish twinkle in his eyes, the Major got a feeling he would be more trouble than he was worth.

"You from Section 9?" he asked in a rather ungracious English accent (a broad Yorkshire accent).

"Yes, we came just as you requested" the chief replied, the kid looked the team up and down and noticed the guns strapped to their chests over their body armour.

"You intend on using those guns?" he asked

"That depends on how you want to do this" the chief replied

"Well we're hoping to be diplomatic here, but if you intend to try taking us by force then I'm afraid you guys are going to be in for a very nasty surprise..." the kid replied, pointing up into the woods

A deep growl echoed from in the woods, the team looked to the source of the sound and saw the large silhouette of the giant robotic panther crouching low to the ground, it's one red eye glowed from out of the dark shadows of the trees like a dying ember, it's silver teeth glinted in what little light there was, showing the profile of its jaw, everyone aimed their weapons but no-one moved, the chief beheld the creature in amazement.

"...Namely him, he only need's a quarter of a second to pounce on one of you from that distance and crush your arm or leg in his teeth, I promise you he won't kill any of you, but he won't be in a forgiving mood if you shoot, and he is a predator at heart so he likes to drag things out and get a good scream from his prey" he said with a wicked grin, enjoying the nervous looks on the team's faces

"Is that suppose to be a treat?" the Major asked, turning her attention back to the boy

"No, simply a statement of the most likely scenario" he replied, the chief looked at him with a raised eyebrow, regarding him with an air of caution.

"Anyway, the rest of us have been waiting, so let's go" he said and walked off down the road, the panther kept pace with him through the trees, moving with all the silence of a summer breeze, as the team followed at a safe distance, the chief marvelled at the cat as it moved so much like a tiger or a leopard.

"So tell me young man, is he your guardian?" the chief asked

"Mmm not strictly speaking, but you could say we share a lot of common interests..."

"Like..."

"Like; stalking the forests at night, prowling around, baying at the moon..." he replied, shooting them another wicked grin, a few of the team raised a few eyebrows.

"You suppose to be a wild child or something?" the Major asked

"You could say that, but mostly I'm a rebel without a cause, always love to roam around and take orders from no-one" he replied keeping his back to the team

"So what are you doing here with your friends if you like to be a loner?" the Major asked

"Which ones?"

"You know which ones" she replied with a sternness only a mother could give, he looked back at her with a more serious look

"Everthing'll be explained when you meet the rest of the gang, as for being a loner? Only when I want to be, for now I'm with my family so going it alone isn't an option" he replied

"What's your name?" she asked

"Ashley"

"Ashley?"

"Yeah, Ashley, you got a problem with that sweetie?" he replied with a slightly curt attitude, the Major frowned, she never took kindly to little punks like this one showing disrespect for her authority, Batou however smirked, this kid had guts, he wasn't afraid to walk along with the Major pointing a gun at his back.

As they walked on, they went around a corner that opened up onto a wider stretch of road, up ahead, standing in the road were the 11 other kids plus Annabelle, behind them, parked in a row facing the team were the same cars Batou and Togusa saw outside the park four days ago, with two others they didn't recognise, behind the cars, was a huge SR-71 Blackbird and...A strange four winged aircraft, it was no model any of the team had ever seen before, its design seemed familiar to some type's military aircraft but the rest was totally...alien.

Off to one side sat the giant robotic scorpion, it watched the group curiously as they approached, the kids in turn also eyed the team as they approached, the older brunette girl (Morri) and older brunette teen (Sam) stepped forward as the team stopped several pace's short of the cars, Ashley stepped off to the side and the panther slinked out of the woods and joined the boy at his side like an obedient pet. The chief stepped forward and acknowledged the two older kids with a bow (such was the Japanese custom) the kids all straighten up and bowed in return. 'At least these kids have some manners' the Major thought.

"So you're Section 9 huh? I'm a little surprised to see such a small group, we were expecting more of you" the older brunette boy said

"We're a covert group, I'm afraid only the best make the cut" the Chief replied

"Then it would seem the best are few and far between to make up such a small team" Ashley smirked

"But we're not here to trade remarks..." the brunette said shooting him a stern glance "...I'm Morri and these are my cousins Tom, Danny and you've already met our favourite hellion Ashley, this is Sam, Mikaela, Miles, Darren, Glen, Hailey and her twin sister's Becca and Becky, and of course you've already meet our little'un Annabelle..." Morri said pointing out everyone; "Hi mister Togusa!" Annabelle beamed from Morri side as she sat on the hood of a large orange Dodge Charger.

"Uh, hi Annabelle" Togusa replied, starting to feel a little uncertain of whether she should actually be here

"Don't worry if you can't see our 'friends', they can hear us just fine from here, but before you can speak to them, you've got to speak to us first...so, you offered us an opportunity to find somewhere safe to hide, would you care to shed a little more light on what you proposed earlier?" Morri asked folding her arms

"Indeed, after what happened this morning, there no doubt in our minds about what your friends really are and what their capable of, and as such you're now in a very precarious if not vulnerable situation, what I'm offering is a chance for all of you to stay somewhere that's safe until you can go home, providing the prime minister gives her approval" the chief replied

"You don't strike me as the type to be rash, offering us a deal before you've even gotten approval from your superior? Is that such a wise decision to make?" Morri asked folding

"Perhaps not, but if the military show up at your doorstep we've got a pretty good idea of what'll happen, we did see you fight those tanks over a week ago" the Chief replied

"You mean those weird spider-like machines? You saw that? How?" Darren asked a little surprised

"Me and my team were on assignment to check out some suspicious activity at that warehouse when you showed up; we saw the whole fight up on the ridge" the Major replied, a brief flash of concern went across Morri's face but her expression quickly turned serious again as she tried hard to keep up her defences

"So if you were up there then who was piloting those choppers and tiltroater?" Sam asked

"The tiltroater's ours, but the chopper's belonged to Section 6 and Section 4, they were there as a back-up capacity in case we failed in our mission, considering they were on stand-by they saw the whole thing too" the chief said

"But how does the military fit in?" Tom asked

"Section 4 is one of the JSDA's Special Forces units, they maybe one of the public security sectors more re-enforced agencies' but they report to the military directly" the chief replied

"And what about you? You said you were an anti-terrorist force; do you not have to report to the military too? Because judging from that fancy combat gear, you lot seem to earn a lot more than what a beat cop makes in an average year" Mikaela asked

"We operate on an independent capacity that reports to the prime minister directly, whatever passes through us is kept on a strict need to know basis, so you can be sure that if anyone else finds out about this meeting, it certainly won't come from us" the chief said, Morri looked him in the eye, reading him as best as possible, a slight buzz in the earpiece she was wearing was confirmation from Deathshot he wasn't lying, keeping her arms folded, she stepped a little closer.

"If secrecy is part of your trade than fair enough, but we don't just let anyone in on what we are and what we know, it's not just us that's vulnerable here, we don't know how the politics here work but you and your team are likely to be in a risky position if your prime minister says no to this proposal, what if your ordered to hand us over to the military and have no further say in the matter? What then?" she asked

"That is a possibility, but like I said before, this an entirely new situation for those in power, the prime minister may be in a tight spot but that doesn't mean she won't be willing to listen to reason, we've seen your capabilities first hand and know that if worst comes to worst, no-one will stand a chance against your friends"

"Nice to know that at least you know when not to poke at something you don't fully understand" Morri smirked

"Quite...your friend also told us earlier that you couldn't go back the way you came, what did he mean by that?" the chief asked, the kids all glanced at one another, unsure whether or not to carry on, with a heavy sigh, Morri carried on

"...Before I can answer that I have to ask you all something and you all need to be completely honest...after what happened this morning, do you really want to know what and who we are? Because if you do...you really can't back out, what you saw this morning was just the very tip of an immense iceberg of what our friends can do, and what they really are...we'll understand if you say no, but the choice is entirely yours" Sam said

"Considering everything that's happened I'd say we're already in deep as it is, as chief of this section whatever happens from here on out will be my responsibility...go ahead" The chief replied honestly, the kids looked at each other then Sam stepped forward and placed a hand on Morri's shoulder, she stepped back and let him take over.

"Okay...this is all gonna sound totally insane, but it's all true..." and for over 20 minutes non-stop Sam tells them everything, the Autobots and the Decepticons, the war for the all-spark and how it came to earth, how his great grandfather became involved and how he eventually ended the war, he also told them about NEST and the secret base, and about Wheeljack's invention, how it malfunctioned somehow transported them to this world, this universe. All the while Sam told his story, the kids watched the team's responses as they listened in a mix of fascination, surprise and disbelief, the chief was equally taken aback by this amazing tale, but he didn't let it show (much). Batou, Togusa and Saito were amazed, the Tachikoma's were completely fascinated but the Major, Pazu and Boma didn't look so convinced, when Sam finally finished the Major looked him up and down with scepticism, how the hell could this unassuming kid possibly defeat (as he described Megatron) the universe's harbinger of death? And how could any of these kids possibly be involved with a top secret government operation to conceal the existence of an alien species on an earth in an alternate universe? They all looked so...ordinary, and average, despite what happened this morning and everything before then, she somehow didn't feel totally convinced, if this had been any other situation they would have carted them off to the nearest shrink hospital.

"That's quite some story, a little fanciful don't you think?" the Major asked

"Yeah, I know, sometimes when I look back on it, I can't believe it actually happened, but like I said before, whether you want to believe it or not is your choice we're not here to pressure you guys" Sam replied, starting to grow a little nervy under her stern gaze, the chief looked at him a moment before asking:

"Say we did believe you, what evidence can you offer us that could collaborate your story of falling through this worm hole?"

An uneasy moment passed as the kids all looked at each other with concerned looks on their faces; finally, most of them bowed their heads as if ashamed, the chief sensed something uneasy coming

"In response to your question, why we couldn't go back the way we came? It's because the worm hole is still...in existence, basically it's still open, all be it dormant, but the day after we emerged from it the military had commandeered the sight and erected a huge dome over it so now we can't get to it, not without somehow storming the place, but that's not an option, there are too many soldiers and heavy armaments for us to even try sneaking past" she replied gravely, the team looked at her in surprise

"The military already knows about it?" The chief asked concerned

"Well...yeah, we figured they must have seen us emerge, but the fact we managed to give them the slip is why they didn't catch us...although, seeing as they've gotten a hold of our only way home we're as good as caught anyway" Becky said, the chief and Major glanced at each other with equal frowns.

"I'm going to look into that, but how did you manage to escape Section 6 and Section 4's helicopters anyway?" the chief asked

"We teleported" Becca replied casually, the team looked at her dumbly for a brief moment

"Yep, teleported" Becca replied

"You seriously expect us to believe that?" the Major asked

"Yes, how else do you give your enemies the slip without leaving a trail for them to follow!" a deep disembodied voice boomed, the team looked up and round looking for the source, Sam and Mikaela simply rolled their eyes, while Darren face-palmed.

"Who said that?" the Major asked

"I did!" the voice sternly replied

"Did...that jet just talk?" the chief asked raising an eyebrow

"Yes, which now brings us to the more important part of this meeting...okay, brace yourselves for a shock and, well... guys, do you want to take it from here?" Sam asked patting the hood of the yellow Camero he was leaning against

Within a few minutes the Section 9 team witnessed, what had to be the most amazing sight they've ever seen, the cars and jets began to collapse and fold apart, metal plates and internal parts folded, slotted, and rearranged into new positions, transforming into 9 huge humanoid robots, two of which towered 30 feet above the ground, the CD player that one of the twins was holding quickly transformed into the jittery spiky silver robot with spindly limbs and four blue glowing eyes set on an insect-like face, once they all completed their transformations they looked down at the now bug eyed gawking section 9 team, for once the chief and Major were at complete loss for words.

"Hay, ain't you the dude that was leering at my paint job outside the festival?" Jazz asked looking down at Batou with a grin, Batou began to panic slightly, having suddenly just realised the car that was there a minute ago was now a 16 foot giant alien robot! Poor Togusa's mind was running around in panicked circles screaming 'THEIR GIANT ROBOTS!!! THEIR GIANT ROBOTS!!!-' as his eyes practically bulged out of his head, trying to encompass the shier size of the enormous mechanical beings within the range of his vision, the others were just as awe-struck, poor Boma very nearly dropped his gun out of his hands.

"Uuh-uh? Wh-what? You were really-"he stammered

"Yep, that was me!" he replied

"Why else do think we decided to hide in the city in the first place? several fine looking cars out in a field would have stood out, at least in a city we would blend in with the crowds, or traffic rather" Trailbreaker smiled

"Well that makes sense" Batou whispered to himself, trying to keep his cool

"Amazing" the chief breathed

"Aren't we just" Sunstreaker beamed, the kids simply rolled their eyes.

"Don't mind him he just likes when people admire his paint job" Ashley said in a deadpan tone

"I'm Jazz, first lieutenant of the Autobots, these here are our scouts Bumblebee and Hot Rod, our gunners Trailbreaker and Bluestreak, our top warriors Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, our drones Ravage and Scorponok, our hacker Frenzy, our seeker Jetfire and our top sniper Deathshot" Jazz introduced

Saito's eyebrows flew up in amazement, this thing, this robot was a sniper?

"Glad to finally meet you" the chief said, keeping up his firm exterior

"Likewise, firstly, we have to apologise for what happened this morning, you gave ol'Trailbreaker here a real shock when your virus tried to bypass his firewall, we hacked you back to see just what you guys were up to" Jazz said kneeling down in front of the Major, she looked up at the first lieutenant with confusion, leaving the question of whether he knew she was a cyborg for another time she asked:

"Just why did you hack our systems anyway?"

"Uh hello? You tried to hack into my guardian using a virus that was sent down a cell signal? You seriously didn't think we wouldn't take it personally?" Darren replied sarcastically

"We hacked you back to see just how you did it, but when we saw what kinda on-line set-up you guys had, we got a little curious as to who you guys really are, so D here jacked himself in and with Darren's help decided to check out just how much you knew about us..." Jazz said

"And what did you learn?" the chief asked

"...That you guys ain't no fools, but you had our kid down as suspects and we didn't like that so we decided to give you a little taste of what we really are, let you know just what it was you were letting yourselves in for because if you didn't know, I'd have wagered you would have kept chasing us with a second thought" Jazz replied in a serious way

"True, we would have eventually caught up to you, but after what happened today, everything's completely changed, and now's it's become a case of preventing a fight breaking out between you and the military..."

"...If you mean you think we're gonna completely blow them away? Not likely, we Autobots have to follow the prime directive, which states that under no circumstances must the life of another sentient being be extinguished, even by mistake" Jazz said

"But that doesn't mean we won't put a few dents in anyone who comes looking for a fight... and if there's one thing I've learnt about humans is that you can be persistent and stubbornly tough for such a small species" Jetfire grumbled as he leaned on his walking stick, the team weren't sure whether to think of it as a compliment or a warning, seeing the looks on their faces Jazz quickly stepped in.

"Basically, if there is any trouble we always try to avoid it as best we can, but considering we got our charges to watch over we can't afford to take any chances, so, if the military do show up and try to take our kids away I can't promise you we're gonna be easy on' em"

"But it's you they'll be interested in, if they get their hands on you and they're aware your technology is alien, if they get a hold of you and they manage to reverse engineer your technology there's no telling what kind of mess could arise" the chief replied, Morri looked at him in a shock for a moment.

"They already know the Autobots are aliens?"

"I'm afraid so, originally the military as well as several other agencies had been on high alert in response to the fight at the warehouse, at first everyone assumed that your friends here were some sort of super weapons of unknown origin, we were given the task of apprehending you children in order to get information on the 'super weapons' but when Annabelle befriended Togusa's daughter and found her way to his home we decided to take advantage of the situation to try and lure you out, sure enough you did and we were there waiting, but things took a very strange turn when we saw your mode of escape" the chief said

"You were there waiting for us? And you used a four year old as bait?!" Glen exclaimed, Tom put a reassuring hand on his shoulder to stop him

"I can asure you the child's safety was our first priority, from the start she was never in any real danger" the chief replied

"I know, you took good care of her" Deathshot said, the Major quirked an eyebrow

"You were watching us?" she asked

"I watched you all afternoon from the rear balcony" the giant sniper replied

"But we cleared the area, no-one was there" Togusa said

"I know, you checked the perimeter of your apartment 7 times, I was hovering 7 meters away..." Deathshot replied, the section 9 team stared up at him completely dumbfounded

"...And, when I came to retrieve the children, I detected your bio-signatures in the stairwells, in addition to your attempt to take the younglings by surprise, I had to neutralize your sniper who was hiding in the opposite apartment building 500 yards away.." he said as he directed his gaze down at the one-eyed human, Saito suddenly felt a sharp pang of fear go straight down his spine and a large lump well up in the back of his throat, he suddenly felt like he was back in the old hospital in Mexico city, facing down the Major, that situation was scary, but right now, this was a whole other kind of fear. All eyes fell upon him as he stood gazing up at the enormous four winged being.

"Y-you knew that was me?" he asked nervously

"I knew you were a sniper who had a good range to Togusa's apartment, you scoped out all the possible places an enemy sniper could squeeze off a clean shot from, it was obvious you were expecting another sniper to show up...well, a human sniper at least" Deathshot replied

"Then why did you shoot me if you were going to retrieve the kids from the front of the apartment? You had to have known there was no way I could shot anything on the front terrace?!" Saito asked sternly

"True, the front terrace was well out of range, but the balcony was our first choice of an evac route, and even though we had to use the terrace to escape, I still had to make sure you didn't pose a further threat, one thing I've come to respect about human snipers is that they can be incredibly tricky to neutralize"

"Then...why didn't you just kill me there and then?" Saito asked

"...Because, even though it may be a snipers fate to die at the hand of an enemy sniper, I'm still bound by the prime directive not to kill another sentient being, which you are, the bullet that struck you was one of my custom-made neutralizing rounds, specifically designed to safely neutralize humans with minimal tissue damage...although in your case, it took out your gun quite effectively" Deathshot replied, seeing the look on the scared man's face, Morri decided to cut in

"Okay, very interesting but getting back to the subject at hand, so basically after that night everything changed for you guys, you realised you weren't dealing with a run-of-the-mill case?" she asked the chief

"Thinking of it as a 'run-of-the-mill' case was a major understatement, we recovered what was left of the your sniper's bullet, and in addition we recovered your cell phone, when we got them back to our analysis lab and discovered what they where, in particular the bullets metallurgical properties there was no doubt in anyone's mind about what we were really dealing with. After I submitted our finding to the prime minister, the cabinet had been in a higher state of panic then before, for the moment they stand divided, half want to take the peaceful approach while the rest simply believe you're too great a threat to leave to chance...now, if you voluntarily come forward into our custody we can try to allay their fears and hopefully bring a resolution to this whole mess, and if possible, enquire about this wormhole through which you arrived here" the chief said, some of the Autobots exchanged bemused glances, at this point the Autobot gang had somewhat mixed impressions about these combatants, on the one hand, this old guy seemed to be a real hardened pro, he didn't scare easily even when confronted by 9 giant alien robots he didn't flinch, the strange purple-haired woman looked like she could easily kill anyone with a single glance, the rest all seemed either tough-as-nails or downright intimidating, at a glance, although that would probably be more true if they weren't looking at the Autobots in a mix of surprise, shock and fascination, Morri made a note to keep an eye on the woman if they got involved with these people, if worst came to worst, she could be more trouble than she was worth, Jazz sighed and folded his arms across his hood and head lights.

"...So that's what your going to do? Now that you guys know about us, whatever happens next will be your decision, but you have to know, if anything happens and you go back on your word we will fight you, and we'll run and you'll never see any of us again, and don't ask where we'll go cuz we're good at improvising" he said, the chief looked up into his visor and nodded, sensing the sincerity in his voice

"...Very well, you have my word that if you have to run we'll back away and let you go, if anyone picks up your trail we'll do what we can to let you stay ahead, but I can't make any promise's or guarantee's" he replied

"Okay, say we agree to this, what's part of the package in this deal you got?" Jazz asked

"As I said before, I can't promise anything but if I can convince the prime minister to agree, I'll try to arrange for all of you to be moved to a secure location where hopefully you won't have any further interference from the other agencies"

"Fair enough, but we'll only agree on three conditions"

"Go on"

"First, we are not to put in any form of confinement, sanctuary and imprisonment are two very different things, our physiology may be mechanical in nature but we're still sentient like you so you better keep that in mind...secondly, regardless of whatever anyone in this cabinet about us being a threat, keep in mind that as Autobots we NEVER go looking for a fight, we will only ever retaliate if we are provoked first and if we have to engage in combat we will always try to minimize casualties, and lastly, and most importantly, under NO circumstances are our kids to be separated from each other, harmed or taken away from us, that'll be a deal-breaker, if you can work these terms into your deal, then we're cool" Jazz said, the chief regarded him for a brief moment and bowed his head slightly

"...Very well, I'll see what I can do, give me at least three days to put something together, in the meantime if you choose to do so, you can stay at this place, it's our most secure safe house" the chief said as he handed Morri a small blank white business card, on the back were navigation co-ordinates, she took the card and slipped it into her pocket.

"Thanks, but what'll happen if the military or other agencies find out about this deal and try to interfere in some way? And just how are you going to convince your prime minister to agree this deal with no evidence to show we're on the level with you?" Sam asked

"You let me worry about that, in the meantime, just keep your heads down...Our business here is concluded for now, I sincerely hope we're able to bring a resolution to this situation" the chief said

"I hope so too, as far as we're concerned, us being here is purely an accident we ain't even suppose to be here and we're sorry for all this trouble you 'an everyone else through, as Autobots it's our part of our duty to protect and respect life, the last thing we want is to see anyone get hurt because of us" Jazz said with a sympathetic tone, the other Autobots nodded in agreement, Miles then noticed Saito's face and suddenly it struck him;

"Holy crap!" he exclaimed

"What is it Miles?" Jazz asked

"I just realized the sniper dude looks totally like you man!" Deathshot flinched in surprise, all the kids looked back and forth between the two and were surprised to see the resemblance, the Major simply stared at the blond teen, 'it took him that long to work that out?" she thought, completely dumbfounded

"Whoa! He's right! He does look like you, man that's spooky, it's like we got a whole extreme reverse doppelganger thing going on here!" Glen smiled

"That's incredible and weird too" Becky said

"Actually, why do you have my face?" Deathshot asked, suddenly all the optics of the Autobots fell on Saito, he started to grow uneasy under the blue shining optics of the giant sentient robots, the chief and the rest of the team watched on as Jazz stood back up and let Deathshot kneel down in front of the team.

"I might ask you the same thing, how did you get a hold of my face and voice?" Saito asked

"I didn't, this is the format design I've always had and my vocal processor's always sounded like this" Deathshot replied innocently, Saito just stared up at him in confusion for a brief moment

"Hay! What if you're each other's doppelgangers?" Miles suggested

"WHAT?!" the kids all exclaimed, the section 9 team exchanged bemused glances

"Uh Miles? Doppelgangers are usually exactly the same as each other? D's an Autobot and...Sorry I didn't catch your name?..."

"Saito"

"Right, and Saito's human, there's a very big difference here" Tom said thumbing towards the human sniper

"Yeah I know, but what if D's his cybertronian doppelganger!" Miles grinned, the other kids knew Miles was a pretty good when it came to thinking out of the box, but this was going a little bit...well, too far out of the box.

"Cybertronian doppelganger? What?" Batou whispered to himself

"Uhh? You'd care to enlighten us a little bit Miles?"Danny asked

"Indeed" the chief asked, quirking an eyebrow. 'This should be interesting' the Major thought

"Darren, remember what you said before? That whole theory of how two parallel earths could evolve along similar lines of technology and culture? Well why not people too? What's to say there can't be someone living in one universe whose life has a parallel existence to someone in another universe?" he explained enthusiastically

"That maybe true if they were the same species, but unless there's a parallel cybertron and there's another Deathshot somewhere in this universe I don't see how you can compare and familiarise the parallel existence of a one eyed human combatant to a 31 million year old giant alien robot sniper solely based on their physical resemblance? Analytically its crude at best, plus, a doppelganger by definition, is a mimic in ghostly form, strictly speaking they're not even alive" Darren said in a monotone, to which Miles simply stood there dumbfounded

"Uh dude? I think you overloaded his brain again?" Glen said offhand

"Geez could you BE any more of a geek?" Ashley snorted; to which Darren shot him a deadpan look

"Sorry to burst your bubble mate, but he does have a point, nice try though" Morri said reassuringly, giving the blond a pat on the shoulder

"Whoa! Wait a minute! How old did you say he was?!" Batou exclaimed, racking his mind for the last few seconds of conversation

"31 million years old" Deathshot replied casually, the team stared up at him wide-eyed, practically straining their brains to get their minds around what he just said

"Uhh?...s-sorry...w-what?" Togusa stammered, his eyes glazing over as surprise and unbelievable began to creep back in

"I said I'm 31 million years old, in human years that would equivalent to being...mmm? Probably between late twenties, early thirties, something like that?" he replied, the teams eyes grew even wider, Ashley grinned to the point he would probably break out into giggles, back at the base he and Ravage had enjoyed a whole afternoon of watching some new rookies, fresh from basic training be introduced to Ironhide, when one soldier asked the veteran Autobot his age, the two trouble-makers literally fell over each other laughing as they watch the poor sap being chased around the training ground by an enraged GMC Topkick, by the end of it all they were both so exhausted that Ratchet and Wheeljack had to carry Ravage to the med bay, give him a sedative and let him rest while Ashley went to sleep the minute his head hit the pillows of his bed.

But he had to give this bunch some credit; they hadn't lost their nerves all the while they had been here (and considering it was Deathshot they were asking it was probably better him than Jetfire at this point) Sensing this was probably the maximum of what the team could take at this point, Sam stepped in and averted their attention.

"Uh yeah, if I were you...it would probably be better if you try not to think about it TOO hard, you might give yourselves an aneurism or something" he said, wincing as they looked at him, still gob-smacked, The Major's face began to turn sympathetic and she looked up at Deathshot

"How long....did the war last?" she asked, struggling to form the words, Deathshots curious expression turned into one of sadness and hurt, Saito suddenly felt a pang of sympathy go through him as he saw the look on the giant's face, his own expression began to soften too.

"Far too long...longer than anything anyone could wish to endure" he replied sombrely

"But it's over now, it has been for over two years, we can finally move on with our lives and do the things we want to do" Bumblebee said, being quick to change the mood around.

"Your right, and besides it doesn't-"

Mikaela didn't have time to finish her sentence as Deathshot stood up quickly, the team jumped back slightly, considering his size they were surprised he could react that fast, with an impassive yet serious look on his face; he scanned the skies, looking all around.

"What's up D?" Jazz asked

"There's a helicopter approaching from the west, it appears to be of a military configuration..." he replied looking in one particular direction over the trees

"_Chief! Heads up, we got company coming! It looks like section 6"_ Ishkawa warned over the comm. shaking himself from out of his stupor, the chief suddenly switched back to reality

"_Alright bring the tiltroater down, we're getting out of here!"_ he replied

"_Rodger!"_

"How long till they get here?" Tom asked

"Approximately 20 minutes, they seem to be looking elsewhere at the moment, but if they spot us they could probably be here in less than 10" Deathshot promptly replied

"Well...it's decision time...this isn't an offer you have the luxury of taking your time to mull over, I need an answer now" the chief promptly asked, the kids and Autobots all looked at one another, finally looking to Jazz for an answer, he sighed heavily through his vents and looked down into the eyes of this old human.

"You promise not to forget our terms?"

"You have my word"

"Okay, we'll accept"

"Thank you, and now, I recommend we all get the hell out of here, as far as anyone but us is concerned, this meeting never took place, we'll have the safe house ready for you tomorrow" the chief said

"Very well, we'll be there in the morning, and good luck!" Jazz said, bending down to scoop Miles up and place him on his shoulder, the other guardians too let their charges climb up into their palms, and began to jog down the dust road at a steady pace, then, Deathshot stopped and with Morri, Danny and Tom on one shoulder he raised his hand, from which a bright purple light shone out and within a few seconds the air around the trees shimmered and the Autobots vanished from sight, their heavy footsteps still echoing into the woods, Annabelle looked over Bumblebee's shoulder smiling and waving at the team as she faded from sight, Ravage and Ashley were the last to go as they disappeared into the woods, silently as shadows.

Overhead the Tiltroater came into land, just managing to avoid hitting any of the trees, the team and Tachikoma's quickly boarded via the rear ramp, inside, Ishikawa and the other two Tachikoma's were waiting, as the plane swiftly took off, the team could finally relax, as they sat down at the debriefing table they took a long moment to get their heads around what happened, and what they saw, it had been mind-blowing to say the least, but also incredible to think these robots, these beings were really from another planet, and a parallel world to boot, the strange first contact this morning had been one thing but seeing the transformations from cars and jets into humanoid forms had been truly incredible, there was a lot, if not too much for everyone to process all at once, most of them sat in a mix of a light daze and contemplation, trying to get their thoughts back in order and return to some sense of normality, Batou was the first to speak.

"That...was something" he sighed breaking the silence

"Something?...that was totally...wow" Togusa replied, his mind still stuck in a daze

"...Aliens that can transform into cars and jets?...Talk about being a mechanic's wildest dream come true, it's no wonder they decided to hide in the city, with those disguises no-one would suspect anything" Pazu replied

"That's very true, hell, even I didn't see anything out of the ordinary four days ago when I saw them at the festival" Batou said

"And talk about incredibility, how could it be possible for a machine to achieve sentience? The technology to completely rearrange an entire structure is one thing, but how could a set of systems evolve to form conscious thought? Even ghosts?" Boma asked

"Well, if they're capable for living for millions of years at a time, I'd say that's ample time to develop ghosts of their own, after all, think of all the data they must accumulate over that period of time? Its must been completely mind-blowing!" Batou's Tachikoma squeaked

"You might have a point there, I bet if the military were to find out the extent of their capabilities, they'd be drooling over the prospect of taking them apart and do a structural analysis" Togusa said

"Hell, I'd be willing to bet anyone would pay anything for their technology, as well as anything else they have we don't yet know about" Batou said

"Which is why we can't leave anything to chance on this, we are now at the point where screwing up is not an option" The chief said, everyone nodded in agreement.

"So what have you got in mind chief? With no evidence of the encounter this morning what are you going to tell the PM?" the Major asked

"It's possible we may already have evidence of what happened this morning, I want you, Ishikawa and Boma to do a complete analysis of that vaccine programme that neutralized the A11 alpha virus, look for anything, plus, gather the data of the time it took for the vaccine to work and compare them to the military's official data files on how the virus was originally constructed, when you've found the necessary data I will go straight to the prime minister's residence, remember, whatever you turn up will determine the strength of conviction I'll have to show to the prime minister so be thorough in your search...In the meantime, Batou, Togusa, Saito and Pazu, you'll be assigned to watch over the safe house, I'll take care of the necessary arrangements, your jobs will be to make sure our 'guests' don't get seen by anyone, they may have excellent disguises in place but I'd rather not leave it to chance...We've got less than three day's until we can determine what course of action to take next, for now, we need to convince the prime minister that taking these aliens and their friends in as refugee's would be far more wiser than taking them in as prisoners"

"Rodger that" the Major replied, she turned to watch the cityscape roll by down below, as she watched the evening sky, she wondered just how this was going to play out, because from here on, they were flying blind.

Back at the hideout, the Autobot gang shut themselves away in the storage house, the kids climbed down from their guardians and flopped out on the coaches in the seating area, for a long while no-one said anything, they just sat, thinking about what happened, thinking about Section 9, when she first saw them approach, the kids thought these guys looked like they could kill anyone with a single glance, especially the woman, she seemed the most formidable of all, they all looked hard, trained and defiantly combat worthy, the old man especially, he didn't even flinch once, it had been scary and somewhat nerve-racking, but they all knew they had to see the meeting through.

Hailey hadn't moved the whole time they had talked, she had been so nervous and the sight of those guns didn't help much, the same could be said for Danny, they felt especially glad to be back in the hideout, away from them and everything else, the other's however hadn't been so intimidated, they were wondering whether or not the old man would keep his promise, or if it was even legit, the Autobots too were wondering what to think, at the back of his processor Jazz was praying that he had made the right decision as leader of the group, he really wished Optimas had been here, Deathshot felt a little uncertain, one of his main quality's was his uncanny ability to read someone's face and accurately guess what their thinking, but that was usually with other cybertronians, humans were so much more veritable, spontaneous and unpredictable in their thoughts and actions and trying to read these particular humans had been tricky, but one thing he knew for sure was that these humans were good combatants and didn't scare easily, that was concerning.

"Well...that seemed to go okay" Hailey finally said

"Okay? Did you see the looks on their faces when you guys transformed? They didn't know whether to wet themselves or run for the hill's!...you gotta admit, seeing for the first time is always priceless!" Ashley grinned; Ravage gave a deep mechanical rumble equivalent to a chuckle

"They did seem confident of themselves at first, but once you guys showed your true selves I think it really made them think twice" Darren said

"Not wishing to sound presumptuous, but I'd say the whole experience probably put a lot of things into perspective for them, if they had any misconceptions about you guys before then they've defiantly changed now" Morri said

"I'd say that's certainly true, at least they had the common sense to be scared" Sunstreaker said as he transformed back into his alt mode and rolled into the corner of the hideout

"Having them scared is the last thing we want, humans can react badly when their fearful for their lives, and can easily be dangerous when there are weapons at their disposal" Deathshot replied glairing down at the golden Lamborghini, his red twin transformed and joined him at side, deciding not to provoke the cold faced sniper

"Amen" Glen muttered

"The old guy didn't seem all that scared, very surprised for sure, but he didn't have a heart-attack" Becca thought aloud

"Yeah, I thought he'd wig out" her sister concurred

"Whoever he was, something tells me he's not the type to back down or be intimidated easily, if anything goes wrong I've got a bad feeling we wouldn't want him for an enemy, the woman too, I wouldn't want to run in to her when she's seriously ticked off" Tom said offhand

"Yeah, and the other's looked pretty much the same, I mean, did you see the bald guy at the back? He was huge! I bet he could snap your neck with very little effort" Glen said wiping his brow

"But what was with those weird glasses he and the big guy with the pony-tail were wearing? What were they for and how did they stay stuck on like that?" Danny asked

"Who knows, it is a parallel earth after all, maybe it's a fashion thing" Miles said offhand

"But the question now is, are they going to stay true to their word?" Trailbreaker asked

"I think they now know the reality of this whole situation, they may have been surprised by us but they didn't seem to be foolish, the old one at least seemed to have held a lot of reverence for us, if he's as smart as he appeared to be, he'll have a good idea what the consequences will be if he messes with us" Jetfire said as he sat on the ground, putting his walking stick to one side

"It didn't seem like he was out screw us over, he did say no-one else knew about the meeting, and if they really do take orders from the prime minister than going behind their PM's back was a huge gamble" Mikaela said

"If that's true, don't forget our position is twice as precarious, we've just entrusted our guardians alien identity's to a bunch of stranger's we know nothing about who supposedly want to help us, and there's a military force and several government agencies who we know nothing about, and to top that off, our only way home is under military control...don't you think it's a little obvious we're in a position where we could get really screwed over here?" Danny said

"What's gotten you so negative all of a sudden? If anyone tries anything with us the guys here will have no trouble blowing them away, , don't you'd think those military creeps would at least have some brains and figure it would probably be best to leaves us alone, rather than run the risk of finding out what kind of fire-power a bunch of super advanced alien robots have?" Ashley replied, Ravage nodded in agreement

"In case you forgot kid, we don't go around blasting you humans like target drones, you know we're better than that" Jazz replied looking down at Ashley

"But you could if you wanted to" he replied with his trademark devilish grin, behind his visor Jazz rolled his optics, his cousins followed suit.

"Look, I'm aware this situation just got a whole lot more complicated, and yes I know I'm aware we could easily get into trouble if this all turns the wrong way, but the fact you guys are aliens should be enough to hold some persuasion at least, I mean, once the prime minister realises the incredibility of the truth of this they'll have to agree to the deal...think about it...having aliens from outer space in your own back yard? I mean that's like, the mother of all opportunities you can't turn down!" Ashley offered

"Yeah, an opportunity for a lot of things to happen, don't forget what Sector 7 did with Megatron when he was still frozen...and what they wanted to do to Bee..." Darren said, the whole space fell silent for a long moment as everyone dreaded the idea of what would happen if this was a set-up, Bumblebee felt a small streak of dread go through his spark at the memory of being captured by the Sector 7 agents, Sam thought about it the same way too with a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Are we going to find another hideout?" Annabelle asked Mikaela, looking up at her with her big blue eyes; Mikaela wasn't sure what to say at first, till she replied uneasily;

"Well, sweetie...that old guy back there, he's shown us a place we could hide in", "that sounds cool" Annabelle replied "yeah, it is" Morri replied as she took out the little card from her pocket and looked over the co-ordinates, "Where does it say the safe house is?" Ashley asked "It doesn't say it just has these co-ordinates" she replied as she passed the card up to Jazz.

"Well, we better start packing I guess" Miles yawned

"To be honest I don't care if it is suspicious, I'll just be glad to be staying somewhere that has indoor plumbing" Hailey said

"Amen to that!" Glen replied

As the group started to chat among themselves, Morri got up from her seat on the coach and retreated behind the partitions into the bedroom area, flopping down onto the fold out bed she looked up and noticed the now golden late afternoon sunlight as it filtered through the dirty windows, behind the partitions the group sounded like it had changed the subject completely and was now in the process of deciding what to make from last night's left-over's, she smirked, thinking how quirky it was that somehow they could go from being so down to somehow finding a way to lighten up again, it never cessed to make her thankful for having such friends, in that moment she knew one way or another, things would somehow work themselves out, Frenzy leaped over the partition and sat himself on the corner of the bed with a small half full bottle of orange juice in hand.

"Wanna r-refuel?" he asked

"Ah, thanks mate" she replied, and took a swig of the drink

"Ww-what'sonyer p-processor?"

"Oh nothing much, guess I'm just glad the day's over I suppose...but...I can't forget that guy, Saito, I think he said his name was?"

"Y-youmean his f-face? Totally d-déjà' vu!"

"I know, it was weird, I couldn't help but feel maybe Miles was onto something earlier with that doppelganger theory...but...I'm not sure, maybe it could on a level of essence"

"Levelof e-essence?"

"Well, we don't know anything about the guy, but what if maybe, just maybe, he could be D's doppelganger in essence? I mean, we are in another universe, I guess anything could go, or than again maybe I've been hanging around Miles too long...hard to tell" She smirked and lied back on the pillows

"Eeh, theboyhasn't g-got much o-ofaCPU"

"Maybe, but he's funny"

Frenzy paused a moment before asking; "D-d-doyou t-think e-everythingwill b-beokay?"

She looked at him with an unreadable expression

"Do you?"

"I-I-I d-don'tknow, I h-hopeso, butcan'tforgetwhat h-happenedat H-Hover d-dam"

"Oh yeah, Glen told me all about that"

"D-d-doyouthink t-the o-oldhumanwastellingthe t-truth?"

"I hope so, He sounded sincere, but we're just going to have to wait and see what happen, there's not really anything we can do at this point"

"W-we could runawayand h-hide?"

"It's a possibility but not a good choice, there's a possibility we could be tailed again, besides, we've got to wait and see what this meeting with the prime minister will result in...I think he said he was a she?"

"Hay, you wanna help cook dinner? We're gonna make a hot dog noodle soup" Hailey asked poking her head around the partition, Frenzy leapt off the bed and dashed over to the drones who were sitting by the coaches.

"Uuh, no thanks I'm feeling kinda tried, I think I'll rest for a while" Morri replied as laid her down on the pillow and dozed off into a light sleep.

* * *

R&R please!


	21. Chapter 20: Emergency Teleport

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Transformers or Ghost in the shell, just my OC's and the plot

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 20: EMERGENCY TELEPORT

The sun shone through the city with bright yellow rays, gleaming off the skyscrapers and warming the vast metropolis with its gentle heat, all around the city, people were going about their daily routines, nothing extraordinary and nothing of any great significance to alter the cycle of their daily lives.

'If only they knew' Togusa thought as he watched the cityscape whizz by while he sat in the passenger seat of Batou's car with Saito and Pazu in the back and Batou at the wheel.

Nearly a week ago the whole of Section 9 had thought they were dealing with yet another major terrorist threat (albeit a very weird one), something vast and complex, something that could only be given their undivided attention without the likelihood of being screwed up, it wouldn't have been any different from all the other cases they worked.

That was until yesterday, now everything had changed completely.

Now, they had discovered that those 'war machines' were 12 super-advanced alien robots from another planet and another universe, with 13 kids under their guardianship, who were also from another universe!

When it came to being prepared for anything, Section 9 was always ahead of the curve, but this was really something else.

"So what's our plan of action for today boss man? I know we've got the safe house ready but why are we going back to the park?" Togusa asked; his nerves had only just recovered from the shock of yesterday's encounter.

"Before we left HQ the chief said we had to check up on our 'guests' to make sure they make it to the safe house okay, we'll let the Tachikoma's scope out the IR systems for anything unusual while we check out the area of woods nearest the storage-house were our friends are hiding" Batou replied

"You mean the woods were that cat might be hiding? You gotta be kidding!" Togusa said with a shudder

"I agree, if he's their guard dog we might accidently provoke him" Pazu said

"We'll only go as far as the lake, their hideout is only a few minutes away from there, and we need to make sure none of them are wandering around"

"What makes you think they are? If we get spotted they may think we're trying to impose on them" Togusa said

"If we come across them we'll simply explain we're there to offer some additional protection, courtesy of Section 9"

"What if they don't believe us?"

As Batou and Togusa argued over how to best do the surveillance Saito sat in silence watching the city go by, too many questions were plaguing his thoughts to let him fully concentrate on the task at hand, the thought of what Deathshot said yesterday hadn't left his mind.

'Actually, why do you have my face?'

'I might ask you the same thing, how did you get a hold of my face and voice?'

'I didn't, this is the format design I've always had, and my vocal processor's always sounded like this'

Then he remembered what that one kid said

'Hay! What if you're each other's doppelgangers?'

Doppelganger? Could it be possible? But then he remembered what that other kid said and a cold feeling suddenly came over him

'A doppelganger by definition, is a mimic in ghostly form, technically their not even alive'

If that was true, was it possible he or even himself couldn't be alive in the first place? Was the giant really an alien AI? Having not possessed a ghost of his own? Or was he the one not...

Saito shook the thought from his mind, 'No! There's no way that could be possible!' he thought, there had to be a more logical explanation to this, there had to be a reason why he shared the same face with an alien robot.

Then his thoughts turned outwards, thinking more outside the box than he usually dared to do so, what if the alien was his doppelganger, but...more in essence than actual resemblance, maybe, because the giant was from another universe there were different rules to how things usually work, maybe they had a resemblance to humans because...

He shook his head again, this time driving all the thoughts from his mind before they threatened to overwhelm his sense of reason, he frowned in frustration at how his mind was starting to get the better of his usual calm self, 'if I ever see him again, I'll simply ask' Saito thought to himself and tried to focus himself back into reality as the car pulled up to the curb at the entrance to the park where they were the last time they were here. As they exited the vehicle the four Tachikoma's that had followed them here pulled up alongside the four cops.

"Okay, you three take up positions on the buildings along here and keep an eye out for anyone going in or out of the woods, notify us immediately if you see any one near the tree-line..." Batou said

"Rodger!" three of the Tachikoma's replied, and leapt off onto the nearby buildings, engaging their therm-optic camouflage in mid air

"What have you got for me mister Batou?" his Tachkoma asked

"You'll be with us, we'll split up and take a look around the area were they first appeared, we're just gonna check to see their not too near the park, if they see us, we'll back off" he said

"What about the cat?" Togusa asked

"If we see him, we'll stay out" Batou replied

"That's no very encouraging" Togusa muttered as he followed Batou and the others into the park.

Meanwhile, back at Section 9 HQ, things had been progressing along a different line of work, in the dive room, Ishikawa, Boma and the Major had spent most of the night trying to figure out the vaccine that cured her of the A11 alpha virus, using a series of separate computers that were installed with a set of dummy networks they had used various attack simulations using a variety of viruses, including the A11 alpha to see how this vaccine worked.

They had found the vaccine worked using multiple layers of encryption override data to pin down the viruses and stop them before they could spread throughout the networks, but when it came to using the A11 alpha, the vaccine pinned it down and obliterated it completely, this was a virus that could randomly change its infiltration data with every new system network it came into contact with, it was the most powerful virus ever created in living memory, and yet every time this vaccine was introduced to it, the virus never made it past 1.35 minutes of staying intact, so to really put it through its paces, Ishikawa had set up a custom made vaccine scrambler programme, a quite nasty little cyber device used by cyber-pirates for withstanding the effects of any vaccine programmes what could destroy any viruses they had written up, the programme was completely destroyed in less than 45 seconds, Ishikawa gawked in shock, The Major and Boma were just as stunned.

"How's it coming?...Where's the Major?" The chief asked as he entered the dive room, Ishikawa leaned back in the dive chair, exhausted from the work.

"In the analysis room going over the result of the last few test's we just ran, we had to close off part of the sections networks in order to transfer the data safely, I'm just about to go over the encryption override data, this time on the vaccines lower levels of data conversion codes" he replied, at that moment the Major and Boma walked in reading a whole load of results, a look mixed surprise and confusion was written across their faces.

"Well, how did the findings turn out?" the chief asked, the Major wasn't sure what to say at first, then handed the chief the results to see for himself, he gasped and his eyebrows shot up in surprise as he read the test results.

"...This...this can't be possible?" he stammered

"We ran the test over and over but the A11 alpha didn't last long, the class A and B viruses were no different, they took even less time to be vaccinated" Boma said

"And they weren't just vaccinated, the vaccine completely dismantled the viruses programming leaving nothing behind, buy what's even weirder is how vaccine responds to each of the viruses, it's much like A11 alpha in as much it's override elements realign themselves to counter whatever viruses it comes into contact with...but...that's only half the equation..." the Major said

"What do you mean?" the chief asked

"Take a look..." Ishikawa said they stood around the computer terminal and watched as he bought up the vaccine; the programme had grown so large the data had to be displayed on three monitors.

"That's the vaccine? Its data compactly wasn't that large last night" the chief said

"No, it wasn't, when we uploaded it onto the dummy networks it instantly uploaded itself onto the A, B and C levels and flushed every chimera virus we hid in there, it then filtered down to D, E, F and G levels and cleared out the trip viruses too, it even isolated all the infected data files, putting up defence barrier arrays as it went along"

"Did you programme the vaccines original settings in from yesterday and run a complete diagnostic of the virus override codes?"

"We didn't...the vaccine typed in the commands itself..." Boma replied a little nervously, the chief stared at him for a moment

"...It typed the commands itself?"

"Yeah, after we typed in the network's layout codes, the vaccine started running by itself, since then, every time we uploaded a virus onto the dummy system it obliterated it almost instantly, we even tried sneaking in chimera viruses disguised as ordinary data files using reinforced protection codes, but it saw right through them and wiped them clean away, we even tried attacking it with full on assault using the A11 alpha, but it completely destroyed it" Ishikawa said

"And not just destroy it, it completely dismantled the virus bit by bit and wrote it into its own programming, it's now at the point where it could automatically vaccinate every virus there is without being instructed to do so" Boma said

"Is it an AI?" the chief asked

"No, but at this rate it could well be mistaken for one, what's critical here is this..." Ishikawa said as he typed something into the computer, the screen showed a series of widows displaying the vaccines progress over the course of the previous night, the chief noticed how the base-line structure of the vaccine had contiuiously reconfigured itself after encountering every virus.

"It changes every time..." the chief said offhand

"Not just change, the vaccines signal structure is constantly learning, it's evolving, and the only way I think we're going to be able to learn more about this alien software is to stop thinking of it in terms of Fourier transforms and try to think in terms of quantum mechanics...in other words...I don't think this thing is a vaccine, but rather a living organism..." Ishikawa replied with a slight hint of nervousness in his voice

"A living organism?"

"...Maybe, we can't be sure, if only we had enough time we could ask the Autobots what it really is..." Boma replied, the chief looked at the data on the screen for a moment as he considered what to do with this, he looked back at the Major with a serious look in his eyes

"I'm sure we may find out in time, but for now it's obvious we can't let anyone up-link or dive into this, this will help our case to try and win the cabinet over, I want you to keep this under lock and key and ready it for submission as evidence for my next report, after you've finished that, I want you all to join the others at the safe house to help watch over our 'guests', I've got to get ready to take the next report along to the prime minister's residence, Major, you'll in charge of the safe house" the chief replied as he walked out the dive room.

Meanwhile, back in the park.

"I suppose your thinking we can count ourselves lucky we haven't run into that panther yet" Saito asked as he waded through the undergrowth

"In part yes, but there's also the scorpion to consider too" Batou replied as he pushed a branch out of his way

Batou, Saito and the Tachikoma had volunteered to go into the woods to check out the autobots and their charges, while Togusa and Pazu had decided to patrol the tree line around the edge of the park, so far the woodland party had found no resent evidence of activity, at least, nothing to suggest a giant robot had come through.

"What I don't get is how anything that big could come through here virtually leaving no trail, there's no broken branches no snapped twigs and the undergrowth isn't flattened out" Saito pointed out

"Who knows what their capable of? For all we know they could be watching and listening to us right now, maybe they could be hovering silently over us!" the Tachikoma replied

"That's not a comforting thought" Saito replied curtly

"But still a risk we have to take, come on, the bridge is not far ahead" Batou replied.

Since yesterday, all the section 9 member's had been coming to terms with the fact these Autobots were giant transforming alien robots, the reality had sunk in, in different ways for each individual, most had been fearful or confused, but Batou had secretly felt a sense of excitement, all night last night he couldn't help but think how amazing it was to see a car fold apart into a humanoid alien robot, and think about where they came from, some distant planet far away among the stars that held a world of endless alien wonders. Before he left the HQ to go home last night he caught a glimpse of the evening star among the skyscrapers of the city as it was rising into the darkening night sky, as he watched it glisten, he knew he would never look at any of the stars in the same way again.

Saito carefully crossed the old overgrown bridge while Batou and the Tachikoma leapt across, following the stream they walked down until the green waters of the lake began to peek through the trees, up ahead a soft light murmuring could be heard, like a child humming, stopping to try and identify the sound, Batou pointed out to Saito something moving in the long grass by the lakeside, something bright yellow and kept bobbing up and down in the long grass.

"_Tachikoma, stay here a sec, we'll be right back"_

"_Rodger!"_

Cautiously and quietly, the two men slowly paced forward until they were near the lakeside using the trees for cover, Batou was about to step out when a female voice suddenly called through reeds from in the lake.

"Anny! Stay where I can see you, don't go wandering off again!"

"Kay!" a familiar little voice replied, from out the grass Annabelle came wandering out in a long yellow sundress and pink flowery sun hat, she poked her head up while holding a large wicker basket filled with flowers and leaves, at this range they could make out her cute little face with rosy dimples and eyes as blue as sapphire with curly honey blond locks that bounced as she walked along.

Over the reeds across the lake they saw four of the other kids sitting on the pontoon dangling their feet in the water; focusing his enhanced vision Batou recognized them as Morri, Mikaela, Tom and Miles, they were chatting and laughing between themselves as they threw some bread to a pair of swans that were swimming among the lotuses, they both watched the scene and wondered whether or not to approach when suddenly;

"Hi there mister!"

They both looked down and saw the little honey blond girl smiling up at them, Saito sighed and Batou simply shrugged, there could have been much worse way's to have your cover blown.

"I know you, your that man with da funny glasses I saw yesterday with mister Togusa!" she smiled looking up at Batou, he smirked, kneeling down to be nearer to her level Batou returned the smile

"That's right, and what are you doing out here?" he asked gently

"Picking flowers for Bee, what are you doing here?"

"Making sure you and your friends are okay"

That's sweet but we're okay, in fact, we're getting ready to move"

"Really? Where are you going?"

"To your place of course" another familiar female voice replied, Batou looked up and saw Morri approaching with the others following behind

"We packed up all our stuff last night; we're ready to go but the guys are just tying up a few loose ends back at the hideout so we're just hanging out a while, anyway, what are you guys doing back here?" she asked

"The chief wanted to make sure your okay getting out of the city, think of us as your additional security for today" Batou smiled

"The chief? Was he the old dude we spoke to yesterday?" Miles asked

"Yep, that's him; he didn't want to take any chances with your safety today"

"I bet, you know I have to admit, I was impressed with you guys yesterday, normally most people wig out at their first sight of seeing the Autobots transform, but you lot stood your ground really well" Tom said

"Well it was, uh, quite a shock!" Batou chuckled

"Yeah, but for first timers, you did better than most of us!" Tom grinned

"Yeah, by the way, are you the only ones here?" Morri asked

"No, there are two more of us back along the tree line on the park boundary, their making sure no-one comes looking for you guys and your friends, speaking of which, are any of them close by?" Batou asked looking around the lake

"Deathshot's on sentry duty in the woods, the others are back at the hideout"

"The big guy with the wings and one eye?" Saito asked

"Yeah that's him; he's actually quite close to the lake" Morri replied, her smile slowly grew wider

"He's out here? Where?"

"A lot closer than you think, and don't worry about him being seen, D's very good at hiding" Morri grinned

"But how? Something as big as him couldn't move through the tree's without making a ruckus"

"You'd think, but being stealthy for him comes real easy, if you want to know how he does it you can ask him yourself" Morri said

"Then where is he?" Saito asked, the four friends glanced at one another with knowing smiles on their faces, Batou and Saito began to wonder what they had in store

"Turn around..." Morri grinned

When the two cops turned around, they were stunned to find themselves looking at a huge metal foot, slowly raising their gaze they saw the enormous wide body of the Autobot decked in intricate dark midnight blue armour, up close they could make out the details of the joints, armour plating and various other tiny intricacies of the mechanism that made him up as a whole, as his head looked downwards, he watched them with a friendly smile.

"Whoa..." they both breathed

"Good morning gentlemen" Deathshots said, his basso voice felt like it resonated through their chests

"Uh...g-good morning" Batou replied, unable to peel his cybernetic eyes away

"I was wondering if you'd might come, and I'm glad that you especially decided to come back" Deathshot said gazing down at Saito

"R-Really? Why?" the sniper replied tensely, the giant kneeled down so he was closer to them

"Maybe for the same reason you're just as curious about me as I have been about you...I have to admit, , I was quite surprised to see to my likeness to your facial design, I had been wondering since yesterday if you had inkling about it?" he smiled

"Is that supposed to be a joke?" Saito frowned, Deathshot looked surprised

"No not at all, I just wondered what your opinion was, it's not every day you come across an organic life form with your exact likeness, and you humans cannot swap and change your format design like we cybertronians can, the face you have is the one you were created with..."

Batou and Saito looked at each other briefly in wide-eyed surprise, they both knew that they had been here for over a week and judging from the efficiency and speed of the hacking yesterday they had to have been well versed in both human and alien technology, but not knowing about how anyone could swap their prosthetic body's and faces? Did they even know about cyborgs? Surly they must have had an inkling of some sort as to what the technology of this world is like? Then that when it hit him, Batou suddenly remembered their conversation they had with the kids yesterday, they did say they had come from another universe, was the technology of their world different to this one? Was it possible there were no cyborgs in their world? They both said nothing, least it might only complicate things.

"Uh?...well that's true, but, if you're a machine you could have easily changed your face to look like mine" Saito replied

"That's true, but I didn't even know you existed until yesterday morning, and my face hasn't changed in the last 31million years, so what other explanation could there be?" Deathshot said

"Maybe it's a cosmic fluke?...don't forget we are from another universe, maybe things are different here compared to back home, I mean, maybe there are other humans in this world that look like all the other Autobots back home" Miles said as he walked around the two cops and leaned against Deathshots knee

"And besides what's the problem with looking alike? I think it's kinda cool" Morri said as she stepped around next to Tom

"Yeah, I mean the only thing you can do from this point on is join the club and roll with the weird and the awesome!" Miles grinned as he climbed up a nearby tree; Saito suddenly felt he wanted to be somewhere else right now, noticing the uneasy look on his face Morri stepped forward and placed a friendly hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry about him his parents were hippies" Tom grinned

'That'll explain a lot' Batou thought with a brief grimace

"...But seriously, try not to feel too intimidated by all this, you're not the first guys to be scared at the sight of what you saw yesterday, all of us here have all been through this before, I mean, the first time I saw D here was the shock of my life, seeing just how big he was made me want to run for the hills, literally..." she chuckled

"I bet" Batou replied looking up at the autobot, who simply smiled

"Hay, I remember when the first time Sam introduced me to Bee, it was so totally cool! It was like, even cooler than the time we ding dong ditched that crazy old cat lady after she let her cats mess up his dad's backyard" Miles grinned as he swung from one of the branches, Batou and Saito simply raised their eyebrows

"I wouldn't worry about him, years of watching TV and playing video games has done wonders for his brain" Mikaela said with irony, folding her arms

"At least my opinion usually counts for something when somebody wigs out" he replied, Mikaela simply rolled her eyes, Batou smirked and Saito couldn't help but smile

"Hay where's Anny?" Mikaela said, everyone looked around, then from out the trees came the Tachikoma with the little honey blond riding on top, the kids watched the strange blue robot walk forward with Annabelle giggling in delight

"Hay! Look what I found!" she yelled

"What are you doing?" Batou asked his favourite blue AI as it walked up to him with Annabelle looking as proud as ever

"I'm sorry mister Batou but she was fairly persuasive, besides, she said I look cute" the Tachikoma replied, wringing its claws together

"What is that thing?" Tom asked as he stepped forward to take a closer look

"Who me? I'm a Tachikoma" it replied

"Does she belong to you guys?" Morri asked

"Yeah, they're our support AI's" Batou replied

"AI? You mean, as in, artificial intelligence? Cool!" Miles grinned as he jumped down from the tree and ran over to have a look

"You don't have AI were you come from?" Batou asked

"We cybertronians have semi-sentient AI's, but I'm afraid the human technology of our world has yet to evolve to the point where computer systems can sustain a complex memory matrix in order to provide the necessary thought and basic mental processes that AI's need to function...I guess you were able to accomplish that technical feat in this world huh?" Deathshot replied

"Uh yeah, AI systems are used for just about everything these days" Batou replied

"That's right! We help mister Batou and the rest of section 9 to catch terrorists and all other sorts of bad guys!" the Tachikoma replied

"Really? But you look so cute!" Annabelle replied, Batou couldn't help but smirk as Mikaela walked over to the Tachikoma and helped the little girl slide off the robots smooth armour

"Com'on sweetie why don't we give the Tachikoma a little break, why don't we go and see what the guys are up to, huh, maybe Bee would like those flowers you picked for him?" she asked

"Kay, bub bye Tachikoma, bub bye mister Batou and mister Saito" she replied waving back as she and Mikaela walked off down the little dirt path which lead back to the hideout

"Cute kid" Batou smiled

"She's a gem, and she loves all the Autobots to bits" Morri smiled as she climbed up into Deathshot waiting hand alongside Tom, Deathshot stood back up and placed them both on his shoulder, Batou grinned as he saw the Autobot rise to his full height, Saito just watched in amazement

"WOW! That's one big robot!" the Tachikoma yelled in excitement

"What's the view like up there?" Batou called up, Deathshot smiled down at him

"Would you like to see for yourself?" he asked

"Sure!" Batou replied eagerly, Deathshot kneeled back down, being careful not to let Tom and Morri fall off, he offered his hand, to which both men were amazed to see just how big it was, and that they both fit in the palm, the Autobot stood back up and placed them both on the other shoulder.

"Wow, that's a long way down" Batou grinned as he looked back down at the Tachikoma, who seemed quite small from 30ft up, Saito gazed at Deathshots face, noticing the skin-like metal that covered his face and neck, up close it looked like a strange pale grey frosted mercury, and felt just as weird as he ran his fingers along the surface, it wasn't cold, hard and metallic like metal, but it wasn't quite warm, soft and fleshy like skin either, it was...alien, he looked up into the giants glowing blue eye and saw all the intricate spokes and shutters that made up the iris, Morri climbed around and over his neck and shoulder armour to sit on the end of his cockpit and watched in delight as the two men were enjoying this fantastic encounter, she remembered well her first time on her guardians shoulder, how giddy with excitement she was and how amazing it was to be in the presence of such a magnificent being, she nearly broke out into giggles when she saw the look on Batou's face, he was like a little kid at Christmas.

"Pretty cool isn't it?" she smiled

"Bet you never thought you'd get to see something like this" he asked, grabbing his attention

"Yeah...what, is your face made out of? It doesn't feel like either metal or skin" he asked

"It's made of nanites, microscopic cyber-cells that are comprised of a silicon-carbon-cybertainium based hybrid alloy with morphing, self-regenerative and replication capabilities, they work in much the same way as organic cells, but with a few differences"

"Differences?" Saito asked

Deathshot held up one hand near the two cops and they watched in silent awe as the hand began to glow with a blue aura and silver tendrils morphed out of the palm, curling, twisting and finally forming into a beautiful white lotus flower with radiant petals that seemed to glow as it opened up.

"Wow...that's incredible..." Batou breathed, Saito simply stared at the strange and beautiful flower as it closed up and morphed back into Deathshots palm, he smiled, suddenly the idea of having an alien lookalike didn't seem so bad after all.

"How the hell did you do that?" Batou asked

"It's not that hard really" Deathshot replied casually

"Don't be so modest, you're an artist with those little nanites" Morri smiled, stroking the side of his chin

"Well I do like to be creative with them" he smiled

"Man, what other tricks do you have?" Batou asked eagerly

"Too many to count" he chuckled

"Hay mister Batou! What's the view like up there!" the Tachikoma called up

"Pretty amazing!" he called back

A rustle in the bushes drew the Tachikoma's attention; Miles was looking around the robots pod when he saw a familiar shape emerge.

"Oh hi Scorpy" he said as the giant robotic scorpion scuttled out of the undergrowth, The Tachikoma watched him approach with a sense of wonder, Miles watched curiously between the two machines.

"Hi there! Who are you?" it asked, as he approached he raised one of his huge claws, presenting a small posy of flowers to the blue robot

"Wow! Are they for me?" the Tachikoma squeaked in delight

"!" the scorpion replied, Miles couldn't help but smirk as the Tachkoma leaned sideways in curiosity as it tried to comprehend the cybertronian Morse code the drone just used

"Uh? Excuse me, what did he say?" the Tachikoma asked Miles, who was watching the scene with a wide grin

"Dude, he just said he saw you across the lake and that you look totally hot!" Miles chuckled

"Oh! Hehehehehe! You're a quite the charmer! My name's Tachikoma" the blue AI giggled

"clickclickclickbrrtbrrchree"

"Huh?"

"He said his name is Scorponok"

"Scorponok? Sounds dangerous!"

Back up on Deathshots shoulder Tom and Morri were watching the sweet little scene down below while Batou was enjoying the view and Saito was happily chatting with Deathshot, as Morri climbed back around onto his shoulder a black object far off in the distance hovered just below the treetops, she stood up and watched, what the heck was it? It was a good several miles away, but it moved steadily and didn't rise above the trees, then, a faint sound seemed to echo on the wind, it sounded vaguely like helicopter rotors.

"Hay D? What's that over the trees there?" she asked, Deathshot looked towards where Morri was pointing

"What is it?" Batou asked

"I don't know, I saw something move above the trees over there, and I thought I heard a helicopter" she replied

"Let's see..." Deathshot said and activated his specialised left optics, Saito watched as his eye-patch swung up, revealing the big golden optic and the smaller green, red and purple optics, they clicked and whirred as they focused on the object, he was very surprised to see the resemblance to his Hawkeye, suddenly, Deathshot frowned and quickly grabbed the surprised humans off his shoulders and ducked down to the ground.

"Hay! What's wrong D! What was it?" Tom squawked as he was quickly deposited on the ground next to Miles, Scorponok and the Tachikoma

"That was a military helicopter, the same modal as the ones that were flying over the dome" he replied

"That's not good" Morri said glancing at Batou

"Children, go back to the hideout and gather everyone together, I'm going up to survey the situation from the sky, you remember how to activate your BSHB's comm. links? He asked

"Yeah"

"Batou, Saito, I'm sorry but I have to go, you'd better get out of here in case something happens" Deathshot said directing his attention to the two men, "No way! If anything happens you guy are gonna need an evac route outer here!" Batou replied, Deathshot simply frowned, not wanting to make an argument of it.

"Fine, just be ready in case anything happens, I'll be back as soon as I can, Now go!" he ordered, the air around him shimmered for a moment before he disappeared from sight and a powerful downdraft of wind blew with force through the surrounding trees and undergrowth, Tom, Morri and Miles ran around the lake towards the dirt path with Batou, Saito, the Tachikoma and Scorponok close behind

"If the military are here we gotta got you kids and your friends outer here safely" Batou yelled as he bought up the rear

"Don't worry about the Autobots man! They can handle themselves in a fight!" Miles called behind him

"Hay! We said we'd keep an eye out for you guys! At the very least let us help you get a head start away from them!" Batou replied

"Alright, but let's wait and see what D reports back, in the meantime you two can help us get everyone together, if there's gonna be a fight we either need to get a head start out of the woods or find somewhere safe to hide! Come on!" Morri called back as she ran in front, she took off her hoodie and reached over her shoulder to tap something on the back of her left shoulder blade, Batou noticed a little silver disc with a blue circular gem in the centre started to flash, as they ran out of the woods and out onto the wide space in front of the hideout Morri stopped and turned to Tom and Miles.

"You boys go and tell everyone what's just happened, you two come with me, we need to get Jazz, he'll know what to do" she said

"Tachikoma you stay here!"

"Rodger!"

Tom and Miles ran off towards the centre storage house while Morri ran off towards the storage house next to it with Batou and Saito on her tail, just before they reached it, the main door flew up and Jazz strode with Bumblebee, Sideswipe and Trailbreaker close behind him

"Jazz! We got a problem, we-"

"I know kid, D just told me over the comm., activate your speaker and let's see what he sees...oh, and hi guys" the first lieutenant replied as he strode over to the confused group humans outside the storage house, who were all surprised to see Batou and Saito here

"What's going here? What are those guys doing here?" Hailey asked

"I'll explain in a minute we-"

"Come in Morri, do you read me?" Deathshots voice said, emanating from the now glowing disk on her shoulder, the two cops blinked in surprise at the strange device, but both of them shook their heads, trying to keep their minds focused on what was going on right now.

"Loud and clear D, you're on the speaker so everyone's listening" she replied

"Report D, what's the situation?" Jazz asked

"Not good, there's several armed units ready to move into the woods, their backed up by 7 of those machines we fought outside the warehouse and two helicopters have just arrived and deposited what appear to be 12 heavily armoured combat suits with human pilots inside, it appears their dividing up into 5 man cells and are positioning themselves to start a flanking manoeuvre on the hideout from the woods behind, they defiantly know we're here, their all armed with anti-tank weaponry loaded with armour piercing rounds" the kids all looked at each other in a panic

"Danm it! How long till they get here?" Morri asked

"Approximately 10 minutes" now the kids really started to panic

"Alright calm down! D, where are they positioned exactly?"

"There are three main groups; the main one is 500 yard behind the hideout, a smaller one on the dirt road near the intersection and one behind the hill...."

"We can't get out, their gonna try and force us out into the park, there's no cover out there, we'll be easy targets!" Danny said

"But there are apartments near the park; if they force us to fight near there innocent humans could get hurt!" Bluestreak said

"But if we stay here we won't have the advantage, their coming from behind and the flanks, myself and Deathshot can give you air cover while you try to get to the park and-"

"I'm sorry Jetfire but I don't think that will be possible, I just detected 14 unmanned military helicopters approaching fast from the north, they'll be here in less than 7 minutes..." Deathshot said

"Seven minutes!" Glen exclaimed

"Could we stay to fight and give the humans time to escape?" Sunstreaker suggested

"No! There's no ground cover in the woods it's all flat and trying to get across the park will be suicide, those attack helicopters will fire unconditionally on anything that moves, even if you guys somehow make it out and onto the roads it's likely they'll recognise your disguises" Batou said

"We can't hide in the city, there'll be millions of servaillence cameras everywhere we won't get more than mile without being seen" Tom said

"So what do we do? The choppers will be here in seven minutes, the military in less than ten and no way out" Danny said

"We can teleport out!" Darren said

"To the safe house! We can teleport straight there!" Becky said

"Jetfire, according to the co-ordinates on that card the safe house is over 150 miles from here! Could you get us all there?" Darren asked

"I can get us all to the opposite side of the planet if you want! Just give me the card and I'll get us there!" the old seeker replied proudly, at this point Batou butted in abruptly, "Whoa! Whoa! Wait a minute!.. Your gonna 'teleport' out of here?" he exclaimed in complete disbelief

"Well do you have any better ideas?" Morri asked, with his mind suddenly snapping back into the moment, he huffed and sighed. "Alright kid, what are you gonna do? Because whatever happens next we're going with you no matter what! We said we'd help you guys and that's what we're gonna do" the ex-ranger said, Saito nearly wanted to say something in protest, after all the craziness so far he wasn't sure if he wanted to see anything else, but before he could say anything Jazz beat him to it.

"Alright, but if you're gonna teleport with us, you gotta do exactly what we say, okay?"

"Okay" they both replied

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Sunstreaker asked, Jetfire only whacked him over the back of his helm with his walking stick, which made a load clang.

"Shut it sunshine! Child, give me that card and let me see the co-ordinates!" the seeker shouted, Morri immediately handed the card up to him and he squinted at the tiny writing on the card, which he delicately grasped between his finger and thumb.

"D, how far away are those choppers?"

"5 minutes"

"Alright, get back here immediately, all of you get your backpacks, we're telelport'n outta here!" Jazz ordered, as the kids made a mad dash back into the hideout to get their backpacks, Jazz turned his attention back to the two section 9 agents standing at his feet. "As for you two, I recommend you stay under ol'Jetfires undercarriage, and whatever happens, don't move or you'll end up goin' the wrong way when we land!" the first lieutenant said, the two agents cautiously stepped under the giant black Autobot, being careful to watch were they stood, least they'd end up being accidently stepped on, they both exchanged uneasy looks and activated their cybercomms.

"_Togusa! Pazu! Get back to the car, we're clearing outta here!"_ Batou shouted

"_Why? What's happened?"_ Togusa replied in a concerned tone

"_The military found the hideout, the Autobots and the kids are teleporting out, I'll explain everything later but we need to call the chief and the Major, we're going to the safe house!"_

"_What?"_

"_JUST GET BACK TO THE CAR AND GET OUT OF HERE!!!" _he shouted and immediately switched the comm off. Deathshot had landed and the kids had rushed back out and hopped up into the arms of their guardians who cradled them closely and protectively, Ravage and Scorponok huddled closely under the seekers undercarriage, Batou suddenly felt a hot flush of fear go down his spine when he saw the panther's silver teeth, he gulped and took a deep breath, 'What the hell have I gotten us into? The Major is really going to rip me a new one after this!" he thought as he glanced over at Saito who was staring at the giant scorpion, completely goggle-eyed.

"How much longer?!" Hailey called over from Bluestreak's arms

"Just a second more and we'll be long gone!"The seeker replied

"We won't be going anywhere if you don't hurry up!" Ashley shouted from the crook of Deathshot's arm.

"No need to shout your right next to my audio!" he replied

"Guys look!" Glen pointed up into the sky and over in the distance, a formation of 14 grey helicopters appeared, their rotors growing louder and louder as they approached, everyone gasped and Deathshot and the lambo twins took aim, ready to fire.

"HURRYUP!HURRYUP!HURRYUP!" Frenzy squeaked in a panic

"COME ON!!!" Darren shouted

10, 9, 8

"COME ON!! HURRY UP!!!"

The choppers were less than 300 yards

7, 6, 5

100 yards and the first three opened fire, Deathshot shot down all the bullets while the twins fired on the choppers, they exploded in mid air, the rest of the formation dispersed, Batou and Saito watched in amazement, "Did he just shoot all those bullets?!" Saito exclaimed in disbelief

4, 3, 2,

The choppers surrounded the Autobots and terrified humans; they readied to launch their missiles...

"WAIT FOR ME! WAIT FOR ME! DON'T LEAVE WITHOUT ME!" the Tachikoma squeaked as it came bounding over to the group and practically flung itself into Scorponok's arms

1

"HOLD ON TIGHT! WE'RE-"

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

A blinding white light illuminated the ground and sky, sending beams of light in all directions, from out the light a blast front swept through the woods and knocked the choppers like fly's being swatted away, the resounding explosion echoed far into the city and shook the nearby apartments, people rushed out of their homes and saw the white light go up into the sky like a pillar.

Within a few seconds it was over, and the Autobots and the humans were gone.

* * *

R&R please!


	22. Chapter 21: The Safe House

A/N: A slight apology for a slight inconsistency in the last chapter (namely Scorpys speech), when I uploaded the chapter I corrected the mistake in the document manager, but when I uploaded the chapter to the story, it disappeared somehow, so apologises for that! :) anyway, read and enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers; just my OC's and plot

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 21: THE SAFE HOUSE

As the missile came careening towards them he was sure this was how he was finally going to die, then time seemed to slow to a crawl. His whole body was enveloped in a blinding white light, one that seemed brighter than the sun itself; all around it felt like he was suspended in liquid electricity, his whole body felt like it was in the centre of a lightning bolt, or even in the eye of a storm and all around he could feel the motion of the raw natural power flowing throughout his being, it was completely indescribable. As he allowed himself to surrender to this vast omnipresent energy, time suddenly snapped back into place and reality came crashing back with a loud explosion, the white light that had encompassed his vision dispersed and he suddenly felt a flat surface hit the side of his body like a freight train at full speed, he felt gravity take effect again and he felt the sensation of tumbling down on what felt like grass covered ground, with several strong and rather unpleasant bumps and knocks he finally stopped. After drawing breath, Batou raised his head; dizziness rushed to his brain for a moment before he finally got his bearings back and tried to stand up. Looking around, he felt he was dreaming, or being ghost hacked, everything around him didn't feel like it should be here, or was this a whole load of false memories that had been suddenly dumped into his head all at once? Either way, even though he was standing here, he couldn't believe where he was.

"No way..." he breathed

It was the safe house; it was a large complex that consisted of a huge, fairly contemporary styled mansion-like house that was four stories high and was white all over, the building itself was built into part of the surrounding landscape, namely a small level cliff like ridge and had two large long balconies that interconnected to some walkways that went around the sides of the house and joined up to some other balconies on the front above the main entrance, the back garden consisted of two huge lawns that stepped down, the top lawn was practically a quarter the size of a football pitch and had a large swimming pool at the far side while the lower lawn was about the size of a tennis court and had a circular sandstone-paved patio, both the green spaces were surrounded by rows of neatly trimmed box yews and an elegant row of tall poplar trees, at the bottom of the lower lawn there was a vast lake surrounded by steep valley slopes covered in a thick forest that seemed to stretch on forever, beyond the valley slopes there was a vast mountain range that stretched from one of the horizon to the other.

Batou looked all around as he stood on the corner of the upper lawn, then he realized no-one else was there with him, suddenly his mind was about to go into overdrive when he heard Mikaela's voice called out.

"Hello? Anyone else here? HELLO!" she called out as she rounded the corner and caught sight of Batou; she ran over to him and sighed in relief.

"Ah thank God your okay! Where's the other guy?" she asked, Batou looked around in a panic and face palmed

"SHIT! Where the hell-" he was about to start searching whet he suddenly saw some movement on the upper balcony, sure enough it was Saito, he stood up while rubbing his head, he looked around in a dazed and confused stupor, he too saw Batou and Mikaela looking up at him.

"BATOU? WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?" he called down

"WE TELEPORTED BUT WE SCATTERED ON LANDING! YOU NEED TO GET DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW; WE'VE GOT A SERIOUS PROBLEM!" Mikaela called up "I'LL BE RIGHT DOWN!" Saito shouted back as he ran down the walkway and down to the lower balcony overlooking the patio area of the pool, from there he flew down a flight of stairs and onto the lawn

"What's wrong?" Batou asked, behind them Bluestreak came walking up dripping wet with pieces of what looked like pond weed hanging from some of parts of his armour.

"Blue? Where did you land?" Mikaela asked

"In that lake back there, where's everyone-" Bluestreak didn't have time to finish what he was saying when suddenly a deep groaning sound emanated from the forest behind him, like a beached whale gasping its last breaths, it sounded like it was in pain, the sound of metal straining and clanging also echoed from in-between the trees.

"Come on!" Mikaela called behind her as she ran after the source of the sound, Bluestreak broke into a light jog to keep pace, Batou chased after her and Saito joined him at his side.

"What the hell happened back there? One second there was missile come right towards us and the next, we're here!" Satio called after Mikaela

"I know it's pretty confusing guys, but right now, we have an emergency!" Mikaele shouted between breaths as she ran hell for leather through the tall trees, bounding and leaping over boulders and rotting logs, running towards the groaning sound that intensified with every meter they covered. Finally they came into a wide clearing, Batou and Saito stopped and gasped as they took in the sight in front of them.

Slumped on his front and clutching his side in agony, Jetfire groaned in pain, barely conscious and shuddering with every pang of pain that went through his system, his tail fin and part of his thrusters and right leg were ripped open by a deep looking gash in his armour, glowing blue energon leaked onto the forest floor while several exposed circuit boards were sparking, Jazz, Bumblebee and Trailbreaker were trying to keep him still and comfortable while Glen, Darren, Frenzy and Morri were busy trying to stem the worst of the damage by clamping off leaking energon lines, Hot Rod and Deathshot were handing out the tools and helping with more complex tasks such as spot wielding wire-mesh dressings to the wounds once the leaking and sparking in one area had been fixed, Sam, Miles, Tom and Ashley were busy trying to isolate the sparking wires and Sunstreaker and Sideswipe stood guard between two large canter trees. Mikaela rushed over and got straight to work as Tom threw her a spear wrench, the other kids mechanical skills with Autobot anatomy was on a much more basic level compared to Mikaela's, but it was servicing enough to get the job done here, Batou and Saito watched as the kids and Frenzy scurried around and on the top of the giant Autobots like ants, they were astounded to see them work so swiftly like well trained mechanics on a grand prix circuit, especial Mikaela, who worked so swiftly and was so sure of what she was doing, Batou then saw the pained look in Jetfire's glowing crimson eye's, how pathetic he looked as he held onto his friends as he groaned with pain once again, Bluestreak took up a place behind Deathshot and watched with concern, behind him Annabelle sat perched on a low level branch of one of the canter trees, safely out of the way, but her red wet face and soft sobbing gave away her worry for the old seeker.

"Batou! We need some help over here!" Tom called out, the two agents immediately ran to where he was holding a large wire-mesh dressing in place over part of the wound on Jetfire's leg, "help me hold this up while Mikaela works this patch right here" Tom said, as Batou and Saito helped hold the mesh dressing in place they both looked in curiosity and awe at the gash, inside all the tiny intricate circuit boards, wires and mechanisms inside the giant's leg were clicking and moving about in tiny minuet rhythms and patterns, almost like living tissue, this was defiantly not human technology.

"No offence kid, but how do you know what to do?" Batou asked Mikaela as she came up alongside to work the damaged mechanism, he noticed the strange tools she was using weren't conventional human made tools either, they looked more like an odd mix of cell phone like electric razors and Geiger-counter like handheld scanners.

"I've been training to be an Autobot medic, this is my third as apprentice" she replied

"Apprentice? You're practically as good as ol'Hatchet himself" Hot Rod grinned

"Yeah well, at least I covered these kinds of injuries during basic training, Deathshot, do think you can do anything with those nanites of yours?" she replied

"I'm already ahead of you, I've got a batch of type 4 circuit connectors being replicated, they'll be ready in a few minutes" he replied

"We could really use Danny here, he'd know what to do with these burnt out sensor nodes and breakers" Ashley said as he looked into an open panel on Jetfire's back

"Just get a couple of liquid nitrogen packs from out the med kit and keep'em on there until we can find Danny" Mikaela replied "speaking of which, where is he?" Ashley asked as he slid down off the old seeker's back and reached into a huge coffin sized med kit (the one Deathshot always kept in his main subspace for emergencies) for a couple of pillow sized blue packs with jet nozzles on the sides, he climbed back up placed them over the open panel.

"According to his BSHB, he's with Scorponok on the other side of the house" Deathshot replied, Morri sighed with relief as she stepped down and looked the seeker from the side.

"What do you think the prognosis is?" Batou asked

"I'm not as good as Mikaela but from what I can see, it looks worse than it actually is, it seems the missile only grazed part of the outer circuits avoiding the more vital areas, listen, we need Danny down here, could you go back up and fetch him?" Morri asked, Batou and Saito looked at each other a brief second.

"You carry on here, I'll go and fetch him" Batou said and ran off back in the direction he came from. "And keep an eye out for Hailey and the twins too! We didn't have time to look for them!" Sam called out. As Batou approached the house he came around to the front end, the front consisted of a large driveway with a circular roundabout that led down a ramp into a wide garage that was built under the house, the garage was large enough it could hold up to 20 cars, overhead to the side was the front door, which were two large white double doors. Batou looked around for any sign of the girls and redheaded boy, as he paced around to the side of the house he sighed with relief as saw the three sisters walking up to him, looking a little bedraggled and not particularly happy as they were picking twigs and leaves out of their hair.

"Where did you end up?" he asked

"In a thorn bush of all places! Where did you land?" Hailey asked as she untangled a particularly large twig from her bangs.

"On the lawn round the back" he replied

"Figures, why the heck do we always end up landing somewhere painful!" Becca huffed

"Or totally embarrassing! Don't forget that one time we got teleported to LA and got landed in a dumpster! The dry cleaning cost us a fortune!" Becky replied

"Anyway, where's everyone else?" Hailey asked

"Back up there in the woods, listen, you haven't seen Danny have you?" Batou asked

"Uh no, damn we better look for him!" Hailey said

"It's okay, I'm here!" Danny called out from behind some bushes

"And so are we!" the Tachikoma squeaked in delight as it emerged from the bushes with Scorponok by its side and with Danny and Frenzy riding on his back. "Wow! That was an incredible ride mister Batou! I can't wait to sync that data with the rest!" the Tachikoma squeaked in delight.

"Where's everyone else?" Danny asked as he leaned forward on Scorponok's 'neck' to look around.

"Well now that you're all here your friend needs help" Batou replied

"Who?" the twins asked

"Whowhowho?" Frenzy squeaked

"Uh, the big guy that turned into the Blackbird, come on!" Batou replied as he ran back up into the forest, "Jetfire!" Hailey and her sisters exclaimed as they climbed up onto Scorponoks back behind Danny and together the two robots followed Batou back up into the clearing where the antient seeker was still being worked on. "Oh my God! What the hell happened here?!" Hailey exclaimed in alarm, not knowing where or who to run to first as the twins looked on in shock. "Hailey, give me and Morri a hand here, Danny, Frenzy, you two go up on Jetfires back and give Glen and Ashley a hand with the broken sensor nodes, Becca, Becky, you two look after Anny!" Mikaela called over, immediately they rushed over to their designated posts and Batou ran over to where Saito was still working alongside Tom and Sam.

"Ah good, you can help us with this" Tom said as he saw the section 9 agent come up by his side.

"What do you need me to do?" he asked

"Hold these wires in place while we reconnect these fiber-optics to this circuit unit" Sam said, As Batou and Saito placed their hands on the alien circuit boards they tried to be as gentle as possible, neither knew what to do and they didn't want to make the injuries worse so they just followed the kids instructions accordingly without question, as Batou held the bunch of glowing wires to one side while Tom worked on the damaged circuit unit, he ran his one free hand along part of the seeker's armour, he was captivated at how the metal seem to vibrate to his touch, a few of the smaller armour plates flinched away as Jetfire groaned again, Batou quickly withdrew his hand, realising he was causing unnecessary pain to the giant.

"Sorry! I didn't know that hurt!" he said hastily and looked back at the open panel, Ashley shook his head but Morri simply looked at him with a smile, "It's alright, that areas fine, it's just the senor nodes in the metal working overtime with the pain he's feeling, it's just the way his sensory system's are hardwired is all" she said.

"He can...his metal plating can actually feel a physical touch?" Batou asked

"Not just touch, pressure, temperature, pain, it work's in much the same way as our skin, only much tougher...but once you touch it for the first time and feel that flesh-like vibrancy, it's difficult not to be amazed by the resemblance" Morri smiled.

"And it's equally incredible to feel the sheer smooth softness of organic flesh, for being's like us whose bodies are comprised of metal and other in-organic components its indescribable when you first touch it...it's so warm and soft" Bumblebee smiled, Mikaela and Sam both smiled up at him, remembering the first time they washed him whilst in alt mode, he remarked how soft their hands were, like little silicone gel packs, only squishier and warmer, and had pulses.

"I guess that makes sense, does that mean there was no organic life on your planet?" Batou asked

"Nope, not a single carbon-based cell anywhere, but cybertron did have a silicone-based eco-system at one time with many different verities of autonomous robotic organisms..." Jazz said

"One's like you guys?" Saito asked

"Not really, from what I heard there were once many organisms that were a lot like most of earth's native species, like elephants, giraffes, rhino's, tigers, they came in many different forms, all adapted to their particular habitats all over the planet" Deathshot said, "I bet that must have been amazing, a whole eco-system made up of robotic life" Batou smiled. "It...it was... I remember the silver solar forest's of the prion valley, where my creator raised me...they were...so beautiful... when the twin sun's set together and lit up their solar sensors...the whole valley...looked like it was on fire..Gaack!" Jetfire said groggily as another flair of pain went through his side he curled forward.

"Try not to talk old friend, the nanites are nearly ready now, we'll take care of that pain soon enough" Deathshot said as he patted the ancient seeker on the shoulder, he relaxed and straightened out again, "Listen, I don't get how that whole teleporting worked, but I assume we weren't suppose to end up being scattered around like that?" Batou asked

"No, we usually end up only scattering several meters apart" Miles replied

"So what went wrong?" Saito asked

"One of the chopper's missiles struck his side the moment we teleported, the teleportation sequence itself naturally creates a blow-out effect that scatters everyone on re-entry, but I think, judging by what we've repaired so far the explosion from the missiles impact sent part of the teleportation array off course slightly, which would probably explain why we all scattered around the building back there" Mikaela replied, "Make's plausible sense, the sensor nodes up here have got some bits of shrapnel wedged into the main power conductor that runs directly up into Jetfires main navigation system, the shrapnel must have come from the missile itself when it struck, what do you recommend for treatment?" Danny replied as he tinkered away in the open panel on Jetfires back between his wings, Frenzy stood behind him, handing him the tools.

"We need the transponder for Jet's teleportation sequencer realigning so it can heal properly, plus the circuit boards for his weapons and trajectory software needed replacing, I already replaced the boards but it'll take some time to reboot the software without deleting the primary command program, Darren the programming and software is your thing so you can take care of that" she replied

"You sound like you could pass for ol'Hatchet himself Mikaela" Bumblebee said offhand, Mikaela grinned up at him.

"Mikaela, the nanites are ready for application" Deathshot said

"Great" she replied, from out of his main subspace the sniper produced what looked like a four foot long glue gun with a modified nozzle, Mikaela carefully stepped over Jetfire's back and took the gun, Deathshot folded his wings back and leaned back on his hands as a small round port morphed out of the 'metal skin' on his abdomen just below his cockpit, Batou and Saito watched as Mikaela plugged the gun nozzle in and the four foot cartridge filled up with a strange mercury-like liquid that sparkled and glowed as it came out.

"Are those more of those nanites?" Saito asked

"Yep, their gonna help Jetfire heal up in no time" she said as she detached the gun from the port and jumped down, Batou and Saito came over and saw the alien substance up close, the cartridge looked like a lava lamp as globules of mercury floated around in a thick glowing mass of vivid blue and red sparkles, it was hypnotic to watch.

"Wow...it's beautiful, but it looks different to the ones on his face" Batou said

"Yeah, these ones are specially designed to reconnect all the microscopic connections in the circuits and will help boost his healing functions" Mikaela replied as she walked over to the dressings on Jetfire's wing and thrusters, aimed the gun at the edges of the mesh and squeezed the trigger, the two section 9 agents watch in further amazement as the gel-like substance oozed out and seemed to creep and crawl over the wound, forming a 'scab' all over the mesh, turning the armour and surrounding platting silver like mercury, it rippled as the metal shifted with every time movement Jetfire made, it was beautiful, yet so alien. "With this stuff in his systems the pain will begin to subside almost imminently, after Danny's finished we can try and put him in a more comfortable position, those nanites also contain a tranquilizer that will help him recharge" Deathshot said, "Okay, Mikaela, What's left to do?" Jazz asked as he stood up and stepped around to where she stood by Jetfires thrusters.

"After these nanites have been applied we'll be more or less finished" she replied

"So how's the damage?" Batou asked her

"Not as bad as it could have been if the missile had hit him directly, and to be honest the damage looks worse than it actually is, it was his armour that really took the brunt of the blast; he just needs time for his armour to heal itself" she replied.

"Heal? How can metal heal itself?" Saito interrupted

"It's complicated, but basically the metals comprised in such a way that the molecular structure allows the particles to reassemble and re-layer in the same way human skin does" Darren replied, the human sniper only quirked an eyebrow. "To put it simply...the metal is a living metal, it's not any alloy found on earth" Mikaela said as she wiped her hands on an old rag cloth, Batou and Saitou's eyebrows flew up as they remembered the floating bullet, and the analysis results stating that it wasn't any known alloy found anywhere on earth, 'so the metal wasn't just metal, it was...it is a living organism!' Batou suddenly thought, "Anyway...I'll finish up here and then we're done, Jazz can you and the guys try to move ol'Jets down nearer to the house?" Mikaela said as she carefully climbed up Jetfire's back to reach his tailfin, Danny finished off reconnecting the necessary circuits, closed the panel and slid down the seekers wing.

"Sure thing Mikaela, D man, Blue, Bee, Hot Rod, help me get a hand under his wings here, you guys lift him up from the back but watch the wounds, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Trailbreaker go back to the house and guard the perimeter" Jazz instructed as the Autobots each helped to pick the seeker up, together they slowly took one step at a time, helping the now half awake half asleep seeker to get down the slope towards the safe house. As the kids all gathered up the tools Miles paused and put a reassuring hand on Batou's shoulder.

"Hay what's wrong dude? You look like you just seen a ghost" he said, Batou shook his head and blinked, as if waking up from a daydream, "Uh...I'm fine, it's just...been a real weird morning is all" Batou replied.

"Well join the club because your gonna be getting a lot of weird mornings with us mate" Ashley replied as he helped to put the tools back in the med kit.

"Listen guys, don't forget to dig up that patch of earth there where the energon bled out, if anyone comes through here we don't want them picking up our trail" Sam said pointing to the area of ground where a small puddle of glowing blue energon lay among the leaf litter. "You won't have to worry about anyone coming near the house, this whole valley is private property, nobody's going to be coming here without us knowing about it...speaking of which, we'll go back and open the place up for you" Batou said "Okay, we'll be down soon enough" Morri replied, Batou and Saito both walked back through the wood, going the long way around so as to avoid the Autobots who were now trying to lead Jetfire onto the larger lawn at the back of the safe house, Saito couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief as they walked the driveway and up to the front door, Batou was about to type in the entry code into the security lock of the doors when Saito interrupted. "What do we do now? Call the Major?" he asked, "I'll do that, you go down to the house's security centre and take the systems off standby-" Saito was about to head through the doors when Batou placed a hand on his shoulder "One other thing, if you use your cybercomm, make sure you don't let one of the kids or Autobots see you" he said,

"Huh? But why?" Saito asked

"Remember what Deathshot said back in the park?...I don't think these kids are aware that cyborgs exist here"

"Huh?"

"Look I'll explain later when the others get here, but for now, I'm just going on a hunch okay?" Batou replied, Saito looked at him but didn't ask, he knew what Batou meant and without another word he entered the house and closed the door, Batou leaned against the wall and exhaled a heavy sigh, he paused to try and clear his head, looking up at the clear blue sky he wondered just what the hell he had gotten himself into, however, he was glad Togusa didn't have to go through the last half hour, he was pretty sure the poor detective would have freaked out, 'too late to back out now, might as well see this through to the end' he thought. He was about to go into the house when he nearly jumped out of his skin at the sight of Ravage standing behind him, he was covered in mud, leaf litter and twigs and not at all looking pleased.

"Uh..Need I ask where you ended up?" Batou cautiously asked, Ravage only growled, as if to say 'was that meant to be a joke?'

"Okay! Okay! Your friends are round the back!" Batou replied nervously, pointing to the side of the house, Ravage strode off flicking mud off the end of his maced tail, breathing a sigh of relief, Batou was about to enter the house again when he saw the kids come out of the woods, Sam, Miles, Tom and Glen were carrying the med kit, Morri, Ashley, Frenzy and Danny were walking alongside Scorponok and the Tachikoma while Hailey and the twins were riding Scorponok with Annabelle seated on Hailey's lap fast asleep while Darren followed up behind.

"Wow, this place is huge!" the twins chimed

"It looks more like some fancy spa retreat" Ashley said offhand

"Mind if we come in? After everything's that's happened poor Anny's taking a little nap so can we come in and put her somewhere quiet?" Hailey asked as she slid of the robotic scorpions back with Annabelle in her arms.

"Sure thing" Batou replied as he opened the doors and led the way in, as the kids stepped inside they were amazed by the size of the entrance hall, staircase and landing that led to the other three floors above.

"Wow, this place is even bigger inside!" Bacca said

"Dude! This place is totally off the chain!" Miles exclaimed

"l-l-looks like Darren's place!" Frenzy said

"No way, our place must be half the size of this!" Darren smiled

"The lounge this through there and the kitchen through there, you kids just make yourselves at home while I go and check on Saito, I'll be back in a minute" Batou said as he pressed a small panel on the wall and suddenly a door appeared from out the wall, he slipped through the narrow opening and disappeared as the door closed behind him.

"This place has secret passages? No way!" Becky beamed, the kids entered into the lounge area and were even more impressed, the lounge was basically two or three rooms combined into one that stretched the whole length of the building with one whole wall that was a an enormous glass window, the view of the lake, forest, valley and mountains was breathtaking, at one end of the room were two long coaches with a huge flat screen TV nailed to the wall, to the side was a very contemporary looking fire place that consisted of a whole wall of marble with a huge rectangular hole in the centre, in which were a pile of white pebbles, from which a few little flames flickered from. At the other end of the room was the dining area and balcony which over looked the back garden and lake, near the window was a long table with 20 chairs neatly in place and a small bar at the end stretching out of the marble wall, next to it was a window with shutters looking into the kitchen. The kids couldn't believe that this was a safe house; it seemed more like some sort of luxury hotel, Frenzy climbed up onto the end of one of the coaches and bounced up and down to check its softness.

"Guys, I think we're going to be okay here!" Ashley grinned

"Dude I think your right!" Mile replied

"Hay, do you think they left anything in there?" Tom asked pointing to the drinks cabinets under the bar, as the kids wandered around the place; they were unaware of the tiny cameras watching every move. Down under the basement, the safe house's main security room quietly hummed away, it was about the size of the dive room back at HQ and was responsible for overseeing all the security systems everywhere on the estate the house resided on. Ever since Section 9 became the prime ministers favourite agency to call upon in times of emergency, the section had received addition funding to tie over their expenses, part of that funding had gone towards this safe house, of all the safe houses section 9 controlled this was by far the biggest and the most secure, it was armed to the teeth with all kinds of hidden booby-traps and its main security network was completely cut off from the net making it completely impossible to hack from the outside. Sitting at the main terminal, which was basically a wall of security camera monitors, Saito watched the kids and robot explore the downstairs rooms while over at the far end of the room, Batou jacked himself into the spare dive terminal and connected through to section 9 HQ, not surprisingly the Major picked up right away, Batou braced himself, he knew the Major never responded that quick unless she was particularly annoyed.

"_Batou? Where the hell have you and Saito been?! Togusa called in right after you disappeared saying you were going to the safe house!" _The Major said in a reprimanding tone.

"_We're at the safe house right now, the Autobots and the kids are here too" _Batou replied, there was a pause before the Major replied;

"_...How did you get there so quickly?"_

"_It's...complicated, but we had to get out, the military came for them but we managed to get away"_

"_I know, Togusa and Pazu reported seeing military helicopters over the forest near the park and the chief just contacted us saying that one of the military's top brass had given the GSDA the go-ahead to bring the Autobots in, but apparently they only now just got word back from the take-down units that the subjects disappeared into ' a bright white light' and no traces of them have been found at the scene...how the hell did they get all the way to the safe house?" _the Major replied, Batou paused as he remembered the bright white light he saw the moment before the missile struck Jetfire, 'that must have been the moment we teleported' he thought.

"_Like I said, it's complicated and I'd rather not talk about it over the cybercomm's, we're safe but Jetfire's injured, we just spent the last 15 minutes helping the kids patch him up, his buddies have just laid him down on the lawn out the back to rest and the kids are in the house, what do you want us to do?" _Batou asked

"_The chiefs at the prime minister's residence and probably won't be back for quite a while yet, I'm in charge till then, we'll be over in 90 minutes so just sit tight and make sure none of our 'guests' go anywhere" _she said

"_Rodger that" _Batou replied and disconnected the dive terminal from the jack ports in his neck. "Uh Batou?" Saito directed the big cyborg's attention to one of the monitors; it showed the Autobots carefully helping Jetfire lie down next to the pool on the upper lawn, the kids came running out through the patio doors and up to the seeker's side, Deathshot and Jazz were talking about something as the Tachikoma and Scorponok watched from the opposite side of the pool, as alarm bells suddenly started going off in his head Batou ran out of the room, up the stairs, out through a secret door in the garage and ran around the side of the house towards the back garden, upon coming into view of the giant alien robots he ran over to Jazz.

"What the hell are you guys doing out here?!" he shouted up at the first lieutenant, Jazz looked down at him with concern.

"Putting ol'Jets down by the pool, he needs to be near water in case his air intakes get too hot" he replied

"You're out in the open! What if someone see's you?!" Batou shouted back

"Ch-ch-chill out!" Frenzy said as he bounced up onto Bumblebee's shoulder

"Don't worry, we already got that covered, I figured this place looked a little too open so D here's setting up a little cover for us" Jazz smiled as he thumbed over to Deathshot, who opened up his main subspace and took out a large long cylindrical object, it was about the size of an LP gas tank and was black with four lines of purple lights running from one end to another, the Autobot sniper walked across the lawn and placed in the centre, Don't worry, I'll be back shortly" he said, the air around him shimmered and he disappeared from sight 'man, that is one good therm-optic camouflage' Batou thought.

"What is he going to do?" he asked

"He's going to set up the hologram projector over there, it'll cover this whole property over with a giant hologram so it looks like the rest of the forest, that way the guys here can be free to move about without running the risk of getting seen" Becca said, Batou nodded but decided not say anything, from now on he decided to just go with it.

"Uh, just to let you guys know, the rest of my team will arriving in 90 minutes" Batou said

"Excellent, can you ask them to bring some barrels of aviation fuel and oil?" Jazz asked

"What?"

"Well Jetfire need's fuel if he's going to get better, it'll help boost his systems and help him build up his strength... and to be honest we're feeling a little famished too, we've gone a whole week without refuelling" Bluestreak asked, Batou turned to head back to the security centre. "Uh, hang on, I'll go and contact them..." he said and ran back the way he came, the kids watched him run off, curious as to what was going through his mind.

"You don't think he's going to wig out do you?" Ashley asked

"Well give the guy a break, he and his friend had a real rough morning with all that's happened" Morri replied

"Maybe we should make it up to them, I mean, we did have to rush quite a bit" Becca suggested

"More like make a made a dash for it" Glen shrugged

"If the kitchen's stocked up, maybe I'll make them dinner tonight" Morri replied, Ravage came trotting up the lawn having just washed off all the mud on his armour in the lake, he came up to 'sniff' the now sleeping seeker. "I take it the treatment was successful? Forgive my absence I landed over 500 yards back up in the forest, it took me a while to pick up your scents, anyway, what have I missed?" the panther asked, down below in the security centre, Batou was back on in dive terminal talking to the Major.

"_Oil and aviation fuel? Are they serious?" the Major asked, trying not to let her annoyance show_

"_They need it for the big guy, he got badly injured getting us here and they say it'll help him get better...he's in real bad shape Major, I really think he needs it" _Batou replied, there was a long pause as the Major considered the request, Batou could only guess as to what was going though her mind, finally she replied;

"_...How many barrels do they want?" "hang on, I'll go ask" _he replied and left the dive room to rejoin the Autobot gang where he left them, "Hay, how many barrels do you guys need?" he asked, Jazz and Bluestreak both looked at each other and smiled.

"We'll need about ten barrels of aviation fuel and ten barrels of motor oil" Jazz said, "hay! Can I have some unleaded diesel?" Sideswipe called out from behind the poplar trees, "We only need the basics, we can have the luxuries when we get home!" Jazz replied. _"Did you get that?"_ Batou asked over the comm, _"loud and clear, I'll take care of it"_ the Major replied, at that moment Deathshot appeared back on the lawn, "You get what you need?" Jazz asked, "Yes, the holo-images will be most adequate for covering the whole parameter" the giant sniper replied as he walked over where he left the strange black cylinder, a blue wire snaked out from a small opening in the side of his helm and connected to one of the purple lights on the side of the device, a strange whirring sound could be heard coming from inside the cylinder and after a minute or so the wire disconnected and retreated back inside the sniper's helm, he then picked up the device and flicked a button on one end of the device, a set of tripod legs flicked out and he stood the device upright on the far side of the patio. Batou approached to get a better look, Deathshot noticed the human approach from his side.

"The device is primed, as soon as your team arrives I'll activate the holo-projector" he said

"How big will it be?" Tom called over from the opposite side of the pool

"It's primed to camouflage an 8 mile radius, we'll be alright" Deathshot replied

"Okay, Jetfire's fast asleep, everyone's accounted for, I'd say we're good now" Sam said

"In that case you guy go upstairs and choose your rooms, I've still got some work to do" Batou replied, the twins, Ashley, Miles, Glen and Sam all ran back through the patio doors in a mad dash towards the hallway, "WE SHOTGUN THE MASTER BEDROOM!" the twins, called out from in the house, "NO WAY!" the boys replied as they chased after them, Hailey, Mikaela and Morri all folded their arms and sighed, Morri couldn't help but snigger a little, "we better start unpacking" she grinned, Deathshot took that as his queue to open up his main subspace and start unloading the kids rucksacks and backpacks.

The morning passed by fairly quickly as the kids spent most of the morning, choosing, bickering and arguing over who got to sleep in the biggest, plushest or quietest bedroom, at one point Ashley and Miles had a wrestling match to determine who would sleep on the top bunk of a set of bunk beds, eventually everything quieted down when Batou told them that there were plenty more bedrooms on the two other floors above the first. Outside on the driveway the (ground based) Autobots were parked in their alt modes, Deathshot stood on the upper lawn around the back, his arms folded and his gaze spread out far across the lake like a sentry on duty, no-one would be getting past him. Downstairs in the security centre, Batou and Saito couldn't help but cringe, smile and even giggle at some of the ludicrous things the kids argued over as they watched them unpack their stuff, right now everyone had more or less settled into their rooms and Morri, Mikaela, the twins and Annabelle were going around the rooms gathering up all the dirty laundry ready to be washed.

"Hay! Those are my lucky draws!" Miles protested as the girls took away all the items of clothing in his rucksack, "Mile's, we've been incredibly accommodating for you and the guys this past week, but now that we're indoors and have access to hot water and a washing machine, we are not going to be staying here with the stench of your filthy duds stinking up the place!" Becca argued as she pried the said duds from the poor teen's hands, Mikaela knocked him down onto the bed and promptly removed the rest of his laundry.

"What's the point in cleaning them? Their only gonna get dirty again!" Ashley protested from his room down the landing, Morri rolled her eyes and placed a hand on one hip with the washing basket in the other, the wild child was obviously going to be a problem.

"FRENZY!" she called out and the jittery hacker promptly ran up to her side.

"Go and drag him out of his room for ten minutes while me and girls gather up his laundry" she said

"Over my dead body!" he called out and slammed the door, Frenzy ran trough Toms room and leapt out onto the balcony, swung over the railings and stormed the 12 year olds room via the interconnecting walkway on the side of the house, the sounds of scuffling, shouting and stuff falling over could be heard on the other side of the door and soon enough the hacker emerged with Ashley bound and gagged with some rope and a handkerchief, Morri couldn't help but grin with satisfaction.

"Good work Frenzy, now just keep him there'till we're done, but don't let him go until we've got a ten minute head start on the washing, okay?" Mikaela said

"O-o-okay!" Frenzy replied as he held the struggling ten year old in place and the girls entered his room, as they watched the feed from the hidden security camera, Batou and Saito couldn't help but chuckle at the scene. "Man these kids are a riot!" Batou chuckled, a warning sign flashed up on the main computer monitor, after quickly scanning it over Batou sighed with relief, it was the conformation of an aircraft with section 9's IVS code was approaching the valley. "Looks like we better hustle on up top and greet the guys" Batou said, Saito got up from where he was sitting at the computer and followed the ex-ranger out the door, on the lawn the kids all filed out of the house to see what was going on and were surprised to see the enormous tiltroater come into land on the front lawn, when the ramp in the rear of the crafts fuselage lowered down, the rest of the section 9 team walked out with six more of Tachikoma's. As the Major walked up to greet the kids, she and the rest of the team stopped as they noticed the huge black winged Autobot lying on his front next to the pool fast asleep, the Major noticed what looked like patches of wire mesh on the side of one his wings, body and leg that she didn't remember seeing there yesterday, Sam was quick to pick up on her surprise and instantly stepped in.

"Uh hi! Glad to see you guys finally made it" he said anxiously

"We came as quick as we could, what happened here?" the Major asked, at that point Batou and Saito emerged from the house and quickly intervened.

"A missile struck him while he was getting us here" Batou replied

"And just how did he get you all here?" the Major asked

"Teleport" the twins chimed in a monotone, the Major blinked at them in surprise.

"Uh look, we can explain everything" Sam said

"I hope so, we'd been trying to contact you up until 2 hours ago" the Major replied as she entered the house with Batou and Sam in tow, the other kids didn't move as they watched the section 9 agents behold the sight of Jetfire. Ishikawa couldn't help but gawk in morbid curiosity at the strange alien being; Togusa was equally surprised, although it was the shier size of the Autobot that got his attention rather than his obvious injuries.

"Uh...wh-what the hell is that thing?" he said, trying not to sound nervous.

"He's not a thing he's an Autobot! And he saved our lives getting us here!" Becky exclaimed in annoyance, Ishikawa flinched in surprise but didn't say anything.

"I don't recall meeting you yesterday" Morri said as she looked the veteran up and down

"This is Ishikawa, he's our head analysis specialist, he wasn't with us on account he was keeping an eye on everything for us up in the tiltroater" Saito replied.

"In that case, we may as well redo the introductions..." Deathshot said as he stepped around the side of the house and gently walked up to the gathered humans, Ishikawa froze on the spot with fear as he watched the 30ft Autobot approach and kneel down in front of the group. "...We didn't have the pleasure of meeting each other yesterday, I'm Deathshot" the giant sniper smiled, "uh...hi?" Ishikawa replied tensely, "That's a good start, now how about we try sentences?" Miles grinned as he placed a hand on Ishikawa's shoulder.

Another hour or so later and the initial shock of meeting the Autobots for the first time had worn off for Ishikawa, whilst the kids were upstairs busying themselves, he and the rest of the team were in the security centre listening to Batou and Saito explain the events leading up to their 'disappearance' and what happened afterwards as soon as they got to the safe house.

"Alright, I don't fully understand the whole 'teleportation' but considering the speed at which it took you both travel here I'll take your word for it, in the meantime our orders are to remain here and watch over the kids and, aliens, until the chief can win over the prime minister and the cabinet, although, after what happened this morning it might take him a longer than we originally planned" the Major said

"Doe's the chief know what happened?" Batou asked

"Apparently someone high up in the military believed the cabinet wanted the Autobots apprehended, we don't know yet who it was but it's looking likely it might be someone in the Intelligence department" Ishikawa replied

"Could it be the CIS? I know the governments been keeping a short leash on them since Dejima, but even so, I wouldn't put it past them to try something" Batou asked

"They were the first agency we checked out, but when we looked over the GSDA's communications network, we worked backwards to see where the original order came from and who ordered it, so far we haven't found anything solid and because the military already had their network security beefed up on account of the Black Lotus, we couldn't attempt to dive to the deeper levels of the network system without alerting someone, unlike the CIS and the other public security sectors, the military intelligence know better than to rely completely on AI's to do all the hard work of maintaining the attack barriers and encryption mazes" Ishikawa replied

"Which is why, in addition to watching the kids and their friends, we'll be continuing the rest of the investigative work here, the house's security systems may be completely stand alone from the net but there is an auxiliary on-line dive terminal in the booth over there" the Major said pointing to a door at the far end of the room.

"Huh, I wondered what that room was" Batou said offhand

"Although we can't access the Intelligence department, the chief said he'd look into the matter while he's at the prime minister's residence, he's got one or two contacts that he said could shed some light on what happened, but considering how tense the military is, and how pissed off the PM is at what happened this morning, he said not to hold our breaths, so in the meantime, we're staying put here" the Major continued, she looked over at the monitor displaying the pool, the feed showed Jetfire, still fast asleep, with Miles and Annabelle by his side, the little four year old was gently stroking the giants face while the blonde teen patted her on the shoulder, reassuring her he was going to be okay, as the team watched the feed, Batou couldn't help but heave a deep sigh.

"Think he's going to be okay?" Togusa asked sympathetically

"Mikaela said his injuries looked worse that they actually were...but the thing is...even though he's mechanical, he was is a hell of a lot of pain when we found him...they said he'll be okay, but this whole incident highlights the fact that if one of them can be hurt than it's likely they can be killed...and considering how hard these kids worked to save his life and put him back together, I really don't want to see what would happen if they get attacked again..." Batou sighed, Togusa was about to say something else when an amber light flashed on the wall and a buzzer sounded; it was the call button, used for the house occupants to call one of the agents.

Upstairs on the upper lawn out the back, Sam, Miles, Bumblebee and Bluestreak were moving the barrels around to the side of the pool while the lambo twins watched on, "I know Jetfire need the aviation fuel, but why the oil? I thought Ratchet told him motor oil would be congestive to his systems?" Bluestreak asked offhand

"The oil's for us" Deathshot called down as he positioned the holo-projector on the corner of the roof while silently hovering like a kestrel, when he saw Morri and Sam walk out onto the lawn with the Major and Batou in tow, he steadily descended and landed next to them.

"Uh, you wanted to ask us something?" Batou asked

"Indeed, will there be anyone else from your division joining us? The holo-projector is ready to be activated and once it's up no-one will be able to see the house" Deathshot replied

"No, but how will it work?" the Major asked

"Like this..." Deathshot smiled, a small red lazar light flipped out from the side of his 'forehead' and connected to a small red circle on the side of the device. The said device started to gently hum, the four rows of purple lights on the side began to pulsate upwards and the top of the device opened up like a complex set of flower petals and a long pole with a wide pyramid on the top descended about 45 feet above the house, the pyramid folded out to reveal a complex set of shapes surrounded by a ring of flashing lights, the ring began to spin until it was a blur of multicoloured light, a purple flash went up into the sky, and like a heap of thick custard being poured onto a sponge pudding an enormous dome of vivid purple light began to envelop the space over the house, when the 'rim' of the dome formed on the ground and surface of the lake, the purple light steadily shimmered like ripples in a pool until it completely faded from sight.

"So the house is now invisible right?" Sam asked

"Yes, the whole property is now covered in a full spectrum holo-camouflage dome, we'll be safe to move around outside now" Deathshot replied.

"I don't see anything" the Major said offhand

"Of course not, it's like a two way window, we can see out of the dome but anyone trying to look in will only see a section of the forest and lake" the sniper replied, the Major only looked up at him with a bemused look.

"Not convinced eh? Maybe you need to have a little look for yourself, come on" Morri said as she hopped up into Deathshots waiting hand, the Major hesitated a second as she looked at the size of the snipers hand, it was huge! But Morri beckoned her up to join, Batou climbed on up with a smile on his face, the major only looked at him as if to 'say you can't be serious?' "Come on it's okay, he won't drop us if that's what your worried about" Morri grinned, with a determined look on her face the Major carefully climbed up into the four huge fingers and sat next to Batou who couldn't help but keep on grinning. "You've been up here before haven't you?" she asked him, "well you gotta admit, it's not something you get to do everyday" he replied, "Quite true, now don't move and hang on" Deathshot said as he stood back up and with a deep thrum from the engines behind his arms he steadily began to rise into the air again, as they passed the side of the house the Major looked Deathshot up and down with confusion.

"What kind of engines do you have? I've never seen or heard ones that make hardly any sound" she asked

"Their not like earth engines, in as much they don't function according to the same principles as internal combustion engines, I'm afraid it's a little complicated for me to explain in terms of human science and engineering, but basically, if you think of the earth's gravity as a giant magnet, my engines are the opposing magnet" Deathshot replied

"So, basically, you can control gravity?" Batou asked

"Oh yes...Now if you look down here, can you tell me what you see?" the sniper grinned, both the agents looked down and were blown away to see the house had completely vanished, about 150 ft down below all they could see was the forest and lake, "Wow, nice one D, that's pretty effective" Morri smiled, "But where the hell did the house go? It was there just a second ago!" Batou exclaimed, "Just watch..." the sniper said in a teasing tone, as he steadily descend downwards, the air around his feet seem to ripple and distort with different colours, a slight thrumming could be heard as the sniper and his human passengers seem to sink into a strange water-like surface, when the human's heads 'submerged' below the strange distortion the house was suddenly back in place.

"Wow, that's the biggest hologram I've ever seen!" Batou said with a wide grin across his face

"You guys have the tech to produce holograms here?" Morri asked

"Yeah but nothing this big or complex, how big is it?" the Major asked

"It's covering a eight mile radius all around the property; it's even equipped with a thermal-dampener, so the heat signature of this place can't be detected with thermal imaging camera's, don't worry we'll be perfectly well hidden with the holo-projector in place, I should know, it's saved my life more times than I can count" Deathshot replied as he touched back down on the lawn and bent over forward to let humans out of his hand.

"So, are you satisfied the perimeter is secure?" the sniper asked, the Major didn't know what to say at first, with a giant cover like that keeping the whole house hidden how could anyone possible discover the Autobots? She was thoroughly impressed, which she found to be somewhat strange, and yet amazing at the same time, in her line of work it wasn't often that she came across someone or something that impressed her this much. "It's very effective, I have no doubt we'll be alright" she replied with a small smile "In that case, I'll leave you to it" Deathshot replied as he stood back up and walked away around the side of the house.

Up on the edge of the forest overlooking the rear of the safe house and lake, Ashley sat high up in one of the trees, watching the two agents walk back into the house with Morri in tow, this morning had happened all so quickly he couldn't believe it actually happened, first the military, then the teleport, and now he, his family and friends were in the protective custody of a bunch of strangers, so now what lay ahead? He was so deep in his thoughts he almost didn't detect the familiar ominous presence at his back.

"Hi Ravage"

"You remembered to act on your instincts, well done" the giant panther purred as he laid down on the branch right alongside the 12 year old.

"So, we're here now, what do you think will happen now?" the boy asked

"Who knows? But just between you and me, I wasn't keep on this whole plan to let ourselves be taken into this so called 'protective custody' it's been hard enough trying to stay hidden and undetected, but now, being involved with this section 9 only complicates things" Ravage growled in a deep tone

"Maybe, but that guy, the chief? did say yesterday that they had known about us being here since we arrived, it's not like we were truly unknown to anyone in the first place, he said other's were looking for us and after happened this morning, I can't help but wonder what else has been going on that we don't know about...do you think taking up section 9's offer was a safe bet?" Ashley replied, Ravage dropped his gaze for brief moment before looking back up at the boy

"Personally, no...We were alright as we were, even if our cover was already compromised we could have done just fine by ourselves"

"Then why didn't you say anything before? Sunny wasn't the only one to disagree with the idea of section 9 giving us somewhere safe to stay"

"Because, I could tell with all the information that had been laid before us and the circumstances in which it had been obtained, Jazz, in his best attempts to act as the fair and decisive leader, would have agreed to their proposal sooner or later...at first I wasn't sure whether or not it was the truth, if there's one thing you humans and the Decepticons share in common it's that you can be remarkably good liars when you need to be..."

"But after what happened this morning? Do you think otherwise?"

"...Maybe, the old one's information concerning the military may have been accurate, but I'm still not convinced we are absolutely safe, not yet at least"

"But these guys have been okay, granted we've only known them, what? 24 hours tops, they've been on the level so far"

"There's 'being on the level' and there's gaining a trust that will work to your advantage, I should know, it was a tactic that many young gullible Autobots fell for during the war"

"But if they really had been keeping tabs on us since we got here, and their orders had been to bring us in, why didn't they try anything before? I know they said they didn't realize you and the other guys were aliens...but even so, why didn't they make a move?"

"Because these humans are not stupid, they knew we posed a serious threat if confronted head on, regardless of whether they were aware of our alien origins or not...you saw for yourself yesterday, they didn't back away when the other's transformed, they kept their guns steady, and more importantly, they weren't totally afraid..." Ravage growled as he left the last words hanging, Ashley suddenly realised what he was getting at.

"...They were soldiers...or were, either way normal police aren't that tough, even if their put through the ringer in basic training"

"Exactly...like I said, there's got to be something else to all this that we're not seeing, even though the old one said there was nothing for him or his team to gain out of granting us sanctuary"

"I have to admit this whole thing must reek of conspiracy somewhere along the line...But on the other hand we barely know them, for all we know they may be intending to keep to their end of the deal, maybe it couldn't hurt to give them a chance?....and if they do turn on us we can always give'em a right royal arse whipping, what do you think?" Ashley said, Ravage considered his words for a moment, at first he wanted to reprimand his student, but he then remembered, being human it was only natural for the boy to feel inclined to be sympathetic to members of his own kind, but it was clear he wasn't fully aware of the risk this section 9 could pose if they had something else in mind, he huffed a heavy sigh through his vents and looked out over the greenish waters of the lake.

"...What do I think?...as your teacher I would be inclined to advise against it...but, I say that only out of personal experience, I may not know a lot about your species, but I do know, from studying your history that your kind can be inclined to be less than honourable when presented with a unique opportunity for power and wealth...I'm not saying don't do anything, I'm just say be careful...especially around the femme..."Ravage gestured to the Major as she walked out onto the patio with the Waineright twins and Mikaela.

"Her?...why?"

"...It's just a hunch, but something about her is not right, her scent doesn't smell like it should for a normal human femme...it's too off, too...inorganic in some way..." Ravage growled, Ashley looked at him bemused for a moment but shrugged it off

"She's a little uptight, but whatever, look, I'll be careful alright, you know I'm not keen on authority anyway, being a class A pain in the arse is my specialty with authority figures, and I don't think these guys will be a major problem, I can always give them a taste of what I can do with the BSHB-" Ashley grinned

"No, keep the BSHB under wraps for now, one thing you have to learn about working with potential enemies, my student, is that you never give away too much about your strengths...it gives them the opportunity to root out your weaknesses, and make you suffer for them...in the meantime, we'll continue basic combat training, using the BSHB may not be an option but it will be an opportunity to teach you other vital skills, as long as we stay within the boundaries of the holo-projector, we can make the most of our stay here" Ravage purred, Ashley frowned in disappointment, but had to agree with his logic.

"But what if something happens? And I have no choice but to use it?" he asked

"If something happens, then something happens, if we're in danger do what you have to do and we'll deal with the consequences afterwards, but in the meantime, as your teacher I'm ordering you not to use the BSHB unless we're in real danger and an attack is imminent, understand?" the panther growled in a sharp tone, making his point that he wasn't kidding around.

"Yeah, I understand, and I'll tell the other's too, just so they know okay?"

"Good...in the meantime the training can wait, take the rest of the day off, I've to check out what in the way of a training ground we've got to work with here, so tomorrow, we'll postpone until the afternoon" Ravage purred, Ashley then noticed the Major was watching both of them, she stood off to one side next to the pool with her arms folded while the girls seemed to be checking Jetfire's wounds, even though she was a good hundred yards away, Ashley could see her face was unreadable, it felt a little unnerving in a way.

"Why not give her a taste of your free running?" Ravage gestures to the row of trees next to him, he looked at how the branches were laid out and saw a crude pathway to the walkway between the balcony on Tom's room and the balcony on Glen's room, he looked back down at her, meeting her eye contact he grinned his trademark devilish grin; and with one swing of his legs he fell backwards off the high branch and caught the smaller one below, swinging up he caught the next one, with a one strong jump the cleared the distance between the trees and in a series of bounds leaps and swings he reached the side of the house and with a well aimed back flip he landed squarely on the walkway, he looked back down at girls on the poolside down below.

"SHOWOFF!" they shouted up, the Major however grinned and quirked an eyebrow, back on the tree he'd been sitting on Ravage gave him a nod of approval.

'Let's see what you and your boy's have in store for us sweetheart' he thought with a satisfying grin and entered the house through Tom's room.

* * *

R&R please!


	23. Chapter 22: Musings And Truth

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Transformers or Ghost in the Shell, just my OC's and the plot.

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SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 22: MUSINGS AND TRUTH

The cold night air whipped and whistled over his wings and tailfins, far below the vast desert and mountains seem to go on forever bathed in silvered moonlight, high above the stars shone like diamonds, on the very edge of the horizon the human city of Tranquillity glowed and sparkled like a thousand church candles, bathed in golden light.

On his right and left, two F-14 Tomcats and their human pilots soared alongside him, and he remembered why he was here and smiled to himself.

Night-time combat practice, his favourite way to train for a Decepticon attack, with his armour being black he imagined himself as a predator of the night, all powerful in the darkness of the sky, the element of the winds and air were his own to command.

He pulled up high and barrel-rolled over his right wing-man, showing him how it was done, as the wind lifted him high and the heat friction turned the front edges of his wings bright crimson red, he felt the years fall away and his spark felt like it was on fire, blazing wild and free, no war, no Decepticons, only the sky existed.

This was happiness and freedom in its purest form.

His was what he was created for; this was what all seekers lived for.

Jetfire was very happy here.

Then, one of the Tomcats came up alongside his left flank and much to his surprise, he saw Sam sitting in the cockpit.

"Jetfire?" Sam said, how could he hear the boy? He wasn't wearing a pilot's helmet; therefore he had no radio to communicate with

"Jetfire?" he asked again

"Yes Sam, I'm here?"

"Hay, are you okay?

"What?"

Within a few moments the sky and desert faded away into darkness, the gravity free sensation of flying seem to leave him and in its place there was a weighted pressure all along the front of his body, his limbs turned stiff and tired, his whole body seem to suddenly drain of all its energy and the feeling of sleepiness beckoned him to fall into a deep coma like sleep. He struggled and fought to stay aloft in the sky, he commanded him engines to go full blast but to no avail, he didn't want to leave this, he didn't want to be pulled into the darkness, but deep in the darkness itself, he heard Sam's voice grow nearer and clearer, finally, his optic shutters became too heavy to stay open and reluctantly he let them close, and surrendered to the darkness below.

"Hay buddy? You Okay?"

Feeling strength return to his limbs, his optics fluttered open and the first thing he saw was the Witwicky boy standing right before his face with Frenzy at his side.

"He'sawake!he'sawake!heawake!" the jittery bot cheered and ran away out of the range of his vision

As his optics focused, he took one look around and saw to his surprise he was somewhere else, he saw a turquoise blue pool of water in front of him, beyond that a huge expanse of neatly trimmed grass and bushes and beyond that was a forest of tall towering trees that seemed to stretch on forever, to his left was a lake of jade green water and to his right a huge human dwelling that looked vaguely like the expensive, well-to-do settlements of the upper class humans in Tranquillity. All around the morning sun was shining bright and warm; the birds were singing in the trees and the sounds of the children chatting and laughing drifted out from the house, this wasn't the hideout, where was he?

Then, he remembered what happened.

The attack choppers, the missile that struck his side the instant he teleported them to safety, the pain that hit him the moment they reached their destination, and the vague memory of Mikaela and the others working flat out to save him.

It all came back to him

He sighed in relief and looked down at Sam how equally look relieved and happy to see he was okay.

"Hay guys! He's awake!" he called over and Mikaela and Darren rushed out of the house while Jazz came around the corner.

"Hay ol'buddy, nice to see you finally decided to join us here in the land of the living!" Jazz said as he kneeled down next to the ancient seeker

"So this isn't the well of all sparks?"

"Very funny, how do you feel?"

"Better than the last time I was awake, how long have I been in stasis lock?"

"Since yesterday morning, you were out all of yesterday, we've just had breakfast" Sam replied

"Good, because I'm in serious need of refuelling"

We thought you would, so we made you some of this..." Jazz said, and placed on the ground in front of him a cube of energon

"Where did you get that?" the seeker asked in amazement

"Deathshot had an mini energon processor stashed away, he made several cube loads this morning and the twins have been peeved that'd been holding out on them all this time" Darren smiled

"Figures, how much more stuff has that sniper got stashed away? Never mind help me up here..." he said as he bought his arms underneath his front and tried to prop himself up on his elbows, Jazz helped his turn over until he sat leaning against the ridge that the house sat on, his head slumped forward and as his equilibrium and strength flowed back into his systems he lifted his head up and exhaled a deep rush of air from his vents, Jazz handed him the cube and helped him take a sip, as the pink glowing liquid energy hit his processing filter he felt his systems flair back to life, he took the cube and downed the whole lot.

"I take it that felt much better?" Mikaela smiled

"Indeed, keep'em coming!" He eagerly said

"Certainly, here you go" Sam smiled as he and Darren walked around the seekers legs and retrieved another two cubes from a small stack right next to his side, Jetfire's gaze wandered over to the scene all around him and got a much better view of the house and back garden, it was a fairly spacious area which offered plenty of room for him to sit in his alt mode, as he looked up he noticed the holo-projector on the roof, it's rythmatic pulse went out waves of purple light which dispersed into the air around the top it, off to one side near the pool, the miniature energon processor stood surrounded by 13 cubes of energon and 12 oil drums that had the words AVIATION FUEL stencilled onto the side. The kids came running out the patio door's being lead by a very excited Frenzy while around the corner of the house all the other Autobots appeared, everyone's attention was imminently drawn to their now awake friend, they all rushed over to his side, happy and relieved he was finally out of the woods.

"Jet's! Your okay!" the twins chimed

"You're all better! You're all better!" Annabelle squealed as she jumped around Jetfire's leg in sheer joy at seeing her huge friend awake again, for the four year old, he always seemed to be a grandfather type figure, old wise, and spoils her and the other kids with rides in his alt form, for her it was like having an extra grandpa.

"It's good to see you looking better old friend" Deathshot smiled, patting his fellow flyer on the shoulder.

"Nice to know we've got our favourite old whiner again" Sunstreaker smirked, Jetfire swiftly hit him over the helm with a resolving clang, the others all chuckled and laughed, "I may be old but I can still reach over your scrawny helm, whippier snapper! Pass me another cube!" the old seeker retorted sternly and Sam promptly pushed another two cubes to his side, which he quickly downed, he noticed the mesh dressings on his leg, wing and thrusters and noticed the silver patches around the edges, which over the course of the last 24 hours had turned gradually into the same black colouration as his own paint job.

"Heh, I see someone did a good patch up job on my rusted old hide" he grinned

"You can thank Mikaela for that, she worked her magic on most of your injuries" Jazz grinned.

"I see, what happened to your arms?" he asked, noticing Mikaela had a set of long stocking bandages running up from her wrists to her elbows and a few dressings on her bare shoulders "I got a little of your energon on my skin whilst sealing off some of your lines, it's not too bad, it's when it stays on the skin for more than 20 minutes it really starts to burn" she replied

"Well regardless, Ratchet taught you well child, I thank you... so, what happened while I was out? And where did you get that fuel from?" he asked, pointing to the drums whilst chugging down another cube.

"Well after you passed out we had a little word with our hosts and they were able to bring along some oil and fuel for us, after they arrived and the reintroductions were made, they all left us to our own devices" Deathshot said. "I take it the teleportation managed to get us to our destination?" the seeker asked as he looked up at the house, "Yep, and this place is even more spacious than the last, there's loads of room to move and recharge here, and with the holo-projector up there covering the whole place, we don't have to stay in alt form all the time!" Bumblebee said in a happy tone

"A holo-projector? Then that means-"

"Yeah, sorry buddy, I know being grounded ain't exactly you or D's thing, being flyers' an all I know it ain't gonna be easy for both of ya, but right now this is the safest place we got and until chief Aramaki's deal goes down with the PM, we're gonna have to stay put okay?" Jazz said

"Fair enough, I guess the injuries could have been a lot worse"

"That's true, and even though you're awake and feeling much better, you're still confined to bed rest until your armour's healed properly, those dressings can't be removed without the armour buckling so I don't want to hear any arguments! Don't forget who the medic here is!" Mikaela said sternly while wagging her finger at the old bot, "Autobot medic you mean, I spent the rest of yesterday cleaning your burns, I've already used up most of my saline solution and I need new bandages" Morri replied, Jetfire chuckled "by the way, where's that cousin of your?" he asked, "He's off with Ravage up in the woods somewhere, the Major wasn't keen on them leaving the house but after some reassurance form Jazz and a stern persuasion from Ravage, she agreed to let them go, though I don't think she was convinced that Ashley was Ravages student" Morri chuckled

"I know, but he-" Jetfires attention suddenly diverted when he saw Batou and Togusa walk out from the main patio doors towards the group.

"Hay there, you got us for today" Batou grinned, Annabelle ran up to them like an over-energetic puppy who hadn't seen his master in a long while, "Mister Batou! Mister Togusa! Jetfire woke up! He's feeling all better now!" she squealed in delight, the two men looked up and saw the huge black Autobot sitting upright, he looked much larger now that he wasn't slumped on his front like a beached whale, they both walked over to the gathered kids who (from Jetfire's point of view) seemed pleased to see them. The other Autobots sat down around Jetfire in circle, the kids all sat on their respective guardians knees or legs, Annabelle and the Waineright sisters beckoned Togusa to join them on Bluestreak's crossed legs, the detective was little reluctant at first but then gave in while Batou stood beside Sam and Mikaela on Bumblebee's stretched out legs, he noticed the drums next to the energon processor and the energon cubes next to Jetfire's side, he wandered over to get a closer look and was amazed to see how vivid the substance glowed as it swirled around in various neon hues of pink, as he leaned over the edge of one of the cubes, the smell of static and ozone hit his nose hard, Miles came up by his side and peered over the side too.

"Pretty wild colours huh? I wouldn't try touching it though, it's like acid" he grinned

Is this the energon you guys were talking about yesterday?" Batou asked

"Yep, this is the stuff" Sam said, Batou looked up at Jetfire, noticing how much his expression had perked up compared to yesterday, the seeker regarded him with a impassive look, "Are you feeling better today? You looked in pretty bad shape yesterday" he cautiously asked, "Much better thank you, I take it your here to sparkling-sit us?" he asked "Uh yeah, you don't have a problem with that do you?" Batou asked

"...Not really, just don't give me an excuse to squish you" the old seeker sighed, Togusa suddenly became ridged with worry, Batou simply froze as some of the kids giggled

"Don't worry dude, it's just his little joke he doesn't mean it really" Miles chuckled

"Hmm, just pass me that cube" Jetfire sighed with a grimaced look and picked the cube up, making Batou and Miles jump back, Batou retreated back and stood by Sam and Mikaela.

"Don't worry, he's okay, he's just suspicious of every new human he meets, it's nothing personal" Mikaela smiled

"So anyway, did you guys sleep okay last night? It's a pretty quiet out here in the middle of nowhere" Togusa asked

"Ah we've come across stranger things, and after all the explaining and filling in all the details yesterday I was bushed" Danny said

"And you should have seen your face when we explained the whole teleportation, seeing a face fall a full yard like that never gets old!" Tom chuckled; Togusa merely grimaced slightly, remembering how he tried to wrap his brain around the whole of yesterday afternoon.

"It nice to see you finally taking all this in your stride at last, I was kinda worried you were gonna wig out on us" Becky said

"Well it's not like anything about this whole thing has made sense to begin with anyway, I just figured it's better to go with the flow and try not to think to hard about it" Batou shrugged. "That's the spirit dude! But I think Ishikawa's gonna need more time to get use to the idea of giant alien robots that transform into vehicles, man I thought he was going to have a heart attack when he saw D" Miles ginned

"Well he didn't come to the meeting so he didn't see you guy's first hand" Batou said

"Yeah that's true, I didn't see him then, what was he doing at the time?" Glen asked

"He was watching the perimeter for us from the tiltroater"

"Oh is he a sniper?" Deathshot asked

"No that's Saito's job, Besides the Major Ishikawa is our best hacker and data gatherer, he was keeping tabs in the cameras around the park while we were on the ground" Batou replied

"He's a hacker too? No way! I didn't figure him for being the type, but then I guess you can't be too old to have a peek around to see what others hide on their laptops, I know it's my favourite pastime" Darren grinned

"You're a hacker too?" Togusa asked

"Yeah I specialise in military computer security systems as well as virus analysis and writing vaccine programmes!" Darren smiled; Batou and Togusa looked at him in disbelief , "How old are you?" Batou asked, "I turned 15 three months ago" Darren casually replied

"What? No way! You're telling me you spend your time hacking military networks between homework and school?" Togusa exclaimed in surprise, "Not anymore, I'm on the US government's payroll helping them to improve their systems and security grid!" he grinned wildly, propping his prosthetic leg up on Trailbreakers knee in satisfaction, Batou and Togusa both looked him bemused.

"It's true, he's been my apprentice for the last 18 months, we both work with the government and the Autobots as part of the tech team that over see's and regulates the Pentagon's security network and the NEST bases online security grid, believe me they just pull anyone out of college these day's but yankin him outta high school was way new for the MIB's" Glen replied with a smug grin.

"Hay, I can't help it if I'm a child prodigy!" Darren replied with an equally smug look on his face, "With a measured IQ of over 140 to boot!" the twins said

"Your IQ is over 140?! Your parents must be spoiled for choice with college applications" Togusa grinned, "Not really, as far as their aware I'm attending an exclusive prep school in Oregon, I work on the base where NEST is based, I get free bed and board my own ride, aka my guardian and best buddy, plus every weekend to myself and get to go home every holiday and summer vacation, it's a pretty sweet deal really" he smiled as he patted his guardian on the knee, to which Trailbreaker ruffled his hair with the tip of his finger.

"They spoil you rotten you know" Danny said, giving him a sly sideways glance.

"Yeah I know, but how many other 15 year olds get to have a job working for both the military's top defence unit and an army of transforming alien robots?" Darren grinned as he contently lied back on Trailbreakers leg.

"Sound like a dream come true for you, so how did you get involved with these guys?" Batou asked

"Well, about two years ago I got curious about the 'Mission city incident', that what the tabloids were calling it at least, but I got wind from a few contacts of mine that there was a rumour circulating around the blog sites that the 'gas explosions' weren't what they were and that there had been a large military presence at the site of the blasts, obviously something reeked of government conspiracy so armed with my infiltration programmes decided to take a peek inside the Pentagon's encrypted data network-"

"You hacked the Pentagon?" Togusa asked offhand

"Yep, managed to sneak under some pretty good firewalls, but when I finally found the files in question, I got a hell of a lot more than I bargained for, I learned about the Autobot and Decepticon and what happened in the city that day and even though it was totally unreal, it was also kinda scary so I got the hell outta there and made sure I couldn't be traced, after about 5 months I finally began to relax when a couple of guys in black suits came knocking at the door asking to take me in for questioning"

"So you got busted huh?"

"I thought I was at first, but that was before I was driven to the secret base and introduced to Optimus Prime and the heads of the newly formed NEST, turns out they worked out how I hacked into the Pentagon and were fairly impressed, so rather than send me to the juvi slammer and let my talent go to waste they offered me a place on Nest's tech support team as Glen's apprentice in return for not uttering a word about it to my parents or the outside world, as an extra safety measure in case the Decepticons ever came back and tried anything, Prime assigned Trailbreaker to be my guardian, we've been best buddy's ever since" he grinned.

"Indeed, and it's certainly been nice having new friends after spending the last few century's in outer space" Trailbreaker smiled.

"It been nice just having the war finally over, period" Jetfire huffed through his air-intakes as he downed another cube.

"So, what do guys do now that this big war is over?" Batou asked

"Anything we want really, but we still have to have to do combat practise from time to time, in case the cons ever come back" Bumblebee replied

"Cons?" Togusa queried

"Decepticons, the war may be over now that the all spark is gone, but they're not above revenge or retaliation, sooner or later they may come seeking pay-back for Megatron being defeated, of course they might actually have a chance of putting up a good fight if they ever get their act together and come up with a feasibly good battle strategy" Jetfire said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Why, are they not good fighters?" Batou asked

"On the contrary, in the early days of the war there were many that passed through the Decepticon ranks that had been worthy fighters, for all their ruthlessness and deceit back then the concept of an honourable warrior still carried meaning to the more seasoned veterans like myself, if you faced your enemy, you faced him on equal ground, at first it was simply a battle to possess the all-spark, but over the countless eons both sides fought it gradually became a fight for survival to avoid extinction and finally a war for the sake of it... for over 10 billion years it was exhausting, demoralising, and far more than anyone would wish to endure" Jetfire sighed

"10 billion years? You both fought a war that lasted 10 billion years?!!!" Togusa exclaimed in surprise, the twins laid a hand each on his shoulder to calm him down. "The con's waged a war that lasted 10 billion years, had the advantage been ours we would have ended it long ago" Jetfire replied

"But how could anyone endure such a conflict? What about resources? Or man-power? How could you fight for that long and still not be beaten?" Batou asked

"We relied on our own means, but the con's, in all their cold-sparked power hunger, ravaged countless worlds and civilizations, stealing energy, technology, even wiping out whole species of sentient races for sport and their own sick twisted pleasure" the old seeker growled

"Seriously? They wiped entire civilisations just for fun?" Togusa asked, a nervous twinge shot down his back. "Trust me; from what I heard, many of them were no better than Hitler and the Nazi's, good riddance is all I can say" Becky said

"Is that why you defected in the first place?" Mikaela asked Jetfire

"The day Iacon fell was the day I slew my fellow wing-mates, took off and surrendered to the Autobot forces, after several cycles in the brig I defected and became an Autobot, after all the load of slag Meagron was preaching, joining the Autobots was wisest choice I ever made in the war...anyway, let's not dwell on the past its ancient history now, by the way, where's the scorpion?" Jetfire asked as he looked around, "I think he's still with the Tachikoma's round the front, he seems to have taken a real liking to the little femmes" Hot Rod replied.

"Eh, just as long as they don't get up to any mischief together, I get enough hassle from them when they ask whether I have any new upgrades" Batou yawned as he stretched arms up over his head.

"Upgrades?" Danny asked puzzled

"Yeah upgrades, a cyborg like myself has gotta-" Batou's train of thoughts suddenly stopped dead as he realised what he just said, all eyes and optics suddenly fell upon his as the whole Autobot gang looked at him as if he'd just blurted out a bad joke, Togusa and Batou shifted uncomfortably, wishing they were now both very far away.

"Okay dude, are you punking us or something?" Miles asked, Batou looked over to Togusa for help but Togusa shot him a 'why did you go and say that?' kind on glance, Deathshot leaned over, his left optic opened up and three multi-coloured lazars shot out and scanned the two men who jumped when they felt the buzz of the lazar hit their skin, a look of shock and confusion suddenly came over the Autobot sniper's face, frowning he quickly reached over and picked Batou up in one hand, the man protested as he tried to wriggle out of the sniper's strong grip but quickly stopped when he saw the look on Deathshot's face.

"What are you?" he asked in a cold and serious tone, Togusa and the kids ran up while the other Autobots watched in alarm.

"W-what do you mean what am I?" Batou shouted as Deathshot coiled his finger's tighter to stop him moving around.

"D! What are you doing?!" Morri protested

"He's not human, 65% of his body's inorganic" everyone stopped dead in their tracks, all the other Autobots looked at one another in confusion.

"Er? What?"

"What do mean 65% of his body's inorganic?"

"What do you mean I'm not human?! I am human!" Batou protested loudly.

"No you're not, human's are completely organic by design and your body is NOT wholly organic" the sniper replied curtly. At that moment the Major ran out with Boma, Saito and Pazu in tow, all armed with their handguns at the ready, tempted to run in they stopped when Sam saw them and waved them back, they stayed where they were and waited to see what would happen next.

"Of course it's not wholly organic, I'm a cyborg!" Batou shouted gasping for breath, Morri climbed up her guardian's side, crawled across his shoulder and arm and sat on his wrist, getting a better look at Batou, Deathshot loosened his grip slightly, letting the man get his breath back, Togusa daren't move or say anything as Sunstreaker kept him pinned to the spot with his trademark glare of death.

"D, show us what you're talking about..." Morri asked, Deathshot's hologram projector flared to life, as he scanned the cyborg with his left optic lazars again and a 3D life size image of him suddenly appeared, Togusa looked up at the image in surprise but the kids and Autobots all gasped in shock when Batou's internal anatomy was displayed; instead of the usual organ's, blood supply, muscles and bone structure in their usual working state and shape, instead, the scan image was thick with bones re-enforced with a blend of super hard plastics, muscle fibres bonded to flexible powerful cable-like tendons, multiple microscopic fibres ran the whole length of his nervous system, but what shocked the group the most was that his brain was crammed with all sorts of tiny intricate computer like components, super fine wires run in and out of the folds of the brain like creeping vines, branching out into certain areas like thick trees, he had no eyeballs, his eyes were completely cyerised and instead of bone the whole cranium was made of carbon titanium, the scan also pointed out all the inorganic parts were completely inert and therefore harmless to the organic parts, looking at all this the group all looked at one another in a mix of shock and confusion, not sure whether to be amazed he was like the Terminator or somewhat shocked at the idea that this didn't make him human in the true organic sense of the name, the Major sighed and shock her head, she had a pretty good idea what was going to come next, Boma, Saito and Pazu just stood there in confusion, unsure about how to help handle this.

"What.....what is all that stuff?" Morri asked in an alarmed tone, Batou didn't know how to answer when he saw the confused look in her eyes, somehow pleading to him that this couldn't be right, Deathshot stared down at him coldly, it was spooky to see Saito's likeness on his silver face and even Saito couldn't help but feel a little intimidated by the Autobot's deathly look, for a long moment Batou racked his mind, desperately searching for the right words to answer with, finally he sighed with guilt, and with a pang of dread he was about to try and explain when the Major beat him to it;

"I think...now's the time you guys learnt a few things about us..." she said as she tucked her gun into her holster and cautiously stepped into the circle of confused kids and Autobot's, Deathshot looked down at her, his cold impassive gaze gave away nothing as he tried to read her, she suddenly felt like she was looking at Saito's mirror image, and it seemed all the more intimidating because he was so much taller, and wider. After a tense moment, he slowly put Batou back down on the ground and leaned back, the kids too calmed down a little as the Major stepped forward and looked up to address the whole group.

Meanwhile, some 450 yards up in the forest, in a wide clearing surrounded by large clusters of bamboo, Ravage sat on a large moss covered bolder with Ashley's hoodie in-between his front paws while he watched the green waters of the lake, a gentle wind blew across the water and up into the trees, creating ripples of aqua and pale blue to move like shadows along the shoreline, off in the distance the mountain range was covered in fresh greenery, on the far side of the lake the tall valley slopes were covered in green trees, pink cherry trees and blazing scarlet red Japanese maples, it was a blaze of colour as the sun brought all the beauty of the land to life. In the secret musing's of his processor, Ravage passed a secret sigh of calmness, Earth wasn't such a bad place to live, and this version of earth didn't seem any different, the air smelt the same at least.

A slight rustling sound made him turn his head sharply, some of the towering stems of bamboo had moved slightly, but just enough to suggest something had run away very quickly, stepping off the bolder and silently approaching the bamboo, Ravage could sense something was on the other side of thick cluster, an animal of some sort?, it was too small to be a human, turning his head back and forth and scanning the cluster, he couldn't see anything in particular. Then, a sudden soft whoosh of air made him snap back around to the bolder, only to see the hoodie was gone, looking all around the clearing he couldn't see anything, but when he looked up into the dense trees above, he could make out the familiar shape of a small human silently climbing away at a fast pace among the densely packed branches and twigs. In a lightning fast series of bounds and leaps, Ravage scaled the nearest tree and chased after the figure and caught them by the scruff of the neck with very little effort.

"Ah damnit!" Ashley huffed in frustration; Ravage lowered him down onto a thick branch and looked back at how far they had run from the clearing. "21.3 meters, a much better improvement, and you remembered the necessary distraction, not too loud and not too obvious, well done" Ravage purred as he playfully swatted his paw over the boys head, "Actually, that wasn't as difficult as the last time you taught me that, the problem was finding the right tree to grab the hoodie from" Ashley said, "by the time I'm finished with you you'll be able to grab anything from anywhere" Ravage growled as they climbed down together and Ashley put his favourite red hoodie back on once on the ground.

"So, what else are we going to learn today?" Ashley asked

"Well, let's see....THINK FAST!" in one rapid fast move Ravage swung his tail around, Ashley automatically back-flipped out of the way, a split second before the mace of the panthers tail struck a small bolder, splitting it down the middle. Ashley stood in a fighting stance ready to move if anything else happened, for a tense moment he looked his teacher up and down before Ravage gave a satisfied grin and an approving purr.

"Excellent, just making sure you remember how act on your impulse" he growled

"You know, most teachers tend to give you an exam" Ashley sighed with relief

"Pah! Writing on a piece of compressed plant pulp won't test your reflexes or strength, if you're going to test a warrior's ability to the full, then do it on the field of battle, not in a classroom"

"So when your finally done teaching me your gonna haul my arse into a fight huh?" Ashley grinned; Ravage paused and looked at the youngster with disconcertment. "Your good, but you're young and naive, you've got a long way to go before you can be considered a true warrior, you'll catch on eventually, but for now, concentrate on your training" Ravage replied as Ashley mounted up onto the panthers back. As they started heading back in the general direction of the house, Ashley watched as the lake slowly passed by and his thoughts began to wander in other directions.

"Hay Ravage? What do you thinks going on back home?" he asked offhand

"A lot I should think, no doubt Wheeljack's invention has caused quite more than just a stir"

"...I hope everyone's not too worried, maybe Wheeljack could be close to reopening the rift?"

"Maybe"

".....Hay Ravage?...if it's not too personal, do you mind if I ask...have you ever wondered about what it might be like to be a human?"

"Be one of you revolting flesh bags? Certainly not!...but I have pondered...have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a cybertronian?" Ravage asked, Ashley paused in thought for a brief moment before answering;

"....Yeah, I thought it would be so wicked to be something like you"

"Me?"

"Well yeah! I mean come on; besides D you're the coolest cybertronian I've ever met! Your big, your powerful, you can sneak up on anyone and they don't even realise your there, you can see in the dark and run super fast...and you have total freedom...ever since we first met I wondered what it must be like to have that kind of power and freedom..." Ashley said with a small smile as he imagined for a second the raw might and animalistic power of being a creature like his mentor, Ravage however was somewhat confused.

"Freedom? You imagine me being what I am naturally has more freedom?" he asked curiously

"Hell yeah! You don't have school or a school uniform, homework, jobs to do around the house like laundry, cleaning and tidying your room, or base in your case and you don't have to mind your manners all the time...I'd give an arm and leg for that, but not literally!" the boy replied before the panther started getting any dark humorous thoughts on that last note.

"Hmm...I hadn't thought of it that way, but then I suppose all those little daily ritually you humans do, do get tiresome after a while, as if there's any real need for most of them anyway"

"My point exactly, you're extremely lucky; you have sentience, feelings and thoughts, you can think and talk like us but you have the freedom of being an animal...that's a real gift in its self"

"A gift?..." Ravage suddenly felt something like solemnise come over him and his usual contempt attitude seemed to be pushed aside for a minute. When he defected, it was because he wanted freedom, to not have to serve anyone and be pushed and bossed around like any other underling in the Decepticon ranks, at least with the Autobot's and their ideology and attitude towards the fair treatment of defectee's, he would be recognised as an equal cybertronian (albeit he certainly wasn't welcome considering his past with most of the older Autobots who he encountered on the battlefield eons ago) with his own rights and freedom to do as he pleased. But in all that time until now, he hadn't once considered that what he took for granted could be something worthy of admiration in another's optics, and a human's at that. Being a hunter drone did not earn you much in the way of total equality with transforming cybertronians; sure you were sentient and were capable of thinking and talking with full coherence, but the fact that you were formatted into an predatory animal form so as to be a more efficient hunter/killer didn't mean you were automatically afforded respect or courtesy, and at times, discrimination on account of your formatting was part of everyday life in the Decepticon army. But to have your most obvious and simplest aspects seen as a gift? That was certainly something else.

"...You think being sentient and semi-wild is a gift?..." Ravage continued

"Yeah....it's something I'll never have in my life..." Ashley replied in a slight solemn tone, Ravage stopped and turned his head around to look him in the optic, seeing the distant yet slightly sulky look on the boys face made him think twice about how he saw himself, and made him wonder what this human youngling saw in himself, after a second of silence passed, Ravage couldn't help but ask;

"Do you regret being sparked as a human?" Ravage asked as he started walking again, "What? Oh no it's nothing like that, it's just....I can't help but wonder is all...you know, what life would be like if I had been a cybertronian...it's just one of those philosophical things you can't help but wonder about" Ashley replied, bringing his thoughts back to the here and now. "Hmm...Do you think, if it were ever likely to happen, if the opportunity to become a cybertronian were possible, do you think you would take it?" Ravage asked, Ashley gave him a small and honest smile. "...when I think of all the things you and the guys can do, I would say yes...but ..."

"But?" Ravage asked as Ashley sunk his head in doubt.

"Well...even though I'd still be who I am, I can't help if wonder if I could really be willing to swap one life for another, I mean, I love being with you and the guys, but would I'd have to leave behind the life I have now? I mean, would my mum and dad still be my mum and dad? Would my cousins still be my cousins?...I just don't know..."

"My, you've really thought this through long and hard, haven't you?" Ravage purred with a small smirk

"Well working out gives me time to think, and I tend to do a lot of my best thinking with a punch bag...but seriously, do you think I'd be able to cut it as one of you guys?"

"From a broad perspective, if the opportunity ever came about it would be your choice alone to make, considering how well you've been musing on it, I have no doubt whatever you choose will work out somehow, and if you care for your family unit so much and they care for you in the same way, then I think they'll still think of you as one them, regardless of physical form...if you are still yourself, then I think you'll have nothing to worry about"

"Wow, that's rather sentimental coming from you; I thought you said you didn't go in for all that lovey-dovey mushiness?" Ashley said blinking in surprise, Ravage sank his head slightly as he remembered the last time he saw Soundwave, right before he died at the hands of Starscream, and just before he jettisoned him from his chest compartment into space, he remembered the last thing he told him right before the cursed seeker ripped his spark chamber out, even now he could still hear his monotone echoing across his CPU from the back of his memories.

'Ravage...eject...operation....survive and live...."

For a moment a rear feeling of sadness passed over him, and the feeling of self-disappointment for being unable to rip the seeker's energon lines outs, but what hurt the most was the sudden and painful snap of the telepathic link of his creator being shattered, and never being there again. Perhaps it was this that helped convince him to defect in the first place? He knew if Soundwave were on earth he wouldn't let the fact that the Allspark was gone keep him from being with his creator, it was always the telepathic link he and the other drones maintained with Soundwave that maintained their trust and loyalty to one another. But with the link broken and forever gone he now had no loyalty to anyone, and the mental link between him and his brothers was gone too, even Frenzy couldn't eavesdrop on his thoughts anymore. Ravage reared his head back up and put his lamenting far back into the recesses of his processor.

"I don't, but I do know what it means to care for one who cares for you back, regardless of what you are" Ravage replied, Ashley then caught on to who he was talking about

"You mean Soundwave?" he asked cautiously, Ravage knew if he were any other human he would snap at him, but Ashley was a big acceptation. "Yes...and there's not a cycle that goes by I don't miss him..." Ravage growled bitterly, Ashley looked away and left it alone, he knew the panther still held a lot of bitterness over how his creator died, but then, after a moment a thought entered his head which made him smile a little.

"...You know, I remember the all things my mum told me about her great aunt Petunia, she was this grand old lady who use to do all kind of crazy things, like this one time, she tried to make absinth by brewing magic mushrooms and cannabis in Russian vodka and gin and ended up having to stay in hospital for over 2 months with chronic liver poisoning. And this other time, she tried keeping badgers in her back garden as guard dogs, basically, she was nuts, but despite all the crazy stories me and my cousins have heard about her, the one thing that struck me was when I asked how she died, and when I asked my mum, all she said was...she died...nothing crazy or exciting happened, she just passed away...but my mum wasn't sad, because she explained that great aunt Petunia's death wasn't something to be sad about because of the life she lead before she died...I guess what I'm trying to say is, it's one thing to remember someone for their death, but it's something more when you think about all the stuff you did together when they were alive, and that's something to be grateful for..."Ashley smiled, Ravage huffed a deep sigh through his vents as he considered the wisdom of the younglings words. True, even though he, Soundwave and his brothers had all fought together in the war, he remembered what down time they had, it had been spent together well, albeit it was mainly he and his brothers bickering over the littlest things, as brothers usually do. He smiled a toothy grin and let the boy down off his back; he licked the top of his head and pressed his head to Ashley's forehead with a deep gentle purr.

"Thank you youngling..." he whispered in a gentle tone

"It's okay..."Ashley replied as he stroked the side of the panther's neck.

"I think...if I wish to become a cybertronian, could I be a hunter like you?"

"I would be flattered...and I promise, should your wish ever come true, I will be there at your side to help...now come on, let's give the training a rest for today, I'm in need of an energon cube" Ravage replied as he let the boy climb back on his back and together they went at a steady trot back to the safe house.

Meanwhile, back on the safe house's main lawn, the Autobot gang and their human friends had been listening to the Major give a brief overview of what the technology in this world consisted of, mainly how people could get brain augmentations or even become full cyborgs. All the while the Autobot gang had listened in a mix morbid fascination and shock, on the one hand it was incredible to think just how much the technology of this world had evolved, but at the same time, it was rather creepy to know that your mind could be hacked into, and even controlled, for the sake of not wanting to cause any panic the Major decided to leave out the fact that your soul was contained in your brain, and that it was even possible to hack it and take it out. Even though she had tried to be as gentle as possible (which she managed to do fairly well considering that being sympathetic was not her strong point) Batou had stepped in once or twice to explain a few things in a more 'kid friendly' manner, all the while Boma Saito and Pazu sat to one side watching the whole thing pan out, by this time Ishikawa and Togusa had come out to see what was going on and had caught most of the conversation. After the Major and Batou finished explaining everything the Autobots and kids sat in silence for a short minute, trying to wrap their CPU's and brains around everything they just heard, some weren't sure whether to be amazed or shocked while some just didn't know to think.

"...That's pretty...wow" Miles said offhand

"So, you can get a computer implanted in your brain?...I know I always have trouble setting up my webcam, but isn't that a little extreme? Especially if someone can 'hack' into your head?" Hailey asked, not having a clue as to what all the techno lingo the Major had used meant.

"I'm not sure whether to think its revolutionary or the Matrix gone a little too far out of touch" Glen said propping his elbow on the side of Bumblebee's knee, "What I don't understand is why a human would be willing to swap their organic bodies for a robotic one...is being organic in this world a social taboo?" Deathshot asked.

"No no it's nothing like that, it's just, some particular jobs might require you to have certain augmentations in order to get it done right, for instance, I use to be one of the Rangers so I had to swap into a body that came equipped with a reinforced braincase and muscles, as well as cybernetically enhanced eyes and reinforced dermal layered skin, in addition to faster reflexes" Batou replied

"Well, okay...but what about fashion? Don't tell me someone would be willing to swap a perfectly healthy body for a fancier sexier one?! That's just too freaky!" Danny exclaimed in horror, Batou winced slightly as he exchanged an uneasy glance with the Major while Pazu shifted uncomfortably against the wall of the house he was leaning on.

"Well, that solely depends on the person in question, it's not recommended to swap a healthy body for a cyborg body, but, you can't stop people from choosing to what they want to do with their lives, however most people just tent to opt for high end plastic surgery" the Major replied

"Nice to know some things don't change, even by over 20 years" Miles sighed in relief

"20 years?" the Major queried, Sam and Mikaela rolled their eyes while Darren face palmed his forehead with a loud smack, "Thanks Miles" Darren said sarcastically the Major and the other agents just looked at the blonde teen in confusion, "Uh, are we missing something?" Batou asked. The kids and Autobots all looked at one another; Jazz leaned forward and sighed through his vents.

"Okay, seeing as you guys are being on the level this us we'll extend the same courtesy, you remember we told you about how we fell through that rift in time and space across the universe when the DRD was activated?" the first lieutenant sais, the Major and the others all nodded in response.

"Well...we kinda found out that when time and space parted, they didn't part in quite the right way. It's the year 2033 here right? Well back in our universe it's year the 2009..." the section 9 team's eyes flew up in surprise,

"So you guys are-"

"Yeah, we're not only from another universe, we're from about 20-23 years in the past, and as you might have probably guessed, we don't have any of the kind of stuff you've just explained to us"

"So...there's no cyborgs? No androids? No net?" Togusa asked

"No we have an internet, and it's ruled by Google and YouTube, but everything else? I'm afraid not, sorry" Tom shrugged

"But technology is evolving all the time, but considering everything you've described I'd estimate our earths current computer technology is well over a few decades behind yours, it's just we probably won't see it in our lifetime" Darren shrugged.

"That explains a lot, having not come across a cyborg anywhere in your world before I don't blame you kids for feeling a little anxious here" Batou commented

"That's putting it very lightly, no offence but I'm still trying to keep my breakfast down after you explained you weren't wearing stick-on glasses" Danny replied as another light wave of nausea went through his stomach and left him feeling dizzy, Morri put a hand on his shoulder to steady him, Batou couldn't help but wince in regret for explaining that fact, he thought the poor kid would throw up, but fortunately he held on. "It's not just a question of feeling anxious, considering how alike this world looked to ours we thought we'd have no trouble hiding here, I mean it's not like we don't have experience, back home we have our own rules about going out in public with the guys here...we didn't really consider just how different it might be, I mean, being in Japan on the far side of the pacific is one thing, even in our universe Japan is still the technology capital of the world and we knew we were in for quite a contrast in culture, but...we didn't see anything to suggest cyborgs exist here" Darren said

"Except for those machines that attacked us when we first arrived here, we don't have anything like that, even NEST don't have anything that advanced that's wholly human tech" Glen offered

"You mean the tanks?" the Major asked

"You keep saying their tanks but they look more like a steroid-stooped up version of scorpy" Becca replied, the Major quirked an eyebrow

"Basically, we don't have anything like that either" Morri added

"They were HAW-206 multiped tanks, they haven't been around that long but they can sure put a fight" Batou said

"I know, we fought them remember? And they were hard to fight! If me and Deathshot hadn't had covered everyone from above, most of us wouldn't be here!" Jetfire retorted, Batou and Togusa both winced slightly at the loud volume of the seekers voice.

"Hay guys! What's up?" Ashley called over as he and Ravage approached the group, they all looked up at him as if he were a welcome distraction.

"Uh, what did we miss?"

* * *

R&R please

Okay, put a pin in Ravage and Ashley's conversation, it'll lead to something quite interesting much later in the story, keep on reading to find out!


	24. Chapter 23: Getting To Know You

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Transformers or Ghost in the Shell, just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 23: GETTING TO KNOW YOU

"No way! She's a cyborg?" Ashley exclaimed in surprise as he spread a generous dollop of peanut butter on a slice of white bread.

"Apparently, but personally she don't look like a cyborg to me" Hailey shrugged as she tore up some lettuce leafs.

"I thought the purple hair and red eyes were just a fashion statement, but apparently they came with her body when she first got it" Becca commented as she buttered two slices of bread.

"I suppose its better that they look more human than robot if their cyborgs, I mean, you couldn't exactly have a conversation without noticing a couple of bolts sticking out the side of your neck right?" Becky replied

Well look at like this, It's not like we don't have our share of awkward secrets" Hailey said

"Yeah but they said cyborgs are common place here, there's nothing secret about a trend that's already common place" Darren replied as he popped a cherry tomato in his mouth.

The rest of the day had passed fairly quietly in the safe house, after the Major and Batou laid out the truth about the existence of cyborgs and the advanced technology of their world they decided to leave the kids and Autobots alone in order to let them mull it all over, the team had retreated down into the lower quarters of the safe house and watched and listened to them via the camera system. Batou was relieved that the kids didn't over react or were too freaked out by what they said, the Major and the others however didn't feel so sure, Danny had taken it a little bit hard when he nearly threw up, Darren, Glen and Frenzy weren't too sure what to make of it (and being the computer pros of the gang they ALWAY had an opinion on anything to do with technology, the fact they hadn't voiced anything in particular had unnerved some of the others) while Hailey and the twins just didn't have a clue what to think, purely for the fact that they weren't tech-savvy. So now the rest of the day had passed by with a string of conversations and, comments and general agreements and disagreements on what to make of it all. The day had worn by and it was now late afternoon and the kids were putting a snack/platter together, Bluestreak leaned down so his head was closer to the open kitchen window.

"Well I'm still not sure what to think, humans in our universe are completely organic but here half the population in inorganic, does that mean a human doesn't necessarily have to organic to be called a human? That it's more than what's in the hardware and more do with how that software defines you a being?" the gunner asked

"If you're talking about what defines humanity from an ideological and philosophical point of view, then you're on the right track, like the Major said earlier, the whole issue of what defines a human as a human has been a very sensitive subject ever since the technology to allow full cyberization has been around, when you consider the fact it involves a lot of surgical work it certainly brings up a lot of medical ethics into question, but what really brings it all to the crunch for me is the question of 'if a human is not strictly defined by the physical form, then is there a determining factor that defines a sentient cyborg from an AI robot? You know, something that borders between the philosophical and the spiritual?'" Darren replied

"I don't know about that Darren, the Tachikoma's are apparently AI's and they have plenty of spirit from the looks of it" Hailey smiled as she leaned out the window to look around the corner of the house, along the side of the house near the pool she could she one of the blue robots strolling along with Scorponok at its side, the scorpion had the elbow of his claw extended for the AI to hold its claw onto, they walked along to the lawn like a couple with their arms linked. Hailey couldn't help but tittle at the cute little sight as she caught a few words of their conversation.

"Wow! So what happened next?" Batou's Tachkoma asked Scorponok, the giant scorpion flashed the robot a cheeky glint in his four red optics, "well, after he chased me into the desert he didn't notice the 'surprise pit' I dug out next to my burrow, so naturally the idiot falls in, get's pelted with the lubricant filled balloons and a rock got wedged up his tailpipe!" he chuckled, the Tachikoma nearly fell over with laughter, Scorponok only clicked his mandibles in amusement. The Tachikoma's had all taken a shine to Sporponok, but Batou's Tachikoma in particular had been charmed by the scorpion's charm since they met at the lake earlier yesterday, they had spent the day together since then and after showing the blue robot how to communicate via basic Morse code Scorponok had found 'she' was indeed everything he could ask for in a femme, she had a hot looking design that didn't seem all that dissimilar to his own, and was cherry, happy-go-lucky and she loved to talk, much like Hailey and her sisters, there was no question about it, she was the femme of his dreams and he was completely smitten in love with her.

"Hehehehe! I bet that must have been unpleasant!...you know Scorponok, I get the feeling you'd fit right in at section 9! I know mister Batou would really like you, he has a real soft spot for us, he likes to bring us along for training with the new recruits and he gives us natural oil!" the Tachikoma said after it regained its composure

"You think I'd do well in your division?" Scorpion asked eagerly as a small flutter passed over his spark, was she hinting something at him?

"I'd think so, I got a feeling mister Batou would go for it, but I think the Major would need a little convincing, she's really hard to impress" Tachikoma replied

"She is quite firm isn't she? By the way, what's natural oil?

"You don't know what natural oil is?! My Goodness you haven't lived until you've tried it, come on!" the Tachikoma exclaimed in excitement as it grabbed scorpy by the claw and frog marched him to the garage, meanwhile, down below in the security centre, section 9 were watching the kids eat their sandwiches out on the patio by the poolside, as the Major watched them she felt somewhat relieved that despite the initial surprise of earlier they were now beginning to take it in their stride, at least they were talking about it in a sensible manner and not losing their heads over it, but as she listened to their debate on the monitor, she couldn't help but feel a little guilty at not telling them everything.

"Do you think it was a good idea to leave out the fact that your ghost is essentially your soul? And that it resides in your braincase?" Ishikawa asked as he took a sip of his coffee.

"Considering that they never once had an inkling to the existence of cyborgs here I didn't want to want tell them so much that they'd be burdened with a moral if not spiritual dilemma, for now, they know enough to draw their own conclusions, should they have other question's we'll answer as best we can" the Major replied

"I can't help but wonder what it must like where they come from, a world over 20 years in the past with no advanced prosthetics, androids or cyborgs, we've been so accustom to everything we use every day that it's reached the point where I don't think we can imagine anything else" Batou wondered aloud

"If the technology we had 20 years ago is anything like what they may have, then their world will eventually catch up in time, for now though their virtually free from the implications of the kinds of technological dilemmas we have to go up against" the Major replied

"That's true" Boma replied. The Major was about to say something else when she noticed Miles pressing his face close to one of the hidden cameras and grinning.

"Hey guys! I found another camera! How many more do you think there are?" he called over, the Major glared at the screen in frustration while Batou only chuckled "It's a safe house Miles! There are cameras everywhere around the place" they heard Sam called over with a grimaced tone.

"Well look on the bright side, at least this case is anything but boring" Saito said as he left the room accompanied by Togusa, Batou quirked an eyebrow, since when did the sniper start making positive comments? But he did have a point. He shrugged it off and got back to watching the monitors, back above in the garage the Tachikoma had dragged Scorponok into the separate mini hanger that was designated especially for the Tachkoma's use.

"Wow, quite a plush little hanger you have!" Scorponok chirped as he looked around the small births where the think-tanks 'recharged' two other Tachikoma's walked in and came up to him.

"Hay there! Did the Major clear you to come down here?" one of the tanks asked.

"Uh, I don't think so, but then who has know, I'm not doing anything" he replied with a mischievous twinkle in his four optics.

"I don't know, the Major doesn't like it when we go against the rules" one of the blue robots said as it wrung its claws together in worry, Batou's Tachikoma reached into a small box next to its birth and pulled out a small white canister with a green leaf icon on the side. "Here, try this!" it squeaked as it handed the oil to Scorponok who accepted it with a nod, he looked at the strange metal thing bemused, he noticed the thin nozzle at one end and that it was covered by a seal of plastic film, carefully manipulating the small canister in his claws, he brought it up to his mandibles and pierced the seal with ease, two sets of glossier like mouth parts flicked back and forth as the straw coloured liquid dripped out. The scorpion began to feel a pleasant tingle in his tank as he lapped up the delicious oil, the Tachkoma's watched on in curiosity.

"See! He loves it! What could possibly go wrong?" Batou's Tachikoma said.

Several hours passed by and the end of the day had come around, the sun was nearing the horizon in the western sky and the mountain range above the valley was bathed in golden yellow light and the entire valley below was like a scene from an old oil painting, all around the forest was tinted in golden yellow as huge shafts of sunlight streamed down from the tops of the valley slopes, illuminating the inner most trees of the forest and falling upon the lake like embers escaping the flames of a fire. The silence seemed to stretch on forever, the only thing to break to tranquillity was the deep steady rumble of Jetfires engines as he laid on his back fast asleep, the warmth of the afternoon sun had gotten the best of him and he decided to take a nap, and had been asleep for most of the day. Gently swimming up and down the length of the pool, Morri had decided to take advantage of the safe house's luxury pool and escape the late afternoon heat. It had been a bit of a mixed day for everyone all around, although she wasn't overly shocked by the idea of the Major being a cyborg, it was still something a little hard to imagine, considering that she looked like any other human (the purple hair and red eyes being the only outward clues to differentiate her from all natural humans). As she breast-stroked across the deep end she took a deep breath and duck dived down to the bottom, there she hung in mid-water like a dugong, the silence of the water was the most calming kind of silence she liked, as she looked up at the surface a rippling shadow caught her attention, promptly returning to the surface she saw it was the Major standing by the side of the pool with a towel in hand.

"Hi, haven't seen you around all day, where have you been hiding this whole time?" Morri asked as she wiped her wet bangs off her face and stroked them back over her head.

"In the house's security centre, I came to see where you had gotten off to, everyone's starting to turn in for the night and we're about to switch the house's security systems to nocturnal mode" the Major replied

"What's the time?"

"8:25 pm"

"That late already? Guess I better call it a night" Morri replied as she doggie-paddled over to the side and climbed out via the step ladder, "Thanks" she said as the Major handed the towel to her and she wiped the drips off her face, the exposure to the cooling air sent a slight shiver through her body, she threw the towel around her shoulders in an effort to keep the dropping temperature at bay, taking a deep breath she looked over at the giant sleeping form of Jetfire, as his air intakes gently 'breathed' in and out the grass of the lawn swayed slightly with every exhale of air.

"He certainly won't have any problems sleeping tonight, that' the longest nap he's ever had I think" Morri said

"He doesn't usually sleep well?" The Major asked

"From what I heard not really, apparently he has trouble getting off some nights on account of the rust in his tail fins and afterburners, but for some reason, despite everything that's happened he's been okay this past week"

"It must have been the stress of everything that's diverted his attention, most people tend to worry less about their own problems when their confronted with a much more pressing concern, I guess the same principle apply to Autobots too?" The Major thought aloud as she watched the seeker 'snoring', "Yeah I guess..." Morri looked at the Major sideways and exhaled a deep breath as she sat down on one of the benches by the poolside, "...Listen, about this morning, after you and the others disappeared, we kind of spent the whole day discussing and debating over everything you told us" Morri continued.

"We know" she replied

"You do?" Morri looked at the Major surprised, she smiled and pointed to one of the cameras on the wall of the house, "Ah, yeah" She nodded, feeling a little silly for not realising that they could see and hear her and the other kids talking, the Major sat down beside her, careful to mind the drips running off the 22 years olds body.

"You know, for a bunch of kids you all make surprisingly good conversationalists, you all covered just about everything from medical ethics to the implications of religion versus science, you guys really like to cover all the bases, including what it meant for your big friends" the Major said

"Well, it was an exercise in looking at humanity from a different viewpoint for sure, I mean don't get me wrong, living alongside a species of autonomous sentient robots certainly put's a lot of things in perspective, both culturally and personally...if there's one thing I've learnt from having Deathshot live in my back garden, and from being guardian to me and boy's, it's that thinking of someone or something as 'normal' is not as straight forward as you think, not when there's a very huge contrast of opinion...I mean, for instance, even though we've explained to Sideswipe countless times that we eat organic food because it's the only source of energy our stomachs are designed to process, he still winces every time he sees one of us eat porridge" Morri replied with a slight grin, the Major only looked at her with a look of both bemusement and amusement.

"That's certainly peculiar" she smirked

"I know; now every time he gets into trouble he's given a choice of either spending his time in punishment pulling extra shifts around the base, or spending a night in the brig and waiting until we have breakfast, he always opts for the extra workload" Morri chuckled; the Major couldn't help but snigger at the thought of a giant robot being grossed out by watching someone eat porridge.

"But you know...even though we've had our share of cultural misinterpretations and misunderstanding between each other, somehow, we found that certain somewhere in the middle and we just seemed to make it work, we share so many things in common and maybe that's why we relate to one another so well..." Morri said as she twiddled one of her wet bangs between her finger and thumb

"Maybe that's why we thought the Autobots were man-made in the first place, from the way we saw them fight those tanks they could have passed for being trained soldiers in exosuites, they all had such an attitude" Major replied

"That's certainly true, there's never a dull moment when your with the Autobots...but, my point is, for us it's one thing to try and deal with something that's a 'non-human' situation, but it's quite another when something like what you explained this morning kinda brings it closer to home....it's a human situation but on a whole other level...you'd think it'd be easier to relate to, but no matter which we tried to flip it, it just made it harder to understand"

"It wasn't our intention to worry or scare you, I just felt it would be better if you heard it from us first before anything happened that landed you in an awkward situation; in all likelihood if you and your friends get moved to a more secure location, there would be a likelihood of you coming across high end military cyborgs and other prosthetic users, it's better that you at least understand what you're going to encounter, rather than be caught out because you don't understand what's what"

"That's a very good point, I hadn't considered that..."

"...And considering you all made the tough decision to take up our offer, I felt we should at least be on the same level of understanding" The Major replied as she looked up at the fading sunlight as the sun began to dip below the horizon on the other side of the house, Morri looked at her in slight bemusement, considering how impassive she maintained her features she hadn't expect the Major to say something like that, at least, not in that context. She looked up at where the Major had her scarlet eyes cast and noticed the evening star was twinkling alone in the sky.

"Major...if it's not too personal, can I ask, what's it like to be cyborg?" Morri though aloud, the Major felt a sharp wave of surprise go through her but she didn't let it show. What was it like to be a cyborg? It was like asking a fish what swimming felt like, she had been so accustom to being in a full prosthetic body for so long that she couldn't remember what her life was like before, what it was like to think of her ghost and body as one and the same? To feel all the sensations and emotions of the mind as they should be and not as something that was so a much a distant memory that she needed a mnemonic device to remind herself of what defined her as an individual, of all the things she had been asked, no-one had ever asked her that question before, on the one hand if had been anyone else it would have been unusual if not somewhat ridiculous because full body prosthesis had been around for so long, but on the other hand, it was so awkward because Morri and the other's hadn't encountered this before, they genuinely didn't know, looking at Morri with her usual calm and straight face, the Major looked back up at the sky as she considered her answer.

"It's...complicated, on a lot of levels to describe what it's like, but I suppose what you notice most is a sense of detachment, feeling the difference between the mental and the physical, and that your body is separate from you" The Major replied, it wasn't the whole truth, but her personal thoughts were her personal thoughts and no-one but Batou was privy to that, not even this decedent kid sitting next to her.

"Well considering it's not the body you're born with I guess that's understandable, but still, swapping one physical form another, it can't have been an easy choice to make" Morri pondered aloud, this time the Major felt her mind drift back to that one day all those long years ago, even now she could still hear the sound of the engines exploding as the plane descended downwards to the ground, the hazy memory of waking up in that hospital, and being told what had been done to her as she lay in that coma, she could live again, but at a price, what she remembered most about that day was the short-lived bitterness, the bitterness at knowing that she was never offered to become something else, someone somewhere had decided for her and they ran with it, but fortunately her desire to live was greater, and it pushed that bitterness away in the end.

"It's, never an easy choice for anyone in that position to make, most of us in section 9 have served in the military at some point, most of the particular jobs we've done over the years have required a certain high level of prosthesis if not full cycberization, as in both mine and Batou's case...we've all had to consider what we had to give up, but it's not a total loss, there are some advantages to being a cyborg, like that fact you can have specialized chemical implants installed that help break down alcohol and stop you getting drunk" The Major said

"That's pretty cool if you're at a party and need a designated driver" Morri replied with a smirk

"Yes, and in Class A bodies like mine, if something happens and you loose a limb, you can simply turn off the pain receptors"

"That's bit extreme, but good if you need to get away out of danger quickly, even the guys can't do that, as you saw with Jet's yesterday" Morri gestured to the wire mess dressings on sleeping seeker's sides.

"I was a bit surprised by that, a robotic alien species that's been around for countless millions of years, in all that time you'd think they'd develop a way to turn off the pain when they feel it"

"You'd think, but in principle their hardwiring is not that dissimilar from the way our own nervous system is laid out, for us it's to do with chemical stimulus and how the flow of neural electrical signals are conveyed to the brain, we put our bodies through a lot on a day to day basis so our 'forms' are hardwired for resilience, with cybertronians, transformers in particular it's a little more delicate, it's all to do with how the various body parts align and realign between mech mode and alt mode, there are two distinct systems for each form and they have to align the right way or they can't feel anything properly, or even function in some cases...even thought there may have been room for improvement physically, personally, I don't think they incorporated an off switch for their nerve system for the fear of it might have detached them from a conscious point of view...you know, the idea of not feeling physical pain could lead to emotional detachment from those around you, ultimately leading to being non empathetic, and if you can't empathize with another's suffering, physical or emotional, then how can serve as part of a team if you don't have one of the fundamental elements that enables you to be of and interact with a group?" Morri replied

"That's a good analogy, in many ways it reflects such dilemma's that's faced by some cyborgs that have lost touch with what it was that defined them as individuals in the first place, in some extreme cases they either retreat so far into their minds that they find it hard if not impossible to come out again, we call it cyberbrain closed shell syndrome, or they become so far detached from the emotional aspects of their conscious minds that they find it incredibly hard to empathizes with others"

"That must be so terrible...not being able to connect with others or relate to how they feel and vice versa if they can't relate to you?...it must be so lonely, if you become a cyborg then why go through with it if that's a possibility?" Morri asked in a concerned tone, the Major couldn't help but smirk, "You just answered the question right there, it's a possibility, but that doesn't mean it happens to everyone, high end prosthetics and full body cyberization have been around for over thirty years now, it's nothing new. There are places to get help from and experts to see and the procedures for full body prosthesis have improved greatly along with the aftercare, the chances of you becoming 'detached' after going full cyborg are less than 16% these days" The Major said with a reassuring smile

"That's pretty low...but..." Morri dropped her gaze with a sombre look in her eye; she took a deep breath and brought her eye's back to meet the Major's curious look

"...What you also said...It's not that its bad here', I mean, as far as my instincts are telling me you are human, you look human you sound and behave like a human, and the only thing that's not sending me into panic mode is the fact that this is an entirely different universe, different in many ways, but predominantly different in that the Allspark wars never happened here, and they didn't come to this earth..." the Major just looked at her completely puzzled

"What do you mean 'it's not that it's bad here?" the Major asked, wondering where this was going

"To put bluntly and without any offence intended...humans essentially as robots" Morri replied with a downcast look, the Major looked at her bemused, but realised something else was being said here, after a moment of silence the Major asked;

"You've had experience with humans as robots?"

"Actually it's the other way around...robots as humans..." the Major just looked at her even more bemused; Morri noticed her curiosity and sighed as she continued.

"There was an incident last term that really got us all in a panic, Sam was attacked in his college dorm by a Decepticon, one that specializes in mimicking us humans and our behaviour, their known as pretenders...anyway, the con was sent to illiminate him but fortunately it was intercepted before it could reach Sam. For three days we didn't hear a word from him and it was only after he was cleared by the CIA that he could let us know he was okay...but the whole thing was a real shock, but what got us all riled was the fact the pretender, who's designation was Alice, had blended in with the crowds so efficiently, no one had any idea she was there, or that she had slipped under the Autobots radar so stealthily, god only knows how long she had been on earth"

"Sounds like it was a pretty close call"

"That's putting it lightly, by the time NEST found the pretender she had already given Sam quite a beating, after the whole thing he spent a couple of days recovering in hospital and his parents requested that he be transferred to a college closer to home, he wasn't pleased to say the least but he and all of us were grateful, because if Bumblebee and Hot Rod hadn't have gotten there in time, he wouldn't be here with us right now...but Deathshot was pretty pissed he didn't get to have a shot at her" Morri said with a small smile, the Major smiled in return as she propped her elbow on the table.

"As hard as it may be, it seems like you have no qualms over being involved with the Autobots, but if that pretender was able to slip under the radar, then what about the rest of the Decepticons? Might they not try to come back to earth?" the Major asked, Morri sighed in reservation, a more serious expression replaced her sombreness as she looked the Major in the eyes with a feeling of sureness.

"...When Deathshot asked me and my cousins if he could become our guardian, I knew...as we all knew, that the idea of the Decepticons returning to earth would be a possibility, and it probably will one day...I don't know what the future holds for us all, but I do know whatever happens, I don't regret a single second I've spent getting to know Deathshot and the others...even here, I don't care what happens, as long as I've got him with me" Morri smiled proudly, the Major returned the sentiment with a small smile of her own, the two females looked up to the now periwinkle blue sky as twilight descended on the valley, the moons pale silvery light glistened like silver on the lake as it peeped over the horizon. Suddenly, a small gust wind blew through the forest, rustling the tops of the trees; the sudden sharp bite of coldness hit Morri skin and made her shiver.

"Ahh! Jesus its freezing! Sorry but I need a hot shower!" Morri called over her shoulder as she made a mad dash for the house, flying in through the door and disappearing into the house, the Major only sniggered and got up to walk back to the security centre, silently tip-toeing past Jetfire, being careful not to wake him up.

"IS ANYONE IN THE BATHROOM?!" Morri called up as she ran up the stairs.

"NO, EVERYONE'S BEEN IN ALREADY!" Tom called our from his bedroom

"GOOD!" Morri replied as she dashed along the landing and disappeared into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her, Tom, Sam, Glen and Ashley peered out from their rooms in curiosity.

"What was that all about?" Glen asked

"How should I know?" Ashley shrugged and the boys all promptly disappeared back into their rooms, back downstairs in the lounge/dinning Ishikawa emerged from one of the secret passages out of a door next to the fire place, he was about to head to the front door when a cluttering sound in the kitchen caught his attention, walking over and looking through the door he saw Darren awkwardly hopping around the room on his one good leg.

"Hi there, are you okay?" he asked when he saw the boy's prosthetic leg was absent , "Huh? Oh I'm fine, Frenzy just went and nicked my leg again for kicks, frankly I don't see what's so funny about it" Darren replied sarcastically as he propped himself against the counter and hopped along to the door, "do you need a hand?" Ishikawa asked, Darren was about to reply when a noise outside the window drew both their attentions, down on the lawn they saw Frenzy dashing around in tight circles wielding Darren's prosthetic leg over his head like a battleaxe, Darren huffed a deep sigh in annoyance, Ishikawa could only watch in goggle-eyed amazement.

"Ahh...come on; better get it back before he accidently throws it in the lake or something, you mind giving me a hand down the stairs outside?" he asked

"Sure thing" Ishikawa replied as he got one hand under Darren's arm to let him transfer his weight onto him and together they walked/hopped out the kitchen, out onto the dining areas balcony and down the stairs onto the poolside patio, Frenzy bounced over giggling like a maniac who's just inhaled a whole tank of helium, Ishikawa stood still while Darren only glared at the hyperactive hacker.

"You had better give that back before I really give something to run away from" he growled, Frenzy only chuckled as he bounced up and down, suddenly, the air behind him shimmered as Deathshot appeared, standing tall with his arms folded and looking down at Frenzy with his trademark cold glair, Frenzy froze still on the spot as the giant sniper bent down on one knee to be closer to him.

"Frenzy, give Darren his structural support unit back" he said coolly, Frenzy promptly threw it at Darren who caught it in one hand, and ran off around the side of the house, "You'll have to forgive him, the twins let him have a whole energon cube earlier...oh, and if you were going to perform Jetfire's final check up of the day, I've already scanned him and he's vitals are all normal, I thought I'd save you trouble" Deathshot smiled, "Thanks big guy, guess I can hit the sack a little earlier than" Darren grinned, "In that case, I bid you good night youngling. Isahikawa" Deathshot nodded as he disappeared from sight, "Put me down on the bench will ya?" Darren said and Ishikawa lowered him down onto the metal bench they were standing next to, Darren pulled up the edges of his short cut cargo trousers, revealing the stump-bucket which was connected to the end of his leg via a large stocking like strap that went right up his thigh, he fitted the base of the leg in the socket of the stump-bucket and then screwed the leg in until a click signalled it was in place securely. All the while he did this, Ishikawa couldn't help but be curious about the old fashioned prosthesis, such a type of artificial limb hadn't been seen in a very long time, so much so it was practically unknown to many people, even he couldn't recall the last time he saw something like that. Darren caught the look on the veteran hackers face and smirked.

"I guess when you live in a place that has such advanced technology, things like this become redundant after a while" he said, Ishikawa blinked, being caught off guard he shook himself out of his musings, "Oh ah, sorry, I didn't mean-" Darren waved it off and patted the side of the bench next to him, Ishikawa obliged and sat down beside him, looking out over the pool and lawn, the twilight was slowly turning darker and darker as the sky turned from periwinkle blue to hues of dark ultramarine and violet and one by one the star's began to twinkle brighter and clearer.

"It's okay really, I've had it for so long I think I'm at the point where I can't really remember having a real leg there in the first place" Darren smiled, "Just out of curiosity, how did it happen?" Ishikawa asked cautiously, Darren merely sighed and dropped his gaze for a brief moment. "Hit and run when I was three...got smashed right into a tree and got knocked out, when I woke up, I found I had no left leg anymore" he replied, "Oh...sorry" Ishikawa replied. "It's okay, I got used to the prosthesis real fast" Darren replied "You know, you can get a more advanced prosthetic leg, one that can be grafted right onto the bone, muscle and blood supply, you probably wouldn't notice the difference between it and your regular leg" Ishikawa offered "Heh, thanks for the offer but I'm good...anyway, how are feeling now? You've had quite time over that last 48 hours huh?" Darren grinned, Ishikawa slumped back on the bench and exhaled a deep sigh, for the first time in a very long time and he could feel the long years catching up with him as he tried to put into perspective his first meeting with the Autobots.

"That's got be the biggest understatement of the century, I know we were dealing with aliens, but seeing them for the first time?..." "Is something you never forget?" Darren finished for him, Ishikawa looked at him in surprise and slumped even further down, Darren placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder and smiled. "I know, you're not the first guy to nearly have a heart-attack after meeting the guys for the first time, I mean, when I first meet the Autobots? I nearly ran like hell I thought they were so big and badass" he smiled, Ishikawa straightened up as a thought came to mind, "Batou told me about how you got involved with them, is it true you actually managed to hack into the Pentagon?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yep, and before you ask, yeah I really am a child genius, have been since third grade" Darren grinned, "You look too young to be a hacker" Ishikawa said as he blinked in surprise, "Yeah everybody says that, in a way it's kind of an advantage, nobody suspects a teenage kid of being able to hack the one of the world's most reinforced military computer networks" Darren replied, "How long did it take to get what you were looking for?" Ishikawa asked; "Overall, to get in, get the file and get out while covering my tracks, about an hour, maybe less" Darren shrugged.

"An hour? That's fast"

"Uh, not really I guess, I mean, I've hacked into bigger networks that have required even less time to get around" Darren replied casually, Ishikawa diverted his gaze across the pool, as he watched the sleeping seeker he still couldn't believe this was for real, even though the shock factor had worn off, he still found it incredible to be in the presence of such unbelievable beings, he could only imagine the initial reactions of his team-mates when they first encountered them on the day they had the secret meeting behind the woods, he knew, when they got back to the tiltroater that they were very shocked and taken aback, back then he could only wonder at they saw, he smirked as he imagined the look on Batou's face, he knew he would have been completely blown away by the sight of nine giant alien robots.

"Oh I nearly forgot! Batou told me you're a hacker, is it true?" Darren asked eagerly

"Uh yeah, I specialize in data gathering and analysis"

"Really? I find viruses and firewalls are more my thing, but I guess when your hunting down terrorists, you gotta have everything you need in order to catch them right?" Darren asked, Ishikawa simply nodded in reply, Darren noticed the distant look on the older man's face and wondered what playing on his mind, he couldn't help but pass a small sigh and ask;

"Are you really okay with all this?"

"Huh?"

"Because, it's okay if you're not totally comfortable, you're not the first guy to nearly freak out over seeing the Autobots for the first, hell you and the rest of your team did way better than most" Darren said reassuringly , Ishikawa gave him a weak smile and replied;

"It's not a question of being uncomfortable kid, it's more like feeling out of my depth...working in section 9 means going up against some pretty hard targets, and you've got be prepared for any situation that crops up...when we first starting investigating you guys we knew we had stumbled across something pretty big, but no-one including myself had any idea it would lead us to discovering that we had real live aliens in our own back yard...it's one thing to prepare for some maniac who tries to bring about the worst case scenario...but aliens? Sorry but that was one area we had no expertise in" Darren couldn't help but smirk, but straightened up again as he continued; "So...you weren't expecting to be taken out of your comfort zone so abruptly?..." he thought aloud, Ishikawa looked at him in mild surprise, "I know...after I was found out I wasn't expecting to whisked away by the men in black to a top secret government facility to meet the very subjects I had read about in Pentagons 'above classified' files, I was even more blown away when they offered me a job with them rather than throw me in juvi, talk about a 'headtrip of the moment'" Darren continued.

"So you accepted the job just like that?" Ishikawa asked curiously

"Well, even though it was a slight spur of the moment, having a complete geek boner at the idea of working alongside giant robot aliens and all that, NEST's head honchos set it up so my family would be safe, no-one in my family or my neighbourhood knows I work for the government...and maybe it's just as well, learning the truth about Mission city was not the only thing I came across in the military's data banks, of course they don't that so that's why they like to keep an eye on me" Darren smirked

"So why did you agree if you knew they'd be breathing down your neck?" Ishikawa asked curiously, Darren slouched on the bench and diverted his gaze up to the night sky with a look of content gracing his young face.

"When I agreed to join, Prime was not happy with the idea of me being cooped up in an isolated tech lab, he wanted me to be allowed to live my life as I wanted and only work on a part-time basis, he's got a thing for us kids, as a precaution he assigned Trailbreaker to be my guardian, just in case the Decepticon's ever got wind of what I know...anyway, I wasn't keen on the idea at first, but after I got to know Trailbreaker a little better, I was surprised to find he actually enjoyed being around us humans, like Jazz, Bluestreak, Bumblebee and Deathshot, he couldn't get enough of us, our culture, how we live, he's one the few that's gone totally native!..." Darren chuckled, "...But what really struck me about him, was that he genuinely came to care about me, he's there when I need help, even with the littlest things, he always makes sure I check at the base on time, He spends every spare minute he's got to hang out with me and he loves going out on road trips...ultimately he's like the big brother I never had" Darren continued.

"So being a guardian is not just a job for these guys huh?" Ishikawa asked, his feeling of anxiousness had slowly ebbed away as he listened to the 15 year old, the way he described Trailbreaker had eased his slightly frayed nerves, maybe these giants weren't as intimidating as they appeared, their sheer size was indeed a good advantage for instilling fear into any potential enemies, but maybe he had overreacted a little?

"...He's not just my friend, I've known him for over 18 months but it feels like I've known him all my life...that's how much their friendship makes you feel...to them you're not just a human, your something more worth paying attention to...and for us, that's means you're not just another face in the crowd" Darren said with an honest smile as he patted the veteran on the shoulder, he stood up and walked back over to the stairway, he was about to walk back up when he turned back around, "Oh, and one last thing, if your still not feeling so sure...just relax, your okay when your with us...well, I gotta hit the sack, good night!" he smiled and slowly walked back up the stairs into the house. As Ishikawa watched the kid enter the house, he sat in silence, feeling still a little confused but not as anxious as he felt when he first arrived at the safe house, he sighed and rubbed his eyes as he remembered still had a security system to set, he got up off the bench and started walking around the house to the where part of the security system was set up, he stopped a moment to look at Jetfire and noticed the wire mess dressings on his legs, side and part of the base of his wing, 'was it really painful for you?...' he thought, 'if it was, then I'm sorry if I thought any differently'.

The night waned in silence, inside the garages the Autobots were recharging peacefully, Jetfire was still fast asleep, although he had now shifted onto his front, Deathshot sat recharging in the centre of the upper lawn in his alt mode while inside the house there wasn't a single sound or movement anywhere, the soft sound of breathing emanated out from the bedrooms as the kids slept soundly. Frenzy had burned through the energy from his energon cube earlier and had crashed out on the foot of Hailey's bed. While most were deep in their dreams, Tom was the only one awake, he looked his watch on the bedside table and saw it was 12:32 am, the dryness at the back of his throat prompted him to get up and walk, still half asleep out the room, down the landing and the stairs and head to the kitchen for a glass of water. As his eyes adjusted to the lights above the counters he reached for a glass on one of the shelves and was about to turn the tap on when the sight of a set of silver teeth and one red optic staring in through the window made him jump out of his skin with a panicked yell.

"GHAAA! Ravage don't scare me like that!" Tom shouted at the window, Ravage only laughed a hoarse mechanical laugh on the other side of the window and leaped down from the walkway, Tom watched the panther slink away into the night, his feline form seemed to glide across the lawn past Deathshot, over the hedge and into the forest like a shadow without an owner, Tom grumbled something under his voice as he poured the water and sat down at kitchen table and huffed in frustration. But his mind soon drifted off to other thoughts that where circling his mind, ones that he couldn't quite put his finger on, but made him sit still in contemplation, as he downed a large gulp of water Togusa entered the kitchen.

"Are you alright? I thought I heard a shout?" he asked

"Yeah that was me I'm fine, Ravage just spooked me at the window is all" Tom replied

"I don't blame you, that cat is pretty terrifying" Togusa said with a small smile as he entered the kitchen and stood next to the table, "Couldn't sleep?" he continued, Tom only gave a small smirk and downed another swig. "Got too much on my mind to sleep with..."he replied, feeling his fatherly instincts begin to ping at the back of his mind, Togusa pulled up a seat and propped his elbow on the table, seeing he was willing to listen Tom sighed with a smile and leaned back in the chair, and decided to oblige the detective.

"Aside from all the craziness of the last 48 hours, I guess I'm just...not sure what to feel to be honest...I mean, this morning was, well you know..."

"Weird?"

"Pretty much, as well as a bit of a surprising shock, I mean cyborgs, androids and AI? That's all science fiction back home; I guess that's always the thing isn't it? Its one thing to imaging something in your mind, but always quite another to encounter it in real life, then everything seems to change because reality puts it in perspective" Tom said with a distant look in his eyes, "Wow, sounds like you really got to grips with it all huh?" Togusa blinked in surprise.

"Well...I guess when you're put in a situation where you don't know something as well as you thought, it kinda humbles you, but at the same time, it makes you wonder its good or bad...ultimately it's a matter of personal perspective" Tom replied

"That's true, even though it's been around for over thirty years now; the whole issue of full body prosthesis is still debated by a lot of religious and humans rights groups"

"Are you a cyborg?"

"Me? Oh no, I've just got the cyberbrain"

"So your brains really in a metal case?"

"No no! It's a sub-brain, sort of an add-on computer at the base of the brain, other than that I'm the only one in section 9 who's all flesh and blood" Togusa chuckled

"Really? Because I have to say Batou and Major don't look mechanical, for cyborgs their really human like, you could walk right pass them on the street and not even see anything to suggest their anything else" Tom smiled

"Well, when you work alongside someone with a high prosthetics percentage you tend to notice the little things that make them different from everyone else"

"Do you ever find yourself feeling like the odd one out at times?" Tom asked, Togusa dropped his gaze for an instant as his mind cast back over the last eight years of his career and all he had been through, he remembered the feelings of doubt and uncertainty he used to carry when he was a rookie, and how in some small measure they still stayed with him after all this time, despite his improvements. At first, working around people who were cyborgs had given him an unconscious sense of inadequacy, that they were faster, stronger, better sharp shooters and hackers then him, but it was only by working the numerous cases over the years he had learnt he was picked for being the one who could interpret the human element of a crime, and be the variable that made the team flexible and unpredictable, though he was physically weaker, he was still an important factor that made the team work, and that had given him a secret sense of pride.

"...When I first started out with section 9 yes, there were times I used to wonder why the Major picked me for the job, half the time I used to wonder what she saw that qualified me for such a tough line of work...but, as time wore on, it turned out that you don't have to be a cyborg to get a tough job done, and that, as an 'all natural' you can posses other qualities that are just as effective at catching the bad guys" the detective replied

"Ah so kind of a brains over brawn thing huh?"

"Uh not necessarily, more like human intuition" Togusa chuckled

"Right...I can relate to that, hanging out with the guys certainly puts your own opinion of what you are as a human into perspective..." Tom said as he looked out the window, Togusa dropped his head as another thought came to mind.

"...Just out of curiosity, I was wondering...if you really did come from another universe, what was it to travel through that 'rift' Sam described?" he asked,

"What was it like?..." Tom blinked in surprise, he raked his brain to try and remember what happened that day, but no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't find anything, with a deep sigh he looked at Togusa with a confounded gaze.

"...To be honest...none of us know what happened, one minute we were standing on the platform of that machine and the next minute it fired up and there was this blinding flash of white light...the next thing I remember was waking up in a field with a pounding headache with everyone else nearby" he continued

"Hmm...Something must have happened to knock you all out"

"That's what I don't get, when we teleport with Jetfire it's bumpy and like a rollercoaster ride without safety harnesses but we don't get knocked out...obviously the distance between universes is a big factor in what we went through and must have been something way bigger than we could handle, or something like that I think" Tom shrugged, Togusa just rubbed the back of his neck in awkward anxiety.

"Uh yeah, maybe...so the rift still exists?"

"It was there when we woke up, we originally intended to camp nearby in case Wheeljack and the rest of the Autobots somehow managed to reopen it...but, we didn't know where we were, so we left to try and find a point of reference, but when we came across that warehouse, and those tanks appeared everything just went nuts...and after the battle we couldn't go back because of those choppers so teleported over ten miles away into the forest, D went back to scope out the sight and found the military had moved in and had put a huge dome over the rift, they obviously must have seen what happened because there were a lot of reinforcements and guys in hazmat suites there and storm the place was not an option, even if the D and the guys were superior fighters we were vastly outnumbered, and they didn't want to put us in harm's way so we ran and hid in the city, well on the outskirts at least"

"How did you come across that storage facility anyway?"

"Well it wasn't easy, after we reviewed what happened we decided to hide somewhere where we wouldn't be picked out so easily, I mean, you gotta admit, a bunch of hot looking cars and two weird looking jets sitting in the middle of a forest is somewhat conspicuous"

"I suppose that's true" Togusa chuckled

"Yeah, so we searched New Port for somewhere we could all hide together, we scouted quite a few places around the city but ultimately those storage houses were the best place available, and we did intend to stay there and wait, but after that whole incident outside your home we kind of had to stay low for a while...the Major said you and the rest of your team saw the guys fighting outside the warehouse, what were you doing there anyway?" Tom asked, Togusa looked at him for a moment, unsure of what to say at first, and then he replied;

"We were working on a mission to stop some bad guys from causing trouble...we were about to make our move when suddenly this bright light appeared in the sky above our heads, at first we all thought it was a nuke going off, but it was actually a pillar of multicoloured light going up into the sky, and this defining boom that sounded like it was coming from everywhere, we ran up to the ridge that overlooked the valley and...Well, basically we saw the whole fight"

"Must have been quite a show from where you were, we were just trying to find somewhere to duck and hide...what a way to arrive, we were barely here 15 minutes and we thought we were going to be spending the rest of our time here in the trenches" Tom replied, Togusa wondered just how he and the other kids managed to get through that fight, he remembered watching them from the bushes after they ran up the ridge, but decided to leave that part out, least it might touch on sensitive memories of the whole incident.

"By the way, we didn't get to thank you properly for looking after Anny after she ran off in the park"

"That's okay, my daughter ran off at the same time, when I found her with Annabelle at our neighbours place she told me they had spent the whole afternoon together, me and my wife were willing to let her stay at our place until we could find her parents" Togusa replied, Tom frowned as he looked Togusa in the eye, the detective began to worry in the back of his mind, had he put two and two together about what really happened that day?

"...I know you said you knew about us, but did you intend to use Anny to lure us out?" Tom asked in a serious tone as he leaned forward, Togusa looked at him and knew there was no point in lying, he sighed in defeat and replied;

"...It was the only way we think of to get you out into the open, but you have to understand we didn't know about the true nature of the Autobots at that time, and we took every precaution imaginable, Anny was never in any danger I assure you..." Tom looked at him for a long while, trying to read his face to find any trace of deceit, Togusa kept his features humble and sympathetic, trying to convey his honesty. Finally Tom leaned back and relaxed; Togusa breathed a mental sigh of relief but now watched the confused look on the teens face as his gaze became distant.

"If you had caught us then, what would you have done?"

"We would have taken you into custody for questioning about where your friends were...you may not fully realise it but your presence here has caused one hell of a stir, and the way things were heating up, believe me the treatment you would have gotten from us would be a far cry from what the military or the CIS probably had in store" Togusa sighed, Tom's back stiffened in fear against the chair.

"You mean they would have tortured us?!" he asked nervously

"No, but they wouldn't have gone easy on you just because you were kids, and it was because you had Annabelle, the twins and Ashley with you that the prime minister gave us clearance to investigate your case...no kid should have to bare being separated from their family, and I'd say the youngsters have been through enough as it is"

"Hey wait a minute that's not fair! We've been doing the best we can to keep Anny and the others safe we didn't ask to come here!" Tom snapped

"No, I'm sorry I didn't mean it like that, what I meant to say was, I don't believe the military would have handled this as sensitively as us...From what we saw during our surveillance on you guys we could see you kids were no threat, if anything your certainly more dedicated to looking after Anny than some people, I mean, who's oldest among you?"

"Glen, he's 24, but Morri and Mikaela are really more the mature ones compared to the rest of us, Mikaela's more closer to Anny"

"That's impressive; it can't be easy being a teenage mom"

"What? No she's not her mum! Back home she's Anny's babysitter, her real mum and dad are back ...home..." Tom trailed off as he suddenly thought about Annabelle's parents, how heartbroken they must have been when Annabelle 'disappeared' from their world and came here with them, had Sarah cried all night long for her little girl? Had Will been beside himself with fear and anger at what happened? His mind reeled as he began to imagine the reactions of the rest of the Autobot's and humans on the base, he slumped forward with a look of pure sombreness and guilt.

"Are you all alright?" Togusa asked

"I...just remembered...what the hell must be going on back home, Poor Will and Sarah they must be going out of their minds over this..." Tom said as he put his head in his hands, Togusa put a hand on his shoulder and caught his gaze. "Hey listen, whatever happens, I'm sure your friends will find a way to get you back home again, after all, if you came here via that rift then surely it can be reopened again right?" Togusa said, trying to sound encouraging, Tom looked up at his and sighed; "...Yeah, we think that's possible...but the question that really gets me is, how is your boss going to convince the military, the same military that has been hunting us and tried to attack us the day before yesterday, to give us sanctuary until we can go home? Not to mention they already know how we got here and have a huge domed road block in place, how is he going to negotiate around that fact?" he asked

"I don't know, but if there's one thing you can say about the chief it's that if you get in an argument with him there's no way he'll let you win, he'll beat you hands down every time. Don't worry he can more than handle himself with the prime minister and the top brass, if anything I bet he must have a few of the cabinet shaking in their boots by now" Togusa smiled, Tom only looked at him with uncertainty in his eyes.

"...You think?" he asked simply, "Hey, I've known the chief a long time and believe me, when he's serious about something he never backs down until the jobs done...look, you're not going to do yourself any favours by worrying about what might or might not happen, you've all done incredibly well so far so don't go giving up now..." Tom looked at the detective and gave him a smile, he got up from the chair and put the glass on the counter then Togusa lead him to the door of the kitchen; "Look, go and get some sleep, you'll be alright" he said

"You know it's weird, when you meet the guys for the first time I genuinely thought you were going to run a mile you looked so shocked if not a little freaked out" Tom grinned

"I'm still a little scared, but I'm getting used to it" Togusa nervously chuckled.

"That's the exact same thing I told Morri a week after she introduced me to D...well, good night" Tom said as he walked back through the lounge towards the stairs. Togusa leaned against the door and sighed, 'I hope you really can hang on in there kid, because I don't know what the hell's coming next' he thought as feelings of doubt began to play around at the back of his mind. He left the kitchen and was about to exit the house through the balcony doors, but he stopped when he saw Ravage watching him from the trees near the house, the sudden rush of fear that swept through him told him to stay in the house and do this watch from the safety of the security centre. As Ravage watched him disappear out of sight, his optic narrowed in suspicion of the detective, when the lights went off he jumped down and vanished into the darkness of the forest.

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R&R please!


	25. Chapter 24: Getting To Know You II

Sorry I haven't updated in while, I've been a bit busy with other stuff the last few weeks & I haven't been particularly focused on the story of late, I've been coming up with a lot of new OC's lately and my energies have been all over the place. It's kind of affected this chapter in a way so if you spot any discrepancies in the grammer or anything else that looks a bit squiffy I apologize! Anyway I hope to try and reignite that spark that got me stimulated about this story in the first place, I won't be putting the story on hold but the updates might not be as frequent as they used to be, but I will persist and go all the way with this so hang in there people!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Transformers or Ghost in the Shell, just my OC's and the plot.

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SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 24: GETTING TO KNOW YOU II

The morning sun slow crept over the valley slopes, bathing the valley and mountain range in pale golden sunlight, hazy shafts of light fell through the trees, lighting up the forest as if it were on fire, the waters of the lake were flat as glass and all around the birds hailed the dawn with their morning chorus. It could pass for being a scene from an old fashioned love poem. In the safe house, Morri stirred from her sleep as the first light of day fell on her heavy eyelids, she groaned in protest as the brightness tried to penetrate the soft veils of skin and made her turn over on her side, as she pulled the covers over her shoulder something seemed to pull them back slightly, with a groggy mumble she pulled them tighter, then, she felt something crawl up on her leg, a trilling clicking and croaking sound could be heard, she shivered as something cold and metal tapped the side of her neck, frustrated at being woken up she tossed onto her back to see what it was. Standing on her legs was a large praying mantis like robotic creature; it had two sets of pincers, two legs that split into three at the knees and one large red optic that was set in a body/head that looked like a construct made of shattered silver glass and scalpel blades.

"Oh, morning Reedman...when did Ravage let you out?" she asked groggily as she offered her hand for the robotic creature to stroke against, as her eyes focused and adjusted to the light she could make out the delicate and intricate metal shapes that made up the drones body.

"Chirr clicliclicliclic tic tic tic" was the robots simple reply, unlike Scorponok and Ravage, Reedman's CPU was not as sophisticated and his basic memory matrix made him a semi-sentient AI, plus he didn't possess a basic vocalizer, ultimately he was dependant on Ravage for his survival and essentially, he and Ravage shared a symbiosis, but never the less he quite smart and whenever give the chance was always curious to explore his surroundings, but what he really came to like was being stroked by soft, warm and tender human hands, he chirred in content as he rubbed his 'head' against the back of Morri's hand, while she slumped on her back letting the sun warm her face and neck, she frowned again as the sun disappeared but smiled when she saw it was Deathshot standing at the window.

"Good morning youngling, did you recharge well?" he asked softly, he knew she always hated load noises when she was waking up; she smiled back and rolled on her side, Reedman settled himself down against her back and started combing her long hair with his smaller pincers.

"Hmm...I did until Reedman here tried to nick the covers" Morri smiled up at him.

"So I saw, Ravage let him out sometime earlier this morning, he's been stalking around the house ever since"

"Have any of the section 9 members seen him yet?"

"Not face to face, but they must have seen him on the security system at some point, he's been out for over five hours, anyway, its 7:47am everyone else is beginning to get up"

"Okay...just ten more minutes" Morri smirked as she pulled the covers over her shoulder, Reedman however tapped his larger pincers against the centre of her back, essentially tickling her, "Is that meant to mean 'no'?" she giggled "Chirrcracacacwa" Reedman replied, "No?" she asked again, the drone simply nodded, "Fair enough, but since you woke me up, go and make a pest of yourself with some of the others" she huffed, to which the silver creature flew off the bed and out the room in a shot, in a few seconds a load shout came out of Sam's room, Reedman ran past the door as a large pillow was hurled at him.

"REEDMAN DON'T CRAWL UP MY LEGS LIKE THAT, YOU NEARLY GAVE ME A FREAKIN' HEART ATTACK!" Sam shouted from out his room, "Yo man! Don't go wakin' the whole house up! It's nearly eight in the morning!" Glen replied "Keep it down out there! If I don't get my beauty sleep I'll have hideous dark circles under my eyes all day!" Hailey called out from down the hall, "Who cares about your eyes! My brain need's some serious rest!" Darren shouted, "Dudes! Dudettes! It's like eight in the morning, keep it down out there!" Miles groggily called out, "We know!" the twins snapped, "HOW ABOUT YOU ALL KEEP IT DOWN IN THERE AND GET UP ALREADY!" Jetfire's shouted as his booming voice made the walls of the house vibrate. Morri and Deathshot exchanged a surprised look, then broke out into giggles, "I guess it's time to get up then?" Can you lower me down to the kitchen? I'd like to call first dibs on the muffins this morning" Morri smiled as she threw the covers off and reached for the bed robe that was hanging on the headboard, she hopped into her guardian's hand and as he lowered her down from the balcony to the walkway that connected to the kitchen she saw Saito coming down the walkway towards them.

"Morning!" she waved

"Morning, You sleep well?" he asked, "Pretty much, at least's Jetfire's snoring wasn't as load as it usually is" she replied, "I heard that!" Jetfire retorted from where he sat by the poolside, "well it is true old timer; your boosters do make quite a rumble at night" Deathshot grinned, "Ah bah! I'm going back into recharge!" the old seeker groaned and promptly collapsed back onto the ground with a thud, his optics flicked shut and he started 'snoring' out of his jet boosters, Saito only quirked an eyebrow.

"He's never been one for early mornings, even when running reckys and manoeuvres back home" Deathshot said, "I remember, it was practically as regular as Wheeljack's experiments going off" Morri replied as she hopped off his hand and entered the kitchen, "You hungry?" she asked, "I'm good thanks" Saito replied, Morri shrugged and headed on into the kitchen, As Deathshot watched her busy herself about getting all the food out, he couldn't help but smile a little, Saito quirked an eyebrow as he caught the look on the Autobot snipers face.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Hmm...Nothing"

"Nothing?" Saito asked with a small smirk, Deathshot caught the tone of the human's voice and gave him a sideways glance. "Perceptive aren't you?" Deathshot smirked, "In my line of work you have to be, when you're going up against a tough opponent you have to be able to anticipate his next move, reading his mind simply by reading face could tell you a lot about what he's thinking" Saito replied in his usual cool manner, "I can relate, you'd be surprised at just how many subtle signals a bot can give away when he's put in a tight spot, but I have to say, when it comes to the finer points of natural body language and posture you humans have it down to a naturally evolved fine art" Deathshot replied.

"I suppose, but your face looks so human, if anything I can read your face a lot better than the others"

"I have been told that before, to be honest, when I first came to Earth I really didn't see the resemblance...mind you, back on Cybertron a lot of my former comrades said I did have a rather 'un-mechanical' face, I just put it down to the extreme differences in format design between myself and them...after all, my particular format is not exactly common place among most cybertronians" Deathshot shrugged, Saito's face turned impassive, but that glimmer of curiosity remained in his one eye, with a hard gulp, he felt compelled to ask something that had been burning on his mind for some time.

"So...where you really the one that shot me outside Togusa's apartment that night you guys came to retrieve the girl?" he asked, Deathshot was silent for a moment, then sighed through his vents and gazed at him with a look of honesty and reverence.

"Yes I was, but of course it wasn't anything personal...and of course I didn't know it was you, I couldn't see your face for the darkness" he replied

"How were you able to take that shot? I choose that position specifically for the reason it was the best one there, anywhere else and the buildings would have been in the way, plus the wind direction would have made it difficult to squeeze off a clean shot...if anything I was expecting the enemy sniper to go there and we could catch him, or rather you, there and then" Saito said as he leaned on the railing

"Ah, but I'm a dual-terrain sniper, fully equipped to snipe on both the ground and in the air, from your position I was about 270 yards away and was looking straight down your barrel..." Saito's eyebrows flew up in surprise and straightened up with a slight jolt.

"But...I didn't see anything" he said, Deathshot smiled and straightened upright, the air around him shimmered and he disappeared from sight, only to reappear seconds later, Saito's face grimaced sourly as he felt like face palming his forehead, the word 'DUH!' rang around inside his mind, he then remembered seeing him disappear above his head back when the kids were still at the hideout and he went to scout out the advancing military assault force, how did he forget that?, Deathshot only chuckled and offered the human sniper a friendly smile.

"It's a trick that's served me very well; and one that many never see coming" he chuckled

"I bet, I've never seen therm-optics as good as that" Saito replied

"Therm-optics?"

"Uh, never mind...Anyway, how did you come to be a guardian to the girl and her cousins?"

"Well it quite simple really...after drifting around in outer space for an unknown length of time, I picked up an Autobot signal from earth telling me about the fate of the Allspark and the inevitable outcome of the war, by that time I really didn't have anything to lose so I jetted right over. The only problem was when I flew over the north pole the magnetic field sent me off course and I touched down about ten thousand miles from my initial destination, and with my navigation and communications systems damaged I couldn't fly and I couldn't contact anyone. I didn't know what to do or where to go and as I aimlessly walked around trying to think of a plan, I had failed to notice this small organic female being at my feet, staring up at me from the ground...needless to say it was a very awkward moment"

"What happened?"

"Well Um?..." Deathshot looked away with a rather embarrassing look in his optic; if it were possible for him to blush he surely would have turned a bright shade of red, he rubbed the back of his neck, feeling somewhat uncomfortable he was about to try and reply when Morri leaned out the kitchen window holding a glass of orange juice and a plate with two blueberry muffins on top.

"What happened was I took off like a shot, he chased after me in an attempt to try and calm me down, only when I started running the wrong way he then started running away from me, thinking that I was going to, how did you put it?" Morri said with a rather wicked smirk, Deathshot sighed in defeat and hung his shoulders. "Attack me by spraying me with acid slime and melt my armour into slag, look, I already I explained I didn't know back then what humans have in the way of natural defences, for all I knew you could have done worse" Deathshot replied in a flat tone, Saito folded his arms and looked at the Autobot sniper in surprise.

"Seriously? You thought we could shoot acid? From where exactly?" Saito chuckled; Morri's face fell flat with a disgusted grimaced look, "Don't ask" she said in a deadpan tone, Saito took the cue and left the subject alone, "So uh, what do you guys do together?" he asked

"Well with the war finally over we've got a lot of free time to kill, we do all sorts of things as well as try new things out, but personally, I like nothing better than to just fly through a clear blue sky on a summer's day with warm thermals under my wings, it doesn't get better than that" Deathshot said with a nostalgic smile as he remembered spending last autumn over the southern skies of England, enjoying the wind as it rushed over his canopy and feeling the sun on his wings and tailfins.

"I love it when you take us up for a few loops and barrel rolls, that'll never get boring" Morri grinned as she took a swig of her orange juice and headed back inside.

"That must be really something, it's just shame you have to stay grounded whilst your here" Saito sighed, "I know, being on the ground for any long length of time is frustrating for us flyers, it would be like you being confined to stay sitting down all day and being told not to use your legs" the Autobot replied,

"I guess that would be frustrating" Saito replied. For a moment they both watched as a flock of crows passed over the house towards the lake, cawing and squawking incessantly, their black plumage made them look like silhouettes against the colours of the morning sky and for a moment Deathshot felt the fleeting urge to fire up his engines and join them. As the sounds of the children busying themselves in the kitchen echoed from out the open kitchen window he smirked, thinking about his life back home in England and how it reminded him of all the early mornings he listened in on his charges getting ready for school and college. With each giggle and chatty quip his mind drifted off to other things as he looked across the lake towards the mountains.

"I'm curious...what will happen when you finally go home? What will happen to the rift?" Saito asked, Deathshot looked at him with slight concern in his optic and dropped his gaze in thought. "I don't know...to be honest I'm more concerned with how your chief is going to convince your prime minister and cabinet that we're not a threat...did we really cause that much of a stir when we arrived?" he asked with a concerned frown.

"...I'm afraid so, excluding us you made a lot of people worried that day, ever since then everyone in the cabinet hasn't had a clue what to do or how to handle this the right way...this whole alien encounter thing is new ground for everyone" Saito replied with a sympathetic tone.

"...We had no idea...not an inkling of anything to suggest anyone was looking for us, and even if there had been a confrontation we would have tried to make it short as possible, like I said before, we try to avoid confrontations when at all possible"

"At least you have the common sense to want for a peaceful solution, I think the military's top brass haven't stopped for a moment to consider what could happen if they go up against you guys"

"Well all I can say is, if they were gunning for fight it wouldn't have been much of a fight in the first place, and not for the reason you're assuming"

"Why's that?"

"Because, and I say this without pride nor ego, Bluestreak and myself would have pinned down any advancing forces with just a few well placed shots...don't forget, an enemies heavy artillery and large numbers may be intimidating, but ultimately it's the sniper that commands the greatest power on a battlefield, with a few shots we can pin down a whole platoon and instil fear into the hardest of warriors, it's a skill many fear, hate and respect, but either way, as snipers, we command fear and death at the ends of our gun barrels" Deathshot with an air of pride in his voice.

"Yeah that's true, as sniper's we know how to make our targets sweat, but we still have to answer to our commanders and ultimately the generals. At the end of the day all we're good for grunt work and cleaning up somebody else's dirty work" Saito replied with a frown, Deathshot snapped his head round and squared up straight in front of the human, Saito backed up slightly as the sheer size of the Autobot encompassed his peripheral vision.

"What did you just say?" Deathshot asked seriously

"I said we're-"

"I heard what you said, are you saying you see yourself as a lowly grunt?" Saito only nodded in response, he nearly shouted in protest as the giant scooped him up into his palm and held him in front of his face, his piercing gaze caught the human's eye.

"Now you listen to me, you are a sniper! NEVER insult yourself by considering your position to be that of a grunt! It's a disgrace to your profession and it insults other top class snipers like me! We are a class of soldier that stands above the rest; we hold a long history of influencing the battles we fight with our trigger fingers, what anyone thinks of you is irrelevant! And you should never let such insults influence your opinion of yourself!" Deathshot said sternly, Saito kept his back firm and straight in an attempt to hide his intimidation.

"I-I'm sorry!" Saito replied, Deathshot simply sighed and gently placed him back down on the walkway.

"No, I'm sorry...it's just I can't stand to see a fellow sniper consider himself anything less. Being a sniper is not just a job it's not something you can just wake up one morning and decide to do on a whim, you have to be focused, committed to the hunt, and inevitably, be willing to take a life and know that that life will never live again because of you. Not many individuals possess that kind of courage or nor focus of mind to commit their lives to taking the lives of others, regardless of whether their good or evil...it's not a job we can be proud of, but it's not one where you should put yourself down either...because ultimately, it's not just about being able to handle a long range rifle and shoot from long distances, it's about power and responsibility; the power to command fear, and the responsibility to decide who lives and who dies..." as Saito listened he was surprised to hear the Autobot speak with such a profound emotion, he realised sniping wasn't just a job for him, it was something much more and it meant something to him.

"Is...That how all you cybertronian snipers regard your sniping?...Because if I've stepped on any cultural nerves I apologize-"

"No it's not a cultural thing...but...it's how I regard it, and it's how it should have been...I'll admit I've done things in the past I'm not proud of, but of all the things I have ever done, I've never taken what I am for granted..." Deathshot sighed heavily, his one optic betraying his sombre thoughts as his mind drifted back to the darker days of the war. "Listen, I don't take my job as a sniper for granted either, it's not something I make light of...but I can see, for you..I guess for both of us really, it's something to hold in a higher regard..." Saito said offhand.

"Higher regard?...in that case let me ask you this...considering we're both pro's, we both know that you need a solid conviction in what we do...taking a life is a very deep and personal thing and you need to be at peace with your conscious...so what is your conviction that enables you to squeeze the trigger?"

"My conviction?...I guess, at first it was more out of frustration at seeing my own country practically snub the rest of Asia as it spiralled down into the chaos of war, for a long time I was angry and it fuelled my desire to bring justice to those who I thought deserved it, but...there was an incident that made me realise my I was wrong, and I paid for it with my eye and arm" Saito said as his voice betrayed a rear moment of passive honest that was seldom seen in the sniper, Deathshot blinked in mild surprise and leaned in a little closer with an understanding look in his optic.

"Better sniper?"

"Yep, best I've ever known"

"Why didn't they kill you there and then?"

"...Because I shot the men that were under her command and she fooled me with her poker face, considering she had me nailed from the start I had no excuse to dispute her, so she took me and made me her sniper"

"Her?" Deathstot queried, Saito gestured towards the Major who walked out from another secret doorway in the wall of the house.

"I see...do you have any regrets being under her command?"

"Nope, But I have to say, when it comes to being in charge she never does things by half"

"Not one for sitting on the sidelines is she?" Deathshot smirked

"Certainly not, whenever we're in a tight spot together she's always up front and centre" Saito smiled. As the two snipers continued their chat, Morri watched them from the kitchen with a content smile on her face, as Tom took a bite of his toast he looked over to where she was looking and smirked. "Heh, I was wondering when those two were going to hit it off" he smiled, "the doppelgangers? Cool!" Miles commented, "Miles, I've told you before, they're not doppelgangers, just human-trans-Autobot doubles that's all" Darren said casually, "That doesn't make any sense, my money's still on the theory of some kind of cosmic symmetry" Hailey said, "That makes even less sense!" Becca replied, "You know we've been going around in circles over this, why don't we just agree to disagree" Mikaela said as she poured some coffee into a mug.

"Disagree about what?" Batou asked as he entered the kitchen.

"Ah nothing, we're still trying to figure out why D and Saito look so much alike! Tom said thumbing over his shoulder towards the two snipers out on the walkway. "Personally, I'm all for agreeing to disagree, my head starting to hurt from all the high-end science babble" Miles said offhand, "You want anything to eat?" Sam offered.

"Nah I'm good, but I heard a whole load of shouting earlier, what was that all about?"

"Ah we woke ol'Jet's up so he woke us all up, he's not an early riser" Becky replied

"Jetfire's really grouchy in the morning, kinda like Ironhide!" Annabelle smiled,

"Speaking of which, the nanites should have healed his wounds by now, if the metal under the mess dressings isn't still fractured then he should be okay to have them taken off today" Mikaela said.

"That's good" Batou replied

"Yeah, but first, let him have ten more minutes of sleep, I don't want him to be touchy for the rest of the day, the lambo twins do a good job of that the rest of the time" Becca said, Batou only smirked, looking around the kitchen, he noticed the group was one short.

"Hey, where'd that younger cousin of yours get to?" he asked

"Who Ashley? He's training with Ravage up in the gym" Morri replied.

"Training?" he echoed

"Yeah, Ravage is his combat tutor, he's pretty good at keeping him outta' trouble" Glen said, Batou only quirked an eyebrow in confusion.

"But...I thought, he was-"

"What? You thought Ravage was just a great big bad kitty-cat that likes to play house pet? Don't be fooled by the whole fierce creature bravado, He's just as sentient as the guys you know, and so is Scorpy" Becca interjected with a smirk.

"And he's the kid's combat trainer? What's he training him for?"

"He just say's Ashley has potential" Tom said, being careful not to let slip anything about the BSHB's, Morri looked over at him with a small reassuring smile.

"A giant robotic panther teaching a kid how to fight? This I gotta see for myself" Batou said as he left the room and headed for the stairway.

On heading up to the third floor he could hear noises coming out of the gym at the end of the corridor, as he stopped to listen it sounded like someone attacking a punch-bag and a series of deep growls and gruffs like a tiger, he walked on being sure to keep his footsteps soft and quiet so as not to drew attention. As he quietly peered around the door, he saw Ashley sparing with a punching-bag at the far end of the room, the gym itself was fairly well equipped with weight training equipment, a few treadmills and a boxing ring at the other end of the room. As he watched the boy hop around the bag as it swung back and forth, Ravage was standing by his side like a coach, once or twice he stopped the boy and corrected his stances by manoeuvring the lad's body and legs with his paws and nose, nudging him into the right positions, then withdrew back to let him carry on.

Batou watched in fascination as he watch the kid attack the bag, he bounced from side to side attacking it with a series of sharp hooks, his upper cuts were short but came in swift and his jabs were strong and hard, he could pass for a pretty good boxer once he grew up some more, but what caught Batou's attention the most was how much ferocity he had, every time he came in close to the bag for an attack he laid down a series of punches with unrelenting aggression, he snarled, hissed and growled like a feral cat and with every hit the panther seemed to be encouraging him, Batou wished he knew what it was he was saying; using that strange electronic language of his, he wondered how the boy understood such a complex language, suddenly the panther stopped as he caught sight of Batou standing in the doorway. Ashley looked over and saw him too, Ravage wasn't sure what to do as he stood up from his crouching position and approached the section 9 agent to check him out, Batou imminently opened the door and stepped in, making sure he kept his hands in plain sight as the giant panther approached and 'sniffed' him up and down, satisfied he was no threat, Ravage paced over to the open balcony doors and was about to jump out when he turned to face Ashley.

"That'll be all for now, we'll continue later" he growled and leaped down into one of the tree branches, Batou approached the windows and caught a glimpse of him as he disappeared among the trees.

"Hope I didn't scare him off" Batou said

"Nah, it's just the way he is, here one minute and gone the next...anyway, what brings you up here?" Ashley replied as he attacked the bag once again, Batou stepped the side of the punching-bag and leaned on the wall.

"Glen told me Ravage was your combat tutor, I was just curious to see him in action" the big cyborg grinned

"Yeah well, he's not exactly keen on you guys, no offence but we haven't really known you and your team that long and he's just being cautious" Ashley replied

"I can understand... those are some moves you've got, ever considered boxing as a career?" Batou said as he moved out of the way as the kid laid down another round of jabs and punches, Ashley just grinned in satisfaction, "Heh, it's crossed my mind" he simply replied, his voice was rough from all the heavy breathing between every hit.

"With that attitude you could pass for being a pro, but you'll never be able to take on a headlong attack with that stance" Batou said, Ashley stopped in mid punch and looked at him bemused "Huh? What do you mean?" he asked, Batou threw off his jacket and stepped up to the bag.

"Look, if you stand ready with one foot facing front, and the other to the side, you'll be able to duck to the side a lot faster than if you just hold up your arms and try to slug it out" Batou said as he demonstrated the move with his legs, curious, Ashley took up the same stance and took another swing at the bag, sure enough he found he could move more swiftly when the bag swung back again.

"That's it" Batou smiled

"So you box too?" Ashley grinned

"A fair bit; I like to work out, it helps to keep me in shape at least"

"But isn't that kinda redundant? I mean, if you're a cyborg and you've got a super strong robotic body under that skin, why do you need to work out?" Ashley asked curiously as he steadily punched the bag, keeping to a steady rhythm.

"Even cyborgs need to stay to stay in shape, augmented strength is no excuse for letting your technique get sloppy" he replied, the first part was a lie, but he said it for the sake of making conversation.

"I guess, but if you're super strong then you can fight anyone and beat them easily regardless of technique"

"You'd think, but there are stronger cyborgs than me, just because you become a cyborg doesn't necessarily mean your stronger, for every new body modal that comes out on the market, someone somewhere creates a stronger, more durable modal" Batou replied, Ashley looked at him a moment, and simply carried on sparing, but after a few seconds he stopped and looked at the ex-ranger with a clouded expression.

"So...what's it like, being a cyborg? I mean, is it really any different from being a regular human? Or is it different somehow?" Ashley asked as he leaned against the wall to catch his breath. Batou dropped his gaze for a moment as he considered the question. He hadn't thought about the subject of his humanity in a long time, if anything it was the one subject he tried to keep at bay, least it would cause him any mental confusion over his identity as a cyberized human, he always liked weight-lifting because it reminded him of what he had given up, it was his mnemonic device that let him relive his old life and reminded him that he was here and still himself. If this had been any other kid he would have been reluctant to answer, but he had to keep in mind Ashley came from a world that was over 20 years behind his, the level of everyday technology the ex-ranger took for granted simply didn't exist where he came from, it was hard yet so surreal just thinking about it.

"It's...different in some ways, at first you notice the little things like the fact your new eyes aren't the ones you were born with , but you get use to it over time, and it's not bad...I can't really complain" Batou replied.

"Do you have any regrets?"

"Regrets? Nah not off hand, there are times when I have my doubts, but ultimately I haven't got any problems with what I am" the big cyborg smirked.

"So why did you become a cyborg? If it's as extreme as I heard, then it can't have been an easy choice to make"

"It's not, I was originally in the army and back then I had a high prosthetics rate but I wasn't fully cyborized, then I wanted to join the Rangers, but when I heard you had to go full cyborg in order to qualify. I can't remember how long I must have spent going over it in my mind, but in the end I realized I didn't really have anything to lose, sure I had a few things swapped out but It was a small price to pay. On the plus side I don't suffer from regular illnesses like everyone else"

"Bet that must save a fortune on health insurance..." Ashley as he stepped out onto the balcony and leaned on the railing, Batou came alongside and stood next to him with his hands in his pockets.

"...Figures you were in the army" Ashley said offhand

"Why do you say that?"

"Because I know a real hard-ass when I see one, that, and you weren't totally freaked out when you meet the guys for the first time"

"Ha! Are you kidding? I was plenty freaked out!"

"Yeah right" Ashley smirked. Down below just beyond the tree line, Batou saw a shape move among the dense ground foliage, focusing his enhanced eyes, he could make the familiar outline of Ravage as he paced along silently slipping past every bush without making a sound.

"It's amazing how quiet he is isn't he?" Ashley commented

"Yeah, I'm curious as to how you can understand him with that weird language he speaks"

"It's a simple form of Morse code, just something he and Scorpy use between us and themselves, it makes life a bit easier to understand them"

"Any chance you can teach me?" Ashley looked at Batou with a sideways glance and slouched forward on the railing.

"That's kinda private...it's nothing personal, just something between us and them okay?"

"Okay..." Batou replied, his curiosity had been piqued but he left the subject alone, "...So what do like to get up to when you're not in school?" he continued

"All kinds of things...ever since D came into our lives it's been a little crazy, but so cool at the same time" Ashley smirked

"I bet, so what do you guys like to do together?"

"Flying mainly, I love it when he takes us up and does a few evasive manoeuvres; I tell ya it gets pretty wild when he pulls the loops...but it's not just flying he likes, he loves exploring new places on earth...every other weekend we pack up our camping gear and spend the weekend somewhere exotic...like two months ago? We spent three nights camping in province in France; that was wonderful, he couldn't believe how much lavender there was everywhere...don't forget, cybertron didn't have any organic life so exploring all the different places here on earth is kinda how he wants to spend his retirement" Ashley smirked.

"Deathshots retired?"

"Not strictly speaking, I just think he's making up for lost time now that the Allspark wars are over, hell, by all accounts everyone's been doing their own thing, and with D, ever since he learnt about all the different types of natural environments of the earth, he's decided he wants to go and see as many as he can. So far we've only done most of Europe, France, Germany, Holland, Spain and Italy, the more 'further afield' kinda places we're saving for half term and summer holiday time"

Wow, how long did it take for him fly to those places?"

"Surprisingly not that long, when we flew over to America to meet up with the other Autobots he flew from England to California in less than 5 hours"

"5 hours? That's incredible"

"I know, but he can go way faster, but we weren't in any rush so D decided to take his time, you know we..." Ashley stopped and dropped his gaze with a sombre expression and turned back to look at the lake, Batou leaned in a little closer with a look of concern.

"What's wrong?"

"The day we fell through the rift...we were all meant to go camping together, we were gonna go up to this huge redwood forest near the coast...that was over a week ago...we were supposed to be arriving in San Francisco by now..." He continued quietly, Batou watched curiously as Ashley reached into his pocket and pulled out a small photo that was bent and winkled at the corners, as he gazed at it affectionately a small smile creped across his lips, leaning over, Batou saw it was a picture of Ashley with Morri at his right side, but on his left side was a tall well built man in an army uniform, the insignia on his shoulder was that of the Royal Marines and the black band with three gold stars told he was a captain. He had light brown hair and slate blues eyes and had one arm wrapped tightly around Ashley's shoulder with a big grin across his face, in the picture Ashley looked just as content next to him.

"Who's that?" Batou asked

"My dad, this was taken shortly before his unit got shipped over to the middle east, he managed to get some time off to come an' stay with us for a while...I haven't seen him in over 5 months, but I write to him as often as I can...these are his, he told me to look after them while he's gone" Ashley replied as he held up the dog tags around his neck. As Batou looked at the picture he began to notice the striking similarity between Ashley and his father, their faces both had the same basic bone structure, same cheek bones, same hairline, hair colour and eye colour and the same nose, there wasn't a lot of difference other that his father's features were much more pronounced due to his maturity, while Ashley still had a rounded, more child-like look and a bit more 'baby-fat' in his cheeks which would eventually even out with age.

"You look just like him"

"Yeah, Grandma says I look just like him when he was my age"

"...What's his name?"

"John... John Horatio Briggs, but everyone in his company calls him ' Thunder Storm John' cause every time he goes into battle, he just goes in hard and fast and always makes sure the enemy can't have a minute to catch its breath...he always did say the best defence is a good offence...I like to look at this whenever I feel homesick, kind of a comfort thing I suppose"

"He does look tough" Batou commented as Ashley put the picture back in his pocket, "I bet he could take you on in the ring, cyborg or not I know he'd knock you for six...but still, I'd think you'd like him"

"Oh really? And whys that?"

"Because he's a hard-ass too..." Ashley grinned, Batou couldn't help but let out a chuckle and gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder, "So what other moves have ya got you can teach me?" he continued as he stepped back over to the punching bag and started sparring again, "Oh, maybe one or two things..." Batou said with a side-ways glance and a mischievous grin. Ashley eagerly stepped back over to the punching bag and got into a fighting stance, down below among the trees Ravage listened as his student sparred with the older human, with a deep frustrated sigh he paced away.

Ever since they first made contact with section 9, Ravage had been trying to figure these humans out, in particular he had tried to figure out just who this 'Major' really was, as well as Batou, he wanted to see him interact with Ashley first hand and had decided to keep an optic on things from a distance, While the children and other Autobots seemed to have taken a liking to them the drone was not so sure. Part of his experience as a Decepticon had taught him the valuable technique of spotting someone who's lying simply by watching them; it was a technique that had gotten him out of many difficult situations, enabling him to turn the tables on an opponent, he couldn't say out right that these strangers were dishonest, if anything they had been keeping to their end of deal so far. Maybe it was a case of old suspicious habits dying hard? That maybe his old ways of thinking was still tugging at his tail? And they were keeping him from thinking clearly. Were the intentions of these strangers as honest as they said? He just didn't know what to think; true he was trying to prove his worth as an Autobot by being understanding of the situation, but he knew his stubbornness and subjective point of view were issues to contend with, in particular he wasn't comfortable with these strangers claim to being human when they were only part organic. He could clearly smell the cyborg's mechanical components, even the smell of the pools chlorine didn't overpower it, as if human organic components didn't smell pungent enough, the cyborg scent was strange and unfamiliar, it was everywhere around the house and it didn't make him comfortable but for the kids sake he wasn't saying anything and just decided it would be better to go with the flow of things. Ravage was so deep in thought that he very nearly didn't see Jazz's leg and nearly bumped right into him.

"Whoa there buddy! I didn't see you down there!" Jazz grinned as he kneeled down next to the panther.

"Sorry I was, thinking"

"Excuse me? Was that 'sorry' that escaped your vocalize?" the first lieutenant teased, Ravage simply glared at the silver bot (which was his way of frowning so as to compensate for the lack of optic ridges).

"Yes yes don't go making a thing of it" Ravage growled

"So what's on your processor? An' don't say nothin' cause I can see ya thinkin about somethin'" Jazz smiled, Ravage looked at him for a moment then dropped his gaze in doubt, he wasn't eager to share his thoughts but he knew he couldn't fool Jazz, being a people person he was naturally good at sensing the mood of others, looking back up he sighed and leapt up onto a nearby bolder.

"I'm...concerned" he purred in a low voice.

"Concerned?" Jazz echoed

"Well, maybe concerned is a little bit much, Uncertain, I think is more appropriate..." Jazz looked at the panther and sighed through his vents.

"You ain't comfortable with these section 9 guys huh?" Ravage blinked in surprise, "Ah com'on now Ravage I know you ain't been too comfortable with them being around" Jazz continued.

"How did you-"

"You've been brooding more than usual, and every time you've spoken with Ashley you've made sure your outta the humans hearin' range...listen, I know its one thing to be cautious around strangers, but it's another thing to let your suspicions get the better of ya and I know even giving the benefit of the doubt to these particular humans has been the last thing on your mind"

"Well it's not like we have any real insurance that they are who they say they are, for humans that claim their humans their not particularly skittish" Ravage growled, Jazz blinked in surprise.

"What do ya mean?"

"I mean, why were these 'cyborgs' so eager to prove their humanity to us when their barely organic?"

"Now com'on, we all discussed this yesterday, the fact they're not organic may not necessarily mean they're not human; after all there are the philosophical and moral convictions to consider, and don't forget we're just as much an enigma, I mean, did you see Ishikawa's face when we had to explain to him that we cybertronians are sentient?" Jazz said

"Yes I remember...the fact that the humanity of this world is different to ours is one thing, the smell of these cyborgs doesn't sit well with me...but what concerns me is, does the fact that their different present a liability?"

"A liability? In what way?" Jazz said as he sat down on the larger bolder Ravage was sat on. The panther cast his gaze towards the driveway, where Bluestreak and Bumblebee were talking to the Major who was standing on the walkway above the front door.

"The femme...I know she said she's a cyborg and that's what I thought was making me uncomfortable around her...but I know it's something far more that gives me cause for concern"

"But why? I'll admit she's a no nonsense kinda femme and she does have a commanding presence, but she hasn't given me reason to worry" Jazz shrugged, Ravage sighed and watched as the Waineright sisters came out onto the walkway to meet up with Bluestreak, the girls jumped out onto his waiting hand and beckoned the Major to join them, with one leap she landed in the Autobots other hand, with a content smile Bluestreak walked around the corner of the house towards the back garden.

"It's not that I'm concerned that she's a cyborg...I'm concerned because she could pose a serious threat as a combatant" Ravage growled in a hushed tone.

"Why?" Jazz asked, Ravage turned to look at him with a serious look in his optic, if could swallow hard he would for what he was about to say.

"...Do you remember that time 37 thousand cycles ago when Soundwave sent Rumble, Lazarbeak, Buzzsaw and myself into that base on Faracahn 6 to obtain those access codes for the energon refineries in the Gallbor system?" Jazz looked at the panther bemused for a moment, "Uh, yeah, I remember that incident, but what bought this up?" he asked.

"Do you remember when the alarms were tripped? You Ironhide, Cliffjumper and Ultra Magnas chased us down into that storage unit at the bottom of the base?" Ravage continued

"Yeah, and you guys blind-sided us with that surprise attack. That was quite a fight" Jazz replied, confused as to where this was going.

"...I don't know if you saw or even remember...but there was a point in the fight when Lazarbeak had Cliffjumper pinned down and Rumble and Buzzsaw were able to push you and Ultra Magnas back down that central ventilation shaft and only me and Ironhide were left standing on that platform..." Jazz suddenly realised what Ravage was talking about and leaned in closer.

"The stand-off...I remember watching that from the grates in the tunnel, you and Ironhide just stood there staring at each other...we didn't know what the slag was going on...when the reinforcements eventually came you took off and Ironhide simply said he scared you off...though I'm starting to get the vibe that that's not the case is it?"

"...For that one brief moment when we stared each other down, time seemed to stand still, and as I looked at him, trying to figure out how to bring him down...I realised I couldn't win that fight...because when I looked into his optics I saw not just a warrior goading me to fight, but an opponent who knew he could beat me easily, and not just because he was larger and had a set of wrist mounted cannons...his optics had told me everything...and I see that same look in the femmes" Ravage said, dropping his gaze with a sense of shame, he wasn't sure if bringing up that old memory was a good idea considering how bitter the hatred between the Autobots and the Decepticons was running at the time, Jazz looked at him with an impassive look for a moment and leaned back on the bolder as he sighed through his vents. As an uneasy moment of silence passed between them, Ravage began to worry he said the wrong thing, then Jazz leaned forward with a more laid back expression.

"...I'm aware that you're a being of instinct. Over the years we've encountered one another I've come to realise you rely on your intuition a lot, it's part of what made you such an unpredictable opponent, because even when we set up false Intel for you guys to steal, nine times outta ten you were the one that always seemed to see right through our bluffs..." Jazz said

"Well...it's not like your guys put a lot of effort into it making a good bluff in the first place" Ravage replied quietly

"We didn't?"

"When it came to false Intel you always used something that you knew would tempt us, back when the war was still fought on Cybertron it worked several times, but after Tyger Pax the whole war seemed to change and those old tricks just didn't really work anymore...I got used to a lot of old Autobot tricks that I was able to get around, and when it ultimately came down to it, intuition was the real weapon that got me out of trouble" Ravage replied

"Heh, guess I should have seen that sooner...but my point is, how can you be sure the Major is a threat? With all due respects buddy you've been fighting us for the better part of a few millennia and have only been on earth for just over 18 months, that's a long time, but not a lifetime to learn all the secrets of the human mind and how it works" Jazz said

"True I haven't known the humans that long, but from what I've seen so far it's apparent that their beings of habit and instinct. They set themselves into their daily routines which lends a sense of stability to the chaos of their lives, and when their scared or uncertain they rely on their 'gut instincts' to try and see themselves through...true they have their moments, like Lennox and his men when they faced down Blackout at Mission city, but ultimately, the fact that their sensitive to dire situations and are more prone to follow their instincts means they either loss their minds to fear or will come charging at you ready for the fight, it purely depends on the individual human and how that individual acts on their 'fight or flight reflex'"

"That's quite a point of view for someone who not keen on being around humans, how did you come up with that?" Jazz blinked in mild surprise

"From simply being observant, that and my student can be quite a conversationalist during his rear moments of calm mindedness...and for the record I never actually said I don't like being around humans...it's just most of the time they don't make any sense, the only exception being the boy" Ravage growled

"Fair enough, but getting back to what I said before, do think the Major really is a threat? Considering you've only got your intuition to go on and nothing solid to offer, I can't say I'm persuaded"

"I know, but she has that presence that tells me she could be formidable if provoked...I'm not saying we should pack up and try to sneak away in the dead of night, I'm simply saying maybe we shouldn't so trusting of these humans" Ravage said, Jazz paused to think for a second and before long an idea sprang to mind.

"Did you perhaps consider trying to gain more of an insight into these humans by being just a little more approachable?" the first lieutenant offered, the panther looked up at him with quirked optic ridge (figuratively speaking on account that he had no optic ridges)

"Approachable?" he echoed

"Yeah, try hanging with us a little more and being observant up close and personal, you gotta admit, it'll be much more effective that brooding up in those woods all day, and cause you and Ashley are still in charge of our personal safety it'll enable you to do your job more efficiently...you may not like it, but sometimes giving someone the benefit of the doubt and giving them the chance to show you their nicer side is sometimes not so bad..." Jazz said as he gently laid a hand on the panthers back. Ravage let out a deep rumbling growl as he considered the logic in Jazz's advice, he was right in as much he wasn't keen on the idea of being around the Major, he just didn't trust her, but at the same time he knew the first lieutenant had a point, he would be able to keep an eye on things if he was closer to the group, and maybe getting a closer look at the Major might be a more feasible way of accessing her. As he watched Ashley and Batou walking down the walkway chatting and laughing, he couldn't help but feel that maybe he was being a tad too stubborn...

Then that's when it hit him.

Since when did he suddenly become this open to another's opinion? He had always relied on his own intuition to see him through thick and thin, how was it that he had changed this much? It was strange odd even, but not in a bad way. He looked back up at the first lieutenant with an uncertain look in his optic, Jazz simply smiled down at him with an understanding gaze.

"I'm...not entirely sure if it will work...but for the boy's sake, I'll try" he replied uneasily, Jazz gentle patted him on the back and stood up.

"That's all I ask buddy" he replied

"But if anything happens and you're wrong, I can assure you right here and now, I will now hesitate to rip the femmes vocalize out" ravage growled sharply

"And you know I won't hesitate to shoot your tail off?" Jazz grinned as he folded his arms over his headlights.

"How many times have you made that threat before?" Ravage smirked

"Ah too many to count, but that's all in the past, right now however, it looks like your student is eager for you to join him" Jazz said nodding over to the walkway, Ravage looked up and saw Ashley waving him over, as he trotted over towards the house he past a heavy sigh through his vents.

'I swear these humans will probably be the death of me' he thought as he took one huge leap up onto the walkway and came up alongside Ashley and Batou.

"Hey mate! Where have you been prowling about?" the 12 year old asked

"Oh nowhere in particular, listen, go and get your datapad on our 'dronese' code, I think maybe it's time our hosts learned a few basics" Ravage purred, Ashley blinked in surprise then smiled.

"Really?"

"Huh? What did he say this time?" Batou asked.

* * *

R&R please! Hopefully the next chapter will be a little bit more engaging, or at least more thought through.


	26. Chapter 25: Fun, Sun & Catnip

Time for a bit of fun! X3, & I was particularly inspired after watching my kitty go nuts with his catnip pillow ;) & I think it's time for the Major to strut her stuff! ;)

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 25: FUN, SUN AND CATNIP

"AH! AH! AH! Careful! I felt that!"

"Don't worry! This is the last patch, and maybe I can get this done a little faster if you just hold still for like ten seconds!"

"GHAA! Just hurry it up! I haven't got all day!"

"Yeah yeah don't go blowing another gasket!" Sam retorted as he picked up the spot wielder and positioned it over the last patch of wire mesh dressing.

It was now mid-morning and the sun was high up in the pristine azure blue sky. Mikaela, Sam, Miles, Tom, Morri and Danny had spent the last hour carefully removing the wire mesh dressings off of Jetfires newly healed armour plating, one by one each patch had been loosened and gently peeled away, Deathshots nanites had certainly done their job as each piece of dressing was removed, the armour had charcoal grey scarring in place where the wounds had been. Off to the side, chipping in to help was Togusa, Batou and Ashley who gathered up the dressings ready to be discarded, behind them Bumblebee sat on the lawn with Annabelle sitting on his knee, with Trailbreaker, Bluestreak, Hot Rod and the lambo twins patiently waiting for the seeker to get the all-clear from Mikaela.

"Look on the bright side, at least you didn't get bed sores, then you would have been even grumpier" Becca called down from the balcony overlooking the pool; "As if the rust was a bad enough issue" her twin concurred.

"I couldn't care less at this point, right now I just want to get up there and feel the wind under my wings!" Jetfire happily beamed as he gestured up towards the sky. "Ah sorry big guy; the dome's still up so no flying I'm afraid" Jazz said as he walked around the corner of the house carrying a small stack of energon cubes, he laid them down on the patio next to Bumblebee, who took the top one and sipped it contently "Ah! Typical, why couldn't this safe house have been near an airport?" the old seeker grumbled as he slumped back on his side.

"Ah come on ya ol' codger! When we get home you can fly all you want, maybe even bust a few Con's aft plates?...among other things?" Sideswipe smirked "Is that supposed to be your subtle way of challenging me to your ridiculous jet-judo?" Jetfire growled as he glared at the scarlet warrior, the kids all stopped working and glanced back and forth between the two bots with concern.

"Now come on guys, we're still hiding remember? This can wait 'till we get home okay?" Jazz said holding up one hand, Sideswipe merely smirked while Jetfire turned his nose plates up and away. The kids all sniggered and got back to work.

"Okay big guy, this is last piece" Mikaela said, as she gentle picked at the mesh wire with a long hook like pair of tweezers and a large scalpel like blade, Jetfire sighed with relief as the last few bits of mesh came away and the dressing was thrown to the side. As soon as all the kids jumped down off his back, he leaped up with one effortless leap and landing with a thud.

"HA HAAA! Ah it's good to be up and functioning!" he cheered, pumping his walking stick in the air, then suddenly;

CRICK-CRACK!

"GHAAA! MY SPINAL UNIT!" he bellowed, pitching forward and clutching his back with one hand while trying to stay upright by leaning on his walking stick, the lambo twins fell over each other laughing while Bluestreak and Trailbreaker got up to help him sit back down on the ground, Mikaela rolled her eyes and placed her hands squarely on her hips.

"Wow, thanks a lot Jet's, I just finished treating your wounds and now I have to take care of your back" she huffed sarcastically, "Yeah man don't go rushing yourself" Miles said, "You okay?" Jazz asked, "Eh, I'll be fine, just need a few minutes" Jetfire grumbled as he leaned on his walking stick. Batou and Togusa couldn't help but watch on perplexed, "Does this usually happen with him?" Batou whispered over Ashley's shoulder, "As far as I know, he can get a little excited at times, he hates medical checks" Ashley replied, at that moment the Major and Hailey both came out the house and looked around with concern.

"What the hell was that noise?" the Major asked

"Oh nothing, Jetfire just got up too fast and cracked his back" Danny said, she blinked in surprise as looked back and forth between the old seeker and the laughing lambo twins, realising they were having a laugh at the seekers expense, she frowned and stepped forward; Morri and Mikaela were about to stop her when Batou laid his hands on their shoulders with a reassuring smile, "Don't worry, she'd got this covered" he grinned, the girls said nothing and simply watched with concern.

"You sure you're okay? I mean, you don't need any more pain killer's right?" Tom asked

"Nah, but this'll help me feel better..." Jetfire grinned as he drew his arm back and with one hard throw, landed his cane right between Sunstreakers optics with a load clang, he fell back onto the grass like a stone, "HA! That'll teach you to show a little more sympathy for your elders!" he chuckled as Sunstreaker rubbed his head, "One of these days I'm going to beat your rusted old hide into slag old timer!" he said in a venomous tone, "Oh really? I'd like to see you try, considering you haven't been able to yank me out of the sky yet!" Jetfire chuckled in a mocking tone, Sunstreaker stood up and was about to stomp over to where the seeker was sitting on the ground when he suddenly noticed the Major standing at his feet, at this point the kids and Autobots were worried what was going to happen as the purple haired field commander glared up at the yellow warrior with her usual commanding presence.

"What do you want squishy?" Sunstreaker spat.

"If you're going to be causing any trouble here then think again, why don't you just turn around and go back to sitting on the lawn?" she firmly said, the patio tiles practically went crack as the kids jaws dropped and their eye's practically bulged out of their heads, they couldn't believe what they just heard, someone other than one of the Autobots standing up to Sunstreaker? No human had EVER stood up to the melee warrior when he was provoked, everyone on the base back home knew better than to cross him when he was pissed off. Sam suddenly wanted to smack himself over the head for forgetting to warn the section 9 team of Sunstreakers volatile temperament, the other Autobots were wide-eyed with shock and Jazz felt a sharp pang of worry go through his spark, Sideswipe wasn't sure whether to laugh at the sight of a human standing up to his brother, or just be plain worried for the Major's safety. As for Sunstreaker, he blinked in surprise and then his scowled down at the Major as his energon began to boil.

"What did you just say to me?" Sunstreaker growled, Batou and Togusa looked at one another with worry, maybe this one time it would be best if the Major let Jazz handle this, "Uh Major? I wouldn't-" Tom tried to warn her but she held up her hand up to halt him, "She's friggin' nuts!" Ashley hissed "That's an understatement! She's mental!" Danny replied.

"You heard me just fine, now don't make me come up there and hurt you!" the Major said in a more sterner tone, now everyone was truly floored, Sunstreaker looked at her dumbfound of a brief moment then threw his head back as he laughed long and hard, then bent down whilst still in a fit of giggles.

"Oh really? And just how are you gonna do that weakling?" the melee warrior laughed sarcastically, the Major now had a look of pure venom in her crimson eyes, having her authority challenged was one thing, but being called a weakling, even by a giant alien robot was a stretch too far, it was clear this bot needed putting in his place, with a firm look of hardness she smiled and replied;

"Like this..." and in one fast move, summoning up all her cyborg strength she leaped up and with a spinning kick knocked the golden warrior back on his aft plates. "WHAT THE HELL?" Sam exclaimed in pure surprise, the kids and Autobots was both amazed and taken aback by the Majors show of strength, staggering back up onto his feet, Sunstreaker looked down at the human femme and growled in anger.

"WHY YOU LITTLE-" but before he could reach down to grab her, she took another leap up onto his shoulder and landed another swift kick to his cheek plates, like a squirrel traversing up and down a tree she leaped, jumped and bounded back and forth across his chest plates landing kick after kick to his face, desperately he tried to swat her off but she managed to dodge every blow with her usual grace and poise. The kids didn't know what to think as they saw the most feared Autobot (next to Ironhide) get his aft handed to him by one simple (cyberized) human, Jetfire fell over himself laughing hysterically and by this time bumblebee had removed Annabelle away to a safer distance and while Togusa was flabbergasted Batou merely watched with a huge adoring grin spread across his face.

"Hold on bro I'll get her off!" Sideswipe shouted as he rushed up to help, but before he could even touch his brother the Major jumped across and kicked him up-side his chin plate, he staggered back as he gripped his face in pain.

"Forget it bro! You're on your own!" he shouted

"WHAT! I'm your broth-" but before Sunstreaker could finish his rant the Major delivered one last blow that knocked him out and backwards into the pool, as she flew backwards onto the uppermost walkway of the house the resulting splash sent a wall of water up in the air, thoroughly soaking every human and Autobot within five meters of the poolside, even the Waineright twins up on the walkway got a good dowsing. There was a silent pause before everyone cheered, hollered and whooped.

"WAAOH! THAT WAS SO TOTALLY AWESOME!"

"TOTALLY RIGHTIOUS!"

THAT WAS UTTERLY WICKED!"

As the Major jumped back down onto the lawn, the kids all stared at her goggle-eyed, dumbfound and awestruck, but still greatly impressed at her.

"What are you, bionic?" Ashley asked as he wiped the drips from his face, "How the hell did you do that?" Morri exclaimed as she twisted her hair to wring all the water out.

"Well let's just say that's what you get for crossing a class A cyborg" the Major smirked as she looked down at the dazed, semi-conscious Sunstreaker who was still laying down in the now empty pool, the kids stood still in shock for a moment, Danny face palmed his forehead hard, "GHAA! Damn it! Of course, you told us only yesterday! How the hell did I forget that!" he said sinking his head in embarrassment. "That's what you can do? I mean I knew you said as a cyborg you were strong, but wow, you just beat up the biggest jerk in the Autobot ranks single-handedly!" Morri grinned. "Dude! That's like; you just made history!" Miles exclaimed in a giddy rush, "Yeah! It's about time he got his comeuppance for putting us down; I'm just sorry it wasn't me!" Mikaela grinned. The Major suddenly noticed Jazz staring down at her with his arms folded, she then realised she might have overstepped her mark, she was about to say something when the first lieutenant smiled and picked an energon cube and took a swig.

"HA ha ha! That. As my charge might say, was a thing of total awesomeness, am I right Miles?" he asked, "Totally!" Miles concurred, the Major merely grinned in satisfaction.

"_You're enjoying this aren't you?"_ Batou said down the cybercomm, the Major could practically hear the grin in his voice.

"_Well, he did need a firm reprimanding, and I figured it was time to let our guests know what we can do if they think they have the entire run of the house" _she replied looking over at him as he and his partner walked around from across the pool.

"Geez, couldn't you have landed him in the lake Major?" Togusa asked in a peevish mood as he took off his jacket and wrung the sleeves, she only shrugged in response, at that moment, Ishikawa, Pazu, Saito and Boma ran out the door but stopped short when the saw Sunstreaker in the pool.

"Uh, are you okay Major? We saw everything on the cameras" Ishikawa said

"I'm fine, but I think he'll be out of it for a little while" she replied as she thumbed over her shoulder towards the fallen bot.

"Speaking of which, we better get him outta there, Blue, Hot Rod, gimme a hand here will ya? Sideswipe, you better stay with him, he's gonna need someone to cool his engine when he wakes up" Jazz said as he grabbed Sunstreakers shoulders and Bluestreak and Hot Rod grabbed a leg each and hauled the melee warrior out of the pool, Sideswipe followed close behind, making sure to give the Major a wide birth, as they carried him over to the edge of the tree line the kids looked down into the huge empty space where all the water used to be.

"Wow, that's a big pool, you can never appreciate how big a pool really is with all the water in ya know?...Anyway, we better get dried off, anyone want a towel?" Miles grinned

"Was that even supposed to be a joke?" Danny grimaced as he ran his fingers through his hair; Sam merely rolled his eyes and grinned as he followed his friend back into the house, "Try not to drip on the carpet" the Major said, "yes mom!" all the kids sniggered as they entered the house. After setting a giggling over-excited Annabelle on the balcony of her bedroom, Bumblebee knelled down next to the gather section 9 team.

"Thanks!" he beamed

"You're welcome, but he did need taking down a peg or two" the Major replied

"Taking down a peg or two? HA! That aft-whipping was long overdue!" Jetfire called over, Bumblebee rolled his optics and shook his head (a habit he picked up from being around humans for too long).

"I know, he can be quite a real slagger at times, and I know he's not fond of humans much, but thanks for levelling the 'playing field' for the kids...there's been many an occasion he's butted in and ruined a good day for them...and to be honest I'm starting to feel a little guilty for not warning you about him earlier" the yellow scout shrugged

"It's alright, but seriously? How do you put up with him? I know he's been giving us the cold shoulder since we got here but I'd say he was two steps away from an all out psychotic break!" Togusa exclaimed, Bumblebee chucked and kneeled down some more so he could be nearer to them.

"He's like that all the time! It's just the way he is; as unpleasant as he is he's one of our top warriors, it's not like we can keep him in reserve during an emergency, despite his attitude he's a very skilled and accomplished warrior and always first choice for assaults and attacks...I guess you can't have everything when it comes to some bots, some are friendly some are not, it's just the way it is" Bumblebee shrugged. "But then how do you keep him in line? Someone as hot-headed as him could be a liability" the Major replied.

"Prime knows how to keep him in line, he's the only bot Sunstreaker would never challenge" the scout replied

"Because he's your leader?" Batou asked

"That, and Optimus is a Prime, he comes from a long line of powerful warriors, even Sunstreaker knows he could never win a fight against a descendent of the Primes"

"But, I thought you said your leader's name was Optimus Prime?" Ishikawa asked

"It is, but the name Prime is also the title of Prime, it carries the same high regard and deep respect as the title of King, Emperor or Caesar"

"So...he's not just the leader of your army, he's...the king of your people?" Ishikawa exclaimed in surprise.

"That's right! And the mightiest ruler I've ever known that's for sure!" Jetfire smiled, he was about to say something else when the familiar shadow of a four winged jet creped across the patio, overhead Deathshot transformed from his alt mode and landed on the ground with a gentle thud.

"Ah sorry I couldn't join in, but I was enjoying the show too much from up above, I have to say Major you certainly know how to pack a punch, or a kick rather" the Autobot sniper grinned as he leaned against the wall of the house

"Well I'm sorry but I won't allow one hot-headed robot to compromise our cover, even if we are being hidden from view by a giant hologram projector" the Major replied

"Well to be honest I'm surprised his patience lasted this long, with everything that's happened since we got here, I'd say this is the longest period in a long time he's managed to keep his servos cool" Trailbreaker said as he stood up.

"Will he be pissed off when he wakes up?" Togusa asked

"He'll be fine as long as he has his brother nearby, somehow there's something about Sideswipe that seems to calm him down, it must be a 'twin thing' as Becca and Becky like to say" Deathshot smirked

"Their twins?" Boma asked quirking an eyebrow

"Oh yes, it does happen on the rear occasion, sometimes when a new spark is formed it may split whilst still in the spark chamber, thereby allowing identical twins to be onlined when the sparks are ready to emerge and be put in their first protoform body's" Bumblebee shrugged

"So essentially you guys can reproduce?" Ishikawa asked

"Well of course, any living organism has to reproduce in order for their species to survive, regardless of whether it's organic of mechanical. We have our own means of reproduction; it's just...well, uh...not as physically demanding as yours" Trailbreaker said with an uneasy smile, trying not to make it sound rude, the section 9 members looked up at him and weren't sure whether to be dumbfounded or just amused.

"Physically demanding?" Togusa repeated in complete surprise, being a father of two had made him somewhat qualified to say what the 'physical demands' of human reproduction entailed but he wasn't so sure if the Autobot had used the right term, 'physically demanding' made it sound like some sort of hard near torturous labour, he certainly knew when he conceived his daughter it was anything but torture, hard maybe, but only because he remembered it was one of the wildest nights of his life. As he thought about it he couldn't help be let a mischievous grin creep across his face, some of the other section 9 members couldn't help but smile too.

"Well yeah, I mean, when Sam told me about how you humans reproduced I checked it out on the internet, something rather detailed and enlightening called porn I believe? Anyway I found this video and showed it to some of the other bots...I can tell you, no-one was able to recharge for a week they were that disturbed. Who'd have thought there'd be a species that could turn its pro-creative means into raw hard pleasure that can be had in a hundred different positions?" Jetfire thought aloud with a wicked grin spread across his face plates.

"Damn right" Pazu smirked, the rest of the team members however shifted uncomfortably where they stood, Deathshot wracked his processor, trying to find a suitable means of changing the conversation, he was about to say something when Morri and the rest of the girls stepped out the door in their bikinis and carrying towels and sun cream.

"Hi! What were you guys talking about?" Hailey asked, the giant sniper sighed with relief.

Several hours past by and the mid-afternoon heat was sweltering and relentless, the whole incident of this morning had been laid to rest and Sunstreaker had spent most of the day licking his wounded pride somewhere in the forest with his brother, on the lawn the girls were sunning themselves, passing the time with idle chit-chat and topping up their tans, over by the patio Ravage was enjoying the sun too as he laid stretched out across the grass, purring deeply with content. On the smaller lawn further away from the house, Deathshot was making the most of the warm weather by laying on his front sunning himself with all four of his wings spread out while underneath the Waineright twins were playing with Annabelle in a game of tag. He huffed in frustration as an overheating warning began to beep in his processor, bringing up his internal temperature control monitor, he saw his cooling system was now reaching its limit and his ventilation fans were starting to overheat too. With a heavy sigh he carefully pushed himself up off the ground and looked over towards the lake, the flat green jade waters did look inviting and the heat on his wings, back and tail began to feel like a bad itch, to which the water would be the best balm.

"Hey Deathshot! What's up?" Becca called up

"My engines need to cool off properly so I'm going in the lake" he smiled down at them; Annabelle jumped up on his foot and hugged his ankle eagerly. "Can I come swimming too?" she beamed "Yeah! Its scorching out here, can we join in too?" the twins asked eagerly "Well you better ask Mikaela and Hailey first" he said as he gently pried the four year old off his ankle and placed her on the ground, like a shot the little honey blond was off and ran up the stone staircase towards the girls.

"Mikaela! Mikaela! Can I go swimming with Deathshot?" she yelled excitedly, the girls all turned around as she stopped just short of the towels, the girls all looked at one another and smiled, "What do you say lady's? Pool party?" Mikaela smirked

"POOL PARTY!" they cheered as they quickly stood up, grabbed their towels and dashed towards the lake, Annabelle was about to follow after them when Mikaela halted her, "Whoa there little missy! Let's go and find your armbands fist, we'll catch you guys up"" she called over and led the four year old back into the house, "OKAY!" Morri called back.

As Deathshot waded out into the shallow waters the cool water lapping at his legs sent a pleasant tingle through his armour, as he waded out further and his wings became submerged, he felt a great feeling of soothing relief sweep through his systems as the cool temperature steadily lowered his overheated systems. Behind him the Waineright sisters both took a runner off the pontoon into the water with a yell of joy, only to scream in shock as they came up for air. "GHAAA! IT'S COLD!" they squealed, "Wait up D!" Morri yelled as she and Hailey both jumped off the pontoon, Deathshot turned around just in time to them both bob up in the water with looks of shock on their faces.

"HOLY CRAP IT'S FREEZING!" Hailey squealed, Morri on the other hand started breast-stroking towards her guardian, "Of course it's going to feel cold! We just spent most of the afternoon sunbathing!" she called over.

"You're not cold?" Becca shivered as she started swimming hard in an effort to push the shivers away.

"This isn't cold Becca, I've dived in the Celtic Sea in the depths of winter, trust me this is way warmer than minus five degrees!" Morri replied as Deathshot gently scooped her and some of the water up in his hands like someone trying to catch a fish, across the lawns she saw the boys dash out of the house wearing their trunks, "Looks like things are about to get lively" she grinned, "I think your right" Deathshot replied as Ravage trotted over and took a run into the water, the mace blades at the end of his had flattened together to form a basic shark fin shaped paddle, as soon as he was in deep enough he swayed his body from side to side with his limbs pressed close to his body enabling him to swim at a steady pace like a crocodile and with a happy purr circled around Deathshot. As the boys all jumped in the girls laughed as they loudly protested against the cool water, not far behind Mikaela came out the house with Annabelle at her side, with her bright orange inflated arm bands the little honey blonde dashed across the upper and lower lawns in excitement, "I'm gonna swim! I'm gonna swim! Yeeay!" she happily yelled and ran down the sandy shore and into the shallow's taking to the water like a newly hatched duckling.

"What's all this noise about?" Jetfire grumbled as he paced around the corner of the house, noticing the kids were all in the lake he strode over for a better look.

"What the slag are you all doing in there? You'll flood your engines!" he shouted as he rushed to the shoreline, "Jetfire its okay! They can swim just fine!" Deathshot replied, the seeker stopped when he noticed they weren't sinking or even crying out for help, "What? How is that possible?" he asked leaning down to have a better look, "Uh, it's a little thing called buoyancy? Namely thanks to having a set of air-filled lungs?" Sam replied sarcastically, "Hey! Don't get sarcastic with me fleshing! It's not often you come across terrestrial spinal cord based organisms that can hold their helms above water" the old seeker replied as he made his way back across the long, "Don't you wanna join us?" Tom shouted, "Pah! I got better things to do then to frolic about in the water rusting up my aft!" he replied, as he went back around the house Jazz, Bumblebee, Bluestreak, Hot Rod and Trailbreaker approached to see what all the excitement was about.

"Well well, you guys are having a fun time without us? I'm hurt!" Jazz grinned with a mock pained expression.

"As if we'd even think of leaving you guys out! What's a pool party without you guys to liven it up?" Glen grinned and he treaded water, with a mischievous twinkle in his optics, Bumblebee took a few steps back, realising what he was about to do, Sam and Mikaela began swimming at a quick pace in the opposite direction, the yellow scout them ran and leapt high over the water.

"PLASMA BLAST!" he hollered as he hit the water with one almighty splash, sending a large plume of water up in the air and causing a small tidal wave, the wave crashed against the pontoon and swept all the kids onto the shore line, from where he swam in the deeper water Ravage let out hoarse mechanical chuckle as the kids gathered themselves off the sandy shore, the Autobots picked their charges up and waded out into the water next to the pontoon. "Ah...thanks Bee" Hailey sarcastically announced as she picked bits of water weed and a twig from out of her hair. "Yeeaay! Let's do it again! Let's do it again!" Annabelle yelled as she clapped her hands in giddy excitement, "I think once is enough youngling" Deathshot said as he wiped the drips from his forehead. Down in the house's security centre however, the Major and Batou watched on the monitors as the kids and Autobots frolicked about in the water, playing around in happy abandonment.

"Geez, didn't they get enough of a drenching today?" Ishikawa said offhand.

"Well it is hot outside, and the is pool out of commission now" the Major smiled as she watched Scorponok and the Tachikoma's approach the lake, Batou blinked in surprise as he watch his Tachikoma walk side by side with the scorpion holding claws.

"Where the hell have they been all day?" he thought aloud

"Down in the hanger I think" Pazu replied, Batou left the room and made his way towards the back garden; Togusa rolled his eyes and followed after him.

"Hi guys!" Scorponok waved with his claw and he and the Tachikomas walked up to the pontoon, "Wow! I've never seen a robot enjoy splashing around in water before!" Batou's Tachikoma squeaked in delight.

"Where have you lot been all day?" Sam asked

"Oh we've been around" Scorponok clicked with a devilish glint in his four optics, Jazz quirked an optic ridge in curiosity.

"Dare I asked what you've been up to?" he grinned

"Oh nothing in particular...Hehehehe!" all the blue robots sniggered; the kids and Autobots all exchanged curious glances.

"There you are! Where the hell have you been hiding all day?" Batou asked as he approached the think tanks from behind, they all turned round as he walked up to his own tank.

"Oh! Uh sorry mister Batou! We've been with Scorpy here all day! But don't worry, we made sure to check the perimeter last night!" the blue tank replied in a slight panic, Scorponok shied away from under the big cyborg's gaze.

"That was last night! You guys were supposed to check it this morning as well!" he reprimanded

"Well we did!" four of the tanks chimed together, holding up their claws.

"And what about the rest of you?"

"Oh uh, well, we all had headaches and decided it would be best to stay in bed!" Batou's tank replied

"Headache? You guys don't even have heads!" Batou retorted, flinching in surprise the Tachikoma's tried to think of something to say when Mikaela, curious to see what was going on, came up alongside Scorponok and stopped as she noticed something caught between the armour plating on the underside of his tail.

"Scorpy? Is that part of your interface cable on your tail?" she asked, the giant scorpion jumped in surprise, and without coming up with a good enough excuse, sank on his legs and dropped his claws in embarrassment.

"Aw frag..." he moaned, and proceeded to explain what he and the think tanks had been doing all night long.

Back in the security room the Major frowned with concern as she watched Scorponok talking to both Batou and Morri, she was about to go out there and see what it was all about when a beeping sound emanated from one of the computer consoles.

"It's the chief; he's calling in via the encrypted comm. line" Ishikawa said, pushing the current situation aside for the moment, the Major headed into the isolated room at the far end of the road.

"Run the security checks and patch it through into here" she said as the door behind her closed and she sat down at the dive terminal, as the port jacks made contact with the ports in the back of her neck, several windows displaying the security protocols popped up in her visual range, finally a window appeared with the chiefs image in it.

"Good to see you haven't fallen off the face of the earth chief; we were all beginning to wonder what had happened to you" the Major smirked

"You? Worried for me? Well that's new!" the chief replied with his usual subtle humour, glad to hear the old apes voice wasn't betraying any sign of stress, the Major decided to get down to business.

"So? How goes the negotiations with the PM and the top brass?" she asked

"So far it looks like we might be able to resolve this, but at the same time the situation could become even more complicated that it already is" the chief said, the Major blinked in surprise

"How could it possibly get any more complicated? Did the cabinet see the evidence?"

"Yes and now there is absolutely no question in everyone's mind as to how deep this situation is. But after I did a bit of digging on this supposed dome the children mentioned and I found something that might suggest something else is going alongside all this...a certain contact informed me that the site where the Autobots were first sighted was being kept on military guard and that there's a no-fly zone for over 10 miles overhead"

"That is odd, but then it shouldn't be considering the nature of this whole thing"

"Indeed, the military are saying it was for the purposes of gathering all and any evidence that might have been left behind"

"I doubt they'll find anything of the Autobots, when we watched them fight they certainly made short work of those tanks and robots. Sure they got some dents and scratches but I didn't see anything of theirs get blown off"

"Maybe, and at first I thought that's all it was, but then I found that the new director of CIS was working in part to co-ordinate the site, it's not confirmed as of yet, but there's reason to believe that they've put a code 3 plus protocol in place" the Major frowned, if the CIS was involved then it couldn't be good.

"Code 3 plus? But that means not only will the press blackout be indefinite, but that their handling information that's above classified"

"If they had found something at the sight I have no doubt they would have gathered it up there and then soon after the fight, but the fact it's been over a week and the Autobots haven't been back there since, they're still treating the information from then as if it were brand new, to that end it's clear something could be going on there"

"What did the cabinet say?"

"When I put it to them the top brass said they had already cleared the site and had pulled out forty eight hours ago, but my contact was positive that it was possible that something was defiantly going on, but couldn't confirm it...I have to amid if you and Ishikawa were here we could probably find out what it is, because the prime minister and several cabinet members certainly didn't know anything about it...Not surprisingly the prime minister has request us to look into the matter." The chief said; the Major blinked in surprise.

"Does that mean the PM and top brass have decided what to do with the Autobots and the kids?" she asked as a slight pang of concern for their welfare suddenly faired at the back of her mind.

"On that front, it looks like we'll be able to uphold our end of the Autobots bargin, the prime minister and the joint leaders of the armed forces have agreed to allow the Autobot's and the children to unconditionally be put under the military's custody. It wasn't easy, trying to negotiate the Autobot's unconditional rules was certainly not welcome by most, they wanted some sort of insurance that they weren't going to try anything...but of course, trying to convince the military to put blind faith into 25 individuals, twelve of which aren't even human, is like trying to convince a tiger not to be tempted by the smell of your blood" the chief smirked

"But you pulled it off, I assume?"

"For the most part, but there is a catch; the prime minister, the military leaders, the heads of the military intelligence and the head of the CIS investigation committee are going to be flying out to the safe house to see the Autobots for themselves, the majority of the cabinet said they'll only seal the deal if they get to meet them first hand...do you think the Autobot's will be willing to agree?"

"...Initially I don't think there's any reason to say they won't, but I'll have to explain what you told me, at least it'll help them prepare for what's to be expected" the Major sighed

"Yes of course...speaking of which, I hope they've not been too much of a handful while I've been away?"

"Well...let's just say it's been anything but dull" she smirked

Back up above by the lake however, Scorponok had made himself scarce after explaining what he and the Tachikoma's had been up for most of the day (and last night). In response Batou simply gave his Tachikoma s firm glairing that scared it back off to the hanger (but he knew he couldn't be angry at the little rascal forever), but he was more confused and greatly surprised than angry; confused as to how drones got their kick with their partners (to which Darren explained in great detail), and greatly surprised when he realised his Tachikoma was actually in love! As Darren finished off his 'drone foreplay 101' lecture he suddenly noticed the spaced out look on the ex-ranger's face.

"Uh...Batou? Are you okay buddy?" he asked, waving a hand in front of his face.

"What's up with him?" Togusa asked as he walked down the stone stairs that interconnected the two lawns.

"Dunno, maybe the heat fried his brain or something, he's been gawking like that the last seven minutes" Miles shrugged as he cannon-balled off Jazz's shoulder

"Uh?...come on big guy why don't we get some coffee or something?" Togusa offered as he led the stunned cyborg away.

"Think he'll be alright?" Morri asked

"Well, it's not the first time I've had to explain that we weren't the first species to discover that sex could be had purely for fun" Darren replied

"What's sex?" Annabelle asked innocently

"I'll let your mommy tell you when you're older sweetie" Mikaela replied confidently, it hadn't been the first time she'd been asked that. While the kids and Autobots went back to playing around in the water, Ravage hauled himself out, having been well and truly cooled off he now wanted a bit more sunshine to warm his armour back up again, after shedding all the excess water from in-between his armour plating like a dog shedding fleas, he trotted up to the upper lawn for another nice long cat nap, as he spread himself out over the grass he was about to lay his head down when he caught sight of the lambo twins standing at the edge of the forest, each with their trademark look of pure devilish mischief, Ravage perked up and watched them carefully, he knew those looks could only mean trouble.

"Trust me bro, this'll make you fell all better" he heard Sideswipe whisper into Sunstreakers audio, then, he noticed the red twin had a slingshot in one hand. Before the panther could get up, he drew back the sling, took aim and fired something that landed right in front of the cat's face, looking down; he saw it was a large tightly tied bundle of medium sized plants with pale purplish blue flowers. The second he sniffed it he felt his head become light, every colour seemed to become more vivid and warning signs flashed in his processor, but the giddy and intense feeling of euphoria that swept over his metal body confirmed what the plant was, and what was going to happen next.

"Y-You f-fragger!" he hissed before succumbing to the plant's potent property.

Meanwhile, back down in the security room, the section 9 team listened in stunned surprise as Batou relayed everything Darren had explained to him

"Wow...I know this morning was little awkward, but really? Who knew?" Togusa shrugged

"Yeah...but it makes you think, if the-" Batou stopped short of what he was about to say as he noticed a commotion going on via the cameras that overlooked the back garden, on each of the monitors he saw the kids and Autobots had made a mad scramble out of the lake and had stopped on the upper lawn as a grey silver-ish blur darted back and forth across the grass, noticing the monitors too, the Major and the rest of the team vacated the room to see what was going on.

"What the hell's going on now?" Batou huffed, as soon as they approached the lawn, they saw the kids and Autobots looking precariously back and forth across the lawn, when suddenly, jumping out of the bushes at one end and pouncing on the bundle of plants, Ravage went berserk as he rolled, twisted, twitched and basically went nuts as he grabbed the plants between his two front paws and rubbed them all over his face, while purring loudly like a Farrari engine. Annabelle fell over in a fit of giggles while Sam, Miles and Hot Rod couldn't but snigger uncontrollably.

Taking a runner and leaping clean over the lawn and the panther, the Major landed next to Morri who watched on in concern.

"What the hell's he doing? Is something wrong?" the Major asked

"Not initially, I think a certain pair of twins are responsible for this...he won't hurt anyone on purpose in this state but obviously that tail mace would do some serious damage" she replied, the Major looked back across the lawn and saw the lambo twins falling over one another in hysterical laughter, bellowing hard and loud like a couple of maniacs, she frowned in annoyance, didn't they learn their lesson this morning.

"But what did they do to him?" the Major asked

"The one thing we all learned the hard way never to do man" Miles said, the Major prepared herself for the worst.

"They gave him catnip" Mikaela said in a deadpan tone.

The Major was pretty sure that, if she wasn't who she was, she would have fainted right there and then.

* * *

Nut's huh? a few funny's to lighten the mood, cuz from here on, we're going down the rabbit hole! R&R please!


	27. Chapter 26: Last Night Together

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Transformers or Ghost in the Shell, just my OC's & the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 26: LAST NIGHT TOGETHER

The light was dim as the deep jade of the water encompassed her vision, shafts of pale gold sunlight cascaded down and lit up the vivid green thread like weeds , it was cold at this short depth and the silence was only complimented by the hollow sound of the blood rushing through her middle ear. It was a place she had been accustom to on many a deep dive, and she knew there were other places in the deepest parts of the ocean that were far more lonely and foreboding. But for a lake, this was fairly present considering everything was tinted green and aqua. As she came back up to the surface for air, Morri looked around and noticed just how far she had swam, the safe house had to be at least over 400 yards from where she was treading water.

"Wow, must have lost track of time" she huffed as she started breast-stroking towards the more open waters of the lake.

After nearly an hour of wild frolicking, rolling, running and all out madness, Ravage finally calmed down as the effects of the catnip began to wear off, as soon as he was competent again he tried to attack the twins but was thwarted by Deathshot, who held him back while the twins got an ear/audio full of both Jazz and Major, reprimanding them for the stunt. That was over five hours ago and rest of the afternoon had passed by fairly peacefully (and after watching the Major's display of strict discipline no-one was willing to bring up any further issues) without any further mischief cropping up. The afternoon had gradually slipped into the evening, and all around the colours of the scene had steadily changed; the now vividly red sun hung low in the pale violet sky, vaguely resembling the Japanese flag, shafts of pink hazy light fell through the forest lighting up the tree's as if they were on fire, the mountains beyond the valley were bathed in peach, in turn lighting up the lake with shades of gold, pink and orange, on the opposite horizon the twilight gradually crept along with hues of periwinkle and lilac and in the eastern sky the first of the nights stars began to glisten like tiny diamonds.

From where she treaded water, Morri noticed a vague bright purple line rippling on the water, paddling over and reaching out one hand, the air around her fingers rippled and distorted as bright vivid green, pink, yellow and purple lights swirled around like smoke and a deep thrum could be heard.

'Must be the edge of the hologram' she thought.

"Hey!" she turned around and saw Ravage swimming along towards her, the glow of his one optic reflected off the water like flecks of scarlet as he moved along in his crocodile like manner. "The others want you back; Tom's preparing some organic fuel" he growled, "Really? What's he cooking?" she asked, "Some obscure mix of plants, a bird and these weird yellowing strands of something called 'noodles'" he replied, "Heh, his special chicken chow-mein? That. I certainly can't say no to, alright time to head back, it's getting dark anyway" she smiled, Ravage came up alongside her and offered is back, she grabbed a hold of the ridge between his shoulder plates and hung on as he swayed from side to side through the water at a quick pace.

"So what have Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee been doing all afternoon?" she asked offhand

"Keeping well away from the Major and making sure not to rub your guardian off the wrong way" Ravage smirked

"And how about you? Are you feeling better? That catnip was pretty hard on you"

"I'm fine, but I still don't understand; of all the things to be affected by on this world, how can one little plant do that to me?" he growled lowly

"Well we all think it's because your formatted on a cat, cat's go nuts with that stuff so it only seemed to figure that maybe some aspect of the feline design in you is affected too, even though your mechanical in nature" Morri replied

"A little farfetched in my view, and my format is based on a panther, there's a big difference between a panther and a common human pet"

"Maybe, but cat's are predators at heart too; I should know, our neighbours Siamese always brings mice to our doorstep, and besides, Anny doesn't see you as a big bad panther, as far as she's concerned you're a big oversized kitty cat" Morri smirked

"Call me that in front of Ironhide or the golden lambo twit and I'll make you pay dearly child" he growled

"Don't worry, you know I won't" she chuckled.

"By the way, it looks like something's been going down with the section 9 team; they've been barricaded inside that security centre of theirs for the last half hour and Deathshot said he detected an encrypted signal being sent down there"

"He's been listening in on them?"

"Of course not, he's far too polite to do that without good case, and considering the interesting conversation he had with their sniper this morning, I'd say he's got quiet a good few reasons to think better of them"

"I have to say, it was interesting to see them talk like that, but I think Miles was still expecting something like a 'cosmic convergence' to happen, whatever that's supposed to be" Morri chucked

"Whatever, the point is I think something's going on, new developments perhaps?"

"I don't know...wait a minute, did you just start a sentence with the word 'whatever'?" Morri grinned with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, Ravage blinked in surprise, "So? Hanging around with us fleshlings has finally rubbed off on you huh?" she chuckled, Ravage only gave a low grumbling growl and carried on swimming. Upon reaching the shore he trotted up to the patio door to let Morri dismount. A couple of hours later after dinner, the kids retreated to the lounge to watch TV, halfway through the news a creaking noise drew everyone's attention as the Major and Batou emerged from another secret door.

"How many more of those secret doors has this place got?" Hailey said in surprise

"Too many to count...listen guys; can you get your friends from out the garage? We need to talk to you all, it's really important" the Major said, the kids all glanced at one another in curiosity

"What's going down?" Miles asked

"We received a message from the chief not long ago, it's about the deal he proposed to the prime minister and the cabinet..." the Major replied. The kids all sat up in surprise, a feeling of coldness suddenly descended on the youngsters as they got up to get their respective guardians. Within no time at all the Autobots had gathered around the main balcony outside the dining room so as they could be more eye/optic level with the humans, the kids stood in a half circle around the Major and Batou, Togusa and Saito had both decided to join the meeting too and stood off to one side next to the Major. All around the air was thick with suspense and all the feelings of doubt, uncertainty and worry were beginning to stir at the back of everyone's minds.

"So? What's the word from your chief?" Jazz asked folding his arms across his headlights

"Good. It looks like he managed to keep up our end of the agreement, the prime minister and the cabinet have agreed to grant you all sanctuary at a top secret military facility..." the Major replied, her own anxiety nagging at the base of her mind.

"But I sense a but coming" Becca said

"...But, while the prime minister is ultimately the one who approved your request, the cabinet were somewhat reluctant. Since the responsibility of your welfare will fall to them they want to know just what their getting themselves into and want to meet you guys face to face" the Major continued.

"Fair enough, but it isn't like we're gonna be playing hooky after hours and running for a few kicks in the nearest town" Ashley shrugged; Deathshot rolled his one optic and tapped the lad on the shoulder.

"She means us youngling" he whispered

"Oh"

"But what about us? They do know that we're a package deal right? Where the guys go we go too?" Glen asked anxiously

"They've been made aware of the relationship you guys have with one another and have been asked to take it into account, but suffice to say, you kids aren't the real issue as far as the cabinet are concerned, they want to get a feel for you Autobots so as to see what you're like. The negotiations, debating and theorising have now reached the point where the physical and written evidence has done all it can, now they want to see for themselves the cause of all the trouble that's been plaguing them for the last week"

"So I take it their not exactly gonna be pleased to see us?" Hot Rod asked

"In a way it'll be 50/50, half the cabinet are eager to see you while the other are still adamant that you Autobots pose a serious threat to our national security" Batou replied

"In a way we can relate, the CIA back home isn't really any different, but the big concern for us is, have they admitted that they know about the rift and that they've got command of the site where it is?" Jazz asked, the Major looked up at him for an uneasy moment, there was no point in telling it any other way, as all eyes fell on her she breathed in deep and replied;

"...That, was a difficult piece of Intel to get a hold of, the chief found out that, indeed the military are in charge of the site but their unwilling to disclose any information on what they've found at the site. Because there's more than one field marshal involved we're not sure just who's got control of the site"

"I bet their not willing to let it go! But what do they think they're going to achieve? It's not like they can open the rift! Are they going to allow us access to it?" Jetfire asked with a quirked optic ridge.

"That's an issue you'll have to take up with them. They'll be coming here tomorrow afternoon at 1:30 pm, after which you'll be transported to the Itami military air base at 6:00pm, there'll be a couple of C-130H's waiting to take you all to the base you'll be staying on, Deathshot, Jetfire, you'll both be accompanied to the base by the secret air self-defence army unit"

"Tomorrow?" Becky thought aloud

"What about you guys?" asked Tom

"Our job will be simply to hand you over once we get to Itami, from there on, the GSDA will be in charge of keeping you all safe" Batou replied

"You're n-n-not coming w-w-with us?" Frenzy asked as he hugged Mikaela's side, the Major and Batou looked at one another, and then noticed the slightly disheartened looks on the other kid's faces, even Bumblebee and Bluestreak looked a little disappointed.

"I'm sorry, but we don't have clearance for the place you guys are going, trust me, its kept so secret that the geographical location for it is above classified and it doesn't even have an official name, it's known only as 'Kuroi -Himitsu'"

"Kuroi-Himitsu?" Hailey asked offhand

"It's Japanese for 'black secret'" the Major replied

"With a name like that I'd wager it must be Japan's answer to Area 51" said Darren

"So what will you guys do once we're on this new base?" asked Becca

"Ah there'll be cases waiting for us when we get back to HQ, no doubt there'll be plenty of work to do" Batou grinned.

"So, what happens once we're on the base?" Miles thought aloud, everyone paused in thought as to what lay ahead.

"Well, I guess, we ask if not demand that we can have access to the rift, see what information we can gather from it, and then...all we can do is wait for the others to reopen it from the other side...it's all we can do for now" Jazz sighed. The others all felt a sense of disappointment, as if having to leave a great party early without first saying hello properly, while some hung their heads, the rest simply looked towards the section 9 members with almost puppy-dog like eyes/optics.

"Hey what's up? This is what you wanted isn't it? Somewhere safe to say until your friends come to take you all home?" Batou asked

"Well yeah, but, we were just starting to like you guys" Becky replied as she hugged her sister by the shoulders, Batou and Togusa both smiled.

"Yeah, I mean, not only did you keep your word, you didn't screw around with us, and considering how many A-holes in military intelligence we come across back home, you guys are probably the first we've ever met that were openly honest about their intentions, and that's saying a lot" Morri smiled

"If this is to be our last night with you, then let us thank you for your help somehow" Deathshot offered

"It's okay, you don't have to do anything, we're just glad to help out" the Major smiled

"Nah we insist! We'd feel bad for not repaying your kindness, and Prime always says that while evil cannot be seen to go unpunished, goodness cannot be seen to go unrewarded, and I feel-"

"Blue, your rambling again" said Hailey in a flat tone

"Oh! Sorry! I'm always doing that, it's a terrible habit really, and I really should-"

"Blue"

"Sorry!" the blue sniper replied sheepishly as the others giggle in response.

"Anyway, we'll be sure to drop by and say good bye before we go home, we owe you at least that much" Sam smiled, at that moment Annabelle ran back into the house, "Anny!" Mikeala ran after her as she ran up the stairs.

"What's up with her?" Miles asked, "I'll go and check" Morri replied as ran back inside, the blond teen looked towards Sam who only shrugged in reply.

As the evening slowly waned into the night and the hours ticked by, the kids spent the evening gathering their possessions together in preparation for tomorrows transfer. After packing up the last of her stuff Morri stepped outside onto the lawn, she always loved the feeling of grass beneath her bare feet, especially on mild nights like this one. Overhead the stars stretched on forever across the endless night sky, like a placid swirling sea teeming with bioluminescent plankton, it seemed to hold its own kind of living radiance, like a vast entity suspended in an endless sleep, waiting to be awakened from its dreams. She remembered it was a night like this some two years ago that she first told Deathshot about the stars, what their cultural and spiritual significance was to the many human cultures around earth, and how they can never be touched, as she let her mind drift off back to those nostalgic thoughts, the scent of cigarette smoke snapped her back to reality, turning around she saw Batou sitting on the bench next to the empty pool with a cigarette pressed between his lips"

"My, you're really quiet, I didn't even know you were there" she said

"Then I guess I haven't lost my touch" he smirked, breathing out a large cloud of smoke that spiralled round up into the air.

"You do know that'll give you cancer one of these days?" suggested Morri.

"Ah when you've got cyborg lungs you can inhale practically anything and not even choke" Batou replied, Morri blinked in surprise and then smiled sheepishly, "Oh right I forgot" she replied, walking around the pool and stood next to the bench.

"So? You guys all finished packing up yet?" he asked

"Pretty much, Mikaela's just finishing up with the laundry and D's been stashing some energon cubes into his subspace, in case the guys need a quick boost in an emergency" replied Morri

"Makes sense; listen, is Deathshot gonna be taking that holo-projector down? Only the helicopters carrying the PM and the cabinet will be landing on the lawn tomorrow" Batou gestured upwards towards the holo-projector on the corner of the roof. With the darkness of the night the purple waves of light emanating outwards from its projector source were much more noticeable.

"He said he'd take it down first thing in the morning" Morri replied, looking back up at the sky as she sat down, gazing up to where she was looking Batou noticed the faint outline of the Milky Way stretching across the sky.

"Quite a night huh?" she said quietly

"Sure is, when you live in a city for so long you tend to forget what the real night sky actually looks like" Batou replied offhand

"I suppose, I live way out in the country back home so I see this every night, except for when its cloudy...But then, they looked different back before I met D..." said Morri thoughtfully, Batou glanced sideways at her and sighed as his mind stretched back to the day he and the rest of section 9 first met the Autobots.

"I know what you mean...that day when we met you guys for the first time. I can remember thinking I was never going to look at those stars in the same way ever again...it's one thing to look up and wonder what could be out there, but to actually know that you're not the only one in neighbourhood? It's both amazing and scary, and you don't which to feel first" he said.

"I know, but what really made me think, was not only knowing that humanity wasn't alone, but wondering where that puts us in grand scheme of the universe, you know like, we will ever be capable of getting up there by ourselves? And how long will we have to wait before that capability is within our reach?" Morri replied as she looked down at the medallion around her neck, the one she always wore that bore the Autobot's insignia, she idly tilted it back and forth between her fingers, watching how the light from the house made the red and gold metal gleam.

"I have no doubt we will find a way up there, but it's doubtful we'll ever see it in our lifetimes...but who knows? For all we know it could be sooner or later" replied Batou.

"Or maybe somewhere in between? I know I'll certainly see it in my lifetime..." the two humans turned around to see Deathshot walk up and kneel down behind the bench, "Being the resourceful little beings that you are, I know somewhere in future you'll invent some new fancy engine that'll give a few light years to the gallon" the giant sniper continued with a small smile.

"You think?" Batou asked

"Of course, if there's one thing I've learnt about humans it's that you refuse to believe nothing is impossible" Batou stared up at the Autobot of brief moment, a little bemused by his choice of words.

"Well I wouldn't say nothing is impossible, but we get most things done" Batou smirked. "That's true, two millions years we've been around, I'd say that's a good innings" Ashley concurred as Ravage came trotting up carrying him on his back. At the same time the Major walked out onto the patio, the panther trotted up next to her with a large toothy grin, she shot him a stern look to which he simply gave a deep chuckle.

"Has anybody told you, you look totally hot when you're annoyed?" Ashley said with a wicked twinkle in his eyes, the Major merely gave him a deadpan look but Batou was both amused and impressed, this kid certainly had guts.

"You know, I'm really going to miss that hard-assed attitude of yours sweetie, as well as that kick-ass kung fu you got going" the 12 year old continued with a grin, the Majors eyes narrowed in annoyance.

"Really? Because I'm certainly not going to miss you" she replied flatly

"Oh I'm hurt" Ashley replied in a mocking tone as he hopped off Ravages back and stood behind Morri.

"You really can't help yourself can you wild horse?" Morri huffed in a flat tone

"Hey what can I say? Life's too short, I like to get my kicks in where I can, and I have to say, sweetness here is packing way more than then just a few kicks" Ashley smirked with a devilish grin.

"That's not the only thing I'm packing, if you keep this up you'll find out the hard way" the Major replied in her usual smooth way, coming up alongside the boy with her trademark glare of intimidation, to which had no effect, Ashley only returned the glare with a sneaky looking smirk.

"Oh please Major don't temp him, you'll only give him the incentive to bite off more than he can chew" Morri sighed in frustration

"Oh really? Well in that case I'm just sorry I won't be able to take the time to put you in your place" she replied staring down at him. Batou's face fell flat as a strange feeling of deja'vu suddenly over came him, 'time to put you in your place? Where have I heard that before?' he thought as his brain desperately tried to rake his memory for an answer, it certainly sounded like something he had heard before, but where? When? Upon failing to reach any answer, he let the moment pass and set his mind back to the here and now, "Say, why'd you call him wild horse?" he asked.

"Because this young hellion here refuses to let anyone break him in and tame him, if they think they can take him for a ride, they're the ones that often end up being taken along for the ride" Morri sighed as she looked up into the grinning face of her younger cousin.

"Heh, damn right, I'd like to see anyone try and take me down" Ashley smirked

"Ha ha ha ha! That's big talk for a half pint!" Batou chuckled, Ashley's jaw dropped in surprise

"Who are you calling a half pint!" he exclaimed and with one jump lunged to try and grab Batou by the neck, but the big cyborg managed to flip him round and holding him under one arm, delivered a swift hard noogie, Morri and Deathshot tried to stifle their giggles while the Major watch on with a content smile on her face. "Ah! Gkaak! Com'on mate! Lemme go!" Ashley chuckled as he struggled in vain to get out of Batou's grip. "Ha ha ha! Not until you apologize to the Major!" the ex-ranger chuckled, "Oof! Make me!" Ashley smirked, "Alright, you leave me no choice, come here!" and with that, Batou hauled him off the bench, holding him off the ground he tightened his grip and noogied him harder, Ashley tried in vain to get wriggle out but to no avail." Gaak! I...will never...surrender!" he wheezed out, "Well I don't know about you but I can do this all night kid!" Batou laughed, which elected a grown from the 12 year old.

"Alright Ashley, I think maybe now you should-"

Deathshot didn't finish as he suddenly stopped, everyone stopped what they were doing as looked up at the now frozen sniper, alarm bells began ringing in their heads as Deathshot's one eye grew wider in fear and a beeping sound could be heard, from out the sides of his temples tow red lights swung out and he stood upright, looking up at the sky as if in a trance, on their backs, Morri and Ashley's BSHB's began beeping too.

"D? What's wrong?" Morri asked, her voice laced with concern, the Major watch on wondering what was happening, Batou placed Ashley back on the ground and both came around to the snipers legs, the thundering of feet announced the arrival of the other Autobots as they came running around the sides of the house.

"D! Did you-"

"I know Jazz! I'm trying to pinpoint the source right now!"

"D! What is it! What did you pick up?" Morri called up

"An Autobot ID signature code! And it's not any of ours! It's coming from the east, approximately 260 miles of this current location" the sniper replied, by this time everyone else had filed out the house to see what all the noise was about.

"An Autobot ID signature code?"

"260 miles eastwards? But that would mean-"

"The rift! Holy crap! The rift's been reopened!"

* * *

Cliff hanger time! 8D R&R please!


	28. Chapter 27: A Terrible Discovery

It's action time! XD after much writers block and exhauasted enegies, the plot twister is finally here! XD

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or Ghost in the shell, just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 27: A TERRIBLE DISCOVERY AND AN EVEN GREATER REVILATION

"WH-WHAT! What do you mean the rift's been reopened?" Glen exclaimed

"OhPrimus!whatdowedo!whatdowedo!whatdowedo!whatdowedo!whatdowe-"

"Frenzy you're not helping! Pipe down and stand over there!" Hot Rod picked up the panicking hacker and placed him down next to the Waineright twins who patted him on both spiny shoulders. Everyone looked back and forth between the Autobot sniper and the first lieutenant, wondering just what would happen next.

"What do we do? If somebody's come through shouldn't we try to contact them?" Danny asked hesitantly

"What if they've run into all those military guys that were guarding the rift? What if they've gotten into a fight and they need back-up?" Hailey exclaimed in a near panic, as everyone began to loudly voice their concern, Jazz honked his horn loudly, grabbing everyone's attention.

"Alright now calm down 'yawl! Panicking ain't gonna help, just settle down and let the D-man do his thing!" Jazz boomed over the group via his load-speakers, everyone promptly calmed down and simply glanced back and forth between one another, uncertain of what to do.

"Man, what the hell do we do?" Miles asked

"We'll know as soon as we know the nature of that signal" Jazz replied as he glanced at Deathshot.

"If that signal is coming from one of your other buddy's then do you know who it is?" Batou called up from Deathshots ankle

"It's not a who but rather what...the signal that's being emitted is similar to that of a communication beacon" Deathshot replied as he raised his head higher, all the Autobots gasped and Jazz stepped towards the sniper, though his visor covered his eyes, it didn't cover the concern etched across his face plates.

"A communication beacon? What kind?" he asked

"We're too far away to tell, but it's sending out a signal using the Autobot data key code 234071110"

"That's the code used for classified holographic messages!" Jetfire exclaimed

"The guys were able to send us a message?" Sam exclaimed

"Not only that but it's a level 4 encryption, for whatever reason it was sent, it's primed to be opened only by one of us; it's certainly not meant to be opened using human technology" Deathshot replied.

"Wait a sec, why did they send a beacon instead of a search party?" Mikaela asked bemused, everyone paused in the sudden realization of the situation, several uneasy glances were exchanged as no-one knew what to say at first. "You're right... Why didn't they come through in the first place? And send only a beacon instead?" Hot Rod thought aloud.

"But why would they do that?" Bluestreak asked

"Maybe they didn't know what was in this universe and didn't want to run the risk of something else grabbing a hold of it" Bumblebee replied

"Which begs the question what the hell do we do now? If those military guys have it and are trying to open it, then-"

"SLAG! We have to get it off them!"

"Jazz, what are your orders? I'm starting pick up a lot of chatter on all the military comm. frequencies, they know it's here and they know it's emitting a signal!" Deathshot said sternly, everyone looked towards the first lieutenant as he dropped his gaze in thought. As he desperately ran through his options, the air around steadily began to grow thick with tension, the Major looked on with silent worry, realising that only one choice was open to them, with a deep sigh through his vents, Jazz looked back up at the anxious Autobot sniper.

"Deathshot, is that signal still stationary?" he asked

"For the moment yes"

"Then in that case your orders are to get over there and find out what the slag's going down" the first lieutenant ordered

"Wait a minute! You're not actually going there are you?" Togusa called up in alarm, his panicky tone expressing the team's inner worry.

"Hey chill man, nobody's gonna see him, he's totally tricked out for stealth mode" Miles reassured the worried detective, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Togusa I can assure you, if your military has anything that can catch me then they deserve to catch me, besides; I was stationary seven meters away from your balcony for over eight hours that day Annabelle was in your care, I think I'll be fine" Deathshot said softly as he bent down to pick up Morri, the detective stared up at him dumbly as the sniper opened his cockpit to let the 22 year old climb in. Snapping herself from out of her surprised stupor, the Major stepped forward with a serious frown across her face.

"Wait a minute! Why are you going?" she called up to Morri

"I wanna see for myself!" Morri replied as the cockpit swung down, stepping back a few paces Deathshot jumped up and rapidly transformed, hovering a few feet off the ground the cockpit reopened and Morri stood up in the front most seat. "If you're going I'm coming too!" the Major sternly barked as she leaped up onto the sniper's fuselage and climbed into the second seat, Morri didn't argue as she strapped herself into the main seat.

"Alright, at least you'll see the dome for yourself. Jazz, what do we do if it's possible to get a hold of the beacon?" Deathshot asked over the loud-speakers on the sides of his nose cone

"We'll get a better idea what to do as soon as you get over there, now go!" he ordered, the canopy swung down with a hiss as it sealed shut, the jet rose high into the air and faded from sight as Deathshot engaged his stealth mode. Inside the cockpit, the control panels came alive as the various buttons, monitors and key pads glowed in soft hues of blue, purple and red. The Major watched and listened as the panels in front of her hummed in a strange electronic thrum; seemingly humming in tune to the flashing of the controls, even the metal seemed to vibrate in a strange way as if it were like skin. She was amazed at how alive it felt, as if she were pressing her ear next to the belly of a whale and listening to its beating heart.

"Uh what do I do here?" she asked when she realised just how complex the controls really were, everything had cybertronian glyphs written all over and the data scrolling along the monitors made no sense at all.

"Don't worry, all my internal controls are on auto-run as long as I'm in control. Now hold on tight cause I'm firing up!" Deathshot said as a deep vibrating thrum resonated around the cockpit, on either side of the fuselage the engines under his wings glowed intensely and the two humans were suddenly pressed back into their seats with the fast jolt of unbelievable speed.

"WOO HOOOO!"

Back on the ground, Darren had rushed to fetch his laptop and some of his hacking equipment, setting it up on the dining room balcony and linking up to Deathshots direct link, he quickly got a data burst come through which confirmed the connection was up and running, placing his cell phone in a loud-speaker dock on the table, he plugged it into the laptop and started typing away as the data started streaming into his auxiliary hard-drive, Ishikawa squinted as he tried to read the cybertronian glyphs that were scrolling down the screen, how this kid could read and actually understand them was beyond him, but he said nothing as he watched him swiftly work away.

"Okay D, we're live and ready to watch the action" Darren said towards the speaker, the humans quickly ran up onto the balcony and gathered around behind him while the Autobots huddled around the balcony to watch what was unfolding on the screen.

"Confirmed, I've got you on the short-burst frequency; that way if the military get wind of this signal they won't be able to listen in without getting their systems zapped by a class G magnetic virus" Deathshot replied.

"Is that dangerous?" asked Ishikawa, having never heard of a magnetic virus before.

"Well it won't kill you, but it will give your computer systems one hell of a heart attack, so to speak" Darren replied with a smirk.

"Okay focus; what's the situation D-man?" Jazz asked.

"It's tense, there's an increase in the number of attack helicopters compared to the last time I was here" the sniper replied as he came in low to hover some 100 feet above the steady incline of the valley walls. Inside his cockpit the two humans breathed a deep sigh of relief as they pulled themselves from out of their seat. "Whoa, you okay back there?" Morri asked groggily, her head still spinning from the extreme G-force, the Major leaned forward as she inhaled a deep breath, she was thankful for her artificial stomach being so hardy and not being prone to the vomit reflex, but she was more amazed that they were able to cover over 200 miles in just several minutes!

"I'm, fine...just need a minute to clear my head...never been...flown so fast in my life!" she replied

"Don't worry, your inner ear's equilibrium will reboot momentarily, right now, let's see what we've got. We're currently 3 miles from the signal source" Deathshot replied, quickly gathering themselves, both Morri and the Major watched as a pair of charcoal grey helicopters flew just 20 feet above the canopy, Morri gasped in surprise as she watched them fly up over the valley ridge and disappear.

"Those are the same type of choppers that attacked us in the park! Right before we teleported out, but those two were near black, the others were light grey" she said in alarm

"Those are Jigabachi attack helicopters, the ones that attacked you in the park were unmanned but those one's had pilots...they didn't see us?" the Major asked puzzled

"No-one will Major, with all my stealth functions running there's no chance anyone will spot us" Deathshot replied

"But what about the engines? Someone's bound to hear them" she retorted, worried that their cover would be blown before they even got a chance to get within range.

"The only ones that can hear my engines are you and Morri, their Ion-plasma engines, designed specifically for stealth-class craft like myself, don't worry Major I've got this covered" Deathshot coolly replied, the Major frowned as she could practically hear the smirk in his voice, "At least its nice to know you like to cover all the bases, we'll be fine don't worry" Morri reassured.

The Major quickly put the issue aside as the sniper descended into the valley until he was just above the treetops, slowly creeping along he remembered this area from the last time he scouted the sight, the day after they fell through the rift. He could sense the tension in his cockpit slowly mounting as he sensed Morri's anxiety slowly mounting, the chemical balance's of her biology indicated her 'fight or flight' reflex was priming itself for action, even though she was safely strapped inside his cockpit and there was no chance of anyone spotting them, he knew it still her natural human way of preparing for the unexpected, but he was surprised at how much calmer the Major was, she must be an exceptionally well trained soldier for her heart-rate not to get above 87 bmp.

As the Autobot sniper steadily hovered further into the valley, the valley walls grew steeper and narrower. Down below, travelling along the old dirt road was a long military convoy comprised of armour trucks, jeeps, and in the centre was one huge black truck sized armoured vehicle, along the tops of the valley wall's the snipers were still stationed and hidden among the tree's were armed soldiers carrying heavy firearms; although the blackness of the night made them practically invisible, their body's heat signatures were showing up on Deathshots monitors like Christmas tree lights.

"Bloody hell there's so many of them!" Morri breathed as she watched the monitor system

"Dude there's no way we could ever get past that!" Miles said over the speaker

Looking up ahead she could see the top of the warehouse peering about the lower valley ridge, and beyond that, the two white domes. The two humans watched in amazement as Deathshot passed over the warehouse site which was lit up by a couple of large floodlights, a number of armed soldiers were gathered around the dome; as if waiting for something, Deathshot was surprised to see how much had changed since he was last here.

"They've cleared away all the debris from our fight, and that barrier around the base of the dome is higher than last time, almost by 20 feet" Deathshot said offhand.

"Where's the signal coming from?" the Major asked, anxious to keep everyone focused.

"It's still coming from inside the main dome" the sniper replied as he swung around to the side of the huge white structure, recalibrating his scanners, he bought up an image of the inside of the dome in reverse colour imaging. Inside the rift was still present, it hadn't seemed to change in size, it was still there and still visible; over the comm frequency he could hear the gasps of surprise and awe from the other humans.

"Is that the rift?" Batou asked as he watched the image on the screen

"That's it" replied Deathshot, Jetfire stared intently at it as if hypnotised while the other's tried to make out its shape.

"It looks kinda like that 'wavy air' effect, you know, the kind you see on the horizon of a dessert" Hailey thought aloud.

As Deathshot came into hover between the two domes, his scanners finally honed in on the source of the signal, inside the larger dome a group of men in hazmat suits were crowded around a long cylindrical object that was laying on the ground right under the rift, scanning in closer revealed it to be a huge cylinder about a meter long with smooth sides, the middle had several wide rings around it, each with a complex pattern that looked like a cross between printed circuit boards and crop circle patterns, at one end were three large triangular struts, suggesting it stood on a fold-out tripod and at the other end was a complex structure of circular patterns layered on top of one another, all down the sides were columns of cybertronian glyphs embossed into the metal.

"That's it! That's the beacon!" Darren happily exclaimed

"D-man, is it possible to retrieve it from where you are?" Jazz asked

"I don't know, I'll see what I can but I don't know if-" said Deathshot as he swung around to avoid a huge black helicopter that came in to land between the warehouse and the dome, "What the hell-" Morri exclaimed, "Look" the Major pointed to the chopper, it wasn't a combat modal but rather a heavily armoured people carrier, the side door opened and a set of thick metal steps unfolded from underneath. Four mysterious figures dressed all in black appeared and several soldiers came up and flanked their sides as they made their way across the flat ground towards the smaller dome, the men in hazmat suites carried the beacon out and stood it up in front of them. Moving in as close as possible, Deathshot watched carefully as one of the men stepped up to the beacon and looked it over sceptically, it was hard to make out their faces as they all stood with their backs to the flood lights, activating his external microphone he listened to what they were saying;

"How long ago did it emerge from the anomaly?" one of the strangers asked, his voice coming through over Deathshots cockpit speakers clearly.

"Approximately 12 minutes ago, we've confirmed there's a signal being generated from the object but we've been unable to get a lock on it, the waves are far too powerful and erratic to interpret sir" one of the hazmat's replied.

"What do you suppose it means?" another of the mysterious figures asked.

"It means that we're now running on borrowed time, if the anomaly is how the aliens got through then this must be their friends way of trying to contact them to come back...we can't afford to waste any more time on this!" another replied, a cold streak went down Morri's spine as she didn't like where this was going, the Major too didn't like the looks of this, staring down at the four figures she tried to study their faces but the darkness of the night made it hard to try and interpret their features.

"You do realize we've got the investment of a lifetime at stake here! If we let them slip through our fingers then all the money we've got tied into this will be wasted! Or the authorities might find out!" one of the figures argued.

"I'm well aware of what's at stake but the authorities are not an issue, I've already got them covered...our real concern will be to keep the aliens in check once section 9 hands them over and we get them to the base, the prime minister may not have signed off on the protection order for them yet but we all know Aramaki's already made her mind up for her, he's being a real stubborn bastard on maintaining the aliens conditions for being 'granted sanctuary from the Japanese government'" one replied calmly.

"He may have been a thorn in our sides for last few days but at least he and section 9 won't be an issue anymore, after tomorrow we can pay full our full attentions to carrying out the rest of the plan. Even though it's been a week I've managed to secure the agreements with our investors and my associates have already secured the necessary arrangements, and have made it clear that they would like to see some results by the end of the year at the very least." Said another

"That's all well and good but how do we get the necessary goods?"

"It won't be an issue; our anonymous benefactor has assured me that he will have what we need as soon as possible. It's just a question of how long it will take him to 'process' the goods without anyone noticing, plus, making sure the prime minister and the cabinet are kept in the dark with the falsified information he set up on the military's network"

"And what do we do if someone like Aramaki comes sniffing around? Don't forget, covering our tracks on that money trail going back to Poseidon industries several months ago was risky enough with all the action going down on Dejima. But the fact that Kiyabuki's independent self-reliance policy include tighter restrictions on international trading means we won't be able to ship the goods overseas to our buyers, their having to come here to Japan to secure the deals and if section 9 get's wind of just one them, then they could follow the money trail back to us!"

"You leave Aramaki to me, any man can bought it's just a question of knowing what his price is" the Major smirked, as if the old ape would ever be bribed, this was more than just cause for concern, something real shady was going on here, and from the sounds it, it sounded it involved the Autobots.

"You forget, Aramaki is an old military man with principles, he's stubborn at the best of times and much harder at the worst, he can never bought, blackmailed or bullied...he's one man none of us want for an enemy, and his men at section 9 are just as 'unpersuasive'. They report directly to the prime minister and are therefore immune to normal pressure tactics"

"Listen, the only ones immune to pressure are the politicians and weapons designers who have invested their money into this, this nonsense about 'reporting directly to the prime minister' is only on paper, anything else is simply a case of 'he said she said' and no-one will take it seriously if an investigation is undertaken...if anything should happen...whatever our anonymous benefactor has in store, it had better be worth all the effort we've put into this!"

"So what do we do with this thing? Do you think the aliens will leave section 9's safe-house to retrieve it?"

"If their as fast as Aramaki's report suggests then they would be here by now. Take it to the base to be analysed and make sure the signal is neutralized...whatever happens, the aliens and their little friends will not be going home..."

A deathly silence filled the cockpit as the Major and Morri stared in disbelief at what they just heard.

"And the children? What do we do with them?"

"As far as the plan is concerned their of no use and therefore expandable, I've already made the arrangements for them to be taken care of; as soon as they arrive on the base they'll be separated from their 'guardians' and will be eliminated...we'll simple say they accidently strayed onto the firing range and that it was a terrible accident that couldn't be prevented...but once their gone the aliens will be ours and their weapons and body's will be the cornerstones in a new age of technology, one that will take this country to new heights, as well as anyone else who's willing to pay buku bucks for a piece of them..."

In that moment the world seemed to spin backwards on itself as those last words hit the kids and Autobots like a kick in the guts, they couldn't believe what they just heard, fear, panic, anger and sheer terror for their lives began to set in as everyone began sweating bullets, the section 9 team were just as floored...and horrified at the realization that they were about to hand the Autobots and their charges over to their deaths! Batou scowled in anger as he glared at the figures on Darren's laptop, his rage steadily climbing, but his face instantly softened into a look of concern when the teen glanced back at him with a look of terror in his eyes, like a little kid who had just fallen off his bike and saw the blood running down his knee, he didn't know what to do or say. The others were just as terrified, but before anyone had a chance to openly voice their panic, Jazz beat them to it.

"GET THAT BEACON BACK HERE SOLDIER!" he barked, in an unusual show of aggression.

"Hold on tight!" Deathshot said sternly.

Everything in next few seconds happened so fast that the two human women didn't have time to think as time seemed to pass in a rapid succession of blurred vision and violent shifts in gravity. Deathshot instantly fired out three smoke bomb canisters from the sides of his fuselage; the resulting explosions enveloped half the site in thick grey smoke, then two long invisible tentacles shot out from under his nose cone like a squid attacking a fish, pulling the beacon up into his subspace, and within seconds he was up in the air and heading back to the safe house in double time. Meanwhile, back at the safe house, all hell had broken loose, Glen and Danny both having a panic attack and were currently hyperventilating over the side of the balcony with the Waineright twins and Togusa were trying to calm them down, Sunstreaker paced across the lawn with a look of pure venom in his optics, Jetfire leaned against his walking stick whilst rattling off a series of cybertronian curses, the Tachikomas were panicking among themselves whilst everyone else just stared at the laptop in disbelief.

"Wh-what the hell do we do?" Miles asked in a stupor state, he knew what he heard but the reality had yet to kick in completely.

"There's only one thing we can do..." Tom said, everyone stopped at saired at him silence.

"We've got to run" he continued

"Wha? But where will you go?" Batou's Tachikoma squeaked in surprise

"Anywhere that'll be better than the base we were SUPPOSED to be safe on!" Ashley angrily replied.

"Yeah! You said we would be safe!" Becca concurred as Ravage stepped forward with a growl.

"WHOA wait a minute! We had no idea of this! Our orders were simply to watch over you guys!" Togusa argued

"Oh yeah? How do we know you weren't in on this?" Sunstreaker dangerously glared over the detective but both his brother and Jazz pushed him back.

"Come on Sunny this isn't the time or the place! We got a much bigger problem at hand here!" Jazz reprimanded, Sunstreaker was about to continue but the sour looks on the Autobots face plates told his to abort that idea, instead he huffed through his vents and pulled away from the first lieutenant's grip.

"If we're gonna roll outta here than we need to get going, considering how Deathshot took the beacon I'm guessing they'll already know we've got it" he sighed. Everyone's attention was averted upwards as Deathhshot reappeared, transformed and landed with a thud, opening his cockpit, the two human women climbed out and jumped down onto the balcony. Morri propped herself up against the railing to catch her breath while the Major held her head in her hand as the sudden G-force began to slip away, Batou came up to her but stopped when he saw the look on her face.

"You okay?" Tom asked as he helped his cousin to stand up straight, she looked at him with solemn eye for a moment before standing up.

"Not really...I still can't believe what we just heard" she sighed, the words of the strangers were still echoing in her mind, and the tone of contempt within them made her all the more sick to her stomach, seeing her distress, Deathshot rubbed one finger softly up and down her back, soothing her anxiety.

"Who the hell were those guys?...I mean, did they really have this so called 'plan' set up from the minute we got here?" Hailey asked in disbelief.

"I think from the sound of it they were well into it, if not maybe in the final stages if they were going to..." Darren replied hanging his head, stopping just short of the one thing no-one wanted to imagine happening. Deathshot tapped the Major on the shoulder, grabbing her attention.

"Listen, we have to get as far away from here as possible...when we first met, Aramaki gave his word that if we had to run you'd let us go, even help us get a head start of any pursuers...after tonight I have no doubt we will be persuaded, so will you help us as you said you would?" he asked, the Major looked up at him with her trademark stern glair as the other looked on anxiously.

"If the chief said we would; then it's just as good as an order" she replied, Jazz gave a small smile in relief. The first lieutenant was about to say something when he noticed the clouded look on Morri's face, Tom knew that look and knew that his cousin had something heavy on her mind.

"What'cha thinkin' kid?" he asked

"Running won't be enough..." she blurted out; everyone snapped their heads around, not quite sure if they heard her correctly, the Major simply quirked an eyebrow in curiosity.

"What do mean running won't be enough? It's better than going to that base and getting eliminated!" Glen retorted

"Granted, but what I mean is we can't just run away as fast as we can without any real idea of where we'll go and pray that our usual cover will work...in case we've all forgotten, this is NOT OUR earth! And we haven't got a first clue on what this world is really like!" Morri argued

"Well...I'd say we've done well so far" Bluestreak added, but winced when Morri shot his a look.

"Yeah, purely for the fact that we were very lucky, but our luck won't hold up forever, if these guys want to kill us and put you guys through the chop shop for your weapons and parts, then don't you think their gonna do what they can to chase after and catch us? Even if it means innocent lives might get caught in the crossfire?"

Everyone stared at her

"Look, we heard all what these guys have in store, but equally they made it clear they've got their hands really dirty in other things as well, and the fact that one of them mentioned he'd had it arranged for us to be eliminated at the base might suggest he or maybe another of them might be high ranking military officials"

"How'd you come to that conclusion?" Sam asked in bemusement

"Batou, you remember telling us about that base Kuroi-Himitsu? You said that the location was classified and that it doesn't have an official name; am I right in assuming its Japan's most top secret base?"

"Technically its one of the only four above classified bases in Japan, but it is the biggest" the Major replied, interested as to where the 22 year old was taking this.

"So the fact that this guy was able to call a hit on us at base itself would suggest he has military clearance to the place, if he's a top flight individual who hold a high rank in the military, then running away won't work if he's easily got clearance to access surveillance information from military satellites, satellites that could be trained onto us! That, and from the way the others were going on, I'd wager these guys have all got connections into the military in form or another, they sounded far too confident and sure of themselves and too afraid of Aramaki to just be men of low rank...I know I may be stating the obvious here, but it sounds like a hell of a lot be going on, that no-one's known about" Morri continued.

"...From the start of all this the chief was worried that something like this could happen, if it were terrorists or insurgents that would be one thing, that was the likelihood, but people in our own military going rouge?" Ishikawa thought aloud, the rest of the section 9 team hung their heads in disbelief.

"I knew...or at least had the gut feeling that us being here would stir up a conspiracy in form or another, but this? What the hell do we do? We can't run because military satellites might spot us, we can't go to the prime minister because one or more of her own cabinet members are dirty, and we don't have the faintest idea where to go, not to mention our deal with section 9 is pretty much expired" Danny sighed

"Who said anything about our deal being expired?" the Major said, now everyone's attention fell on her.

"What?"

"What do mean? You said you'd only watch over us until tomorrow?"

"That was before tonight, listen, you make a good point in hypothesizing that these suspects could be in the military and that's something we can't leave to chance if it's true, even if you go back to your home through that rift, their business venture of capitalizing on the Autobot's technology may be gone but they'll still be out there and will move onto some other way of making money, no doubt at someone's expense...this is the kind of stuff we're paid to take of; and the fact that that we just overheard these creeps discuss their illegal business dealings automatically gives us jurisdiction to investigate" the Major said

"You're going to investigate who they are AND help us? How are you going to do that?" Danny exclaimed

"Simple, we're going to help them, isn't that what you were going to ask next?" Morri said folding her arms with a smirk.

"WHAT?"

"Think about it a minute, we've got unique talents and resources that they haven't got and they've got unique talents and resources that we haven't got, it makes sense to pool everything we've all got together to try and catch these guys" said Morri, the Major was impressed, this kid certainly had smarts.

"Catch these guys? What the frag makes you think we're going to go after the fleshlings that want to offline us?" Sunstreaker sternly said folding his arms

"Because if we don't, who the hell will?..." Morri retorted, as everyone paused their train of thoughts Deathshot gently cupped his hand around her and looked down on the golden warrior with his cold piercing glair

"...It may not be our fault how these humans turned out to be what they are; but the fact is, that they want to possess the most advanced form technology in the known universe, one that could leave this entire planet in ruins if left in the hands of those who seek to use if for power and war!...it's our responsibility because our being here has tempted them to come up with this elaborate scheme! It started with us, so I believe it is only right that we finish it; we may not have not have chosen to come here willingly but we have the choice of stopping this before innocent lives come to any harm. Now you may not have to like it sunshine, but as an Autobot you are still bound by the prime directive to preserve all sentient life, so if you have any further objections to trying to save this world and its people then I suggest you keep your vocalize offline!" the Autobot sniper growled, his wide frame and taller height made him look even more intimidating than the golden lambo twin, deciding not to push his luck Sunstreaker thought better of it and stepped back next to his brother.

"He's right, we're all in part responsible for this situation whether we actually knew; had willingly chosen, or not. The situation is what it is now and it's not going to get any better if left unchecked, and I don't know about all of you but I don't intend on running away from this...I say we finish what we began, and if you guys are going to nail these pricks then I want to help" Sam said to the Major.

"Well, I think Witwicky's pretty much spoken for all of us" Tom smiled and everyone voiced their agreements.

"Alright, but before we do anything; D-man, let's see what's on that beacon" jazz said. Deathshot produced the beacon from his subspace, holding it in one hand, the metal skin and armour plating of his other hand collapsed and fell apart into a large long set of intricate key like claws, setting his hand upon the beacon, a set of fibre-optic tentacles creped from out of his claws and fitted perfectly into the intricate circular patterns. The group watched in amazement and anticipation as a series of electronic whirling and clicking sounds emanated out from the device, the patterns on the side and top rearranged into new patterns until finally Deathshot set the device down on the ground when three long legs folded out from the struts, the top opened out like a flower and a huge holographic projection came up displaying the head and shoulders of Optimus Prime. A collection of gasps and sighs of relief came out from the children and Autobots as they looked upon the face of their leader and friend.

"My fellow Autobots and friends, if you are watching this message then it is conformation that you are alive and still online...We know what happened to you and how the you all came to be in this current predicament and please rest assured that we are doing everything we can to reopen the rift and bring you home as soon as possible...however...I'm afraid that in the course of investigating the cause for the DRD's malfunction, we have discovered an unusual, and troubling fact...Wheeljack has inspected the DRD thoroughly and it would seem an unusual energy anomaly has occurred within the device, but the readings that he's been getting were not erratic enough to suggest it was a random accident and in the devices software memory matrix Perceptor discovered an external override command embedded within the control software, one that, apparently is being transmitted through the rift itself...in other words...someone opened the rift from the universe you are currently in..."

Everyone stared at the hologram in shock.

"...Unless you're current circumstances prevent you otherwise, your orders are investigate who or what is responsible for this and stand by ready for our arrival, this could be become a serious problem if left unchecked...I hope we will see you all again very soon, please look after one another and stay safe...we are coming"

And with that the hologram switched off and the device closed up. Everyone stood in a deathly silence for the longest moment, this time; no-one had any words to describe the magnitude of this revelation.

"Someone...opened the rift?" Becca said offhand, squeezing her sister's hand in fear.

Togusa was about to say something when a loud alarm made everyone jump out of the skin/armour, looking up at the source of the sound, they all saw it was the holo-projector, a red light was flashing at the base of the device .

"What the hell-"

"It's the proximity alarm!" Deathshot said, another noise drew the group's attention, this time it was coming from far across the lake, everyone watched as several huge black shapes rose over the far end of the valley.

"What the hell?"

As the shapes steadily flew down until they came into hover above the lake, the sounds of helicopter roaters echoed around the valley and everyone put two and two together.

"It would seem we have company" the Major frowned.

* * *

WOW! NOW, it gets interesting! & in case your wondering, yeah, Deathshot is REALLY a fast flyer! R&R please!

A/N: I'll admit this wasn't particulaly my best, it would seem my engeries are a little all over the place this month & my brains too bust trying to stay on several things at once! . but hopfully I try and pull a ribbit out of the hat for the next Chapter X3, cuz it's gonna be slam-down time! AW YEEEEAY!


	29. Chapter 28 Thunder in the Valley

IT'S SLAM-DOWN TIME FOLKS! & I'm so totally pumped!

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 28: THUNDER IN THE VALLEY, LIGHTNING ON THE MOUNTAIN

"Well it's a no-brainer who probably called them in!" Batou frowned sarcastically

"Morri! Mikaela! Go get Anny outta bed and get her somewhere safe!" Jazz barked, the girls run back inside the house at breakneck speed.

"There's a an underground bunker beneath the basement, you can take her down there!" said the Major

"That won't work! If this fight get's real nasty and the house gets wreaked, she could get trapped under the rumble!" Jazz replied

"FIGHT? Your gonna fight them?" Togusa spattered in alarm.

"Hey we're not gonna run! If they want a fight we'll give'em a fight, and make them regret ever double-crossing us!" Jetfire angrily replied as he clicked a button on the side of his walking stick, it instantly extended to nearly twice its length and the head folded out into two long black blades edged with red hot metal, effectively turning it into one huge battle axe. The detective jumped back in surprise as he struck the hilt on the ground with a boom.

"I know their probably carrying a whole load of fire-power, but just what the hell kinda choppers are those?" Sam pointed to the formation that was now on the edge of the lake some several miles away. The formation consisted of five huge black choppers with enormous forward pointing fuselages and twin roaters and four smaller choppers with open sides, obviously people carriers. The choppers hung in midair, their noses kept swinging from side to side like a pack of dogs, sniffing around to find their prey.

"What are they doing? They look lost" Miles frowned

"I'm tuned into their comm. line, their confused at the moment, according to their GPS's they know the safe house is supposed to be here but the holo-projector-"

"Is still keeping us hidden!"

"In that case we better take advantage of it! How far away are they?" the Major called up to Deathshot

"9 miles, but the holo-projector's spread out over 8 miles, Major they can't see the hologram remember? If they-" Deathshot was cut short as the loud sound of roaters drew everyone's attention to behind the house, overhead another of the black choppers flew over the roof, the powerful downdraft from the twin roaters pressed down hard on the humans and made the trees and bushes bend right over, to the Autobots horror it also began to make the hologram distort slightly, then, the nose of the craft swung round and inadvertently dipped down into the hologram, knocking the top of the holo-projector off its stand. A deep thrum could be heard as the giant hologram distorted and finally disappeared whilst the holo-projector collapsed off the roof and fell to the ground with a resounding clang, the chopper spun around in a tight circle as the pilot had obviously been taken by surprise, when he saw the 9 enormous robots standing on the ground right beneath him he quickly pulled up and aimed the gun at the front of the chopper downwards.

"MOVE!" the Major shoved Sam into Bumblebee's hand as the Autobots quickly scooped up everyone else and jumped out of the way as a hail of bullets rained down and shredded the balcony and walkway to pieces in a loud blaze, pieces of wood, metal, glass and concrete went flying everywhere as three loud screams emanated out of the house and grabbed Deathshot and Bumblee's attention.

"MIKAELA! MORRI! ANNY! NOOO!" Bumblebee yelled in horror as he doubled back towards the house with Sam tucked in the crook of his arm; Deathshot grabbed him by the back of his neck plates and yanked him backwards as the chopper fired again, but before the bullets could hit their mark Jetfire fired up his boosters and with one move, jumped, swung his axe and swiftly sliced one of the twin roaters off, sending it flying high up into the air, the chopper veered sharply downwards as it tried to stay airborne with the one remaining roater but to no avail as its hefty weight made it spiral down and crash onto the shoreline, the roaters broke into numerous pieces and went flying in all directions, like slithers of glass the pieces severed anything in their path and the Autobots bent over the humans in an effort to shield them. One piece went flying into the house with a resounding crash and three more screams could be heard from the first floor.

"HOLD ON!" the Major called as she dashed towards the house and jumped up onto the now completely shredded and exposed first floor bedroom, the four meter long piece was wedged right into the wall and on the other side through the half sliced door frame, she found Moori and Mikaela knocked to the floor, "Are you both okay?" the Major anxiously asked, looking over both of them for any sign of injuries, "No we're fine but where's Anny?" Morri paniced, looking around the Major saw Annabelle at the far end of the hallway crying with huge crocodile tears streaming down her face, as the two younger women got up and brushed the dust off, the Major rushed over and in one swoop lifted the four year old up into her arms.

"We gotta get out!" Mikaela exclaimed looking back at the roater that was sticking through the door, a cold streak run down her back at the realization that another few feet would have been enough to sever their heads clean off, but she quickly purged it from her mind as she followed the others back towards the opening in the bedroom wall, the Autobots were back on their feet and firing up their weapons, Bumblebee instantly grabbed the four females and placed them down by his feet. Another chopper tried to swoop down and take aim but a round of lazar fire from Jazz's gun quickly made it back off.

"So what's the plan Major?" Jazz called over, looking over at the chopper formation she knew she and her team couldn't win this fight, they were outnumbered and outgunned.

"You're the ones who have the fire power to take them on, it's your call!" she shouted over as she handed Annabelle over to Mikeala. Jazz looked over at the chopper formation and saw something was going on. The five black choppers had come into hover just above the trees some several hundred yards away, the sides opened up and four huge black armed suites were dropped via winching cables from each of them, "What are those?" Sideswipe asked, "Their armed suites!" Batou replied. The smaller choppers hovered behind as several soldiers abseiled out of the open sides and disappeared down among the trees.

"So? Their gonna play it like that huh? Alright; Major, you and your guys take everyone and get as far away from the house as you can! Sunny, Siders, Trailbreaker, Blue, Bee, Hot Rod, you'll come with me to take out those armed suites and the soldiers, Ravage, Scorpy, Frenzy, you'll cover the Major's back, D-man, you and Jet's cover us from above, we'll put these guys outta commission then come 'an find you, just get as far up into the forest as you can! NOW LET'S ROLL!" barked Jazz.

As the soldiers and armed suites touched down on the forest floor, they silently organised themselves into formation, the armed suites fell into four man cells and took point while the soldiers fell into six man cells and brought up the rear, together they all formed a long line up the sloping ground and began to move towards the now visible house; the glow of the lights penetrated through the trees giving them a good sense of distance. But as they advanced, the field commander of the armed suites held up his fist and the line promptly froze in place, cautiously scanning the area up ahead he couldn't see anything, the robots that he had seen from the chopper not three minutes ago were now no longer on the back lawn. Something wasn't right here.

"Commander, we have the location in sight, no sign of targets" the field commander said over his cybercomm.

"Proceed with caution, assume that this is an ambush" his superior replied.

"Copy that" he answered and waved his hand forward to continue the advance, suddenly, a couple of loud explosion overhead made their heads snap upwards, through the trees they watched as one of the larger helicopters fell to the ground in flames several meters away, part of the rear of the craft was sliced clean off and the gun on the front of the nose had been ripped off, as the flames engulfed the fuselage the pilot and co-pilot managed to scrabble out in time. Overhead the soldiers caught a glimpse of a huge black shadow move quickly in the opposite direction.

"Attention all units! Target has been sighted, requesting-" the pilot of one of the three remaining black choppers had the wind knocked out of him as the huge black shape sharply turned in midair and violently hit the side on the craft, sending it into a dangerous spin towards two of the carrier choppers. The deafening sound of metal crashing against metal resounded all around the cockpit as the twin roaters sliced into the tails of the other two craft, all three choppers spun out of control and fell to the ground, the larger craft had the misfortune of crashing onto a rocky outcrop that overlooked the lake, but before the craft could fall into the deep water another violent jolt made the craft jump and tilt to the side. Looking around in terror, the pilot and his co-pilot suddenly found themselves staring up at an enormous black silhouette with glowing red eyes, it's giant hands grabbed the front of the cockpit and ripped the whole front section of the craft forward and flung it towards the trees, as the two men fumbled to get out of their seats the sounds of engines boomed loudly into the forest and the giant shape disappeared up into the dark skies.

By now the formation of soldiers and armed suites had broken up into two main units, one had run over to help the wounded pilots while the rest carried on, determined to bring their targets down.

"Alright, stay sharp people this-" the field commander was suddenly thrown forward as a large explosion sent him and his men flying, the armed suites heavy armour however kept them grounded and as they turned to aim something whizzed by at a blinding speed and four of the suites fell over, looking down, the pilots were shocked to see the legs of their suites had been sliced right off, the metal edges glowing bright red. From behind, the soldiers scrambled back onto their feet as Jazz and Bluestreak came running out from the tree line and fired on the remaining armed suites, acting on instinct, several of the soldiers fired on the giants but the bullets only pinged off their armour. From the other side Bumblebee, Hot Rod, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe emerged and fired several grade rounds at the ground in front of the men; the resulting explosions sent them flying into the lake. Looking back towards the armed suites, the lambo twins both had wicked grins spread across their face plates which made the remaining soldiers and armed suite pilots both flinched in fear.

"What do ya say we have some real fun Sunny?"

"Lets"

Meanwhile, running as fast from the fight as possible, the humans, drones and Tachikoma's were now nearly half a mile up into the forest, the pitch blackness made it seriously hard for everyone to navigate so Batou ended up taking point because his cybernetic eyes night vision could see far better. Ravage and Scorponok's vision however was twice as good so the kids had steadily made their way holding each other's hands in a line while Morri (who took point of the line) held onto the side of Ravages shoulder and Scorponok brought up the rear, with the rest of the section 9 team guarding the sides and trying not to trip up on any tree roots. Behind them the fight seem to grow louder and more violent as the bursts of machine gun fire seemed to grow closer together and the sounds of metal grinding on metal grew more uglier, then, one loud explosion made everyone stop as a huge fireball rose above the trees and illuminated the surrounding forest, a terrible sharp pang of worry went through everyone's guts as they could only imagine what just happened.

"What the hell was that?" exclaimed Sam

"I think they just blew the house up!" Miles replied as he watched the ball of fire disappear into a black cloud that blended into the night sky.

Back down below, half of the safe house had been completely blown away and was now burning to the ground, of the 20 armed suites 11 were now lying on the ground in pieces, their pilots however, were still alive in their suites albeit terrified to come out.

"Man! These guys are relentless! They ain't goin' down easy!" Jazz huffed through his intakes as he wrestled with one of the armed suites, out the corner of his optic he saw one several meters away cocking his gun and taking aim, at the last second he grabbed the suites forearms and spun around to use it as a shield just as the gun was fired, the round exploded on the suites back and it fell down with a clang. The first lieutenant then ran over to Bluestreak and Hot Rod who were both crouched behind the downed chopper on the lake shore; some of the soldiers had regrouped up in the trees and were now using anti-tank guns, each round they fired exploded hard and were now a serious problem.

"What's the situation?" Jazz shouted as he leapt out of the way of a grenade as it exploded in front of the chopper.

"They've started using heavy artillery; this is now turning into quite a party!" Sideswipe quipped as he and his dodged in and out between the explosions.

"We need to take those weapons out without killing the humans, Blue, go fetch Trailbreaker and Hot Rod and come around from their left flank, draw their fire off while me, Bee and the twins take' em head on!"

"Copy that!" Bluestreak got up, transformed and sped across the now burning crater ridden lawn to where Hot Rod and Trailbreaker were fending off the remaining armed suites, quickly transforming back into mech mode, the blue gunner lunged head on into the side of one of the suites, felling it instantly. However, one of the suites swiftly brought the butt of his anti-tank gun down hard on the gunners shoulder, knocking the young him to his knees; he grabbed the arms of the suite as he struggled to stay upright. From behind the pilots partners kicked him in the back, Bluestreak couldn't believe how hard and brutal these suites were, he had to give these humans credit for coming up with such a formidable weapon, but his appreciation quickly vanished as another hard blow landed on his side, fighting the urge to yell in pain he bent over sharply and fired several rounds of his shoulder mounted guns into the shoulder of the suite that had him pinned down, as the suite fell he tried to grab the leg of one of the other suites but something jerked the suites backwards. The gunner was relieved to see Hot Rod and Trailbreaker appear from behind the fallen suites, both sporting dings, dents and burn marks across their armour.

"Heh, having fun Blue? These humans certainly know how to put up a real fight! Hot Rod grinned

"Granted, but right now Jazz needs us to distract those soldiers up among those trees there" he pointed up to where the soldiers were firing down at the fallen chopper, Jazz and Bumblebee were still taking cover while the twins had retreated behind some tall boulders next to the tree line several meters.

"Alright, let's roll!" Hot Rod yelled as he and the other two bots stormed up the slope into the tree line, dodging the grenades and gunfire the three Autobots circled around the soldiers and took cover behind some wide boulders, just as they wanted the soldiers started firing on the rocks, **"Okay Jazz, their all yours!"** Bluestreak yelled over the comm. link, **"I know Blue! We're just about on top of them!" **the first lieutenant replied as the sound of gunfire was replaced with the alarmed cry's and shouts of the soldiers as they were flung into the lake like ragdolls and their weapons snapped in half like twigs. As the bots regrouped they watched overhead as Deathshot and Jetfire made short work of the remaining helicopters, crashing them among the trees and into the lake. But more gunfire drew everyone's attention back to the lawn as the remaining armed suites fired at them, quickly hitting the ground for cover; Hot Rod wasn't quick enough as one round clipped the side of his torso, clutching his side in pain he fell over hard on the ground.

"HOT ROD! Hold on kid I'm com'in!" Jazz yelled as he fired back at the suites and rushed over to the young mech's side.

"Com'on kid lemme see the damage...ah you'll be fine! Mikaela can fix that easily!" he reassured as he looked his wound over, a piece of the scouts armour had been blown clean off and several wires were hanging out, part of a circuit board was sparking sending little blueish white sparks out, Bumblebee and Sideswipe run over to assess the damage while Sunstreaker and Trailbreaker covered them.

"How bad is it?" Bumblebee asked anxiously

"Not as bad as it could have been, only part of his armour and circuitry got blow away, he's fine but we need to wrap this up fast and go find everyone else, can ya transform?" Jazz asked

"I think so..." Hot Rod wheezed through his intakes as he stood back up and managed to transform backing his alt mode, "...yeah, but how do we get past them?" he continued over his loudspeaker, gesturing towards the armed suites with his headlights, suddenly, like a falcon swooping down on a mouse, both Deathshot and Jetfire swooped down on the armed suites, grabbing them in both their hands and talons, they lifted them up a hundred meters or so into air then dropped them back down, their black armour making deafening clangs as they hit the ground. Within moments the forest fell silent as the gunfire ceased and only the sounds of fire burning and the pained groan's of the soldiers as they crawled out of the lake and out of their armed suits. Jetfire landed down on a particularly tall bolder like a giant raven, the glow of the flames from the burning house lit his armour up and seemed to intensify the redness of his optics, the edges of his axe were bright red and burning hot; to the soldiers he looked truly terrifying, like some all seeing other worldly demon, he struck the hilt of his axe on the rock with a resounding boom, grabbing the humans attention.

"NOW HEAR ME LITTLE PAWNS AND KNAVES! We have spared your wretched lives for one reason, so you may return to your masters and tell them that they picked the wrong bots to betray! You tell them of how you fought us, how you tried in vain to subdue us, and how you fell at our feet! I want you all to remember the power we have...and imagine...how the next time you dare to incur our wrath, the cruelty you will suffer at the barrel of our guns...and the heels and claws of our feet...and the edge of our blades!...and I promise we won't go easy on any of you! NOW BE GONE!" the old seeker bellowed at the top of his vocalize and took off once again, the Autobots swiftly made their way up into the forest, driving hell for leather up the sloping ground.

"**D-man! Can you pick the humans up from where you are?" **Jazz barked

"**I have a lock, their just another 820 yards from your current position, they've made it up to the edge of the valley" **the sniper replied, with that Autobots gunned their engines and sped up the slope, dodging in between the trees and boulders as they doubled their speed.

At the top of the valley slope in a small clearing by a cliff-side, the humans had stopped running to allow the younger members of the group time to catch their breath, Mikaela had flopped down onto a rock in sheer exhaustion as she let Togusa take a still sobbing Annabelle into his arms, the Weineright twins were panting for breath and Glen's Asthma had caught up with him, leaving him gasping for breath like a dying fish out of water. Looking back down the slope towards the foot of the valley, the Major watched as the safe house burn to the ground, lighting the valley up in an orange glow while all around were the remains of the armed suites and helicopters littered the scorched and crater ridden ground, a series of shadowy figures ran around then back up into the forest, obviously the soldiers who had taken a real beating and were regrouping and gathering up they're wounded.

"Wow! That must have been some fight!" Batou's Tachikoma squeaked in amazement.

The sound of car engines drew everyone's attention to the tree line, several sets of headlights pierced through the blackness of the forest as the Autobot sped out and screeched to a halt, transforming back into mech mode they paced over to where the humans were resting, everyone breathed a sigh of relief as their friends and guardians looked their charges looked them over with satisfactory gazes.

"You guys all okay?" Jazz asked anxious

"We're all good, just tired from running nonstop up that slope!" Tom breathed

"What the hell happened to you!" Mikaela's eyebrows flew up in shock when she saw Hot Rod leaning against Bumblebee with one hand clutched over his side. Running over to look closer he drew his hand away to reveal the wound.

"That looks nasty" Batou winced as Mikaela looked the injury over, "Will he be alright?" the Major asked.

"He'll be fine, you can put up with it for now Hot Rod, its only part of the cooling systems for your leg that got hit, easily replaceable, and armour's a simple patch job" Mikaela replied, Hot Rod sighed with relief as Jetfire and Deathshot touched down into the clearing.

"How'd it go?" Morri anxiously asked

"Well they put up a good fight; those helicopters were well armed but they weren't that hard to take down, fortunately we managed to avoid inflicting any fatalities" Deathshot replied

"Weren't that hard to take down? HA! That's easy for you to say you have those talons to shred them with! I could only slice at them with my axe from the sides!" Jetfire retorted

"Talons? What's he-" Ishikawa's eyebrows flew up right over his forehead when the Autobot sniper stepped forward and he saw his feet, what had been large blunt boot-like stumps were now three long thick toes, each with a five foot long curved blade for a talon, his hands too were different, his smooth silvery human like hands had now changed into long slender sword like claws. It wasn't hard to imagine him swooping down on one of the helicopters like an eagle attacking a rabbit, no wonder the fight didn't drag on as long as it could have, "Uh, never mind!" Ishikawa promptly replied. Looking down the opposite side out of the valley, the cliff-side dropped some 70 to 80 feet down, at the foot of which the forest continued down for another mile or so and beyond that the land consisted of flat farmland, namely rice paddy fields; off in the distance the faint line of highway lights was just about visible and beyond that sitting on the horizon, a grungy orange glow illuminated the sky as far as the eye could see, it had to be a large city of some kind.

"What city is that?" Sam gestured towards the horizon

"That's New Port, so what now?" Batou replied

"We get back there and do what we do best, we hide in plain sight, only this time we ditch our current alt modes and trade up for some local modals, and get Hot Rod's injury sorted out" Jazz said

"That's all well and good for you guys but what about us? We'll get spotted on the IR systems" Togusa asked, Darren was about to reply but stopped and frowned as the distant sound of helicopter roaters echoed in distance, everyone tensed and looked up in alarm.

"Aw hell not again! Where are they coming from now?" Glen exclaimed in a panic, he got his answer in the form of a formation of 20 Jigabachi attack helicopters swiftly flying across the fields, quickly activating his left optics, Deathshot scanned the crafts as they rose up and divided into units of five. "Their all unmanned!" he exclaimed, "In that case shred' em up!" Jazz ordered, without hesitation Deathshot and Jetfire fired up their boosters and shot up into the air.

The humans and ground based bots watched in awe as the two flyers went head on in a fast paced battle of speed and spectacular aerodynamics. Jetfire was like a Norse berserker, speeding through the air in circular motions with a thunderous roar and wielding his axe and striking hard, he sliced, chopped and hacked at the choppers as he passed within striking range, the Jigabachi's were nimble for sure and could move with efficient speed to dodge him, they fired several rounds of missiles and machine gun fire from their swing-down anti-tank guns. But their fire power proved useless when Deathshot swooped down from above, like a sparrow hawk blindsiding its prey from below, the sniper flipped on his back, grabbed the Jigabachi's by the gun turret and main fuselage and ripped it apart in one move with his talons. Swinging back and around to flank Jetfire's left side, the two flyers continued this mode of attack for several minutes until ten of the Jigabachi's had fallen down in flaming pieces; the remaining choppers tried in vain to shoot them down but they moved too fast for them to get a lock.

"I think they've got them on the ropes now! They could-" but Ashley couldn't finish as another helicopter rose above the tree line, it was another of the larger craft that carried the armed suites, to everyone's horror the side panels opened up and four armed suites were lowered down and dropped into the clearing.

"EVERYONE MOVE!" The Major shouted as the whole group tried to dash into the safety of the trees, but Sam and Tom weren't quick enough and one of the suites quickly swung down and picked them both up by the arms, flaying around in agony both boys yelled in pain as the metal fists closed tighter around their limbs effectively cutting off the blood flow. Wasting no time, Scorponok hissed in anger as he sharply swung his tail over and struck his tail blade clean through the suites right leg and sliced the 'knee' right off, as the suite fell over both boys were dropped instantly and Mikaela, Batou and Pazu both rushed over to help them up. The other three suites tried to grab them as they ran back to the others but the Autobot tackled them hard like the front props of a rugby scrum.

"Uuugh! Gha! G-get, away, from here! RUUUN!" Bumblebee strained as he and Bluestreak kept one of the suites pinned in place, "WE'RE NOT LEAVING YOU GUYS!" Sam shouted back as he held his arm in pain, he tried to run back but Batou grabbed him by the scruff of his T-shirt and yanked him back, "Didn't you hear him we gotta get outta here!" the ex-ranger barked at him, as the kids became more unwilling to leave their guardians at the mercy of the armed suites the other section 9 members pulled them back into the forest. Deathshot and Jetfire became more agitated as they tried to fend off the remaining Jigabachi's and get to their friends, as the chopper hovered overhead Deathshot watched in horror as the crafts forward anti-tank gun took aim at the humans down below.

"NOOOO!"

In one signal moment, the following seconds seemed to slow into one long minute, looking around at the sheer madness of the scene, Ashley watched as the Autobots tried to hold the armed suites back while Scorponok and the Tachikoma's tried to shoot and slice them up from behind, with not much success thanks in part to the suites think re-enforced armour plating. Up high above his guardian and Jetfire were trying to bring down the remaining Jigabachi's and right overhead the seven barrelled gun of the armed suite carrier was staring straight down at them. Suddenly, he felt a familiar sensation on his shoulder, glancing over his shoulder he saw his BSHB was glowing an intense blue aura through his hoodie. In that moment he realized he might be able to level the odds here, glancing over to Ravage, the panther knew exactly what the look in his eyes were asking of him and replied with an approving nod. Drawing in a deep cleansing breath, the 12 year old turned to Morri and laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder, she stopped suddenly as he leaned over to her ear.

"It'll be okay, let me take care of this cuz" he calmly said, turning round to look him in the eye, she nearly jumped when she saw he was now engulfed in a bright blue aura and his right hand was coated in the alien nanite mercury, right away she realised he had activated his BSHB, she wanted to protest, even shout at him not to do what he intended to do; but something deep down told her that somehow he would be okay, she couldn't put her finger on it, but at the same time she couldn't ignore her gut feeling and right now it was telling her to let him do what Ravage had taught him to do. With a reluctant sigh smiled into his impish eyes she replied; "alright..."

The gun fired

Everyone screamed and ducked down

Nothing happened

Everyone looked up and was shocked to see some kind of giant force field hovering above their heads deflecting the bullets off like water on a car's wind-shield, it looked like a glowing veil of vivid electric blue silk wafting on a breeze, turning around to see how far it was spread, the Major was completely taken aback to see Ashley engulfed in an intense blue aura and holding up one hand, from which the force field was emanating from. Placing one foot in front of the other and raising his other fist, Ashley's aura intensified until it looked like blue fire, as he stood in a kung fu dragon stance, his raised fist began to glow brighter and bright until it was nothing but a silhouette of white light, his concentration and focus was reflected in the determined scowl on his face as he looked up at the chopper like a tiger about to rip his prey apart. Before anyone could even blink, an enormous bright blue fireball shot up and blew the chopper to pieces, as the wreckage fell down the cliff-side into the forest below; everyone looked over at the 12 year old in stunned silence, Deathshot and Jetfire were stunned to see the chopper be destroyed, looking around they quickly spotted the glowing bluish white silhouette, even the other Autobots were hard pressed to keep their amazement in check whilst still holding back the armed suites. But their surprise didn't last long as another Jigabachi swung round and took aim, quick to act on instinct; Jetfire took one swing of his axe and halved the chopper in two. As the blue fire around him calmed down it soon became a gentle subtle glow again, Ashley glanced over at the other stunned humans with a sheepish grin, to his side, Ravage gave a satisfactory purr.

"Uh, yeah, I gotta lotta explaining to do after this" he said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Forget it for now! Just get over here and help us with these guys!" Jazz shouted as he strained to keep one of the armed suites from advancing forward, snapping back into action, Ashley threw off his hoodie as his aura glowed intensely once more and the mercury on his skin extended to cover both arms and fists with cybertronian glyphs scrolling along the length of the limbs, slender tendrils danced around the base of the BSHB which had morphed into its 'passion flower' form, the kids watched in amazement and with a slight sense of curiosity to see just what he would do, since Ravage had kept his training on a need-to-know basis. The section 9 team however just watched in silence, the Major began to wonder at this point just what else they hadn't told them.

"'Scues me guys, gotta go do my thing!" he said and with that he ran back towards the Autobots with Ravage at his side, "A very fine shot youngling, now let see what else you remember!" he growled, "Don't worry!, I've got half an idea and half a plan!" Ashley replied. With a running leap he flew up into the air and glided over the heads of the armed suites, reaching down, ripples of light shot down both his arms and several of orbs of light shot out and struck the shoulders of two of the suites, making them stagger backwards, hovering higher he fired again on the other suites which also staggered backwards, effectively freeing the Autobots from their grip. Quick to take advantage of the attack the Autobots fired all their weapons and in a hail of bullets and lazar fire the armed suites limbs were shredded in seconds, the Tachikoma's and Scorponok cheered in delight as they saw Ashley circle overhead shooting wave after wave of plasma fire down on the heavily armoured machines, once they were taken care of he turned his attention to the six remaining Jigabachi's. Flying fast like superman he darted up alongside Deathshot who flinched at the sudden sight of his 12 year old charge hovering by his side.

"Ashley? How-"

"D, LOOK OUT!" Ashley shouted as one of the choppers fired its missiles, holding up his arm and fist in a defensive manner, a large round curved force field materialized around the boy and his guardian's chest plates, the missiles exploded and were deflected away, raising the other fist, Ashley punched straight ahead and a huge wave of energy flew out and knocked the helicopter down onto the cliff-side, the roaters were smashed to pieces and went flying everywhere (thankfully no-one was hit). Looking back at his charge, Deathshot was both amazed and grateful, Whatever Ravage had included in his 'tutor sessions' it had certainly paid off.

"That was impressive; wanna help me finish off the rest?" the Autobot sniper grinned

"Certainly" Ashley replied with a wicked grin, shooting back up into the sky, both Ashley and Deathshot went in for the kill on the four remaining choppers, flying head on in a game of chicken with three of the choppers, Ashley outstretched his arms and two vivid energy orbs began to form and grow in his palms until both were the size of beach balls; with one huge push he slung the orbs at the Jigabachi's cockpits, all three exploded in a blaze of blue fire. Deathshot however decided to finish off the last one with some flair. Spinning up, over and around he grabbed the Jigabachi on its underside and sliced the base of the roaters off, sending them flying off into the forest down below. Like a bird-of-prey toying with its catch in mid-air, Deathshot tossed the helpless craft up over his head then flipped over on his back to catch it in his talons, repeating this a second time, he got shot a look from Ashley, who folded his arms as he floated back down into the forest clearing "SHOW OFF!" he shouted up. Cautiously, the other humans came out from their hiding places among the trees and now that the fight was over most of them breathed a sigh of relief; As Ashley's feet touched the earth, the other kids ran over and Annabelle came ran up and glomped his legs, taking him by surprise.

"Ashley! Ashley! Are you alright? I was so scared..." the little honey blonde sobbed into his legs, Ashley simply stroked her on the head and lifted her up onto his arms with a reassuring grin.

"Hey it's okay sweetie, I'm alright!" he smiled

"Indeed! The battle is won and they'll think twice before coming after us again!" Jetfire proudly boasted as he landed in the clearing and powered down his boosters. Ashley suddenly felt all eyes fall upon him as the section 9 team stared at him completely dumbfounded, feeling a little awkward, Ashley stammered as he tried to find the right words to explain, but before he could say anything Deathshot landed by his side and kneeled down, "listen, we'll explain everything later, but right now I'm detecting another formation of unmanned attack choppers approaching from the east, your all too exposed up here on the cliff, you all need to get down into the forest" he gestured down towards the forest, at the foot of the cliff the downed Jigabachi chopper was still in flames, but fortunately the fire wasn't spreading to the surrounding trees.

"Its ample cover, but how far away are those choppers?" Jazz asked

"Another ten minutes and they'll be in the valley... listen Jazz, if they keep coming like this then we're never going to get away from here, we need to finish this fight quickly" Deathshot said

"You got some 'thin in mind?" Jazz asked, Deathshot cast his gaze for a moment and looked back up at the first lieutenant, "I can take those choppers out via long range sniping once they're in range; from up on that mountain side over there I can give you plenty of cover until you reach the highway across those fields...the real concern is if anything else comes along to join the party, in which case I'll also keep a tap on the military's comm. lines to inform you of any further danger, though I seriously doubt they'd want to incur further loses after the beating we just gave them..." he said as he gestured towards the tallest mountain of the range that stood between the valley and the farmlands some several miles away, Saito perked up in the expectation of finally seeing this alien of sniper in action, but he quickly pressed his excitement to the back of his mind as he tried to stay focused 'come on, we got a bigger situation at hand here!' he thought harshly, with a frustrated sigh he looked up at Deathshot, who right away could see the look of disappointment in the humans eye and offered him a sympathetic gaze.

"But if their desperate to get us then it's conceivable they might have another unit or two following the Jigabachi's, just to be sure it might be wise for you to try back-hacking the military's satellite system to keep an eye on them from the sky, and simultaneously try to cause a little confusion on their comm links to slow them down" the Major offered

"For sure, but once my main weapon is online and my sniping systems are boosted to over 80%, my hacking functions go on automatic semi-lockdown, I could back-hack a military satellite that's in orbit but my hacking functions will only be running at less than 45%, I'll be too slow and someone's likely to spot me...unless..." Deathshot dropped his gaze.

"Unless what?" the Major asked

"Unless I can use something that uplink's to a satellite and at the same time sync with my sniping data; that will free up my hacking function's processing rate to over 55%, with that I can hack any satellite with efficient speed without anyone noticing" Deathshot replied, as the Major pondered this Saito stepped closer.

"Uh, my Hawkeye has a satellite intercept programme built into the software, if you uplink to me you could easily infiltrate any satellites up there whilst sniping at the same time?" Saito offered, the Major blinked in surprise at first and then grinned.

"Hmm, let me see..." Deathshot said as he scanned his left optics over the human sniper's head, scanning the intricate workings of the prosthetic eye, he smiled in satisfaction, "...it's exactly what I need, looks like you're going to be my spotter" Deathshot said, "uh are you sure that's a good idea? A human brain uplinking to a cybertronian CPU never been done before, there could be problems that might arise from the difference in data alignment between an organic brain and a cybernetic brain" Darren offered in a concerned tone, looking back and forth between one another, everyone began to doubt this plan but Deathshot was quick to step in.

"Don't worry, I'll simply use a one way filtering system through my data alignment software in addition to a 15% bio-scanner alert programme, that way I can automatically keep an optic on Saito's vital signs via the link, so if there's any changes in his biological systems, like the early symptoms of a stroke or aneurysm, the link will automatically disconnect" Deathshot replied confidently, some of the humans looked up at him sceptically, quick to sense their doubt, Deathshot continued, "I know it's never been done before but right now it's the only thing I can think of, plus those choppers will be here soon so we need to move"

"He's right...alright, you two go on but the second you feel some 'thin's not right Saito, you disconnect from Deathshot immediately. In the meantime we need to get down this cliff into the forest and start heading for that highway, once we're there we'll call you both to meet up with us" Jazz said

"What about any IR cameras?" the Major asked

"We'll sort that out once you guys are done, for now, let's just concentrate on getting to the highway!" Jazz replied as he picked Miles up and placed him on his shoulder. Before Saito could climb into Deathshot's waiting palm, the Major came up to him and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Seriously, if anything happens, don't try to take any chances" she said

"Don't worry, I won't" he replied

"It's alright Major, I'll make sure he's alright, it's only his Hawkeye's satellite uplink program I need, anything else I'll simply filter out" Deathshot replied

"If anything does happen to him, I'll be sure to give you a harder beating than I did Sunstreaker" the Major said with her cold, deathly glair.

"Don't worry; I haven't forgotten that little incident"

"Good, now get going" she said and jogged back over to where the Autobots were starting to climb down the cliff-side via a large formation of rocks that made a suitable make shift ladder, carefully each bot placed as many humans as they could on their shoulders and slowly began to climb down. Deathshot opened up his cockpit and gently placed Saito in the front seat, sealing it shut he fired up his boosters and flew towards the mountainside, inside his cockpit, Saito watched the scene fly by in silent awe as he looked around at all the glowing features of the control panel, beneath the seat he could feel waves of energy pass through his legs, it was strange, and yet oddly comforting, like being hugged by someone with a warm heart, if this is what the kids feel every time they fly with this Autobot then it was no wonder they took a liking to him. As the mountain quickly approached, Deathshot swung his legs down and landed on the rocky snow-covered ground, looking around, he hopped like a bird up a few several feet onto a huge flat boulder that would serve well as a platform.

"This spot will do us well, from here the choppers will approach around from the right and there are no obstructions" Deathshots voices echoed around the cockpit, making the human jump slightly.

"Uh okay, what do you need me to do?" he asked

"You stay in there and I'll link up to you via the main control panel...now, the most important thing to do, is stay calm and don't worry, I promise this won't hurt okay?" the Autobot sniper replied

"Uh, okay?" Saito replied nervously, wondering just what was in store, he didn't have to wait long before a small round hole opened up in front of him and a long thick black cable snaked out and began to slither up the human's body, the head opened up to reveal a bundle blue glowing fiber-optic wires wiggling and waving around, as if trying to feel around for something, instinctively recoiling away from the alien device Saito scrunched himself up as far away from it as possible, as he flinched away the cable stopped and the wires coiled up.

"Is something wrong? The wires are the only way I can link with your cyberbrain" Deathshot reassured

"A-Are you sure?"

"Pretty much, but it's alright I'll be as gentle as possible, I wouldn't do it if I knew it would be physically uncomfortable now would I?" the Autobot replied, swallowing hard and taking a deep breath, Saito relaxed his shoulders and watched nervously as the cable crept up his shoulder and around to the back of his neck, one by one he could feel the tiny little wires feel their way around the ports in his neck, suddenly they all began to slither into the tiny openings like worms. True to Deathshot's word, it wasn't painful or uncomfortable, but it sure was the strangest sensation he had ever experienced. As he shifted around anxiously, he suddenly stopped as a strange buzzing began to fill his head, like bees flying around inside his skull and waves of energy began to pulsate down his back.

"Alright Saito I'm ready; activate your Hawkeye..." Deathshot said.

'Here goes nothing...' Saito thought to himself as he activated his Hawkeye.

But as the protective eye patch swung up...the world suddenly disappeared in a blinding white light.

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OH NOES! D: Cliff-hanger time! R&R please!


	30. Chapter 29 Perfect Midnight Blue

A/N: This is sort of a stand-alone chapter, a small break from all the action and a way to put in some tit-bits for the plot, trust me, it's ALL relevant!, Plus, This particular chapter was inspired by this quote by John Hobbes I found, it's a haunting truth about some of the worst people in history, & it serves as a vital component for later on in the story.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.

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Men heap together the mistakes of their lives, and create a monster they call destiny. – John Hobbes

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 29: PERFECT MIDNIGHT BLUE

All around and as far as could be seen, there was nothing but endless columns of blue cybertronian glyphs streaming in every direction, criss-crossing back and forth and diagonally through an endless black void. As he drifted through the endless sea of data, Saito began to panic. Had something gone wrong with the uplink somewhere as Darren had suggested? Or was this what you got when you uplinked to a cybertronian's brain? Either way, it didn't comfort him as he spun out of control through this strange either place. Was he falling or rising? There wasn't any sense of direction not matter which way up or down he was.

Then, something high above caught his attention; a shining white light growing brighter as it drew nearer, as its white beams rested upon him, Saito suddenly felt his eyes growing heavier as he be began to feel all his strength slip away into a deep sleep. As he surrendered to this soothing presence, he slowly began to feel himself change, as if his physical form was becoming something else, something...non-physical, ethereal, almost other worldly, the last thing he noticed as he forced his eyes open for a brief moment was his arm disintegrating into particles of golden light. The last thing he could sense was Deathshot calling out to him, trying in vain to reach him.

"SAITO!...SAITO!"

Then nothing

Nothing but endless white

Endless white slowly falling away to reveal...

The universe

As he rose high above the endless sea of white, a sense of calm began to fill the human sniper, looking down he was amazed to see that instead of flesh, his whole (naked) body was made of light, soft and radiant. He could feel all the fatigue and wear and tear of his life slip away, there was so much in his life he hadn't realised he'd been carrying around.

Looking up above, his train of thoughts stopped abruptly as he saw the entire cosmos overhead, as far as he could see in every direction there were galaxies, nebular clouds, planets and countless countless stars, all rich and alive in colour and everything radiated in energy. Down below the white light was gone and in its place were the earth and the moon, as Saito beheld the beauty of the planet he called home he could see all across the planet's surface were the continents various hues of green and yellow ochre, the oceans consisted of dark and bright blues, and above them the clouds cast their shadows across the surface, moving like spirits. Peering just over from behind the earth was the moon, it too held its own beauty in the form of a greyish silver orb, it's various sized craters looked like ripples frozen in place, there was something eerie about it, but still beautiful.

Passing a deep sigh, he began to wonder why he was here and where 'here' was...then, looking down at his glowing form, he wondered in horror if this was the enviable.

Was this what lay beyond life? No heaven and no hell? No halos, no pitchforks? Nothing but being a ghost, endlessly drifting all the way up here? Neither reward nor punishment for the sum of the actions of his life? And no way of knowing if you really made a difference to the world, regardless of whether it was good or bad? So many questions rushed through his mind all at once, but as he went through each one, he gradually felt the one human feeling he had not felt in a very long time.

Loneliness

He felt alone and he felt had been cheated.

The barriers that he had maintained for so long began to break down as tears of sadness and bitterness welled up in his one eye, Saito's thoughts began to go back to his team-mates and what the hell was going on back down on earth. Did they manage to get away from their attackers? And if so, did they make it back to New Port alright? But more importantly, would the kids and their Autobot friends make it back to their own world...or had they already gone back? Time didn't seem to matter here, but it mattered him because now he would never be able to back his team mates up ever again, be there for them when they needed him.

For all the beauty around him, he would settle for being back in his apartment, or being back on the mountainside facing down those attack choppers with Deathshot right now. Either way, he knew death would always be the ultimate inevitability, every man has to face it some day...but he wished it hadn't been like this.

"Please don't be sad..." said a small whisper of a voice

Spinning round to face whoever was there, Saito nearly yelled in fright when he was confronted by the sight of a young teenage girl, her eyes gouged out with blood running down her cheeks and neck. She had barely any colour, her skin, clothing and aura were grey, and she was semi-transparent with the stars shining right through her, despite the lack of her eyes, she looked like she'd been crying.

"Who are you?" Saito asked in fear

"...I don't remember my name anymore...but I remember I could see..." she replied sadly, Saito could only stare in morbid curiosity, but flinched when he noticed more and more grey ghost people appear from the darkness of the void. They all had horrendous fatal looking injuries; some had limbs ripped off, some had deep lacerations that exposed whole muscles, organs and other fleshy parts hung from out the wounds and even some bones were protruding out of the skin, shattered, beaten and broken, but the one thing he noticed they all sheared in common was had they had no eyes, instead the orbital sockets were seemingly deep endless holes of darkness, filled with nothingness. Filled with horror and wanting to get as far away as possible, Saito found he couldn't move, as he scanned over the vast crowd he was shocked to see there were so many different age groups, some were elderly and feeble, some were old but still standing tall, many looked about his age, but the vast majority were children...some, even newborns.

"What are you all doing here?" Saito addressed the crowd

"We don't know...none of us remember who we use to be...but we remember what we were...before they took us..." an old man in a military uniform replied, Saito winced as he man held his severed head under one arm.

"What you were?...What do you mean?" Saito asked

"He means that they cannot remember that they were once human..." a deep thundering voice boomed. Looking around he tried to see who spoke, Saito gasped as a vast, towering humanoid silhouette loomed from out of the darkness and stopped just short of the crowd before him, all around the ghost people looked up and bowed to the giant as if in prayer, its vast size encompassed the whole range of the snipers vision, but then, he noticed the familiar glowing blue eyes.

"...so much so that they cannot even remember the names that their creators gave to them..." the voice continued, swallowing hard, Saito meet the vast giant's gaze.

"Are you a cybertronian?" he shouted up

"Yes" the voice replied

"Where am I?"

"...Somewhere you are meant to come to...yet" that response sent a chill down the sniper's back, but regardless, he shrugged it off and carried on.

"Why are all these people here?"

"They are here because they are waiting"

"Waiting for what?"

"...Waiting to be set free"

"Free from what?"

At that, the giant held up one huge arm and a bright red light shot out and struck the sniper on the forehead. Saito screamed in pain as pure darkness surrounded him and he felt gravity pull him down hard onto a flat surface, all over his body was racked with pain, his blood was like molten steel, so hot he thought it was melt right through his skin and his heart pounded so fast it felt like it would explode out of his ribcage, swallowing hard and gasping for breath, he looked down and was horrified to see his skin crawl and erupt with shard like plates of metal, bit by bit he wreathed in agony as his body slowly turned from flesh to metal, slowly becoming robotic in nature, looking up he suddenly noticed he was in a large glass box, in the centre of what looked like a laboratory, all around there were people in white coats and hazmat suites, all with empty uncaring eyes, all of them watched him curiously with disgustingly contempt smiles. Swallowing hard, he crawled across the cold white surface and banged on the glass, but he stopped as he noticed his arm was now completely robotic with two long claw-like fingers in place of his hand, then, he saw his reflection in the glass, and stared in disbelief at the strange alien, insect-like face that was staring back at him with blood red eyes. All the strangers began laughing, their chuckles echoing through his mind.

"NOOOOOO!"

The scene shifted and was enveloped by white light and suddenly the pain vanished, looking down Saito saw his human form was back in place and all the metal was gone, looking back up, he saw the giant silhouette looming over him again, he instinctively flinched away, fearing something else might happen.

"Wh-what did you do to me?" He asked softly, trying as best he could to hold back his fear

"...I'm sorry you had to experience that...but that was merely a fraction of what all these innocent sparks have been through...such pain is beyond all comprehension unless you experience it for yourself" the giant gestured to the now sleeping ghost people, all of them were lying on the backs with tiny pale blue flames hovering above their chests, because they were lying down, Saito could see just how many there were, there had to have been nearly several hundred in total.

"But...why?" he asked, an ominous silence followed before the being answered;

"...Because one of your species has taken the sum of their failures, piled them together, and created a monster they call destiny...someone has committed the unspeakable...and because of it, they have suffered...and many more will suffer, if you and your friends do not find them and stop them"

"But who's 'them'? Who're you talking about?" Saito asked

"...They are beyond my reach, but you already know of them..."

"I do?"

"...You tried to catch them once...now you must try to catch them again..."

"But who are they? And what have they done to all these people?"

"What has happened is just as important as what is about to come..." the giant waved his hand again and gestured down towards the earth. Saito was at a complete loss for words when he saw the whole earth had gone from being a pristine blue and green sphere, to a blackened orb that looked like it was burning from the inside out, the whole planet surface was covered in cracks that burned in hues of orange and red, like embers at the base of a fire; all around the planet black clouds swirled around in angry hurricanes and storms as red lighting lit up the dark side of the planet like strobe lights. It was, literally, hell on earth.

As he turned back to face the giant, Saito was about to say something what the being rose his hand to pause him.

"What's wrong?" Saito asked

"I sense...it is time for you to return..."

As Saito wondered what he meant, he suddenly noticed a couple of strands of cybertronian data drift by like spiders silk on a light breeze, far far behind him he could faintly hear Deathshot calling his name, the vast entity leaned forward until his hidden face was just 30 or feet above the human.

"...But before you go, you need to know...the path that lies before you and your friends will be a hard one to traverse...already I can sense the darkness spreading...and the evil behind it, that threatens your world...I cannot reveal anything else, for there is much you all must learn for yourselves in order to defeat those who threaten the balance of power and nature, all I can say, is that no matter how bad the circumstances get, remember that friendship will always keep you strong...and one more thing, to alight the path that leads to your enemies, you must find the Incept code..."

"The Incept code? What's the Incept code?" Saito called out as he steadily began to drift further and further way into a blue light, the strands of data began to multiply and circle around the sniper in a small whirlwind. Leaning down further, the entity stretched out one hand and gently rested a long pointed finger upon the snipers forehead. From out the finger tip a radiant light engulfed the human, and a feeling of familiarity filled him with feelings of home and of those who were familiar to him. It was as if he could literally feel the bonds of friendship that bound him to his friends in section 9, but oddly enough, he could also feel the children and the Autobot's as part of the bonds, it was like being in the centre of a vast web, and all the shining strands interconnected to everyone he knew.

"By Primus's grace I bless thee, brave little sniper...may your optic see far and may your hand be steady, may you have the courage to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves, may your spinal unit have the strength to keep you standing tall by your friends in their hours of need, and may all your spark's shine bright when all other lights have gone out...we will meet again...and when we do...it will be at the crossroads of destiny, and we will be waiting...but not yet...not yet..." he voice drifted away.

And with that, the darkness came once again.

Saito suddenly found himself back in the sea of data and right in front of him was a vast blue stellated dodecahedron with cybertronian glyphs all over the panels, a spike opened up on one side and several streams of complex data shot out and hit Saito in the side of his head. All at once his head felt numb as his whole life began to flash before his eye, all his joyous moments, his triumphs, his disappointments and his low points, all replayed in less than 50 seconds, finally, the data stream stopped and exhaustion overcame his mind and body, but for some obscure reason, he felt whole somehow, as if he was alive, was he alive?

He couldn't tell as he steadily succumbed to unconsciousness, the last thing he could see was the night sky, a thousand twinkling stars shone down upon him and the dark void itself was the most beautiful colour of all, a perfect shade of midnight blue...that was always his favourite colour...nearby, he could hear Deathshot breathe a sigh of relief.

"Ahh!...Thank Primus your alive!"

* * *

*GASP!* So...what does it all mean? Where will it lead our brave hero's? Who's the stranger? & what is the Incept code?...All clues leading to somewhere...but where? One thing's for sure, things are never going to be the same after this! D8 *biting nails* stay tuned for the next chapter! :) R&R please!


	31. Chapter 30: The Rangers

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 30: THE RANGERS

The night had waned by at uncomfortable pace; time didn't matter as survival instincts kept everyone's minds in the here and now, the only thing that gleaned the concept of time was the moon's steady arc across the night sky and the shifting shadows of the forest.

From out the blackness in between the trees, several sets of headlights cut a path towards the paddy fields and the steady rumble of car engines was the only sound for miles around. From out the tree line bordering the first of the fields, the Autobots filed out and came to a halt, letting their human friends get out before transforming back into mech mode as they scanned their optics across the lush rice filled land, New Port glistened on the horizon like amber.

"Okay, how far now?" Sam asked

"From where we were up on cliff, I'd guess we're roughly 15 miles from the highway" Trailbreaker replied.

"It's highly unlikely anyone will be waiting to surprise us on the ground, the nearest cover is the forest behind us and those three small hills over there" the Major said as she pointed to a line of three small hills to the south about a mile away.

"And the quickest way to the highway is that dirt road over there" Jazz replied, pointing to a small narrow road a few meters away.

"It's too open Jazz, we'll be completely exposed" Hot Rod interjected

"I know kid, but we can't wait around; D-man's got us covered from above so we'll be fine as long as we stay in his range, I don't like it but we're just gonna have ta chance it" Jazz replied

"Need any cover from above?" Jetfire asked as he unfurled his battle axe again with an eager evil-looking grin

"With this flat ground, if there are any more re-enforcements on their way then they can easily see you, use those clouds up there for cover and stay air-born until we're at the highway. Ravage, Scorpy, you guys flank us from the sides, Ashley, you go with Ravage; we're gonna make a straight dash, no stops and no hesitations, alright?"

"Right!" everyone replied, several loud distant bangs drew their attention up to the mountain side, one by one, ten fireballs lit up the mountain side as Deathshot shot the Jigabachi's down in rapid succession, the section 9 team watched in amazement at how fast each craft was swiftly dispensed.

"Wow! That's fast!" Togusa said offhand

"Indeed, looks like Deathshot and Saito make quite the team!" Tom grinned, as the last of the chopper fell, Jazz activated his comm. line.

"**Yo D-man! That's some fine shooting up there! Did you two manage to hack any military satellites yet?" **

"**No, something went wrong with the uplink, Saito's unconscious and in a serious condition!" **the Autobot sniper replied frantically

"**What? What happened?" **Jazz suddenly straightened up in alarm, everyone jumped in surprise at his sudden change in tone.

"**I-I don't know! The second I uplinked to his cyberbrain he stopped breathing, his heart stopped beating and his brain activity slowed to a crawl; my life support systems are keeping him stable for now but he needs a human doctor as soon as possible, what should I do?" **Deathshot asked, as Jazz pondered what to do, everyone was suddenly aware of the first lieutenant's worried expression.

"Jazz? What's wrong?" Bumblebee asked

"It's Deathshot, something went wrong with the uplink and Saito's in a critical condition, he needs to get to a hospital right away" everyone stood surprised for a second before the Major stepped in.

"How bad is he?" she frowned

"He's got him stable for now but he needs treatment right now"

"Then tell him get back to New Port and get him to a hospital!" Batou yelled

"But if Deathshot leaves he won't be able to cover us if anyone attacks!" Sideswipe retorted, after a moment, Jazz looked at the red lambo twin with a firm look.

"Then it's a chance we're gonna have to take, Saito's health takes top priority here, we'll just have go on ahead and he'll have to catch up when he can" he replied, **"Deathshot, get Saito back to New Port and find the nearest hospital, keep an optic on him and once he's alright come back and find us"**

"**Rodger that, I'll be as quick as I can, you guys take care...and be careful" **Deathshot replied as the line went silent.

Back on the mountain side, Deathshot folded his sniper rifle away, transformed and shot off into the sky making a bee line for the city; inside his cockpit Saito's breaths came soft and silent as he lay unconscious in the front seat, his heart rate barely got above 55 BPM's as various wires were connected to his skin, an oxygen mask covered his mouth and nose and the various monitors on the control panel kept track of his vital signs.

"Please...please Primus let him be okay..." Deathshot whispered to himself as he reprimanded himself over and over again. Back down on the ground, the supersonic boom from Deathshot's engines could be heard echoing off the mountain side as the Autobot sniper sped away towards the city.

"What do you think happened?" Miles pondered aloud, Darren glanced sideways but said nothing, he didn't want to unintentionally add insult to injury.

"Maybe something happened to the connection, a data overload perhaps?" Glen offered

"We can find out when this is over, but right now, we need to move out; everyone fall in!" Jazz ordered as he and the other Autobots transformed and opened their doors for the humans to get in. As Darren stepped into Trailbreaker, followed by Glen, Ishikawa and Boma, the young hacker sat with a hard expression upon his face, one that said his mind was plagued with doubt and confusion.

"What's up man?" Glen asked

"Huh?" Darren replied

"I know that look kid; you're trying to figure out what the hell happened up there" replied Glen, Ishikawa and Boma both listened from where they sat in their seats.

"...I surmised that there would be the high probability of a conflict in data alignment between Saito's brain and Deathshot's CPU...but I'm trying to think...what the hell happened when the uplink was established that would put Saito in a critical condition?" Darren said as his gaze wandered into empty space.

"Maybe it was one of D's attack firewalls? He did say he used to work in the Autobot counter-intelligence for a while; maybe he had an old counter-attack programme that didn't recognise Saito's cyberbrain and classified it as a virus by accident?" Glen offered

"You think that's what might have happened?" Ishikawa asked

"It's very likely; I mean it wouldn't be the first time. A while back Deathshot tried to link with Ultra Magnas to exchange some info directly, but he accidently fried part of Ultra Magnas's CPU and he spent two days in the med unit getting it repaired, fortunately it wasn't serious but it did take us all by surprise, even Deathshot wasn't aware just how big the jolt was" Darren replied

"But why? I know the guy worked in Autobot intelligence for a couple of centuries and that he's got some high end tech to keep his secrets safe, but why can't he zone out the firewall's for a simple uplink?" Glen asked

"Because that's the way his software was hardwired, he can lower the access terminal in the uplink programme but he can't deactivate the firewalls completely, it's really mean stuff even I can't hack into it...when he worked in counter intelligence his superiors made sure his secrets stayed safe at all costs, the anti-viral programmes won't even accept the standard Autobot ID coding"

"Man, that's like way overkill" Glen blinked in surprise

"But surely Deathshot would have made sure his firewalls access terminals were real low before they established the uplink?" Trailbreaker asked through his stereo speakers.

"He said that he'd be using a one way filtering system in addition to a bio-scanner alert programme running at 15%, which means that..." Darren suddenly straightened up with a surprised look in his eyes.

"What? Which means what?" Glen asked eagerly

"...Which means he'd have kept his out-going data filters on the firewalls to help align any data that Saito sent through, in case the difference in Fourier transforms format to quantum mechanics format was minimal by the alignment standards and needed additional format writing to compensate for the lack of dimensional rewrite data. Technically Deathshot couldn't have sent anything through to Saito; his bio-scanners would have alerted him if any data-bursts were coming through, even if they were running at less than 00.05%!" Darren replied in one go, everyone inside the car sat in mild confusion for a brief moment before snapping back to reality.

"Uh which means what?" Boma asked

"Which means, when Saito established the uplink, he must have accessed the wrong data terminal by accident! After all, all the data both online and offline are in cybertronian, he couldn't have known what he accessing if he couldn't understand it!" Glen replied

"But it could have equally been the other way around, when Saito established the uplink, Deathshot would have put a one way access link through to his Hawkeye but the Hawkeye's data, though I don't see how, might have come through on a low data frequency that was incompatible with the data alignment, in turn, the programme must have tried to compensate for the lack of software power by automatically sending a booster signal down the connection and it accidently overloaded the Hawkeye" Darren said with worry, Ishikawa and Boma both glanced at one another with worry.

"How much damage would that cause?" Ishikawa asked

"I don't know, I'd have to check out just how much of Saito's brain is cyberised to determine the level of damage, in all likelihood it could have damaged part of his real brain too, but equally I'll have to ask Deathshot if I can have access to part of his software's memory matrix to see what actually happened, with his bio-scanners in place there's no way he'd have missed anything" Darren replied

"Hopefully we'll have a chance to review and go over what happened back there, but how can Deathshot not have total control over his firewalls?" Ishikawa asked, Darren and Glen both looked at one another with uncertainty in their eyes and then looked at the two Section 9 agents with a hint of uneasiness.

"...You'll have to ask him that...it's...kinda personal for him" Darren replied rubbing the back of his neck. Sensing the uneasiness Ishikawa decided not to push the issue further and left the subject at that, leaning back in the seat, he passed a deep sigh and looked out the window, watching the paddy fields whizz by. Further up from Trailbreaker, Morri sat in Hot Rot next to Batou, Tom and Danny. Quickly glancing in the rear view mirror, Morri noticed the angry looking frown on the Majors face as she sat in Jazz's front passenger seat; at this point Morri wasn't sure whether she was worried for her team-mate or angry at Deathshot that he let this happen somehow, her face was so hard to read.

"Don't worry, she's not angry kid" Batou said casually.

"Huh?" Morri replied, snapping back to reality

"She's just worried for Saito is all; she hates it when she doesn't know what's going on"

"I can relate, whatever happened when D and Saito uplinked, something must have happened that neither of them was aware of, because there's no way Deathshot would ever put someone in harm's way, even by mistake..." she sighed

"So just what the hell happened back there with your cousin?" Batou asked, Morri glanced sideways at Tom and sighed, there was no use keeping it secret now, closing her eyes for a moment she concentrated on her BSHB. Upon activating the device the disk released its nanite mercury and the blue glowing silver liquid crept along her arm and down into her hand, creating a crude wrist warmer-like covering over the skin, Batou couldn't help but watch in fascination.

"What is it?" he asked

"A little insurance policy...in case things had been different and you guys weren't who you said you were..." she replied simply, feeling somewhat ashamed about keeping the truth from him, but it had been for a good reason.

"Well that's reasonable, when you're in an uncertain situation it always best to keep a back-up plan ready in case things don't go the way you want" Batou said reassuringly, hearing this, Morri relaxed a little.

"Yeah, but we didn't really have a plan, we decided to keep it strictly for emergencies only, like back up there on the cliff-side" Tom said

"But how come Ashley was the only one who, uh, went all superhero on those armed suites and choppers?"

"To be honest, Ashley's the only one out of all us that can-"

KABROOOM!

Three of the Autobots went flying off the dirt road and into the water filled rice fields as a load explosion blew part of the road away in a huge fireball, the others screeched to a halt and barely stopped just short of the crater in the ground, about 20 meters away Hot Rod, Sideswipe and Jazz had been flipped onto their roofs, Batou, Pazu and the Major managed to get out and pull out the dazed kids from their seats, the Autobots immediately transformed and got back up.

"HOLY PRIMUS! Is everyone okay?" Jazz called out as he held a dazed Miles in his arms, Morri, Tom, Danny managed to get back on their feet and give the thumbs up, everyone else sounded off they were fine, albeit shaken up.

"Bloody hell where did that come from?" Danny exclaimed as he laid his eyes on the 7 meter wide crater.

"UP THERE!" Ashley pointed to the range of hills over a mile away, over the crest of one hill several large mechanical objects could be seen 'walking' down the hill. Straining their eyes to see across the darkness, the kid's immediately recognised the familiar scorpion-like shapes.

"It's those weird tanks!" Miles exclaimed, two flashes of light emanated from the gun turrets of two of the machines, followed by two loud booms.

"EVERYBODY DUCK!" Sam shouted the top of his lungs as the two rounds struck the ground just short of the Autobots, sending up two huge plumes of mud and water. Annabelle screamed as everyone was knocked back by the force of the blasts, gathering themselves up again they watched as Jetfire swooped down to attack one tank and sliced off its gun turret, but the tanks jerky movement made him fall off and with one large stomp the machine had him pinned down by the legs. Bluestreak took aim and fired three rounds each from his shoulder-mounted guns; all six shots hit their mark and severed all six of the tanks legs. The other tanks quickened their pace and carried on their advance without hesitation but Jetfire was soon back on them and slicing them up one by one. Overhead another three helicopters came into hover in a wide triangle, effectively surrounding the Autobots and humans.

"AW HELL NOT AGAIN!" Ashley growled as he waved his hand and sent a large blue fire-ball out, knocking one of the helicopters into a spin, a quick blast from Trailbreakers shoulder mounted cannon made sure it was grounded within seconds, the other two backed away, but not quickly enough that Scorponok was able to take a running leap and pounce on the front of the nearest chopper and with one hard strike, severed the base of the roaters right off, the fuselage fell to the ground and the roaters went flying. The remaining chopper had its rudder sliced off and followed its partners on the ground, thanks to Sunstreaker's flying leap and wrist-mounted blades. But before anyone could say anything, two large panels opened up on the sides on two of the downed helicopters, training their weapons on the openings the Autobots automatically took flanking positions as they cautiously approached, the Major and her team responded too, moving in front of the kids and whipping out their hand guns from their holsters.

"Put down your weapons and come out with yer hands up!" Jazz called over to the nearest chopper, a slight scuffling could be heard, and from out the opening, 12 soldiers in grey and dark grey body armour and wearing grey visors across their eyes, slowly rose from out the passenger compartment of the closest craft, the pilot opened his door and in one move drew his hand gun and aimed at Mikaela's forehead, he didn't have time to shoot as Ravage moved like lightning, pulling him out of his seat by the arms, crushing his hands and dragging him out into the muddy water, with one flip of the jaw and turn of the neck, he held the man by the shoulder with his teeth poised over his chest cavity. Mikeala watched with a sense of fear, thinking that she'd be dead right now if it weren't for the panther's fast reflexes.

"Buddy; that was not you're wisest move, and from that position he can easily pierce your heart and snap your spine like a twig!" Batou growled as he slowly approached, the shocked pilot immediately stopped his squirming and kept still, looking back at the soldiers, Batou's scowl deepened when he recognised the soldier in the centre of the group.

"Kagawa? What the hell are you doing here?" he ordered

"Hi Batou" the soldier sighed, everyone was taken by surprise.

"You know this guy?" Glen asked

"Sure, how long's it been since Dejima?" he asked

"Seven months give or take..." the soldier replied as he climbed over the side of the chopper and leaned on the strut, Ravage turned his attention from the pilot to the soldier, dropping the man he moved up alongside the strut and brandished his bloodstained teeth with a low sinister growl.

"Jazz, tell this whelp if he so much as moves I'll snap his legs off in one bite!" he growled angrily, the soldier nearly fell backwards into the chopper as he tried to move away from the teeth, the sight of the pilots blood made them all the more terrifying.

"Easy Ravage" Jazz replied, the panther merely licked his teeth with his black tongue and backed away, letting the soldier hop down onto the ground. As the other soldiers in the other downed choppers cautiously poked their heads out to see what was going on, Scorponok scuttled over the side of one of the fuselage's and snapped his claws angrily, the Tachikoma's came around the side and aimed their guns at the other chopper, the soldiers wisely ducked back down again. The kids stepped forward to see just who this man was; the Major and Batou both stepped forward and lowered their weapons, the Autobots were concerned but didn't say anything. The deathly glair the Major shot at the soldier quickly told him she was in no mood for being screwed around with.

"So? No need to guess why you and your men are here, but the now question is, will there be a repeat of the last time we met, or do you expect something else to happen?" Batou asked.

"I'm sorry Batou, I wish it could be like last time, but this time we have our orders. We're to take you and the rest of section 9 back to the prime minister's residence, and take the aliens into the custody of the GSDA" the soldier replied

"Really? Who gave the order?" the Major asked sternly, the soldier looked at her defiantly for a moment before the deep scowl on Batou's face told him to think better of it.

"I don't know, our chief got the order straight from the top brass less than 40 minutes ago, they said that there had been an altercation at the safe-house you guys were staying at, that the aliens had gone rouge and had taken you all hostage"

"Hostage? Hey buddy it was your friends that went rouge on us! We've been running from you guys for the last hour! We've been shot at, attacked! I nearly got my arm yanked off and just now your pilot nearly put a bullet through my girlfriend's forehead!" Sam snapped angrily, jabbing a finger at the soldier as he paced forward but Boma placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Yeah! We're not to blame here! You attacked first!" the twins interjected as they held onto one another, the soldier looked the kids over in mild surprise.

"That must have been the GSDA's covert units, they were a different unit altogether" he replied.

"Really? 'Cause you look all the same to me" Sideswipe curtly replied, looking up at the towering forms of the Autobots, and noticing the angered looks on their mechanical faces, he didn't dare answer.

"Look, whatever you've been told isn't true, we were attacked without provocation; it's your military's fault we're all in this mess and running for our lives" said Jazz, the soldier looked up at him in both awe and fear, unsure how to handle the situation, after all, being grounded and held at gun-point by a bunch of angry robots had not been part of the plan.

"But...we were-"

"I hate to say it pal but someone high up the food chain wanted you to do some dirty work, with you and your guys being none the wiser" Batou interjected, the soldier looked at him in mild disbelief for a moment before frowning.

"...Say I want to believe you, just what the hell is really going on?"

"Someone wants us dead so they can have our friends for their parts, that's what's going on" Morri thumbed over her shoulder towards the other Autobots.

"And you guys would have handed these kids over; only to be killed in a rather convenient way...do you think you could live with that Kagawa? Knowing that you sent a bunch of innocent civilian kids to their deaths?" Batou scowled angrily, Kagawa looked over at the kids, their angry, tired and scared faces told him loud and clear that these kids were certainly not combatants, but the teary puppy eyed look on the little honey blond girl's face was the knife in the heart; all of a sudden his instincts began to nag at his mind, telling him that perhaps Batou was telling the truth, and if so, what now? With a heavy sigh, he removed the visor from his eyes and rubbed his cybernetic eyes.

"Your eyes...they're the same as Batou's" Morri breathed in surprise.

"That's right kid...I used to run with his unit, they're the Rangers from section 4" Batou replied, Kagawa looked at Batou reluctantly with a frown.

"Batou, I can't go against my orders this time, Dejima was a one off, but this is so much bigger, I don't have any other choice!" he said

"Yes you do!" Jetfire called down as he came into land next to the downed choppers, kneeling down next to the Ranger's side the old seeker hung his head down until his face was several feet away, Kagawa naturally flinched away to avoid getting knocked by the long spokes that made up his metal 'beard'.

"You have a choice soldier! The most easiest and logical choice...you can simply let us go" he continued, Kagawa looked at the giant in disbelief.

"What? I can't let you go!" he retorted

"Yes you can! In case you haven't noticed you haven't exactly got the advantage over us, your only means of transport are grounded, your soldiers are at our mercy and you are one bad choice away from suffering my wrath!" Jetfire growled

"So your just gonna kill us?"

"No...Killing humans isn't our thing, but it doesn't mean we won't put a few dents in you" Sunstreaker replied, Kagawa could practically feel the venom oozing out his voice.

"Look, it makes sense, if you let us go that can be the end of it and no-one has to get hurt...please, just let us go!" Hailey pleaded. A long uneasy silence followed as Kagawa looked all around, the Autobots looked down at him with stern gazes, the section 9 team bore equally hardened expressions, but the kids were simply tired and scared and simply looked at him with pleading eyes. Gazing back over his shoulder, his men watched from the safety of the chopper, all of them unwilling to move for fear of Ravage, who watched them eagerly waiting for one of them to make one false move. Turning back, he looked up at Jazz with a mix of incredulousness and curiousness.

"Is it true that you're...really from another planet?" he asked cautiously, blinking in surprise and then relaxing slightly, Jazz came closer and kneeled down in front of him.

"Yes, we are" he simply replied

"Then why does someone want you dead?"

"Because someone's got it in their processor to make a fortune from us, and their willing to kill our friends here to get to us" Jazz replied

"But, why the kids?"

"Because as far as our pursuers are concerned their expendable, we're their guardians, it's our duty to protect them and to see their safe...we couldn't call ourselves Autobots if we didn't"

"But...why are they so important to you?" an uneasy silence followed before Jazz leaned in closer, staring him straight in the eye.

"Because we are friends, and friends are always there for one another, that's why they're so important!" Jazz continued; Kagawa didn't know what to say as he dropped his gaze with a sense of shame panging at the back of his mind. Morri watched him with curiosity, wondering just what was going through this guy's mind. Batou merely sighed as his own expression softened and placed a hand on Kagawa's shoulder.

"Listen, if you let us go, we'll make it up to you somehow. You're right, this is bigger than Dejima but at the same time it's not what you think, whoever gave you those orders is dirty and in all likelihood is the one who wants the Autobots" Batou said

"How do you even know that someone in the top brass wants you dead anyway?"

"We just know, and trust me ignorance is bliss. Don't burden yourself with knowledge of these scary people. That's our job" the Major replied, Kagawa shot her a look but said nothing.

"One last question...why did you come here?" he asked Jazz

"...We didn't come here willingly, something happened, something...unforeseen, and we were transported here by mistake..." the first lieutenant replied as he stood back up and turned to look upwards into the sky. Morri nearly jumped when a vibration on her shoulder caught her by surprise, it was the BSHB, it was vibrating gently and giving off a pulsating glow, looking back at the others it seemed the other kids BSHB's were doing the same as they too were looking over they're shoulders. The Autobots suddenly froze and looked over at Jazz, then up at the area of sky he was looking at without a word. Realising something was going on between them, Togusa was about to ask something when Miles beat him to it.

"Jazz? What's up man?"

"...I think it's time we were goin', our ride outta here's just arrived" he replied with a small cryptic smile, Morri's expression perked up in response, knowing full well who he was implying about. The Major quickly caught on and shot Batou a knowing look, signalling to him to start backing away. Kagawa frowned as the two agents began stepping backwards with the others following suite.

Suddenly, a bright beam of white light lit up the nearby field some 90 yards away, it was a column of pure white that seemed to be emitted from nowhere and swept along towards the group, a deep penetrating thrum could be heard too as Kagawa stepped back in hesitation, but stopped when he noticed the small smile on Morri's lips.

"Thanks" she said

"For what?"

"For making the right choice"

"Huh? But I didn't-"

"Yes you did...You just haven't figured it out yet. I promise we'll find a way to repay you...but for now, it looks like we're outta here" she smirked and before Kagawa could reply the light engulfed her and the others, it was so bright that the Rangers cybernetic eyes couldn't handle it and were forced to shield them away, through the endless white light a series of strange electronic sounds could be heard overhead several meters up and in front, at the same time the sound of car engines revving up echoed through the air. As quickly as it came, the light vanished and as Kagawa lowered his arm he looked all around and up.

Nothing was there, the Autobot's and the humans had gone.

Tentatively climbing out of the choppers, the other Rangers looked around in confusion and were at a loss for words. 'Maybe it was best not to take them on after all' Kagawa suddenly thought as he wiped the sweat from his forehead and past a sigh of relief.

"What do we do now sir?" one of the rookie Rangers asked, Kagawa hesitated a moment, how was he going to explain this to his section chief? Would they actually believe that these aliens let them go simply out of some philosophical belief that killing humans was wrong? As he concluded weighing up his options, Kagawa let out a heavy sigh and turned to face his men, who were now standing before him with uncertainty written across their faces.

"Call HQ, tell them we need a lift back to base and to have a medical unit standing by for our pilot...and tell them we lost the targets" he reluctantly said

"Damn...how are we going to explain this?" one of the other Rangers said offhand

"You let me worry about the report, for now, let's just get back to base" Kagawa replied, 'damn it Batou! What the hell have you guy's gotten yourselves into now?" he thought, as he gazed up into the sky he couldn't help but wonder where they had gone, where would they go now? Among the various thoughts that whizzed through his mind, he couldn't help but wonder if he ever would ever meet them again; probably not, but then again, if they could pull of a disappearing act like this anything was possible. As he focused his attention back on his men, he helped two other Rangers get the pilot back on his feet while far up in sky, something quite different was going on.

"What the hell is this place?" Ishikawa exclaimed

"You're inside my main subspace" Deathshot replied with a smirk in his voice.

"Wow! This is incredible! We're inside a real live alien space ship!" Batou's Tachikoma squeaked with delight.

"Ah not quite my love, but close enough" Scorponok clicked as he held onto the blue think tank.

All around the section 9 agents were both flabbergasted and amazed; they were floating in a space of pale blue light that seemed to go on forever, echoing from every direction were the strange sounds of the Autobot sniper's intricate mechanisms and off to one side, all the kids hovered in a loose circle, their BSHB's connected to the Autobot via a series of silver cables with fiber-optic threats interconnected to the devices base. As the agents floated around like dead fish, Sam, Miles, Morri, Hailey and Glen hovered across and grabbed them.

"Whoa dude! You okay?" Miles asked as he grabbed a hold of Togusa by the back of his jacket, the detective pin-wheeled his arms around in a vain attempt to stay upright, but the lack of gravity in this place made it hard to guess which way was up, regardless, he finally managed to orientate himself around until he was face to face with Miles.

"I uh, I think so; what is this place?" he asked

"We're inside Deathshot, well, his subspace at least, it's kind of an extra storage space" Tom replied as he held onto Pazu.

"How big is it in here?" Batou asked as a few silver cables snaked out of nowhere and gently held him by the shoulders.

"He can fit a whole fleet of Jumbo Jets in here!" Ashley smirked as he hovered upside down with his arms folded.

"Technically only seven" Deathshot corrected, his voice echoing all around, Batou quirked an eyebrow, but said nothing.

"You can fit seven Jet planes in here? That's a whole portable hanger!" one of the Tachikoma's exclaimed.

"Even so, I could think of a whole load of uses for a subspace that big!" Jazz chuckled as his voice came over the open comm-line.

"Jazz? Where are you man?" Miles asked

"Right below you on the highway kid, D-man commed us a minute ago telling us he was coming back, he managed to recalibrate his LSDCF **(1) **to omni-directional so now we're invisible too, though we're having to go at a steady speed on account the other human drivers can't see us. We're currently on super highway 68, heading towards the outskirts of downtown" the first lieutenant replied

"I know that route, it goes right past our HQ" Togusa interjected

"How's Saito?" the Major asked

"I managed to discreetly get him to the nearest hospital with emergency facilities, fortunately he was seen to right away and he was taken through for treatment, I stayed on for as long as I could but when I sensed the younglings stress levels rising I feared the worst and came back straight away, and just in time from what I saw" Deathshot replied

"Was he alright?" Togusa asked

"He was still stable when I left him; I'm not sure what his condition is now. We're heading straight to the hospital at this minute; I'll drop you off behind the furnaces on the rear of the main complex, from there you can easily sneak in the back-"

"No!" the Major interjected, everyone looked at her like she lost her mind.

"What? But Major what about-"

"If we suddenly appear at the hospital it's going to create problems, it'll arouse too much suspicion; don't forget, as far as everyone who's aware of the situation is concerned, we're with you guys either being held captive or willing helping you to get away" she replied seriously

"Uh, I hate to point out the obvious sweetheart, but isn't that what you guys promised us when we first met? You'd keep us safe by keeping everyone else who was interested in us away, for all intense an purposes they're probably assuming that you guys are helping us, and that now we're half way out of the country by now" Ashley huffed

"Maybe, so that's why we need to act now before anything else happens" the Major replied.

"Good point, I'd say now it's your turn to call the shots Major so what do you have in mind?" Jazz replied

"First, take us to the Kobe district, there's another place you guys can hide in"

"Whoa, is that such a good idea? The military found the safe-house, what's to say they haven't found any other places you guys have?" Sam asked

"Don't worry, this one's kept off our network, even the chief doesn't know about it. You guys lay low there until we come back; we need to get to the prime minister's residence as soon as possible"

"What are you going to be doing?" Glen asked

"First off, we need to get to the chief, no doubt he's being questioned by the top brass over why his men have suddenly gone missing and why a couple of their top units got blown away by nine giant alien robots...it's been over an hour since we were first attacked, by now quite a few heads are rolling in the cabinet" the Major replied

"Talk about kicking a hornet's nest; alright but what are you gonna tell them?" Morri asked

"You let us worry about that; the important thing right now is for all of you to go to ground and stay put, we've got a lot to do and we can't get started on the real work until we've got the military and everyone else off our backs"

"The real work? You mean going after the pricks that want us dead?" Darren frowned.

"That, as well as other things...Deathshot, can you hear me?" the Major called up into the glowing pale blue space.

"Yes I can hear you just fine Major" the Autobot sniper replied, something about the tone of his voice seemed to suggest he was agitated in some way, pushing it aside for another time she continued:

"How far away are we from the Kobe district?"

"We're just turning off, but its all storage facilities and shipping containers here" Deathshot replied, a large wide image of his external view appeared in front of the group; it showed rows and rows of storage houses, ones much bigger than the one that served as the hideout, the docks came into view nearby with seemingly endless rows of various coloured shipping containers all stacked up high, near the water's edge several cranes and container cranes stood still, with no ships in this area of the docks, it was clear no-one was around tonight.

"I know, see the road there? Carry on then turn right towards that warehouse over there, look out for unit G13..." she replied, Deathshot hovered above the rows of storage house, scanning the big bold numbers over the doors of each building he past with the Autobot's keeping pace below. Finally, next to the side of a big warehouse on the far end of the docks, near where the vast harbour opened out onto the sea, the storage house with G13 painted over the door stood near the water's edge.

"Let me out here" the Major said, opening his subspace Deathshot came down low and the Major jumped down and disappeared around the side of the building; a minute later the towering doors opened up but before the Autobots could enter the Major reappeared in the doorway, she tapped the concrete floor with her heel, pressing down a small square tile. She waved the now visible Autobots to proceed and as they entered the building, a huge concrete ramp slowly swung down, revealing at the entrance to an even larger hanger. As the Autobots drove down, they entered what looked like a cross between a supersized garage and a medium sized aircraft hanger, over in one corner were a row of 13 sporty looking cars and on the opposite side was what looked like a hanger wing for the Tachikoma's, at the far side of the large open space was a computer station, fitted with five monitors and complete with all kinds of gadgets and what appeared to be miles and miles of cables and wires running across part of the floor, off to one side was a door that lead to the living quarters, judging from the amount of dust the whole place looked like it hadn't been used in a long while. As the Autobots transformed, Deathshot let everyone out of his subspace, Togusa and Ishikawa nearly fell over with the sudden onset of gravity, but they soon straightened up.

"Wow, this is one big garage" Miles said offhand.

"It's the only place I could think of that can accommodate you all, even Jetfire should be able to fit in here" the Major said, behind her the thunder of engines announced the arrival of the Autobot seeker as he crawled in through the opening and stood upright.

"Of course I can fit in here femme! A little cosy perhaps but it'll do" he grumbled, ignoring his comment she continued, "there's a fully stocked pantry in the living quarters, make sure you make the food last, you might be down here a while and I'm not sure when we'll be back. Under no circumstances are any of you to venture outside, if someone comes snooping around there's a trip alarm and if they somehow discover this place there's an escape passage at the far end of the sleeping quarters, it'll take you down into the waterways under the city, understand?" everyone nodded and sounded off their agreement.

"Good, I promise we'll be back as soon as possible, for now just hang tight and try not to get bored" The Major said before she jumped back up into Deathshot's undercarriage subspace, followed by everyone else, "You guys be careful!" Sam called out as the opening closed up and the Autobot sniper turned to leave, Morri ran up alongside and brushed her hand against his fuselage, "Hey D? Look after them okay?" she called out over the deep thrum of his engines, "Of course youngling" he sighed and disappeared out the opening, the ramp closed up with and the Autobot gang was locked inside, passing a sigh of her own Morri stood and stared at the ramp, the last hour suddenly started to replay through her mind, and reminding her just how lucky they were to get away with their lives. Tiredness announced itself with a deep yawn and she turned and slowly paced across to where the Major had pointed out the sleeping quarters.

"So what now?" Danny said with a shaky voice, the tension of the last hour making itself evident.

"I don't know about you...but I just want to sleep..."Morri yawned as she disappeared through the door and down the corridor leading to the sleeping quarters, Mikaela followed close behind, her arms tired from carrying Annabelle all night, how she managed to have the strength to hold her all night was astounding, but she put it down to her fight-or-flight reflex keeping her going, looking over her shoulder, Morri came up alongside and took the four year old from her arms.

"You've been holding her all night, go get some sleep, I'll keep an eye on her" Morri said

"You can barely stay awake, just bed her down and have some sleep yourself, she's not going anywhere" Mikaela replied exhaustively.

"Good point, seeing as we're set of an extended stay down here"

"Looks like it...do you think they can pull it off? Whatever their doing that is"

"Section 9?...who can say, I hope they can, if the Major's got something in mind I just hope she knows what she's doing...god knows, with the military thinking we've gone nuts we gonna need all the luck we can get, and even then, there's the dilemma of the rift"

"...What did Prime mean 'someone's opened the rift from the universe your currently in'?...could someone really be responsible for bringing us here?" Mikaela said in a tired stupor, Morri paused for a moment before meeting Mikaela's tired gaze.

"...I don't know, it just raises even more questions and frankly I'm too tired to even think straight...whatever has happened, I've no doubt we'll find out in one form or another" Morri yawned as she continued down the dark corridor with Annabelle in her arms.

* * *

**(1)** Light Spectrum Distorting Camouflage Field-Deathshot's means of turning invisible.

Phew! End of a long night! Not my best chapter, but hey, from here on in everyone's gonna have their work cut out for them! Don't forget to R&R on the way out Please!


	32. Chapter 31 Strange Things & A New Case

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformer, just My OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 31: STRANGE THINGS AND A NEW CASE

The machines gently hummed away as the sound of tapping keys echoed off the nearby wall, the monitors lit up the corner of the space with a greenish tint and sitting on the nearby desk, various CD's USB plugs and auxiliary hard-drives and a notebook laptop lay littered in an unkempt pile. On the desk next to the keyboard, several Styrofoam cups stood idle, the caffeine content had long since been drunk up, next to them empty pizza boxes and packets and cartons of take-out food laid around cluttering up the small work area.

"Darren! When I asked you to tidy up I didn't mean put just one cup in the trash, I meant all of it!" Mikaela huffed as she leaned over the desk and scooped all the trash up in her arms and chucked it into a black bin liner that Morri was holding open.

"I was going to get round to cleaning it up, I've just been busy is all!" the teen hacker protested, the girls glared at him while Ishikawa simply smirked as he watched from behind.

"You said that two day ago! Honestly it wouldn't kill you to just tidy up a little bit, we maybe still in hiding but it's no excuse for disregarding the standards of cleanliness!" Morri retorted as she tied up the bag and slung it over her shoulder; some of the other boys couldn't help but let out a few giggles as they watched from nearby.

"The same goes for the rest of you! We ain't your mother's and we certainly ain't your personal maids just because you guys can't cook a half descent meal and clean up after yourselves!" Mikaela replied as she shot them a glair which promptly shut them up, Sam however couldn't help but grin.

"Honestly Witwicky, at this rate your pretty much falling into the same category as my man-child father!" Mikeala huffed

"I'd say it's too late for that Mikeala, he fell past that mark ages ago" Morri said with a deadpan tone.

"Oh ha ha very funny girls, is this the kinda respect the saviour of Earth is supposed to be given?" Sam replied

"How long are you gonna keep milking that one?" Mikeala replied as she and Morri strode towards the kitchen and the trash disposal, her hip rotating in an alluring manner.

"Man, she's so sexy..." Sam thought aloud

"Yeah yeah, keep your hormones in check kid; some of us actually have work to do" Boma said offhand from where he sat at the dive terminal on the computer station.

Four days had passed since the Autobot gang had to abandon Section 9's safe house and fight off the military forces; though it hadn't been long, a lot had happened in the relatively short space of time. After the Major and her team dropped the kids and Autobots off in the underground safe house Deathshot flew them straight to the prime minister residence, where they not only caused a stir by seemingly appearing out of nowhere but also managed to save the chief from being put through the proverbial wringer. After much pleading and negotiating, the team managed to explain that when the military first approached the safe house the Autobot's and their charges immediately fled the premises; per Aramaki's part of the bargain to let them go in the event of something unforeseen happening. Much to some of the cabinet official's chagrin, the prime minister and several others officials decided (both reluctantly and uneasily) that Aramaki's unconditional bargain with the aliens had been in the country's best interest's, least the fight had been in a populated area and major casualties had been incurred, after reports of the downed military units came in, the top brass was sent into a whirl of confusion, Generals and Chiefs of staff alike butted heads on who gave the order to send their forces in and for what purpose. Thinking the worst case scenario, the top brass considered sending in more reinforcements to catch up to the Autobot's, until Aramaki pointed out;

"While this incident has pointed out that they are undoubtedly formidable and far superior combatant's...has anyone cared to look over the number of fatalities incurred tonight?"

That got their attention

"...despite the battle, the fact no-one has died is a clear sign that the Autobots are being's of their word, I believe that if there is any further pursuit of this matter then it might not hurt to consider being men of our word and letting them go, least we spend trillions putting the armed forces back together again"

Though most were reluctant out of trying to preserve their professional pride, as well as their ego's, the top brass reluctantly agreed to let the Autobot's run, the job of searching for them now laid in the hands of the Military Intelligence Department as well as a couple of other agencies involved in this whole affair. But the incident had highlighted a further serious problem, whoever was responsible for sending out those military units, as well as the Rangers, had done so without clearance from the Chiefs of staff and the prime minister. The fact that someone, besides Aramaki and Section 9, outside the cabinet had known about the location of the safe house was also an issue the chief was eager to look into, so with the prime ministers authorization and after clearing all the necessary paperwork, Section 9 now had a new case, and the Major had a good idea where to start.

Elsewhere however, Saito spent the last three days in hospital recovering from, whatever had happened when he uplinked to Deathshot. For most of the three days he was unconscious after it was reviled he had suffered a mild aneurism, though it had been a stroke of luck that the doctors manage to diagnose and treat him within hours of his arrival to the ER, after the first 24 hours the bleeding in his brain was successfully stemmed off and the sniper avoided suffering a hemorrhagic stroke, after further drug and micro-machine treatment he successfully made a full recovery and was cleared for duty on the third day. Much to everyone's relief.

That was yesterday, and today the section 9 team had returned to the underground safe house to get to the bottom of what happened to Saito four nights ago. After quickly sneaking into the hospitals patient records and pulling out Saito's medical notes and treatment specs, Ishikawa, Boma, Darren, Frenzy, Glen and Danny had spent the last two hours or so going over the records as well as Deathshots software memory matrix. The giant Autobot sniper sat next to the computer and dive terminals with several wires and cables plugged into various ports in the side of his helm, which connected him to the computers, Saito sat opposite with two small wires plugged into the ports in the back of his neck, though it had been explained that he as well as the rest team had cyberbrains and therefore the ports were a necessary feature, it was still a strange if not morbidly fascinating sight for the kids and Autobots alike, once or twice some of the kids would stop just look at the strange little holes in the back of the snipers neck, all the while Saito had to keep reminding himself that they didn't have anything like this where they came from and had to exercise his patience, the rest of the Section 9 team however, just watched casually in slight interest.

The same however could not be said for Deathshot as he sat in the corner with his legs crossed, his wings and tail fins folded back and looking like a kicked puppy. After dropping the Major and her team back off at their HQ, he flew straight back to the new safe house and spent the following four days trying to figure out just what went wrong, even though everyone tried to convince him that it must have been an accident and that he didn't do it on purpose, the thought of the human sniper lying in a hospital bed fighting for his life didn't do much to comfort or reassure him. When the team arrived with the Chief this morning to go over and figure out what happened, the Major was ready to rip the Autobot a new tailpipe, but after seeing the look of guilt on his face she decided it wasn't worth it, whatever the circumstances had been it was clear he had been beating himself up over it, and as Saito sat several meters away he couldn't pluck up the courage to even look him in the eye.

"Okay, that's all the nessicary stuff uploaded, now to move onto the format aligning and data sequencing, you can unplug yourself now Saito" Darren called over from the computer terminal, as Saito unplugged the connections from his neck, his hand instinctively flinched back when the wires snaked back along the desk and into the sides of Darren's laptop.

"You too Deathshot, I got all I need from you too" Deathshot simply sighed through his vents and tilted his head to the side slightly; the wires and cables disconnected from the computer hard-drives and snaked back up his body and into his helm ports. As the teenage hacker and his friends went about their work, Saito glanced up at the Autobot sniper and wondered just how bad he'd been feeling this whole time. It was strange in a way for him, being who he was he wasn't the sort of person one would sympathize over, but here, the poor Autobot had been feeling for him; his sad blue optic told him he wanted to ask for forgiveness but was too ashamed to do so. He watched as Morri gently climbed up his arm, sat on his shoulder and placed a small soft kiss on his cheek plates, she whispered something in his audio, to which he glanced sideways at her but only huffed through his air-intakes in reply. Deciding to bring some closure to this, he got up off his chair and discreetly wandered across to the front of Deathshots crossed legs, the giant blinked in surprise when he noticed the human standing before him with a sympathetic look in his one eye.

"It's okay pal, you don't have to feel bad for what happened" he said

"But it is my fault, I don't know what happened and I nearly killed you" Deathshot replied quietly.

"But you saved my life, that's the important thing here" Saito replied

"That's what I've been trying to tell him!" Morri replied as she stroked her guardian's cheek plate, Deathshot offered his hand and Saito climbed in, holding the human sniper next to his face and looked him in the eye.

"Listen, if anyone's to blame here it's me, I'll admit I was eager to see what being uplinked to you would be like, I was rash and didn't consider if there would be any side-effects, after all, being an alien I guess I should have figured that it would be different in some measure" Saito sighed, Deathshot looked at him in mild surprise before passing another deep sigh.

"...I guess I should have been more cautious also, I could see that you were eager and I should have protested, but I have to admit I was curious too..." he said.

"...How about we just call it even and say it was a bad choice on both our parts, whatever the analysis results say, I say we're cool" Saito said, Deathshot looked at him for a moment before letting a small smile creep across his metallic lips.

"Alright" he replied

"That's better" Morri whispered as she laid another kiss on his cheek plate and gave Saito a warm smile, from the doorway of the kitchen quarters the Major watched the little scene with a smile. But the feeling of the 'water under the bridge' moment suddenly dropped when she sensed the familiar annoying presence of a certain 12 year old hellion behind her, turning around, she was surprised to see Ashley floating in mid-air and holding onto Batou, who was also floating and had one big beaming smile spread across his face.

"Hey Major! It turns out these BSHB's let you float someone else if you hold onto them, pretty cool huh?" he grinned, the Major merely rolled her eyes and shot Ashley a glair like an exasperated mother.

"Aww com'on sweetie no need for such a soar face, you'll kill someone with that look" Ashley grinned as he hovered sideways, the aura from his BSHB flickering around his arm as he held onto Batou.

"Most of the time she usual does kid, you're the first one to survive!" Batou chuckled, it didn't come as any surprise to him that within seconds his fist hit him hard in the face and sent him flying back across the room, Ashley was flung back too and both males hit their heads on the ceiling with a thump, the aura that surrounded them flicked out and both fell to the ground, the Major simply smiled to herself and walked off into the main complex, at the same moment the chief walked in with Togusa and the Waineright sisters behind him.

"Well, have you all turned up anything yet?" the chief asked

"Pretty much and it's not what we were expecting..." Darren replied as he watched the data scroll across the screen of his laptop, intrigued, both the Major and the chief approached the computer terminal, Frenzy hopped up from his seat onto the top of the dive terminal and beckoned everyone to join them.

"Well, let's hear it" Aramaki continued

"Okay, well first off, what happened four nights ago was not Deathshots fault, and secondly that beacon signal was not the only Autobot signal that was being transmitted that night" Darren said uneasily, everyone paused and satire at him in disbelief.

"A second signal?...but how?" Jazz thought aloud

"Let me start from the beginning. After going over the medical records and comparing the data from Deathshot's memory matrix on the attack firewall's programming; we found that when the Hawkeye was plugged in the data alignment filters in Deathshots uplink couldn't establish a connection between the incoming data from the satellite connection because the Autobot's automated sequencing programme was set at too high a frequency for the Hawkeye to adequately interpret, in addition all the data was in cybertronian so the Hawkeye couldn't read it any way, Saito's cyber-brain classified it as an unknown virus attack and threw up an attack barrier to counteract it, but when Deathshot's own attack firewalls detected the barrier coming they automatically went into overdrive and sent out a small EMP burst which killed the barrier" Darren continued

"An EMP burst?" the chief asked

"Yeah, that's what initially caused the aneurysm, looking at the medical notes and comparing the key factors against other known conditions, it sent Saito's cardiovascular system into a spasm which caused his blood flow to increase, which caused one of the arteries in his brain to swell, fortunately it didn't rupture and you managed to get him to the hospital before it had a chance to get any worse" Darren said as he looked up to Deathshot, "see, I told you" Morri whispered with a smile.

"So that's what caused me collapse huh?" Saito said as Deathshot gently placed him back down on the ground, Glen and Darren glanced at one another with uneasiness, Deathshot got a bad feeling about this.

"That's not all is it?" the Major interjected, reading their unease.

"...That was what happened after the fact... initially the faulty uplink was a chain reaction to something going on inside Deathshot's CPU, something...I think someone else was responsible for" Darren said, everyone looked at him in a mix of bemusement and surprise, Deathshot in particular was astounded.

"...How?" he asked offhand

"Well to explain that, we've got to go 3D..." Darren said as he placed his laptop in the centre of the main desk and pushed the monitor down until it laid flat on the desk top, as everyone gathered round a series of small lights on the edge of the laptop casing flashed to life and two tall holograms, one full of columns and streams of cybertronian glyphs began to fly through mid-air whilst the other was a 3D rendering of Saito's cyber brain and all its systems , the chief was impressed, it was certainly more sophisticated than the hologram projectors they had on the tiltroater and at HQ, getting back on track, he watched as Darren plugged in an extra keyboard and mouse.

"Alright, this is the automated memory of the faulty uplink in action as it happened from Deathshot's side, now watch...see there's the Hawkeye's uplink sequence data coming in at the top there, and watch what happens next..." everyone watched as Saito's Hawkeye data, highlighted in green, entered the circular access gates of Deathshot's systems and filtered down, when suddenly, both holograms were engulfed in a blinding white light for the briefest of seconds, "...Now watch carefully, 'cause this is where it gets real weird..." Glen pointed out, when the holograms flashed back to normal Saito's hologram was illuminated in red with a flashing warning that read 'ghost collapse' whilst Deathshot's systems registered as normal. The section 9 agents watched the flashing warning in horror, Deathshots systems instantly began scanning Saito and a hologram of the human sniper's anatomy showed up and pointed out that his heart and breathing had stopped and his brain functions had collapsed entirely, another scan showed the Autobot had placed a bunch of electrodes along the snipers head, chest and spine and began emitting a series of electronic frequencies to imitate the neuroelectric impulses of the nervous system, within a minute the sniper's organs and other vital signs began to recover but another scan pointed out he was having trouble 'rebooting' the brain back into action as another red box titled 'ghost line' stayed flat. Then, the hologram that showed Saito's ghost line suddenly flashed white, sending a ripple of white light throughout the snipers cyber brain and simultaneously his brain faired back to life, at that point the hologram paused and Darren typed in some commands to the hologram projector, he then leaned back in his chair and passed a heavy sigh.

"Well...what the hell was that?" Sam asked

"We weren't sure at first, but it moved way to fast to be the work of a human, whatever it was it removed this thing called a 'ghost line' and that's when your life signs cut out" Glen replied as he gestured to the red box in the centre of Saito's hologram with the title Ghost line across the top, Saito stared at the hologram in disbelief as an ice cold feeling crept down his spine.

"Whatever this ghost line is, it's central to the cyber brain's core systems as well as being connected to the brain's motor neural functions, as soon as it went...well, basically you were clinically dead for just over two minutes, Deathshot managed to get your heart going again within three minutes, despite the brain not 'restarting' right away the stimulated blood flow provided enough oxygen to keep the brain cells from deteriorating just long enough until that second burst of, whatever it was...but even then the ghost line was fluctuating drastically until another jolt from the electrodes hit it dead in the centre and it seemed to stabilise it, it was kinda the same principle of slapping a newborn's backside to get them breathing" Danny said. An uneasy silence followed as the agents stared at the young hackers in a mix of disbelief and shock, suddenly aware of the team's uneasiness, the kids and Autobots began to grow uncomfortable.

"Uh, guys? What's up?" Sam asked

"You didn't tell me I died!" Saito exclaimed

"Well, I'm sorry but according to the specs you did" Danny replied, the human sniper simply frowned in reply.

"Is there something we're missing here?" Darren asked, feeling as if there was something amiss here among the team.

"Am I to assume you haven't told them exactly what a ghost line is?" the chief sternly asked his team, Batou and Togusa looked at one another in concern, suddenly feeling ridiculous for leaving that important fact out, the Major simply sighed and looked over the bemused faces of the kids.

"What is a ghost line?" the twin sisters asked looking at one another

"Other than the fact that it's central to the cyber brain's core systems, just what it for?" Darren asked

"The ghost line is the important element of any cyborg's brain, it's essentially what distinguishes us from AI's and robots, without it...well, we can't really be called human" the Major explained, glancing back and forth between one another the kids and Autobots didn't quite seem to get where the Major was coming from, until Glen broke into a small chuckle.

"So what? It's like your soul or somethin'?" he asked, but his smile dropped when the team didn't return the humour.

"What, you're serious?" he asked in alarm

"Pretty much" Batou replied

"But I thought Saito wasn't a cyborg?" Morri asked puzzled.

"I'm not, but anyone who has a cyber brain implant has to have their ghost line isolated and contained in order for their individually to be officially established on record, without it your basically a walking dead man" Saito replied

"So essentially the ghost line indicates that you're sentient? But what about the Tachikoma's? They seem pretty sentient to me" Bumblebee thought aloud.

"As flattering as that is, technically we're not truly sentient because we don't posses ghosts of our own, although advanced AI's like us are capable of possessing complex memory matrixes and dynamic algorithm-type thought processes that in many ways could pass for an adequate substitute for a human brain, the fact is we were not sentient because ghosts can't be created from scratch, you have to be born with one" Batou's Tachikoma explained.

"So...a ghost is a soul?" Hailey thought aloud, the image of a haunted house started to play around in her mind.

"Uh, basically, yes..." Togusa replied with a slight wince, the kids and Autobots stood in silence for a moment, pondering on the information being offered here, was it really possible to take your soul, basically the essence of your sentient self, and hold it in a computer that's surgically grafted to your brain? While it undoubtedly sounded too surreal to be true, surly there had to be a spiritual implication somewhere here?

Was there?

Everyone's mind was instantly thrust back to that morning at the safe house when they all discovered that the Major, Batou, Pazu and Boma were all cyborgs, and how they explained the nature of the technology of this world could enable someone to be vertically indestructible, and capable of anything on the net. Thinking about just how it sounded back then compared to now, Morri suddenly had a thought spring to mind on how to approach this revelation.

"Did you leave that part out because you thought it might be too much to get our heads around?" she asked, the team blinked in surprise at her calm manner, the chief kept his attention on her, interested on where she was going to take this.

"Uh?...well in a way yeah; I mean, considering you guys don't have cyborgs where you come from, we just thought it might be too sensitive an issue for you to handle" Batou replied, trying to sound reassuring.

"Well...that's real nice of you guys, and understandable. But in truth, it's not like the implications of spiritual belief's verse the implications of modern technology don't exist in our world either, true our technology is nowhere near the level of yours in this world but there are certain areas that come under the spotlight on occasion. And don't forget, we come from America, living in a democracy means everyone's entitled to their personal and spiritual beliefs no matter how outrageous they sound, even though the internet has well become a part of our society on a multitude of level there are still a lot of technophobes out there...lucky we don't fall into that category, or else I think you'd be dealing with a serious bunch of spaz cases" Darren grinned, the Major quirked an eyebrow 'spaz cases?' she thought, she made a mental note to ask later.

"That's true; and I suppose one way to view it could be on par with the concept a spark chamber?" Tom offered

"Hey yeah! From what we've seen on the analysis spec's it does kinda have the same basic principles of a spark chamber" Danny concurred

"Spark chamber?" Batou asked

"This is a spark chamber..." Bluestreak replied as he bent down and gently pulled apart his chest plates, deep inside tucked away deep inside the Autobots various mechanisms the team could see a faint flickering pale blue light through a vertical slit.

"...The spark is our life-force; it's what gives us cybertronian life, and ultimately our sentience, all sparks are descended from the Allspark in way or another, the chamber helps sustain the sparks energy throughout the course of our lives, it's basically a self-sustaining live support system" said the blue gunner

"So I guess we have something in common?" Batou commented as he steadily began to feel a little less concerned.

"Maybe...the idea of a human spark has been a fascinating and strange concept to us, as cybertronians we know on an instinctive level we're alive and sentient because of the life-force that resonates within our spark chambers, but because humans don't have spark chambers due to the nature of their organic design and format, finding the mechanism behind a humans life-force has proven to be near impossible. I always thought in way, that's why it's so hard for some cybertronians to connect and relate to humans on a level that see's us on par as sentient equals because we can't naturally pick up on an ambient spark within them, that and the nature of the human conscience is one of many varying degrees of both negative and positive elements, just how much they are in equilibrium depends on the individual, no one state of mentality applies to the species as a whole " Deathshot said as he leaned back against the wall, his wings and tail fins sagged out from the sides, pushing Bumblebee and Hot Rod aside slightly.

"Hmm, an interesting analogy, would you say that with the idea of the human consciousness being identified, you could place the value of human sentience on level with your species if identifying the mechanism for its being is the only thing that stopped you from seeing humans as a higher life form?" the chief asked

"Well to some long term degree I suppose, I mean, it's just one of my observations on humanity, whatever experts like Ratchet, Wheeljack and Perceptor make of it is their choice. Long ago there was a time in our history when the idea of organic life attaining sentience was laughed at; people just couldn't imagine the concept of an organism with conscious thought existing without the aid of a spark, but over the centuries as we started to explore other planets with life, we had to seriously call into the question of just what the definition of sentient life really is...even after all this time and a war that spanned across generations, it still as elusive to us now as it was back then" the Autobot sniper continued, the chief dropped his gaze for a moment in contemplation at the wisdom of the giant's words.

"Well that depends on what angle you were viewing the argument from...life means different things to different people, to the cybertronians life began and ended with the Allspark, but here on earth with all the various cultures anything was possible...but I have to say, the idea of your continence and your soul being contained within your brain behind a series of high-end computer barriers is a little unsettling on some level, I mean, my grandma goes to church every Sunday, she'd hit me with her walking stick if she ever heard the idea of the soul being anything less" Darren said

"I have to agree dude, I mean, the idea of your soul being locked up in a computer inside your brain is really WTF" Mile said offhand

"It is real dilemma for many in this world, and it hasn't come without its complications over the years. It ranges from those that oppose the idea of cyberization vehemently, even going the lengths of terrorism to put their point across, to those that embrace it with great fervour. For most of us it's a bridge we all crossed a long time ago and have long since put behind us, but after what you told us about the nature of where you all come from we weren't sure how well you could take it, after all we don't exactly have hindsight in this particular set of circumstances" The Major replied, some of the kids glanced sideways at one another.

"Granted, but even if you had told us at the safe house I don't think it would have made an enormous difference to the situation either way... but I think, if we're going to make this little partnership work between us then we have to start being a little open with each other, if you're worried about any hurdles we may come across then we'll jump them when we come to them, but it's not much use worrying about what is, what could be and what might not be, it'll only drive us all nuts" Morri replied, some of the kids and Autobot's nodded in agreement, the chief allowed a small smile to creep across his face, this girl certainly knew how to stay on the level and go with the facts at hand, he had a feeling she had potential.

"You have a good point youngling, but...even though the human ghost and cybertronian spark may have something in common in terms of being the essence of what make both our species sentient, I can't help but feel there's something about this that might prove to be...a qualm in some form" Jetfire interjected from where he sat in his alt-mode in the far corner of the garage.

"A qualm?...well, perhaps there might be somewhere down the line, I don't know, but like Morri said it's better not to go looking for problems when there aren't any at this point" Tom replied

"Perhaps, but I've lived long enough to know that these deep philosophical things have a way of jolting you where you least expect it, and it doesn't hurt to heed the old adage 'beware the dark shadow that lies behind the processor'" the old seeker replied in a cryptic tone; no-one said anything for a brief moment as everyone tried to make sense of the seeker's words, until the Major bought everyone back to the here and now.

"Getting back on track, you said that someone else was responsible for what happened four nights ago, and that the beacon signal wasn't the only Autobot signal being transmitted that night, you care to enlighten us on the details of that?" she asked Darren, everyone's attention snapped back to the earlier subject and turned their attention back to the computer and dive terminals.

"Uh, oh yeah right ...initially I figured that there had to be a fault somewhere in Deathshot's CPU, which is weird because he's always so meticulous with his systems check-ups, so Glen here checked out the automated memory logs, looking for anything that seemed out of the ordinary and considering this is Deathshot we're talking about it was a real doozy to go over..." Darren said giving the Autobot sniper a sideways glance, to which he rubbed his head in slight embarrassment.

"But, as we worked backwards through the time line of the automated memory we found something that didn't seem right, it was during the time when you, Morri and the Major went to investigate the beacon signal..." Glen said to Deathshot as he typed a few keys on his laptop and brought up several windows of data on the main monitor, one of the windows showed Deathshot's optic-view as he watched the four mysterious strangers talking of their devious plans, everyone felt a chill in the air as the memory of that night suddenly came back with feelings of fear and anger, but regardless, everyone paid attention to the monitor as Glen continued.

"Now see this here? This is the beacon pulse that Deathshot was receiving, now I know we were all pretty riled that night so it comes as no surprise that we missed this..." he pointed to a particular window on the screen which showed the pulse wave of the beacon signal beeping like a repeating radio signal. Next to the signal another box flashed in amber with the words 'signal code error' inside.

"Signal code error? The signal was compromised somehow?" Jazz asked offhand

"At first we thought it was beacon itself that was the problem, that somehow maybe a magnetic virus was laying dormant inside, it wouldn't be the first time beacons like those had been laced with some nasty viruses to keep the Decepticons from intercepting them" Glen said, gesturing to the beacon that sat on another desk nearby, "But after running a complete analysis of the beacon we found no such thing and Deathshots virus alarms hadn't been tripped either. So after going back and analysing the signal itself, we broke it down into its base-line frequencies and discovered this..." Glen continued as he typed away, the window displaying the signal broke into many different bands of signal frequencies, all in different colours, but the one at the very bottom had the label 'unknown' next to it, the signal itself looked more erratic and fast paced compared to the others, which all looked more like heart beat rhythms, steady and slow. The Autobots instantly noticed the strange wavelength.

"What is that?" Bumblebee asked offhand

"We don't know...whatever it is, it's a collection of several complex frequencies that were running on a resonate harmonising wavelength that completely bypassed Deathshots scanners, Deathshot stared at the monitor in disbelief.

"How could I miss that? Something like that should have gotten my attention over the beacon!" the Autobot sniper exclaimed in alarm.

"It would if it was the only signal there, but look, the wavelength barely got above 00.03% at any one point! Whatever it was, is was being transmitted at a very low power level" Darren replied

"But how can anyone put together a complex signal like that and transmit it on a low power frequency?" the Major asked

"I don't know, but I do know that whatever was sending out that signal it couldn't have been done by any human tech, and because of its low energy output we couldn't trace its source either. But putting that aside, when we analysed just what it was, we found that it wasn't so much a recorded signal, more like a specialized automated interceptor of some kind that was being sent out in real time, and once Deathshot's signal analyzer got registering the beacon signal something very weird happened..." Darren replied as he typed in some commands to his laptop, the holograms changed, this time displaying Deathshot's systems.

"Okay, this is what happened as the beacon signal was coming in...Somehow the hidden signal had a set of access codes that bypassed the firewall's key coding and slipped into the primary access drives, it then systematically scanned the memory index and went straight for the uplink system, and, as you can see here, it laid dormant in access port 23..." Darren said as the hologram showed the path of the signal go through Deathshots systems, the Autobots gasped in shock, Deathshot in particular looked mortified.

"What's wrong?" Batou asked in alarm

"That's the same access port I used to uplink to Saito" Deathshot breathed, an uneasy silence followed as the sense of creepiness crept into the garage, even Jetfire stiffened on his wheels.

"Are you saying...that somehow that thing knew I was going to uplink to Deathshot?" Saito asked cautiously, Darren, Danny and Glen glanced at one another, unsure what to say, until Danny continued.

"...I don't know, but then, how could any of us have known what was going to happen that night, it all happened so fast and kinda on the spur of the moment, how was anyone to guess you two would go up to that mountain and try up-linking to one another?...none of us did until D brought the idea up" he said

"But how could that signal have known that D would use that particular port to access Saito's Hawkeye anyway? Surly it would have filtered into the rest of the access ports and wait for anyone of them to be activated?" Mikaela asked, pointing to part of the hologram that showed the uplink system.

"That's what we thought, but it didn't; it just went straight for that one port...plus, when it worked its way through the primary access drives, it split in two and filtered into the main CPU connections, from levels 3 down to 7 it put some kind of block on the main internal scanner systems, using a fragmented barrier program that used the CPU barrier mazes as a proxy to bypass the internal security software scanners. Essentially, it blocked part of your conscious connection to the uplink, so when the white out occurred you couldn't sense anything was wrong until after Saito's ghost line had been put back in place" Darren replied

"Put back in place? But I thought my ghost got wiped out?" Saito asked bemused

"I thought so at first, but this is where the analysis really took on a whole other dimension, we had to slow the automated memory right down to a crawl..." Darren continued as he played the hologram once again, this time the whole 3D image moved in super slow motion, the white line that represented the mystery signal slowly crept along the systems layout like water in a transparent pipe system. Bit by bit, the signal crept along the uplink into Saito's cyber-brain and made a bee line for his ghost line; Darren paused the hologram and enlarged the area around the section of the cyber-brain that housed the sniper's ghost, "Now watch the frequency readings as the signal hits the ghost line..." the young hacker continued, sure enough, at the moment the signal hit the ghost line, it seemed to split up to form a tiny sphere of energy around the ghost line and as the flash of white light slowly illuminated the room again, the whole group watched as the sphere suddenly disappeared into nowhere with the link behind it disappearing too. The whole group blinked in surprise as they tried looking for where it went, but to no avail.

"It just...vanished?" Togusa asked

"Yep...the whole thing, even the blocks in Deathshot's systems disconnected simultaneously, and it didn't go back out the way it came...fortunately we got a reading at the moment the signal disappeared, and after comparing it to all known types of cybertronian frequency wavelengths, we found it was a fragmented energy pulse of a type 1+ Krolnon burst" Darren said; in the corner of the garage Jetfire rapidly transformed and leaned over the computer terminal, nearly knocking some of the kids aside with the long spokes that made up his 'beard'.

"A type 1+ Krolnon burst? That's impossible at that size!" the old seeker exclaimed.

"But what is a type 1+ Krolnon burst?" Togusa asked

"It's the inter-dimensional energy that can temporarily shift part of the space-time continuum to create a wormhole to another area of the universe, in other words it's the energy that allows me to teleport" he replied as he watched the hologram in morbid fascination.

"Oh my god! You mean Saito's ghost got teleported somewhere?" Hailey exclaimed in alarm, grabbing everyone's attention with a mix of surprise, uneasiness and our right confusion. Darren and the other hackers stared at the ex-cheerleader completely dumbfounded; Hailey winced in embarrassment and shrank away behind Bluestreak's arm.

"Damn Hailey I think you just that nail on the head..." said Glen with a spaced out look on his face.

"Okay, before this descends to another level of already weird weirdness, how did the ghost line manage come back?" Morri asked

"Well as strangely as it disappeared, it reappeared without warning after a 20 second gap; and watch..." Darren said as he typed in another command to the laptop's holo-projector, the hologram showed the empty area where the ghost line had been, suddenly, the white light reappeared, and in the centre the sphere of energy materialized and dispersed like a bubble popping, leaving the ghost line in its place, as the ghost line established itself back in its place, a pulse of white light emanated out from it, rippling outward into the rest of the brain like the blast front of a nuke.

"It just returned out of nowhere?...Without a link going through the way it originally came?" Batou asked offhand

"Of course it did! Look at the energy readings, its Krolnon energy alright, that signal, or whatever it is, teleported the ghost line back from wherever it took it! Jetfire snapped at the ex-Ranger.

"But if it was a teleportation signal, where did it go?" Sam asked

"...I don't know, but when the signal returned this was the only reading we got from where it may have come from..." Darren said as he tapped a key on the main computer and brought up a window displaying the following numbers;

: 16238736-28000-23891-0000000-1283729-3432-2365-97-347:

Jetfife stayed at the screen in utter disbelief.

"That's...not possible...I've heard about it but never thought I'd actually see it in my lifetime..." he whispered, trying not to sound worried.

"But what are those co-ordinates, the zeros don't make sense?" Mikaela asked

"It a rear phenomenon that's a myth to many, but is legendary among us teleporters...the infamous white void co-ordinates, thought to be the only known evidence that proves the existence of the well of all sparks...those of us that were gifted in enabling the manipulation of the space bridges, had an inherent knowledge of what's known as, the fundamental Triaax paradoxical co-ordinates, a series of complex multi-dimensional mathematic equations that denoted the physical presence of time and space everywhere in the universe, and when aligned in the correct sequential order, can create a wormhole to anywhere in our universe...of all the billions of possible equations, it was believed that the end of the sequence ended with the absolute of the seemingly endless formula, being denoted by only zeros...no-one had ever attempted to teleport using them because they were the co-ordinates that indicated the edge of time and space...anywhere beyond that, was believed to nothing but endless white light..." The ancient seeker replied as he spoke in a humble and revering voice, as if he were reading from some sacred text or reciting a prayer, for a few seconds the whole room stood in silence as if listening to a sermon, until Sunstreaker broke the moment;

"Okay now this is getting really ridiculous! Your telling us this little organic had his spark whisked off the well of all sparks for Primus knows what? Com'on old bot do you seriously expect us to believe that?" Sunstreaker huffed in annoyance; Jetfire promptly whacked him over the head his with walking stick with a loud clang.

"The numbers are there aren't they? What else could it mean?" Jetfire retorted

"Well maybe he's right, maybe it indicates a spike in the energy level that simply went too for the programme to read properly-"

"A level 2 analysis and diagnostic programme being unable to read a high spike in a Krolnon energy burst? Don't make me laugh fleshing! I teleported all the time back in my day, I know the finer intricacies of Krolnon energy like the back of my wings!" Jetfire replied as everyone glanced at one another.

"...So what does this mean? Who or what would want to teleport a human spark to...wherever? This so does not make any sense..." Miles sighed folding his arms.

"But if it was done on purpose, what does it mean?" Ashley asked; no-one had a ready answer as everyone looked to one another in confusion feeling as though they had all been plunged into a whole other scenario. After a moment, Morri spoke up.

"...Saito?..." she asked in a soft voice the human sniper looked up, his mind still spinning with everything he heard, Morri sat down opposite him on the desk, her eye contact remaining level his, indicating her full attention was him. The others all watched in curiosity.

"...You said, before we got started that you don't remember much from when you blacked out...but...I sort of got the impression that, that wasn't quite true?..." she asked, Saito hesitated, though he didn't let it show, glancing sideways at his teammates, their expressions were that of concern, he realised that the point for laying all your cards down on the table had long since pass, one more crazy twist to this whole thing probably wouldn't do much, with a conceding sigh he met the 22 year olds gaze.

...I know I said I didn't remember anything...but in truth, I think, maybe something did happen I can't quite explain..." he sighed

"What do you remember?" Morri asked, leaning on the desk, Saito gaze drifted off into empty space as he racked his memory for what happened that night, though it was a little fuzzy, the impression of the memory of that strange occurrence began to dance before his mind's eye, and with it came the memories of awe, pain, sadness, confusion...and happiness.

"...I remember seeing millions of stars, as if looking at the whole universe...I remember...being dropped into a strange place and being in pain, somewhere no-one was ever meant to be, but after that...I remember, being watched, as someone was standing over me, then finally, I remember...something, a word, a message I think?..."

"A message? From who?" Batou's Tachikoma asked.

"I don't know, but I remember their eyes were glowing blue...like yours..." Saito replied, looking up at Jazz who frowned behind his visor.

"Was he the one that gave you the message?" the first lieutenant asked

"...Yeah, I think he said...you must find the Incept code..."

"Incept code?" Sam echoed

"What's an Incept code?" the Waineright twins asked offhand

"Doesn't ring any bells" Ashley shrugged

"It's pretty extreme for someone to hijack your ghost just to deliver a message, I mean, granted whoever sent out this signal is cybertronian, but it begs the question, could they be the one responsible for opening the rift? The-I mean your leader on the beacon did say that someone had opened it..." Batou thought aloud.

"Maybe? I mean who knows? I know we shouldn't be blasé about this but it couldn't hurt to keep all and any possibilities open...we don't know anything yet, and besides it's not like we've got a lot of flexibility to investigate this anyway. We can't go outside because we're supposed to be on the run, we can't sneak back to the dome because the security details probably been doubled and we don't have the faintest idea if whoever sent the signal is a friend or foe, for all" Tom said

"I have to agree, despite the more than unique circumstances presented here it still presents the possibility of something else going on...but also presents the big question, if this signal is cybertronian in origin, then who exactly is here? And just how did they come to this world in the first place?" Mikaela said; the room stood silent as the Autobot gang's thoughts began to turn back to all they had been told about the DRD.

"...But Wheeljack said the DRD hadn't been tested before, he said he didn't know if it would work or not..." Ashley peeped in.

"But if it's the only thing that explains the presence of another cybertronian here in this universe, then we have to consider the possibility that someone might have known about it. Considering how long the war dragged on and just what went on in all that time it's not impossible to rule out that someone might have caught wind of it and either used it or stole the design format, regardless of whether Wheeljack was aware was at the time or not" Deathshot replied

"Is it possible he did use it and he lied for some reason?" Togusa asked

"No, I can never see him doing that! He maybe eccentric when it comes to science but he would never lie, especially not to Prime!...regardless, if someone from our world is here, what are we going to do?" Jetfire replied.

"What we're going to do is play it safe and stay low" Darren interjected

"Huh? But what if their Autobots? We should at least send out a signal to let them know we're okay" Trailbreaker replied.

"Which will cause a whole load of trouble, the chiefs of staff know you guys are aliens, and as such if you follow the line of reason and logic, the military intelligence is looking out for anything out of the ordinary that'll indicate our presence, such as mysterious signals on the airwaves that don't originate from any human made tech?...That, and if our fellow cybertronians turn out to be Decepticons then the shits not just going to hit the fan, it'll go straight through the roof into the stratosphere. Look, I know, with the facts presented here trying to find the source of that signal might seem like the obvious and pressing choice, but when you take our current situation into account it would not be the most wisest course of action to undertake. The best thing I believe we can do is either wait until the time right to move, or look for some way to do this but from a position in which we have the advantage" Morri said standing up and folding her arms.

"Or there's the third option..." the chief interjected

"Third option?" Sam asked

"As sound as those theories are; It's occurred to me just now that if it's possible to utilize and pool both our resources together, perhaps we could unconditionally watch each other's backs. Section 9 is small specialized unit with man power not being our strong point, and you Autobots have a myriad of technological resources and unique capabilities, but as with us you're short on man power as well. The Major explained to me the proposal for a joint partnership and I have to say, despite everything that's happened up until now I believe we could make this work...as it happens section 9 has been assigned to investigate the circumstances behind the military assault four nights ago, whoever called it in did so without official clearance and that can constitute a serious crime depending on the circumstances of the order. Now, if this had been any other time and place we'd have to start from scratch without knowing where to start exactly, but after Deathshot played back the recording of those four men and their conversation, the timing of the first wave of attack was too close to the time of when you snatched the beacon for it to be just coincidence; per your theory, if one of those men was a high ranking military official then it wouldn't be any surprise that he or one of them could have called in the attack after realizing what happened that night" the chief replied, most of the kids and Autobots nodded in agreement of the logic.

"That would make sense, but if you guys undertake an investigation and try to identify who those men were, and which of them called in the attack, in what context would we be of use to the investigation?" Morri asked, curious as to where the chief was going with this.

"A good question, this case is undoubtedly going to be complex and tough, the prime minister has given us authorization to investigate the GSDA and Navy to find the culprit responsible for what happened four nights ago. It won't be surprising that the armed forces are likely to close ranks in an attempt the try and find the culprit themselves and sweep the whole thing under the rug, though having their pride dented won't kill them, if they hamper the investigation in any way it will cause serious problems for us, and may give our quarry the chance to slip away. The resources we already have will be sufficient for what needs to be done, but when the circumstances call for it, what we will need is a way to gather information that is near impossible to obtain by conventional standards, to have eyes and ears in the places that are out of reach and to be able to put my men in the right strategic positions...this entire affair concerning all of you has been one complex situation after another and I had surmised that someone somewhere might attempt something in the way of trying to capture you all for less than honourable purposes. When the opportunity for great power arises it becomes a complex series of cause to effect that revolves around greed and ulterior motives...but the timing of these individuals 'plan' seems too well co-ordinated to be something that was thought up on the spur of a moment less than a week ago, from what I heard on the recording these individuals seem to have a laid down some pretty big plans involving a lot of other people, something that they seem to have running on a scale that would be impossible to set up in month nedalone a week" the chief replied, Morri's eyes narrowed in acknowledgment as she caught on to whet the chief was trying to get across.

"You think maybe they had something else going on? And that us being thrown into the picture was an opportunity for them to hit some serious pay dirt compared to what they were already doing?" Morri replied

"It would be the most likely theory; in the recording one of them mentioned a transaction that seemed to connect them to a case we worked on a while back, if these individuals have been dealing in illegal actives over a period of time, and this latest venture to obtain an alien technology has spurred them into action, then this might prove to be the opportunity to catch them in the open" the chief continued. The kids looked at one another in slight disbelief, this guy was old but he was certainly no fool, Morri folded her arms and straightened up, realizing he was more than just being on the level.

"That's a pretty big assumption you've thought out..." she said

"Indeed, but remember, if these individuals are high ranking military personnel, then it's a safe assumption that they'll undertake their actions in such a way that that follows a line of logic and strategic planning, therefore we can calculate their moves based on what their trained to do"

"...Using military training as an illegal means to an end? Well that's a no brainer...alright, so guys do your thing and investigate the military and we help out where we can. I'm all for nabbing these pricks and I know keeping us hidden like this is the surest way to getting the sack; but how are you going to account for everything we help do? If people start to notice that you guys suddenly seem to be having a continual streak of good luck, when by all intense of purposes the odds shouldn't be in your favour but the investigation is going your way regardless, what are you going explain? You can't go to your superiors and tell them about us, not when they think we're half way across Japan" Morri stated.

"Hm, sharp girl; you let us worry about contending with the military they've got enough problems as it is, depending on what route this case us we'll follow the situation as it plays out, it's all we can really do at this point considering everything else" the chief smirked, the Major too was fairly impressed with how the girl handled herself.

"So how do we get ball rolling on this?" Tom asked

"We'll call by again tomorrow to take you to our HQ, once there you'll be joining us on reviewing that recording and going over the initial details of what we've already got in hand"

"Actually sir, that won't be possible, because of the mysterious signal bypassing Deathshot's systems the way it did, He's got to have an entire reboot of all his security protocols and reset all his firewall programmes, that's going to take at least 48 hours, plus we've got some serious prep work to do" Darren piped up from his seat.

"Really? What sort of prep work?" The Major asked with a smirk.

"I've had an idea about how we can go outside without being recognised, Ishikawa, do you remember when you guys call this morning I asked for all the information on the facial recognition programme that's built into the city's security camera network?" the teen asked

"The IR sweep system? Yeah we brought it, what have you got in mind?" Ishikawa grinned as he handed over the CD.

"A few things, but hopefully something that will give us a bit more flexibility, plus we've got some serious upgrades to do"

"Upgrades to what?" Togusa asked

"You'll see..." Darren grinned, shooting his guardian a cryptic look to which Trailbreaker smiled in reply, the Major quirked an eyebrow, wondering just what he had in store.

"...Very well, you have our number; call us when you're ready, in the meantime we'll get started, our business here is done for now..." the chief said as he got up and weaved his way through the Autobot's legs towards the exit, followed by the Major and the rest of her team.

"Oh, just one last thing..." he asked as he stopped and turned round to face the kids.

"Yeah?"

"A word of wisdom for you all to consider...a wise man once said, 'Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear'...if things get dicey on this case, don't rush into anything you're not familiar with, use self-restraint and don't jump to conclusions before you have all the fact, remember; moderation in all things" he continued.

"Yes sir, I understand" Morri replied as she respectively bowed, the other's followed suite and courteously bowed their heads forward.

"Farewell my sweet spark!" Scorponok called over to Batou's Tachikoma as it and its sisters waddled up the ramp.

"Bye bye Scorpy!" they called back

With that the Section 9 team left, Saito caught a glimpse of Deathshot as the ramp began to close behind him, passing a deep sigh, he followed his fellow agents back to their cars that were parked in the empty section of the storage house behind the ramp, as the huge concrete structure sealed shut the floor became completely flat again, as if nothing was even there.

"Ishikawa, Boma, once you get back to HQ, pull up the files on all the military personnel involved with the co-ordination of the prime minister's protection order for the Autobots, go over the recording again and run a voice ID to see who turns up, the rest of you will remain on standby while the Major and I go to the prime minister's residence" the chief ordered

"Yes sir!" the all replied as they got back in their vehicles and drove off with the Tachikoma's following close behind. The chief leaned back in his seat and watched as the city whizzed by. It was late afternoon and the rush hour was just getting started, turning off onto the superhighway, the fastest route to the prime minister's residence, the Major looked in the rear view mirror at the unreadable face of the chief, his expression betrayed his clouded thoughts.

"So what do you think?...think those kids can up for a challenge like this?" she asked

"Considering all that they've been through I have no doubt they'll pull through, after all, they rely on one another for their strength, and with Morri being their voice of reason, they have a lot going for themselves" he replied

"I have to say I was impressed, not a single sarcastic comment or bull-headed remark, she could pass for being a good rookie if she had the training" The Major smirked

"I have to admit, if it were a different time and different place I would have recruited her and most of them on the spot...these kids have talent and could prove to be very useful...it's so strange..." he sighed

"What's strange?"

"...At first and for most of the time I had wondered why the Autobots, these seemingly all powerful aliens from some far and distant world, would have chosen such simple unassuming children to be their closest friends and charges, I thought it had been out of some alien sense of curiosity or even misplaced feeling of some kind, but now I see their relationship is one that runs on a deep level, one that's based on far more than just mutual xenomorphic curiosity...it makes me think, if these children's inherent talents are to blossom, then they're going to have to first overcome a whole slew of obstacles, the question is whether they'll be able to confront the challenges that lie ahead"

"What are you saying? That you're going to put them out in the field with us? I don't think their guardians will have anything initially positive to say about that"

"No of course not, as far as this case is concerned we'll keep them well informed of the situation and call them in when nessicarry, which I believe might be more often than not at this point...Though I hope they are able to handle this, we still have to keep them safe...I just hope, and prey, that somehow we don't lose sight of the fact that anything could happen on this case, and that our luck is only going to run for so long"

"Hey? I thought making our own luck was our specialty?" the Major smirked

"...Yes indeed..." the chief smiled as he watched the afternoon sun light up the cityscape.

* * *

A/N: I might do a few more stand alone chapters later on in the story, just to add a bit dimention to the story as in the the 1st season of GitS SAC, plus, I want to explore a few things between the charactures. :)

R&R Please!


	33. Chapter 32: Upgrades & Farewell

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 32: UPGRADED AND FAREWELL

: Today's top story; police are still investigating the mysterious incident behind the GSDA helicopters and tanks that were attacked near highway 46 just north of the Oka district four nights ago. Eyewitness accounts claim that a military presence was seen some ten miles over on the neighbouring farmland, perusing what have been described as 'giant robots' which became embroiled in a fire fight and resulted in 13 helicopters being shot down and seven tanks attacked and neutralized. The GSDA has not released any statements and have offered no comments at this time. The district attorney's office as well as several other police officials are demanding a disclosure request from the minister of home affairs, but at this time it is unclear whether the home affairs minister will be releasing a statement on the matter; in the meantime public unrest has grown over the GSDA's silence in this matter and several main net based current affairs chat sites have claimed that the incident may be linked to the mysterious UFO incident over the Kohoku district a week ago, authorities at this time have commented-

"Turn that crap off!" said Batou, Togusa merely huffed in reply as he leaned forward to turn the car radio off.

"You know, it's not like it's going to go away overnight, people like an occasional conspiracy, and with eyewitnesses it'll only drag on that little bit longer" Pazu commented from the back seat as he exhaled a breath of cigarette smoke.

"Yeah, but unlike every other time this time it's the real deal, and the military genuinely has reason to keep everyone in the dark, it's one thing to stay quiet but if they don't come up with some viable cover story any time soon people are going to start getting curious, and that's when the wannabe wizard-class hackers are going to try their best to peek at what's hidden on the military's network" Ishikawa replied from beside the ex-yakuza as he inhaled another deep breath from the cigarette between his fingers.

"Heh! I'd like to see'em try!" Batou quipped as he kept his eyes on the road ahead.

"It's been three days since we last saw them, just what kind of 'serious upgrades' do you think they've been doing?" Togusa asked offhand with a small smile.

"Not a clue, but I can guess whatever it is it'll be something astounding that's for sure, if those little BSHB's allow you to fly then who knows what Darren's got in store" Ishikawa smiled

"For sure!...I'll have to ask if he's got a spare lying around" Batou smirked with a mischievous grin.

"What? And have you flying all over the city? I don't think the Major will approve Batou" Togusa grinned

"Hehehe! Still, it's nice to dream" he replied as he looked in the rear view mirror at the car behind them, which was carrying the Major, Saito and Boma. Eventually they arrived at the docks and navigated through the long lines of the storage houses, finally reaching the secret underground safe house. After deactivating the security system on the main door, the section 9 team drove in and approached the now opening ramp that steadily swung down to reveal the underground garage, as they drove down and parked in the empty spaces by the spare cars Annabelle charged forward from in between some of the cars and glomped Togusa by the leg as he stepped out of the car.

"Mister Togusa! You came back!" she squealed in delight, like a puppy that hadn't seen her best friend in a long time.

"Nice to see you too Annabelle" he smiled as he patted her on the head

"Are you here to see all the new toys we made?" she beamed up at him with her big blue eyes.

"New toys? So you guys have been busy huh?" Batou smirked

"Like dogs, but it's been well worth it, ladies, do you wanna go and slip into your new threads?" Glen asked with a satisfying grin, the girls all ran off to the living quarters in excited haste.

"What's got them all excited?" the Major asked as she quirked an eyebrow.

"You'll see soon enough. Anyway, nice to see you all again; you guys made any progress on the case?" Jazz asked as he kneeled down next to the humans.

"Some, but we'll explain when we get back to HQ, I can only assume you've completed your prep work and upgrades? You sounded very excited on the phone earlier" the Major asked.

"Well, firstly, the BSHB's got a serious overhaul and are now twice as powerful and responsive..." Danny replied as he pulled back part of his T-shirt to reveal his BSHB, which instead of a circular disk was now a six pointed star with tiny intricate swirling markings on the surrounding skin, upon closer inspection the swirls looked like the nanite mercury minus the blue aura, and seemed to form some sort of cybertronian version of an intricate Celtic knot work pattern.

"Powerful and responsive how?" the Major asked. With a smirk, Danny raised his hand and pointed to an empty soda can on the roof of one of the spare cars, a ripple of fire-like light shot out his arm and hit the can up in the air, "...That much responsive, basically we don't need to consecrate as hard as before, now their programmed to respond to our basic neural reflexes at over 75%, but as to how powerful they really are is another thing, as you can see we don't exactly have enough room to do some proper field testing" Danny continued.

"But we do have plenty of room to field test this!" Mikaela smiled as she, Morri, Hailey and the twins stepped out dressed in full length skin tight dark indigo blue body suites, each with circular patterns around the torso, neck and arms with a set of interconnecting stripes running down the legs, each suite had its own coloured pattern, Morri's was midnight blue, Mikaela's sunflower yellow, Hailey's was pink and the twins were both baby blue. "Hey you're not going to start without us huh?" Miles smiled as he, Sam, Tom and Ashley stepped out from behind one of the computer terminals wearing suites of their own, Miles had silver stripes and patterns while Sam's were the same shade of yellow as Bumblebee's armour, Tom's had orange coloration while Ashley's was bright red, which matched his favourite red hoodie. Darren stepped out from another room, wearing his own suit with leaf green markings and wearing jeans over them. "Ah great! Your back!" he smiled as he walked over and stood next to Trailbreaker.

"Where did you get those suits from?" Togusa asked

"When we were hiding in that old storage house behind the park, there were all these crates filled with loads of stuff, I found these suites and thought they looked kinda cool, as well as a whole bunch of other useful things...Glen and Darren, of course, had an absolute field day when they found several crates containing a variety of computer gadgets" Morri said as she beckoned everyone to the computer terminal, as they stepped up onto the platform the team was greeted with the sight of what looked like a computer analysis's dissection lab. All the desks had been pushed together to form one huge work surface in the centre, scattered everywhere on the desk tops were various tools, wires, cables, laptops, notebooks with various scribbles and drawings of what looked blue-prints and layouts, as well as a myriad of complex and strange looking gadgets (both human and cybertronian tech). "Ha ha! That's putting it real lightly! We decided to take it all with us just in case, and sure enough we found a use for these..." Glen said as he picked up a dark grey collar with four small ports on the inner side and a few other ports on the reverse side, the device had a single maroon red stripe going around it from end to end and several other collars on the desk had coloured stripes of their own.

"A dummy barrier?" Togusa asked offhand.

"WAS a dummy barrier, with D's help we opened them up, completely striped them out and rebuilt them from scratch, now their portable miniature super computers capable of analysing thousands of bytes of data every second, as well as a few other things" he explained.

"Such as?" the Major asked

"Well, with D's nanite tech we created these specialized shades which act as mini monitors, here, have a look..." said Darren he handed the Major a pair of sunglasses, they were green with a tiny port on one side of one of the arms, there was a tiny camera lens on the bridge and on the right side next to the lens were two tiny dials, there was also an earpiece connected to the left arm, looking back down at the table, she saw there were other pairs all in various colours. She slipped the sunglasses on and adjusted them, Darren pulled out a tiny string like wire from the green striped collar he held, plugged it into the port on the sunglasses and switched the collar on, instantly the Major's vision was filled with data windows and systems readings, the image then shifted to little bar codes running across the top and bottom of her field of vision.

"Pretty good" she said in a slightly surprised tone.

"Yeah, but I only came up with the basic design, Deathshot was the one who really made the magic happen" Darren smiled up at the Autobot sniper; the Major surmised that if the Autobot sniper were capable of blushing he would be turning a new shade of red right now as he smiled warmly down at the humans from above the dive terminals.

"Don't be modest youngling, I only provided the basic resources, I'm no scientist, you're the ones who are really talented" he replied

"You kids really made these from scratch?" Ishikawa asked as he flicked over some of the blue-prints.

"Pretty much" Darren shrugged; Ishikawa looked at him in slight astonishment, by looks of most of these design drawings the teenager could have been mistaken for a top flight computer scientist or analyst, the veteran hacker smiled at the prospect of getting him back to HQ and putting through his paces in the dive room.

"But anyway, the suites are the real work of art here; get a load of this..." Glen grinned enthusiastically as he unzipped his maroon and yellow football jersey, revealing underneath his own suite with Maroon red stripes and patterns. The kids all took a collar and pair of sunglasses, placed them around their necks, plugged in the tiny connections to the sunglasses, stuck the earpieces in their ears and adjusted them to fit more comfortably, the team noticed the collars and sunglasses were all colour co-ordinated with each suit, when everyone seemed ready, Ashley shot the Major a cheeky wink and flipped a small switch on the side of his collar, as the others flipped their switches their whole bodies seemed to flicker like a TV channel being flipped over and in a second the team was blown away at what they saw before them.

What had been a bunch of kids was now a group of mature adults standing in their place; Morri, instead of a fair faced 22 year old brunette was now a slender woman with soft but sharp facial features, vivid turquoise blue eyes and long dark midnight blue hair with sky blue streaks, she vaguely resembled the Major in terms of height and overall build. Tom was about a foot taller with a square jaw and slim but moderately muscular build, his hair was still black but with a slight indigo tinge and his eyes were sky blue.

Danny was taller also, with a slim face, dark brown eyes and instead of his mop of striking red ginger hair, he now sported a black spiky rock star-like look with emerald streaks on the temples. Ashley was mach bigger; with a firm square jawed face and tall muscular build he was as big as Batou, his right eye was bright blue whilst the left was vivid red, his hair was still light brown but instead of his usual unkempt spiky look, he now had a combed back mutton style with a few thin bangs coming down over the side of his face.

Darren looked like a younger version of Ishikawa; he stood a few feet taller than before with his face being slim but well defined with a hipster moustache and goatee with his usual spiky hair now longer and darker. Hailey's appearance wasn't far off from Morri's; she was taller with long deep pink wavy hair and curvy bangs on either side of her face, her eyes were a rich shade of magenta and she had a pink and red rose armband tattoo around her right arm. Her sisters were both still twins as they were now a good few feet taller, and unlike the others, looked more like post-teens in their early twenties; they both had blond hair with baby blue streaks running down the sides with bright cobalt blue eyes and both sported a yin-yang tattoo on their left shoulders.

Miles was taller too with a somewhat rock star looking profile, he had a medium build with longer pale blond hair that was darker at the roots and a moustache and goatee. Sam was taller and slimmer and seemed more athletic in terms of his body build; he had dark, almost black brunette hair with small yellow streaks along his temples while his eyes were bright hazel with greenish tinges. Mikaela was now a slender golden blond with bright green eyes and a large intricate Chinese dragon tattoo snaking its way across the back of her shoulders. Glen was certainly a far cry from what he looked like before, sporting a rapper like look his coffee coloured skin was now several shades darker and boasted a medium build with a corn row hair style. As they looked the strangers up and down in disbelief, the Major stepped forward to inspect them more closely and was baffled at the transformation, all the while the kids-now-grown-ups watched the bemused and astounded faces of the section 9 team with satisfaction.

"How?..."

"Holo-forms, and voice scramblers" Darren grinned, the team was even more taken aback to hear the voice that came out from his lips was not that of a 15 year old, but rather a thirty something year old who's voice had long since breaked and matured.

"Your voice, what the?"

"The collars double up as holo-form projectors and voice scramblers. Deathshot lent me his holo-form projector format and I re-engineered the overall design to be completely nanite tech for practicality as well as weight efficiency, the coloured patterns on the suits are actually tiny multi-angular hologram projectors that send out a short wave hologram that overlays our bodies, the suits are lined with thousands of tiny sensors that co-ordinate the holograms movement in time to our own actions millimetre for millimetre, as well as external movements like wind, brushing up against something, water, exc. And the voice scramblers are basically sound dampeners that emit a sonic force-field around the area of our vocal cords and mouths to change the pitch and tone of the voice, again there's a sensor that in the collars that keeps the sonic harmonizer in time to our voices in real time...on top of that, with the data on the IR sweep programme we were able to work up some faces that didn't have confirmed matches to ours, we made sure all the matches didn't get above 65% so if we go outside, we won't get picked out and no-one will be none the wiser..." Darren explained with a smug grin plastered across his face. Batou couldn't help but let his face broke into a wide grin as he began to absorb the wow factor of all this, the other's weren't far off from being totally amazed either; the Major too was speechless, but only for a brief moment.

"Well I'm impressed, at least you won't have to be cooped up in here anymore, but there is the issue of you guys, your modals are going to stand out too much" the Major said as she looked up at the Autobots that were watching the little scene with titillation.

"Ah that won't be a problem either Major, check this out...Autobots, transform and reformat!" Jazz grinned as he and the other car based Autobots transformed, a series of blue lazar lights shot out of their headlights and scanned the spare cars and the two other cars the team had arrived in, within seconds the metal panels of the outside of the Autobots modals began to shift, slide and rearrange, forming exact copies of the cars they scanned, even the license plates had changed to Japanese ones with random numbers, but the paint jobs were more or less the same as before with a few minor differences in details. Batou's face lit up as he approached Bumblebee and gently ran his hand across the hood.

"Not too bad huh?" Jazz said via his loud speakers.

"You guys are seriously amazing..." Batou breathed as the Autobots transformed back into mech mode and stood over the humans.

"Don't forget my suite!" Annabelle beamed as she ran over to the desk and pulled out from one of the large draws, what looked like a light grey raincoat with a small black handheld computer connected to the coat via a small wire, she tucked the computer into the top pocket of her dungarees and threw the coat on, it was a several sizes too large as it covered her whole body, even the hood dropped down over her eyes and she took wide steps to avoid tripping up on the hem as it trailed behind her like a brides dress and train.

"Oh yeah, I nearly forgot, we couldn't find a suit small enough for Anny so we had to improvise with this, check this out..." Darren said as he kneeled down, took the little computer from her pocket, pressed a few buttons and tucked it back in, as he zipped it up the coats surface began to flicker in fain green, yellow and pink, and a buzzing humming sound could be heard as the four year old disappeared from sight, with only her faint outline being visible.

"Look! I'm invisible!" the little honey blond proudly beamed as she tried to tip-toe in between the team members in delight.

"You guys found a therm-optic camo suite?" Togusa asked

"Therm optic camo suite? That's what it's called? Well whatever, it didn't work too well when the younglings found it, so I decided to give it's battery a replacement conductor, now it'll be able to keep her continuously invisible for over 72 hours" Deathshot replied

"I know it's too big for her but it was the only one there, plus we couldn't cut and trim it because we might have damaged, well, whatever makes it work" Hailey shrugged, her voice now sounded more mature as appose to her more 'sweetly squee' (as she liked to describe it) voice.

"But it works pretty well anyway" Darren concurred.

"Hmm, that looks like a RET KILL 20065.3 type, stand still a sec honey..."said Batou as he squatted down and placed a hand on Annabelle's shoulder and threw back her hood, gently pulling up the scruff of the coat his cybernetic eyes scanned the small barcode on the inside of the coat.

"Yep, 20065.3, it's a few years gone past its product life span, but it seems your repair job has done the trick of making it conceal that little bit better" Batou said offhand, glancing up at the Autobot sniper.

"Well it's the only form of concealment we could come up with for the little one, since we couldn't change her outward appearance we had to settle for invisibility instead, I know it may be a compromise on some levels considering we're going somewhat busy" Deathshot replied.

"Indeed, so that leaves us with the slight problem of what are we going to do with her? Because section 9 doesn't exactly have anything in the way of a day-care facility" the Major said as she watched Annabelle weave her way in between Jatfire's legs at the far end of the garage. The kids looked at one another with uneasiness before replying.

"...Well about that, we discussed it over thoroughly and agreed it might be best if we stick to what we've been doing all the while we've been here, shearing the babysitting evenly and taking it in turns to watch her, only this time, if the circumstances call for it we pull double shifts..." Tom said, to which the Major looked at them impassively as if in doubt, quick to assure her, Morri stepped in. "Look Major, Anny was really shaken up after what happened at the safe house last week, she now sleeps with either me or Mikaela every night, we've tried to encourage her to sleep by herself but she's just too scared that something's going to happen again, and all the while we've been busy here she won't leave any of our sides for more than a few minutes at a time...yesterday one of the doors accidently slammed and she jumped out of her skin because she thought it was a gunshot..." said Morri in a pleading tone, the Major's expression softened slightly while Togusa couldn't help but feel for the four year olds plight, Batou dropped his head in thought as he too felt sympathetic.

"Couldn't one of the Autobot's simply look after her while you guys come back to HQ?" Pazu asked, all eyes and optics fell upon the ex-yakuza as the Autobot gang looked at him with deadpan looks.

"What?" he shrugged

"As noble as that idea is, we tried it once before and it ended in complete disaster; these two geniuses thought her fuel intake was low enough that it warranted them giving her a supersized lollypop crammed with sugar and E numbers, naturally she went off on a complete sugar high and by the time her dad returned to the base she had completely wreaked the rec room, trashed Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee's quarters and nearly sent the whole US into panic when she turned over the computer lab and found the Def-com alert codes!" Darren said as he thumbed over towards the Autobot twins and shot them both a stern glair, to which they only huffed through their vents and folded their arms.

"You let THEM babysit Anny?" Morri exclaimed in alarm.

"NO! We left her with Ratchet, he said he could look after her for the day, and considering he's the chief medic naturally we didn't think to ask otherwise, but of course once he turned his back for a few minutes she had somehow managed to sneak out of the med bay, the twins found her and thought it was a prime opportunity to redeem themselves for a certain past prank that involved that set of water cannons that went missing a week prior" Mikaela huffed, folding her arms, Jazz kneeled down and leaned over forward until his face was a few feet above the human's heads.

"Look, to cut a long data stream short, it was the first time we learned that we Autobots just ain't good substitutes for human creators no matter how well you may learn up on the subject. Plus, a human sparkling of lil' Anny's age needs to be with her own kind for the sake of healthy natural development, in addition to the constant supervision and specialized care...not to mention the risk of accidently stepping on her! A lil' sparkling that small can certainly get around your feet!" said Jazz in a hushed tone, Togusa felt a flair of alarm go through him, as the idea of Annabelle being stepped on by the one of the giant robots made his paternal instincts flair up, the Major and Batou both looked at one another in concern, whilst the kids intentions to remain dedicated to looking after their youngest was admirable, having to supervise a four year old whilst working alongside the section might be stretching it a bit too much, even if they were a resilient bunch, then, an idea came to the Majors mind.

"Togusa? Do you think your wife would mind having Annabelle stay over your place whilst we work this case?" she said, everyone's attention fell on her immediately, Togusa's especially.

"What? But Major we-"

"It'll be too much of a hassle to watch over her while we're working the case, I have no doubt that your all responsible and attentive babysitters and you've all done a fine job so far, but this case is going to require all your full attention and energy and we can't afford to be distracted or stretched further then necessary...Togusa's wife is good mother, you all know that, and I'm sure she'll be understanding on this" the Major interjected, Morri paused a brief moment as she considered the option, looking over at Mikaela, the new blond held a look of uncertainly in her eyes, they knew from that incident when Annabelle went missing, that Togusa and his wife were very competent parents with kids of their own, but was this the right thing to do under the circumstances? Would she be okay without them? Togusa too had concerned thoughts on this, would Mei be up for it? Until the Major glanced over her shoulder and gave him a knowing look, the kind that told him to trust her and run with it, relying on her wisdom he thought better of it and said nothing in opposition.

"...Even if we did agree to let Anny bunk with Togusa's family, there's the danger she could get spotted by one of the security cameras near the apartment buildings in and around the park, it would be too risky" Danny sighed

"We'd set it up so she never doesn't get spotted, she has the therm-optic camo so that's a good start as any, plus we'd make sure one of the agent Tachikoma's keeps an eye on the place at all times" the Major was quick to assure.

"That's right! We'll keep round the clock surveillance on mister Togusa's place, infiltrate the IR systems to switch image feeds when necessary and doctor any records to avoid paper trails that could lead back to the section!" one of the Tachikoma agents squeaked in delight as it's animated avatar popped up on the main computer monitor and bounced around, followed by three other of its sisters.

"We even took the liberty of setting up a hidden protective barrier around Misses Togusa's computer network to prevent anyone from snooping around!" one of the other Tachikoma avatar's squeaked. Morri looked at the Major with a slightly surprised look that soon turned into an impassive glair.

"You had this set up before you even got here didn't you?" she asked

"Not quite, but it never hurts to think ahead, but even so; I was going let you all have the final decision, considering everything that's happen I'll understand if you so no, but consider the logic at hand here...this case is going to be tough and it's going to require your full attention if we're to be gain any success, at this stage we don't know which way the situation will shift and we have to be ready to move at a moment's notice if anything happens. The standards by which we work are always stringent and if we let ourselves slip for even a second then lives are put at stake...if you guys are going to do this then you need to be focused, and you won't be able to that if your all taking turns looking after Annabelle" the Major said, her voice betraying an ounce of sympathy. Passing a sigh, Morri looked over at Mikaela and Hailey, then up at Jazz.

"Would you give us a minute?..." Morri asked as she beckoned the girls and the first lieutenant over to the far side of the garage, obliging with a nod, the Major said nothing as they walked off and shooed Jetfire from out the corner. Huddled tightly in a semi-circle facing the wall they spoke in hushed voices, being sure to stay discreet. The boys all merely leaned against the desk with their arms folded.

"Don't you guys get a say in this?" Togusa gestured to the girls and Jazz.

"Not really, the girls are way more qualified at looking after a four year old than us, we're just the play time supervisors" Sam spoke in a deeper voice.

"Yeah I mean don't get us wrong, we like Anny hanging around, it's just, well..."

"Women are just more qualified carers is all, dunno why?" Ashley shrugged; his voice had dropped a whole octane as he spoke in a much deeper voice. The Major simply rolled her eyes."Are you okay with it? I mean, having Anny bunk over at your place" Tom asked Togusa, he hesitated for a moment before answering. "Well, I don't mind her staying over; I know Mizuki's going to like the idea of having a friend stay over for a while. She asked me the other just where Annabelle went after that whole fiasco the night you came to take her back" Togusa replied. "Really? Cause a few days after Anny came back she asked if she could see Mizuki again sometime...I think maybe this could work" Tom said with a small hopeful smile. Togusa too began to ponder on the prospect of both girls being happy to see each other again, and thought perhaps this would be a good idea after all. "Do you think the ki-I mean Annabelle, will she be alright with staying away from you guys if she's been having trouble sleeping?" Ishikawa asked offhand, Over in the far corner the girls beckoned Annabelle over, throwing the hood off her therm-optic suite and deactivating it she skipped over from where she was stroking Scorponok, a minute later she squealed with joy and dashed across the garage to the sleeping quarters, "I'd say that answers your question" the Major smirked as the team watched her whizz by, the girls and the first lieutenant walked back across the vast floor space.

"Well, she's all up for an extended sleepover, on that note we don't mind her staying at Togusa's place..." Morri said as she stepped up until she was face to face directly with the Major, "but only if she takes a list of our cell numbers in case either anything happens or she just wants to talk to us, that condition is nonnegotiable, and in case you're worried about our cells being tapped we took the liberty of upgrading them whilst we made the holo-form suites" she continued, "fair enough, I have no issues with that" the Major replied with an affirming nod, Morri returned the favour with a small smile. "Next time you decide to 'suggest' something. A little heads up wouldn't hurt okay?" she whispered, "Okay" the Major replied with a smile of her own.

The rest of the morning flew by fairly quickly and the kids and their guardians had followed the section 9 team back to their HQ, after packing a spare bag of clothing and other essentials before hand, Annabelle was ready to go to Togusa's home and the kids had spent most of the morning going over 'the rules' (the one's that pointed out not to tell anyone about the Autobot's existence) and generally saying their goodbyes. After calling his wife and informing her of the situation, (with the Autobots and other kids excluded) Togusa had explained that Annabelle's parents were the subject of an investigation into a cyber-drugs trafficking ring and had skipped the country without her, it was a good enough cover story as any, and it certainly prompted his wife to insist that the four year old stay with them. The detective sat in the section 9 buildings lobby, idly watching the scene outside as he waited for the four year old, sure enough the elevator went ding and Morri and Mikaela stepped out with Annabelle holding both their hands, as Morri handed Togusa Annabelle's away bag and therm-optic camo suite Mikaela kneeled down in front of the little honey blond as she looked up into her now bright green eyes, her new holo-form didn't put her off.

"Alright sweetie, now I want you to be a good girl and listen to what mister and misses Togusa say Okay? This won't be forever, just until we catch the bad guys and can finally go home okay?" Mikaela reassured her in a soft voice.

"Okay, promise you'll call me later?" the four year old asked

"I promise, and you know if anything happens we'll be over there in a heartbeat," Mikaela replied as she gave her a bear hug, Annabelle nuzzled her face into the older looking woman's neck, when she let go Morri kneeled down and gave a hug of her own, "you have a good time sweetheart, and don't forget to behave okay?" she said in a hushed voice, "I will..." Annabelle replied, Togusa stood by patiently as he let the girls say their goodbyes, knowing that this was a big step for the little one and that being pulled away abruptly from those she's more familiar with could prove unnerving if not damaging to her in one form or another. But Batou proved not to be as understanding as he pulled up to the front of the building and honked the car horn incessantly, snapping her head round to find the source of the sound, Annabelle smiled in delight.

"It's mister Batou! Com'on mister Togusa!" Annabelle bounced up and down in excitement, but Mikaela placed a hand on her shoulder before she could run out the main doors, "wait a minute! What are we forgetting?" she prompted, "Oh yeah, right!" Annabelle replied as she took the therm-optic coat from Togusa and threw it on, within seconds the four year old had vanished from sight with only a faint outline to mark where she was. "Okay, bye now! See you later!" Annabelle happily said as she invisibly skipped over to the main doors, "Don't worry, we'll take good care of her, I promise" Togusa said with a reassuring smile, "you better or we'll mop the floor with you!" Mikaela said in a mocking tone and sly smile, "Just make sure she doesn't go outside without that coat on...and make sure she has mister Fluffytail before she goes to bed, she doesn't sleep well without him" Morri said, "I know, you said that earlier" Togusa smiled, "Oh, sorry" Morri replied with a meek smile, "don't be, We'll make sure she has everything she needs" he replied. Batou honked the car horn again, "Com'on mister Togusa!" Annabelle's voice drifted over from the main entrance, Togusa waved goodbye as he strode over and opened up the main door, striding over to the waiting ex-Ranger out the front he opened the back seat door and after Annabelle had apparently climbed in he leaned forward into the back, obviously to buckle her in, after which he took up his usual shotgun seat in the front and together they sped off, both girls placed an arm around one another and sighed in a melancholy tone, like two mothers seeing their kids off to college for the first time.

"Think she'll be alright?" Morri asked offhand

"She'll be fine, if she's anything like her dad she'll get over what happened last week...I just hope she doesn't feel like she's been a burden over all this and that we shipped her out because she would just get in the way..." Mikaela replied as she blinked away the tears that threatened to fall down her fair featured face; her holo-form was excellent at replicating at what her true face was displaying underneath, Morri simply hugged her shoulder and brushed away one of the bangs that fell over her eyes.

"Hey come on she's not going to think that, she may be young be she knows in her own way that this is all really important, and that we've got a job to do...my only concern is how long this is going to drag on for" Morri replied reassuringly.

"I know what you mean..." Mikaela quietly replied as she caught Morri's gazed.

"How do you do it Morri?"

"Do what?"

"How you manage to be so...resilient"

"Resilient?...that's not a word I'd describe myself with, I just do what I have to, wallowing in self-pity doesn't do anyone any favours in these kinds of circumstances so I might as well suck it in a get on with it all...if anything it's you I admire, I know Ratchet would be real proud of all the repairs and upgrades you've done without him present"

"On that note he'll probably give me a real chewing out when we get home"

"So what? You saved Jetfire's life and you helped make these holo-form suites possible, I'm still just an amateur at cybertronian tech, I'd say you could pass for being a cybertronian doctor any day of the week"

"Perhaps, but after everything that's happened and how we've handled it, I'd say you're the one that's keeping us from totally losing our heads"

"Rubbish! You could easily lead our little gang, hell the guys certainly listen to you, you always put your point across and they listen"

"Yeah, only because Ratchet taught me a few tricks on how to get their absolute attention"

"You mean like throwing a wrench?" Morri slyly smiled

"Yeah. That! And it does come in very handy!" Mikaela laughed; there was a pause before Morri continued.

"For what it's worth, you've got that special something that makes people listen to you, I mean really listen, and not put you aside"

"You think?"

"You're too modest that's your problem, we listen to you when you have something to say, and every time you make a point it's always a good one...you always manage to see the bigger picture...you could easily lead us anywhere and still manage to keep us all together and going forward" Mikaela replied frankly, Morri looked at her in slight surprise for a moment before she dropped her gaze in thought.

"...I'm no leader Mikaela, like I said I just do what I have to because moping around isn't an option, and I wouldn't say I see the bigger picture as such. It's just; I like to pay attention to the important things..."

"But still, you're smart; you could join the army and rise to the rank of general in no time"

"Heh, the military's not really my thing as far as a career option goes, but I have read Sun Tzu's The Art of War, it's a really good read, a hell of a lot of stuff that makes sense and could go a long way in one's life, not just in war. I'll have to lend you my copy sometime" Morri smiled

"Excuse me, Mister Aramaki has just sent a message for you both to return to the dive room immediately" one of the operators said from behind the lobby desk, the girls looked at one another and grinned as they stepped back into the elevator and pressed the button for the right floor.

"You know, I don't whether to think what's creeper, all those operators looking exactly alike, or that fact their all robots" Morri said

"I know, but I've got a feeling that's only the start, if the Major and half her team are cyborgs then what else is out there?...something tells me we're going to be going head first through the looking glass and learning as we go along" Mikaela said as she watched the city descend below the elevator window.

"I think your right" Morri simply replied as she folded her arms and watched the city down below.

* * *

FINALLY! It is great to be back! Hope I didn't keep you too long, but my new laptops finally up & running and I can finally continue with the adventure! ^^ & don't forget to R&R on the way out please! ;D


	34. Chapter 33: New Rookies

You know it occured to me yesterday, 33 chapters makes for a long story (& we're not even halfway through yet! 8D) & after following the adventure every step of the way, I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to Robo Reader 21! thanks for your reviews and being such a big (& the only known) fan! ^w^ & a big thanks to anyone else who's been following the story. Don't be afraid to lend me your oppinion on the story! I'd love to her it! Hope you'll all stay with it till the end! :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or Ghost in the shell, just my Oc's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 33: NEW ROOKIES

"Okay, time for a brainstorm, that's the third time we've gone over the recording so what have we gathered so far?" Morri asked the group.

The day had passed by in relative peacefulness as the kids had spent most of the morning in one of the debriefing rooms, one that was away from the main corridors and had a lock on the door, so as no-one could just walk in and disturb them, or namely, catch them without their holo-forms switched on and see Ravage who was sat by the main monitor in a deep cat nap. With Ishikawa, Boma, Togusa and Batou lending a hand, the kids had watched the recording Deathshot had taken of the four strangers outside the mysterious dome where the rift back to their world resided, it had been a little uncomfortable to hear their cold voices again as the memory of what happened that night panged at the back of their young minds, but they pushed their fears aside, knowing that they were going to hunt these bastards gave a sense of sly satisfaction for most, but they didn't voice it. Down in the buildings parking lot their guardians sat in the lower levels listening to the group via the collars the kids were wearing, Deathshot hovered motionlessly and invisibly next to the roof, he couldn't land on the giant helipad in case the tiltroater had to be called in case of an emergency, but it didn't bother him, he had stalked many targets like this for far longer periods, hovering still for a day was sparkling's play for him. Ravage had decided to tag along too after Deathshot and Mikaela managed to retro fit him with a smaller LSDCF, therefore enabling him to completely turn invisible and slip through the building without a trace. As the kids sat around on the couches watching the main monitor, Darren kept his laptop handy as he watched the recording of the strangers and jotted down important notes into the laptop's word processor, Glen too had his laptop and had tried to run a face ID on the four men, but without success as the darkness of that night hid their faces from sight.

"From what I could make out, it sounded like they were desperate, and afraid, one of them certainly seems to know who mister Aramaki is and that he and section 9 pose a real threat to them" Becca commented

"On the flip side of that, it could prove to be difficult in catching them out if their treading on tip-toes around the authorities, and if their aware section 9's onto them then they'll only go to ground and it'll be only more harder to catch them" Sam said

"But the question is, what is it in particular their actually doing? We know they want the guys for their weapons and parts but just how did they plan it? We had been in this universe for only a week at that point so that's not long to put something together, even on a short term basis." Danny answered from where he sat on the floor.

"But it also raises the question of what are they up to now? Now that we've done a runner and haven't been found so far it's obviously thrown a huge spanner into the works for them" Tom replied

"This guy mentioned that he 'managed the secure the agreements' with his investors so obviously these four aren't the only ones who know about the guys, if anything whoever the investors are they must be the ones providing the cash for their operation, this other guy did say that they had the investment of a lifetime of at stake here, so there's got to be a money trail not far behind" Mikaela said as she pointed to two of the men on the main monitor.

"This guy here mentioned something about an anonymous benefactor, and that it was a question of how long it would take him to 'process the goods'? From the way they spoke about him, or her, or whoever they are, it seems a majority of their plan is riding a lot on what they can deliver," Sam said as he too pointed to another of the four.

"And that guy there mentioned that they wouldn't be able to ship 'the goods' overseas and that many of their buyers are having to come here to make the deals... on that note, why did he fret about section 9 picking up on the money trail? Why section 9 in particular and not any of the other security sectors? If anything it looks like it would fall under section 6's jurisdiction if their all coming from overseas..." Hailey said as she flicked through some documents the chief had lent them.

"Because if their coming onto Japanese soil it automatically falls under our jurisdiction, it's only if their overseas that section 6 has jurisdiction..." Ishikawa said as he, Boma, Togusa and Batou walked into the large room. The four of them stood by the sides of the couches, being sure to stay well away from the giant robotic panther as he lifted his head up and shot them a sly toothy grin, regardless, they managed to stay on track.

"But perhaps, if it's the buyers their worried about maybe that's the way to pick up their trail. That guy there did imply that anyone could pay buku bucks for a piece of the guys, so it's a fair assumption that the buyers must be of the criminal and illegal variety" said Tom

"Not to mention this guy said that there were politicians and weapons designers investing in this too, perhaps that could be a another trail to follow back to them?" Sam suggested

"Or we could just take the direct route?" Ishikawa suggested as he sat down, he nearly jumped when Reedman popped his head up from behind the couch and climbed over the seat to where Danny sat on the floor, he curled up on the teenagers lap and click-purred contently as he stroked him on the back, being careful to avoid the sharper edges of his body, Ishikawa merely grimaced, wondering just what the appeal of that strange little creature was, regardless he carried on and dropped a file onto the table, Sam picked it up and read it over, Morri, Mikaela, Hailey, Ashley and Tom all leaned over to have a look.

"We got a hit on the voice ID for one of them. He's Chairman Osamu Hidaka, an official for the foreign affairs ministry and was one of the main backers for Prime Minister Kiyabuki during her election campaign; before then he used to be a senior chairman on the board of directors for Kenbushi industries, even though he left the company for an active role in politics it's rumoured he's still a fat pipeline to them, in particular their active weapon's development department and their legal departments procurement contracts to the military" Ishikawa continued

"Why would they have contracts to the military? Are they kinda like Lockheed Martin back home?" Miles asked offhand

"Kenbushi is the biggest manufacturer and supplier of heavy weaponry in Japan, their the guys that built those tanks that went after us last week" Boma replied

"Okay, well that's a no brainer if its weapons development that he wants the guys parts for, hell I'd bet it would hit the ground running for a massive arms race if he had military weapons with cybertronian tech incorporated in them, it would be..." Darren said with a look of macabre in his eyes. The others were silent for a brief moment as the idea of weapons of mass destruction suddenly becoming super weapons of mass destruction played in their minds; Ravage detested the idea with a low growl and a flick of the tail.

"Yeah, we get the point" Mikaela nodded uncomfortably

"Anyway; according to this he has no priors and is apparently squeaky clean, yeah right!" Ashley said in a deadpan tone as he read part of the file.

"It says here that because of his ties to Kenbushi he has quite a few connections in the military, in particular the GSDA and the Navy, so it's possible he could have had someone pull a favour for him, namely the attack on the safe house after we stole the beacon away" Morri suggested

"That's one possibility, but it's more likely your theory about one or more of them being a high ranking military official might be right. Hidaka was the only one we could find because maybe all the others are in military, and all military personnel who have level 1 clearance have their records sealed and classified, which would be the only explanation as to why we didn't get any hits on the others, and there's a slim chance they're from overseas because even Interpol would have had voice ID signatures on file" Batou said

"Unless Interpol doesn't have any files on them and their ones that managed to slip through the net, hell knows there's a whole barrel of bad apples that slip through our Interpol back home on an annual basis" Glen replied

"Well, maybe that's how it is for you guys in your universe, but here, in this day and age, you can take my word it would take a wizard-class hacker to get by Interpol these days" Batou grinned

"Wizard-class hacker?" Darren asked

"The best of the best as far as hacker's go, their few and far between but when they do show up it's a real reason worry" Boma replied.

"Now that you mention that, this guy here mentioned that their anonymous benefactor had kept the Prime minister and the cabinet in the dark about what was really going on by putting falsified information on the military network, is it possible this anonymous benefactor might be a wizard-class hacker? If he's put false Intel on a supposedly secure network then he'd have to have some pretty high end hardware and software to get past the firewalls to get the job done" said Hailey, pointing to one of the mysterious figures on the main screen.

"If it's possible that someone has leaked false Intel onto the military's network then it's someone who's either a wizard-class hacker who knows how to get past the best defences, or it's someone who already knows how the military network is set up, someone who might have already had access to the network on a regular basis" Ishikawa replied

"You mean someone who worked for, or is still in the military? If that's the case then it begs two important questions; first, how much data has been falsified and where on the network in particular, and secondly and more importantly, if this individual is or was employed by the military, how high was their security clearance?" Danny asked

"The Major's already covering that angle, and trust me there's not a lot that gets by her. Our priority is to look into who these four are, and seeing as we now have a lead on one of them, we've now got to look into Hidaka's affairs and just how he got mixed up in all this, though if this is as well laid out as the chief suspects then you and your friends resources are certainly going to prove invaluable" said Batou

"So how are we going to do this?" Morri asked

"Glad you asked, because the Chief has come up with a good cover to explain why there's suddenly whole new load of faces in the building, seeing as you all suddenly took on a series of huge growth spurts, as of now you are all the new rookies fresh from the police and police SWAT team in section 1, the ministry of justice, the DEA's task force division and the ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in section 2, anyone have any objections?" Batou asked, no-one said anything for a moment as they glanced at one another in surprise.

"Uh, just one question" Miles asked

"And that is?"

"How much are we being paid?" he grinned

"Yeah! I'd like to know how many zero's I can expect to see on my pay check!" Ashley eagerly beamed, the four section 9 agents couldn't help but let out a few chuckles as the kids turned to Miles and Ashley with deadpan looks.

"I don't think we're going to be getting any financial rewards for our efforts on this one guys" Sam replied as he patted his bro on the shoulder.

"Eh, had to ask, you know, because if we're supposed to be the new rookies and we don't get our pay checks we might have to complain to our union" Miles joked

"We don't have the luxury of a union kid, you're just going to have settle for peace of mind in know your helping us to catch some potentially dangerous criminals" Batou replied with a wide grin.

"Do we get to be issued with guns?" Ashley asked eagerly.

"NO!" everyone replied firmly, Ashley slumped down in his seat and folded his arms with in a huff, Batou shot him a grin, to which he lightened his expression and returned the gesture with a 'had to ask' look.

"Honestly youngling, why would you need such a puny little weapon with what you can do?" Ravage purred, the section 9 agents looked over at him with bemused looks, still wondering just what he actually said, with a few shrugs they pressed on.

"So, any other questions?...No? Good, in that case, this will help," Batou said as he passed a small folded up note, opening it Sam saw it was a small barcode.

"What's this?" he asked

"Our comm. Frequency ,it's a lot less of a hassle to talk via comm-link than cell phone, and it's a lot less prone to being tapped" the ex-ranger replied, Darren took the note, and from out his backpack he produced a medium sized black hand held computer that looked like it had been retrofitted with cybertronian parts, as the top and back of the device had several complex patterns with cybertronian glyphs intertwined in them as well as a series of strange looking lights and miniature buttons and dials. He plugged a small wire into the device and plugged the other end into his collar, he typed a few buttons into the computer and a tiny antennae with a blue light popped out the top, he held the note up and the antennae flashed over the barcode, as the device beeped the other collars beeped in response and the coloured stripes flashed twice. "Okay, that should do" Darren said as he gave back the note and the wire disconnected from the collar.

"So, how does it work?" Hailey asked as she put her sunglasses back on and plugged the earpiece in her left ear.

"_Pretty much like this, it's not exactly rocket science" _Batou said, Hailey and Darren's expressions floored as they stared intently at the ex-ranger with a 'what the hell?' look across their faces, Ravage too snapped his head up as the sound of the human's voice had echoed in his helm. The others looked back and forth between them, wondering just what happened; they too put their shades on and plugged their earpieces too.

"_Can you all hear us now?"_ Togusa asked with an air of delight in his voice, the kids all looked at him in amazement, _"I think we just made a good impression on these kids, for once we've got something that astounds them!" _Batou said smugly

"HOLY MOTHER! That's amazing!" the twins exclaimed in unison.

"DUDE! That's totally stoked!" Miles shouted in giddy joy

"How the hell do you do that?" Morri asked in complete amazement.

"_Can't explain it really, you just say what you would say normally, only imagine saying it inside your head" Ishikawa replied_

"Holy crap! That gives me an idea! Everyone get your holo-forms back on!" Darren exclaimed, the kids promptly put their collars back on and activated their holo-forms, Darren typed in something to his hand held computer and another series of beeps went out.

"_Darren, what are you-...wait a sec, why does my voice sound buzzy?" _Morri said as she placed her hand over her earpiece, she noticed the section 9 agents were staring at her with surprised yet titillated looks, frowning, she wondered just what Darren was up to; Ravage however was grinning with titillation.

"_Darren, what are you up to?" _she asked, blinking in surprise at the sound of her now electronically sounding voice, Darren handed her a CD from out his backpack.

"Here, watch your mouth!" He grinned as Morri took the CD and looked at her reflection.

"_Darren, I don't see what-HOLY CRAP! My lips aren't moving! What did you do?" _Morri exclaimed as the four agents chuckled in delight at watching the 22 year olds surprised expression, Ravage let out a low mechanical chuckle.

"_I just uploaded a secondary sonic suppressor programme, your real lips are moving and you're talking alright, except now the sonic force field that changes the pitch of your voice can suppress your voice entirely, only you can hear it as well as anyone else who's tuned into the same frequency" _Darren grinned

"_Wait, so she was talking just now?...whoa, sweet!"_ Ashley grinned as he felt his holo-form's throat.

"_Yep"_

"_But how do we control it?" _Morri asked

"I'll work something up, maybe a concealed button or switch somewhere on the suites, don't worry I'll figure something out...you can take your hand off the earpiece, I just deactivated it" said Darren

"_This is awesome! We can finally talk via comm. Link to you guys!" _Bumblebee beamed over the cybertronian comm. Link

"_Yeah, but does he understand us?" _Togusa gestured to Ravage, who shot a glare at the detective.

"_Of course I can understand you, you little meat sack!" _Ravage growled, the four agents jumped with shock as the deep sound of the panther's voice boomed in their heads, Togusa felt a sharp shudder go through him as the voice creeped him out, it sounded deep, sinister, primal, deceptive even, whatever it was it sounded like the voice of a true killer. Ravage grinned with satisfaction as his voice had had the desired affect; Mikaela merely shot him a reprimanding look.

"_How?...he speaks English now?" _Boma exclaimed

"_Nope, he's still speaking in cybertronian morse code, I just put a little dialect filter on his comm. Link so it translates to English on the outgoing line, I thought it would make life a little easier for us all" _Darren said, Ravage looked at him with one ear pricked, but merely shrugged casually. Looking at one another with unease, they realised they would have to be careful with what they said over the cybercomm's, least he might rip them a new one (literally).

"_So we can finally sync data with you? Sweet!" _the Tachikoma's squealed in delight as they popped up on the debriefing room's screen.

"Whoa, you guys really get around this place, just how many computers do you have access to here?" Glen asked

"All of them or course!" all the Tachikoma's replied in unison. 'Unfortunately' Togusa thought in a deadpan inner voice, but certainly didn't let it show outwardly.

"Okay, now that those little details are tied up, getting back to the subject at hand, how do think we should pursue this matter?" said Sam, in an attempt to try and sound professional.

"As far as Hidaka is concerned, we'll go over his records and see if anything out of the ordinary crops up, if nothing turns up initially then we'll enquire through different channels. In the meantime some of us will keep round the clock surveillance on him and see what he gets up to" Togusa replied

"What about that other case the prime minister gave you top priority on, the one concerning who sent out that order to attack us? Do you think this might be tied up to him in some way?" Darren asked

"At this point it's hard to say, whether he actually was involved in sending out that order is another thing, but I'd wager he knows just who in the military is less than honourable. For now we'll pursue this from two angles, the chief finished clearing the paperwork to allow us to investigate the military with no red tape and legal strings attached so the Major will be heading up the military angle while we'll be looking into Hidaka and seeing if we can find a way to get to those other three, though it's a long shot guess at this point I've got a strong feeling we'll end up meeting at the same place" said Ishikawa as he looked up at the figures on the screen, some of the others nodded in agreement.

"You might be right there" Morri said offhand.

"For now, you guys can help us with sorting out the finer points of Hidaka's file, according to his profile he's one tough guy to get along with; pretty shrewd and no fool when it comes to politics or business, he's straightforward and always to the point, never takes prisoners and never takes no for an answer, in addition his psych profile indicates he's abrasive and aggressive with narcissistic tenancies" Ishikawa said as he read from one of the file's paper's

"So in other words he's the boss from hell" Mikaela commented

"Maybe not the nicest guy for a boss but according to his work records he's proven to be impeccable as a businessman and even more of a hotshot in politics. He got into the game just as the prime minister was in the early stages of her election campaign and after she won the final election he transferred over to the ministry of foreign affairs, currently he's the head chairman for overseeing overseas affairs concerning section 6 and other associated agencies attached to the public security sectors as well as the Japanese attaché" Togusa said as he read another page from the file.

"If he's responsible for overseeing what goes on overseas then is it possible he's using his position to make sure his 'investors' get into the country safely?" said Darren

"We thought that too, but he wouldn't risk doing anything that would draw unwanted attention, he'd probably have gone through a third party to handle the details" Boma replied

"Or maybe more than one third party if he's trying hard to keep his 'double life' a secret, according to this, for all intense and purposes he's one of the foreign affairs ministry's tops dogs, and that he actively supports several members of the lower house, as well as Kenbushi, the GSDA and the Navy, long story short, he's a pretty powerful guy with a lot of connections and influence" Tom said as he read a few other pages

"Do you think he'll be a problem if he's as influential as his profile makes him out to be?" Becky asked

"Heh, you let the chief worry about him, he's used to dealing with guys like him, if anything happens he'll let him know just where he stands" Batou smirked

"But for now, Darren, Glen, Danny, you guys can give us a hand in the dive room, among a few other things" Ishikawa said as he and the other agents got back up and walked over to the door, the kids all got up, gathered all the paperwork up and switched their holo-forms back on, as Ravage got up, stretched and activated his LSDCF Reedman sprung up and hopped into Darren's backpack as the teenage hacker put his laptop away. They followed the agents down the long corridors deep into the heart of the building, and once or twice when some of the operators walked by, the kids would glance with odd looks, knowing they were all robotic AI's was one thing, but most thought it wouldn't have hurt to make them all just a little different in some features, even Ravage wasn't impressed by them as he silently passed by them like a summer breeze. Finally they arrived at the dive room and Darren and Glen where blown away at the sight of the room filled from floor to ceiling with nothing but computers and hardware, Batou was pretty sure their faces were going to crack, for their smiles were so wide, the others simply looked the room up and down in amazement.

"Whoa, talk about a computer tech's wet dream besides the platinum issue of busty beauties, you better make sure you guys have your last will's and testaments, 'cause I don't think we'll be seeing either of you for a loooong time" Sam said offhand

"Ooh, you got that right Witwicky!" Glen beamed as he practically drooled as he stared at the machines. He and Darren nearly jumped out of their skins when the Major slipped out of one of the corners with sly smile on her face.

"Think again, you guys are going to have to work via your laptops in this place, we don't let just anyone access our network, and considering how we first meet, I certainly don't want to find any surprises waiting for me, we get enough of that from the Tachikoma's" She said flatly as she folded her arms and walked out the room.

"Aww com'on Major! We only aim to please!" one of the Tachikoma's peeped on the main monitor, "Yeah Major com'on! Do we really look like the dishonest types to you?" Ashley grinned with his trademark devilish grin, even with his face now looking more mature he still retained to essence of a mischievous little kid, she looked back over her shoulder with a deadpan look as Batou and the others couldn't help but snigger as they entered the dive room. Undeterred, Darren and Glen quickly went in.

"See you guys later, the rest of you come with me" Batou said as he beckoned the other kids to follow.

"Okay, this is the dive room, you guys sit yourselves down at those terminals over there, your laptops should connect just fine from those units, the Tachikoma's will guild you through what to do" Ishikawa said as he pointed to a couple of spare terminals over in the far corner of the room next to a couple of doors that lead to the isolated dive booths, Darren, Glen and Danny wasted no time in setting up their laptops and plugging them in via USB, as they sat down Danny noticed the odd looking device overhead, it looked like a pair of arms, at the ends of which were connected together via a panel with a series of wire ports, when he pulled it down he realised the ports would align with the back of the neck, looking over at Glen and Darren with a quirked eyebrow, they both shrugged in response.

"Uh, Ishikawa? What's this for?" he asked, the veteran hacker turned round in surprise, forgetting for a moment that the kids hadn't seen a dive terminal before.

"Oh, alright, hang on a sec..."

Going further along into the building, the Major, Batou, Togusa and the other kids soon arrived in a much bigger room, more or less the size of the underground safe house. It was a mock up of an outdoor enclosure, complete with fake trees, bushes, grass and a collection of house like buildings clustered together in a tight block, at the far end of the vast room were a row of human shaped targets with bullet holes in them scattered randomly over the mock-up landscape while at the opposite end were a row of shooting stalls.

"Wow, this is some firing range" Ashley said offhand

"Yeah, way bigger than the indoor one at NEST" Miles replied

"I thought you said we weren't going to be issued with guns?" Sam asked

"You're not; today we want to be sure just what those upgraded BSHB's of yours are capable of, you said before that you hadn't had enough room to properly test them, so, today the firing range is your testing ground. I arranged it so that no-one will disturb us in here today" the Major replied, looking the place up and down the kids grinned as a wave of excitement filled them and the prospect of trying out their new abilities sent a rush down their spines. Through the BSHB connection Deathshot smiled a secret smile as he felt their minds lifted up high with excitement, this was certainly going to be interesting.

"Uh, where the hell do we start?" Hailey grinned as she and the others all switched off their holo-forms, the three section 9 agents noticed how her voice distorted for brief moment as the voice scrambler simultaneously deactivated. They nearly jumped when Ravage deactivated his LSDCF and appeared in the middle of the group.

"With the basics child, you've all acquired the basic knowledge of hovering and firing short-range plasma blasts, but now's the time to advance and strengthen your skills..." Ravage purred as he circled the group, stopping just short of the three section 9 agents with a smug grin, Batou and Togusa stood frozen on the spot whilst the Major merely glared him straight in the optic. Just as he had surmised back at the first safe house, he could tell this human femme had some fight in her, perhaps if things had been very different and she had not been born of this world, she would make for a most terrifying warrior among the Decepticon ranks (because Primus only knows, he couldn't see her being an Autobot!). As it was, she commanded her team well and without question, the night the Autobots fought back the military she had proved to be reliable, and in the heat of the moment she had dispelled his initial doubts about where her true loyalties lied and the fact she had helped them to stay alive was a good a test as any (even if it had been unforeseen). So now he could relax a little, he was intrigued to see just what she was made of, after having enjoyed the sight of her giving the Lambo twins and good beating he had no doubt she could put a few dents in his armour, as such, he respectively kept his distance, but like Ashley he found she was fun for winding up and liked to 'tease' her (of course, his idea of teasing entailed making her men petrified to move, and seeing how far he could push her, her patience of course proved to be fairly accommodating though he knew that she knew that he knew she wanted to seriously whack him one in the aft!).

As he circled her with his trademark sly grin she firmly stood her ground, unwilling to let him have the satisfaction.

"What do you want?" she glared at him

"_Just your assistance, I could use some additional help in helping the younglings to practise their new abilities"_ he purred, his voice sounded like rolling thunder in her head, deep, echoing and smooth, yet at the same time sinister. Batou and Togusa both glanced sideways at one another.

"_Uh, what do you...mean?" _Togusa nearly squeaked, Ravage swiftly moved up alongside him like a shark would suddenly dart off in the ocean, he purposely brushed his shoulder softly against the detective's back, letting the human feel the points of his armour spikes. Sensing the sudden rise in the human's adrenaline levels, he emitted a low satisfying growl, this human was certainly fun to screw around with and Ashley was trying and failing to stifle his fit of giggles, to which the Major shot him a particularly venomous look, which had no effect, the others however merely rolled their eyes, having been through a similar scenario when they first meet the panther.

"_Tell me...do you fear me?" _Ravage purred slyly as he brought his head alongside the back of the human's head, Togusa couldn't find the guts to answer as he stood frozen on the spot in fear, sweat pouring down his forehead and his eyes dilated, looking like a couple of onyx orbs. He emitted a low mechanical chuckle as the human swallowed hard, frowning with annoyance, the Major stepped forward with a look of death on her face, she was about to say something until Mikaela beat her to it.

"Alright Ravage cut the guy some slack, he's had enough!" she firmly said, without another word the giant panther backed off and Togusa strode out the door, desperate not to break into a panicked run, but not being fooled, Morri paced after him while shooting Ravage a reprimanding look. Looking back at the Major Ravage merely smirked and said:

"_Oh come now, it's not every day I get to have a bit of fun, and finding prey that truly fears you is a real treat"_

Outside the firing range, Morri caught up to Togusa down the corridor, she found him on the verge of nearly fainting for breathing so hard as he tried to stave off an panic attack.

"Are you alright?" she asked, knowing it sounded pointless, but it was better than saying nothing, Togusa glared at her in annoyance before his expression softened, knowing she was only trying to help.

"What the hell kind of pleasure does he get from being so...sadistic?" he asked offhand

"You're not the first human to be at the mercy of his little 'teaseings', he does it all the time with every human, especially the new recruits on the base back home, he says it helps to build character..." she replied, he looked at her in disbelief, as if she had lost her mind, to which she shot him an exasperated look.

"Yeah, I know, but that's just the way he is, terrifying as it is, but he wouldn't kill a human, not when he's surrounded by Autobots all the time" Morri replied

"But what about now? The Autobots are down in the parking lot and he's in the firing range!"

"If he did snap your head off back there Deathshot would have fired a high velocity penetrating round that's designed especially to go through buildings, there's no way anyone can avoid getting killed by that" she was quick to reassure. But Togusa merely stared at her in further disbelief, sighing in defeat; she then noticed the Major and Batou quickly pacing up the corridor.

"I think he better sit this out" Morri sighed, placing a hand on the detective's shoulder, Batou lead him over to the elevators, he pressed the button for the floor where the canteen was and as the door's closed behind him the Major turned to Morri with a less-than-impressed look on her face, quick to pick up the less-than-impressed vibe, Morri shot the Major a glare of her own.

"Oh come on! How is this my fault?" she exclaimed

"You could have said something before he nearly gave Togusa a heart-attack!" she reprimanded

"Trust me, it wouldn't have made a difference if anyone had stepped in before or after, that's just the way he is, as terrifying as he can be, it's just part of who he is!" Morri shot back

"Then maybe you should try getting him to behave himself a little more, because I won't stand for having any of my men scared half to death" Morri simply stared at the Major in slight disbelief, "Tell HIM to behave? The last time anyone told him to behave they spent 2 week's getting put back together in the med bay!...look, I don't why he is the way he is; considering his history I'm not surprised nor do I blame him, there's a lot of stuff to him which most don't take the time to full understand...why not try talking to him some time, maybe you might have a little more insight" she retorted as she began walking back to the firing range.

"Why need insight when I already know he's a liability? I don't have room for anyone who's going to put lives in danger" the Major replied sharply, Morri stopped walking and stood still several yards from the Major, for a moment a tense and uneasy silence passed between them as the Major wondered just what the girl was thinking.

"Major...Don't dare to presume what you know about any of us before you have all the facts..." she calmly replied as she slowly turned around with an impassive face yet focused look in her eyes.

"...And another thing, don't you dare think for a minute that my cousin is a punk..." she continued with a slight hint of ire in her voice, that got the Major's attention as her back stiffened, "Don't think I haven't noticed the way you look at him, I know he's not one for conforming, but that doesn't give you the right to think less of him purely because he likes to wined you up...in case you've forgotten he saved your life that night the military came after us, yours and all of ours. And you didn't even say thank you..." Morri retorted as she turned and walked off back to the firing range.

The Major was stunned

Stunned...and for the first time, a sense of shame began to nag at the back of her mind.

As her gaze dropped to the floor, she remembered that night a week ago, how he unveiled his 'insurance policy' (as Batou later explained it), how he brought down those choppers and put up that force field to stop them from all being blown away to pieces. If it hadn't been for him they would have all been dead, and it was true, she didn't even thank his for his act of heroism. Why had she done that? Why had she been so curt to him after he saved her life? Was he really that much of an annoyance that something inside told her that he wasn't worthy of even a simple thank you?

Quietly walking back down the corridor, the Major stopped just short of the entrance to the firing range, looking at the door she wondered if she should go back in. Though she knew Ravage was in there and the thought of him annoyed her to end, something suddenly came to mind, if he was so sadistic in nature and scaring those weaker than him gave him pleasure, then just why did he choose to hang around with the kids, and why Ashley in particular? Why was he so tolerating of the Autobot's when they had such contrasting personalities to his? Just what did he see in all of them that made him want to be around them? She realised Morri was right, she obviously had a lot to learn before she could really pass any form of judgement on him, or any of them for that matter.

Now that she thought about it, why did any of them, including the Autobots, did and say what they did? Collectively they were free-thinking, laid back, eccentric, lively, out-of-the-box thinkers, geeky, rebellious and just plain odd. Yet despite all this they survived being attacked by the military's finest and had created a means to hide their true identities in plain sight. And despite their extreme differences compared to her and the rest of her team (and everyone else she had known for that matter), they somehow made their weird friendship together work.

They were a bunch of kids being protected by a bunch of aliens, and yet they were so amazing.

For some reason, she decided perhaps her presence wasn't required in the firing range, and turned back, walking towards the elevators. Some coffee would help clear her head.

She had a lot to think about.

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R&R please!


	35. Chapter 34: The School Of Hard Knocks

A/N: SPOILER ALERT!: I kinda rank this chapter as a semi Stand Alone chapter, to put to rest Ravage's little incounter with Togusa, and to lay Ashley & the Major's views of one another on the level, ( seriously, I cryied whilst typing the scene with Ashley and the Major! TT_TT plus, I've been looking to sneak in Ashley's background for a while, trust me it will be important later on in the stroy) after this chapter I'm going to do a small number of stand alone chapters, purly so everyone can have some fun and time down along the way, and work out a few friendship dynamics, (ie I've got plans for more of a Tachikoma/Scorponok love story! X3 A Casheye reappearance and something involving Drift racing for Pazu and the Waienright girls! (well japan IS the birthplace of drift racing!)) but enough spoilers! on with the chapther! :)

ON ANOTHER IMPORTANT NOTE: I mean NO DISRIPECT to anyone in the Metropoliten police force and applogize for any undue offence in this chapter, but part of this chapter is loosely based on a story I heard about many years back, whether it was true or not remains to be proven, BUT THE FOLLOWING SENARIO IS 100% PURLY FICTION. peace out yawl! ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or Ghost in the shell, just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 34: THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS

She held the glowing orb at the tip of her fingers with energy rippled along and down her arm at an arithmetic pace, she held her stance firm and still, one wrong move and the blast from the energy would blow her arm clean off, as beads of sweat ran down the sides of her temples she concentrated on the target straight ahead, drawing in a deep breath and releasing her tension, her shoulders relaxed as she let the energy in her arm and shoulder do the leg work. Pushing everything else from her mind, she focused only on the target, she wanted...no, needed to get this right, if not just for her sake then for her friends, for they would be counting on her to back them up if things got dicey in the foreseeable future.

"And...RELEASE!" Ravage ordered as he stood by her side.

Relaxing her hand, she envision in her mind squeezing the trigger of a gun, letting her eyes be the sights and letting her arm be the weapon. The orb shot from her fingers at a blinding speed, so fast that it appeared as a bright blue lazar line of light. The target blew up in a small fireball barely several meters in diameter, needless to say all that was left of the target was a burnt wooden pole and scattered pieces of burning ply wood. A chorus of cheers went up behind her and Ravage playfully swatted her across the shoulder with his paw.

"Excellent child, you can fully wield the high level plasma blast by yourself now, all you need to do is practise that shot until you can do it without thinking about it" he purred

"I really didn't think I would get it that time! But you were right Ashley, imagining myself as a Jedi really did help!" Hailey grinned as she watched the energy aura around her arm dissipate.

"Well It's like I said before; it's the force, minus any light sabres" the 12 year old smiled as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"And how! This has totally been awesome! No wonder we ain't gonna be needing guns!" Miles said with a big ear to ear grin.

"Amen to that!..." Morri chuckled. Looking back at the main entrance to the firing range, she noticed that neither the Major, Batou nor Togusa still hadn't returned yet; looking up at the observation window above the room near the ceiling she saw they weren't there either. She then remembered the little discussion she had had with the Major earlier, and how annoyed she had been with her. Had she hit a raw nerve and pissed her off? The Major wasn't the sort to be easily agitated, but she couldn't be sure; she didn't stick around to see how she felt; at that point a feeling of regret began to play on her mind for what she said. Looking up at the clock on the wall she turned back to the others.

"Hey guys? Maybe we should take a break; we've been in here for over three hours" she suggested

"Yeah your right, everyone wanna call it quits for now?" Sam asked the others, no-one objected as they walked back towards the entrance and switched their holo-forms on, Ravage vanished from sight and slipped out the door silently and unnoticed, all but Ashley were unaware of his nearby presence. Up ahead, Danny and Ishikawa appeared around the corner at the far end of the long corridor.

"Hey there! We were wondering what was taking you guys; we thought you had gotten lost somewhere" Ishikawa called over as they both paced along

"Nah, we've just finished up at the firing range is all. How goes the work?" Tom asked

"We've made some progress, but we're-" Ishikawa didn't finish his sentence as the sound of unfamiliar voices drifted down the corridor, at the intersection of the corridors the chief appeared with the Major at his side, close behind were five other men, four of which were dressed in military uniforms while one had glasses and was dress in a dark reddish brown suite, from the tones of their voices they all seemed pretty riled over something, as the kids watched them walk by, Ravage gently pressed his nose against the back of Darrens's shoulder, grabbing his attention.

"I think now would be an opportune time for me to return to Deathshot's undercarriage" he whispered

"Okay, Ishikawa can you make sure the roof doors are open?" Darren asked

"Sure thing" he replied as he sent the message to Boma via the cyber-comm. Ravage silently paced off to the stairwell at the far corner of the building, the sound of the fire escape doors gently opening were the only indication of his presence before he swiftly ascended to the roof.

"Who were those guys?" Miles asked offhand

"Don't know, but I know who the guy in the suite was" Ishikawa said as he followed after them, being sure to keep his distance and avoid getting noticed, the other's followed suit until they saw them go into Aramaki's office. "So who was he?" Beaky asked, "The chief of the GSDA Intelligence, he and the chief go way back" Ishikawa replied, "Guess they ain't catching up on old time huh?" said Becca, "Has it got something to do with the case?" Beaky asked. "If they're here, it must mean the military's already received the disclosure requests the chief put through a few days ago, their obviously not pleased with having to relinquish their overall authority on the prime minister's orders. This will probably be the first of a quite a few visits from the various other agencies on the matter, but we needn't worry about that now..." Ishikawa replied as he walked back along the corridor to the dive room with everyone in tow. As they entered the long room, Boma and Glen looked up from their terminals in acknowledgement.

"Ah your back, we were just about to start on this..." Glen said as he looked back at his laptop

"What's that?" Mikaela asked as she leaned over his shoulder.

"Hidaka's work record with the ministry of foreign affairs, we found the ministry's confidential records and are just about to dive through the back door into the network, we were just surveying the security barriers and how to get around them" Boma replied

"Yeah an' they got some real mean little suckers here, multiple defence attack barriers, viral coding firewalls and a whole load of kick-ass trip viruses, I think maybe Frenzy could handle this one, god knows he's been wining about being bored all day" Glen grinned

"Frenzy? I thought he was still recharging inside Jazz?" Miles said offhand

"He was, until he got curious and decided to come up the building via the elevator cables" Boma huffed as he pointed up to the top of the terminal, looking up to where he was pointing, they saw Frenzy sitting on top of the machine with his eyes poking over the edge, he watched them with a mechanical giggle. Leaping off and landing next to Mikaela, he trotted along the floor in a sneaky fashion and climbed up Boma's chair, as he peered over the top of the giant cyborg's head, Boma looked up and shot him an annoyed look, to which Frenzy shied away from and hopped over to the empty chair next to Glen.

"I-I-I' aaaaaalll day!" he huffed as he flopped down in the chair.

"Really? I had no idea!" Glen grinned sarcastically; Frenzy simply shot him a glair. He moved over to the next empty seat when Darren sat back down next to Glen.

"You can do this little hack job if you promise not to get too carried away alright?" Darren said to him, the spindly limbed drone instantly perked up like a puppy being given his favourite chew toy; the others all came in closer, eager to watch him work his magic.

"Aw this should be good!" Ashley grinned as Frenzy suddenly had a wicked look in his four optics; he stretched out, cracked his fingers and began typing at a ridiculously fast pace as he leaned over the keyboard. Boma and Ishikawa merely looked at one another and shrugged, there really wasn't any point in arguing over it if he was as good as Darren said he was, and as he recalled the analysis on Saito and Deathshot, Ishikawa remembered he was quite attentive once he got up and running on a task.

"Alright, but first we've got put encryption suppressions on the first four barriers, then once we're on the networks outer level we have to put out an anti-trip programme out to counter any chimera viruses they may have put around the mid levels, then once we're-"

"We'rein!" Frenzy squeaked

Ishikawa blinked and shook his head in surprise, looking over at Boma, he looked just as confused.

"What?"

"We're i-i-in! W-w-we cannowaccessHidakafiles!" Frenzy replied, leaning over the chair to view the screen, sure enough the secure level on which the foreign affairs ministry officials kept their files was on the screen.

"Wow! That was fast! Give us a chance to catch up will ya!" one of the agent Tachikoma's squeaked as it popped up in the top left corner of the screen.

"How the hell did he do that? It barely took a minute!" Ishikawa exclaimed in disbelief

"A-a-and y-y-yourproblem i-i-is?" Frenzy asked incredulously with a deadpan look.

"Uh, nothing, good job...just don't let the Major catch you! He replied as he sat back down at his usual dive terminal, shaking his head in disbelief, the others however couldn't help but giggle as they watched the ex-Decepticon began typing away again, occasional chuckling with glee. Noticing that there didn't seem to be anything of great use they could do with Frenzy doing most of the legwork, the kids excused themselves and headed over to the canteen for lunch. As they walked down the corridor towards the elevators, Morri placed a hand on Ashley's shoulder and gently pulled him aside.

"Hey Ashley, come back up to the roof with me a sec, I need to talk to both you and Ravage for a few minutes" she whispered

Obliging with a discreet nod, he followed her to the fire escape stairwell.

The rest of the day past by with a mix of different tasks, namely helping Boma and Ishikawa gather data in the dive room, practicing and training in the firing range and looking through various files and reports in the privet briefing room. The afternoon had waned into the very early evening and all across the city the sounds of commuter traffic echoed high among the skyscrapers, the sun's light was starting to turn golden as its arch began to reach the horizon in the far distance. On the giant helipad of section 9's HQ, the Major leaned against the railing alone with her thoughts, as the high winds whipped up her purple hair glistened with a lavender tinge as it waved about with every gust that blew; this was one of the few places she liked to come to when she just needed to think and ponder, even if it was nothing in particular, but today, that was not the case.

As she let her thoughts drift, the sound of the main door opening snapped her back to reality, she frowned as she noticed the sound of the footsteps were too light to be Batou's.

"So this is where you've been hiding, we were beginning to wonder where you snuck off to..." Ashley said as he came up alongside her and leaned against the railing, initially she wanted to tell him (in her own polite way) to go away, but with Morri's words still in the back of her mind, she made sure to keep her attitude in check and acknowledged him with an impassive nod.

"Anything I can help you with?" she asked

"Nah, just taking five minutes, Ravage has been working us real hard in the training room..." he replied with a small smile, as he glanced sideways at her for a brief second he noticed the clouded look in her eyes; he knew what he wanted to say, but would she really listen to him? Breathing a deep sigh he thought to hell with it and just say it. Picking up the less than positive vibe in his voice, she tilted her head slightly, wondering what he was going to say.

"...listen, I just wanted to say I'm sorry..." he said with uncertainty; the Major looked at his with a quirked eyebrow.

"For what?"

"...If I really pissed off somewhere down the line..." he replied, for a brief moment she looked at him in confusion before a look of satisfaction spread across her face.

"Did your cousin manage to teach you some sense?" she smirked

"Nope, she told me about what happened earlier..." he simply replied, her back stiffened as she looked at him in surprise then turned her gaze away with embarrassment.

"...Oh..." was all she could think of to reply.

"It's okay...listen, I know I'm a lot of things, but I don't ever snub anyone who's real good at their job, and you sweetheart, are as awesome as they come..." he replied, she looked at him bemused as he smirked, "And before you say it, no I'm not screwing around with you..." he continued. She didn't say anything as she tried to get her head around his sudden spontaneous gesture of honesty.

"...So what do you want?" she asked

"Nothing really...except...I'd settle for your faith" he said frankly

"My faith?"

"Your faith as field commander...I mean, when you think about it, you took a chance on all the guys in your team when you first recruited them...as I understand it Pazu use to run with the Yakuza, a pretty evil bunch even in our universe. On that note I began to wonder why you recruited him when it was possible he could have been a liability...but then, I wondered just why you recruited him, you must have seen something in him that convinced you that he was legit, so if it wasn't just his background and underground connections that made him so appealing, then it must be that important little factor called 'having faith'" he smirked, the Major gazed at him with a smirk of her own.

"Wow...so am I supposed to believe you actually have a brain?" she joked

"I'm just making a point is all...look, I know this case is not going to be easy, hell everything up till this point hasn't been any simpler either. And I'm willing follow what you say but how can I be sure you'll let me be there to cover your back when you don't have faith in what I can do in the first place?" he said frankly, the smirk dropped from her face as she considered the accusation, a brief uneasy silence passed between them before she sighed.

"...Well how can I be sure you'll actually listen and not treat it like a joke? I saw what you did that night and I know you can do some pretty amazing things. But as you said, this case could get really dangerous, so how can I be sure you'll obey my commands without question?" she asked honestly

"...I won't give you excuses; I don't exactly come off as a great team player, but I've let Ravage teach me how to fight and how to use the BSHB responsibly, some years back I probably would have said something different, but it's not about me now, my family and my friends are in danger and It's my job to look after them all"

"That intrigued me, why did Jazz put you in charge of everyone's safety in the first place?"

"He thought giving me a level of responsibility would shape me up a bit, keep me outta trouble and keep me focused whilst we were here...and hey presto he was right, but I never imagined I'd have to shape up this much with everything that's happened..." Ashley replied as he watched the cityscape down below, but turned to the Major with a more serious look in his eyes, "...look, I'm sorry if I trod on any raw nerves, and I'm sorry if you thought I was insulting your command...It's not that I don't respect you, it's just that you've got something about you that makes you so...*sigh*" he dropped his head in defeat as he failed to come up with the right words, but the Major simply gave a small smile as she picked up what he was trying to put across.

"I know, I get that most of the time, it drives Batou crazy when I use that something to get a mission done right" she assured him, he looked at her in surprise and smiled in relief, letting his shoulders relax as the warmth of the sun warmed up his face. For a long while they said nothing as they watched a news helicopter fly by, and watched as the clouds cast their shadows down on the city, watching how they seemed to change the colours of the city between golden tints from the sun and pale lilac from the shadows.

"Ashley...why don't you like cops anyway?" she asked offhand, he looked at her for moment before casting his gaze downwards; he was trying to make a good impression so why deny her an answer? As his mind began to turn back over the years, one by one the memories started to play, and the feelings that came with them panged at him like some restless spirit that refused to be purged from the psyche.

"...It's not that I don't hate them outright, it's just that...A long time ago my dad explained that the police are the people you can trust, they're the ones that put their lives on the line to keep everyone safe and to uphold the law. They're the ones that are suppose to keep the balance n society...but I learned the hard way that not all of them take that responsibility seriously and that some are inclined to abuse it..." he replied in a solemn tone; he turned his holo-form off and unzipped part of the right sleeve of his holo-form suite, as he pulled it back up to his elbow the Major noticed a set of ugly looking scars going up the length of his arm, they were clearly dog bites, and from a large breed at that.

"I got these while saving my mum's life" he continued

"How?"

"...Years back, I used to live on the Bromley estate in Sheffield, in that area of the country everyone fell on real hard times after the coal mines closed down in the late nineties and Sheffield got hit really badly after the local economy collapsed and the spate of high unemployment rates allowed crime rates to soar practically overnight. For as long as I could remember life was always tough and what breaks you did get never lasted long. I learned to be tough, taught myself how to fight, and you have to learn fast when there are gangs constantly fighting one another for each other's territory, the Bromley estate in particular was one of the few places that sat on the boarders of three neighbouring gang territories. For as long as I could remember everyone on our street never went out at night and nobody could pluck up enough courage to confront any one of them, and anyone who did usually ended up in hospital fighting for their lives...Anyway, back when I was seven mum was sick with some kind of infection, it got so bad that I had to skip school to look after her, one day she took a bad turn and I didn't know what to do, the medicine the doctor prescribed for her had run out so she gave me some money and told me to go to the pharmacy to get a refill. The pharmacy was eight streets over and lead through part of the bad end of town, but regardless I cycled as fast as I could and just as I turned the last corner onto the high street, I noticed that something was going on in the corner shop, it sounded like a whole load of shouting and stuff falling over, being the idiot that I was I decided to stop and see what was going on, just as I stepped in the door three older kids ran past me, but the third guy knocked me over and shoved something into my hand. Looking down I saw it was a knife that was covered in blood. That image will always stay with me because it's the first time I ever saw blood. The kids had cleaned out the till and stabbed the shopkeeper three times in the arm, so I ran over to help to try and help as best I could. I rapped a cloth around the wounds to stop the bleeding, but as I tried to help him up the police came in the door yelling and screaming at me to drop my weapon. That's when I realised I had put the knife in my belt and it made me look like one of the thieves. Talk about a moment of absolute stupidity, but I was scared and didn't know what to do...So anyway, I start yelling at them that I'm not the one responsible and their still screaming at me to step away from the shopkeeper. Then the sergeant, a guy by the name of James Peters, comes right at me with his truncheon and knocks me off my feet and before I can get back up he brought that thing right down and smashed my arm...I couldn't believe how painful was..." he said, clenching his fists.

"And you were seven when this happened?"

"Yeah, but the sergeant didn't care, he thought I was the one responsible. So after I was arrested and read my rights, I was taken to the local station and charged with armed robbery, as if that wasn't bad enough I wasn't taken to hospital and all the while my arm was in terrible pain, it wasn't until five hours later when my arm had swollen up that they realised it was broken...I didn't know what to feel first, hurt angry or scared, it was just as bad as the pain...But the real blow came when eventually it turned out that the shopkeeper had had a security camera above his till record the whole event, the sergeant knew I wasn't guilty, if anything he even knew I tried to help, but he kept me in overnight regardless" he continued with ire and sarcasm.

"Why did he do that? Surly the police must have known about it and suspended him from duty?"

"...Are you kidding? After they released me the next the day I told my mum what happened, they didn't even call her the day before so when I was escorted home in a police cruiser she didn't know what the hell to think. She called my dad the same day and he was so pissed off that he halted a live fire exercise to come home and file a complaint in person, and by complaint, for him that meant going to the station and making the sergeant in question apologizes to me in person. Needless to say I really enjoyed watching him being embarrassed in front of his friends while my dad was giving the reprimand of a lifetime and shouting every curse known to man, when we got home I think he ended up paying about 265 quid into the swear box!" Ashley laughed

"Sounds like you got a measure of personal justice then?" She smiled, but Ashley looked her with a more sombre gaze as the happiness ebbed from his expression, he breathed in a deep sigh and continued,

"I thought so too, and my parents thought that would be the end of it with sergeant Peters. I was told about it years later from a friend of a friend who's uncle worked in the same station back then, but after my dad confronted him he was so pissed that he got stood up in the station like that, I mean this guy must have had some real issues 'cause apparently he wouldn't let it go...But, time moved on and several weeks later the cast finally came off my arm. But elsewhere the neighbourhood was in a worse shape than ever, around the same time a new trend had sprung up, keeping pit-bulls and other kinds of fighting dogs was quickly becoming fashionable with the gangs and other kids on the street, sometimes for protection but mainly as a status symbol, the more aggressive and bigger the dog the better. Over the next four months was the worst time I could remember 'cause the gang fights were now worst than ever. There were fights every other week, houses and apartment blocks got stuff thrown at the windows, and random people walking down the street would be cased or even attacked, even in the daylight"

"But what did they stand to gain from it?"

"Nothing...and that's what made so terrifying, they never took money, watches, jewellery or anything of value, they just did it for kicks. I remember once it got so bad that mum called my dad to say she couldn't let me out of the house, he came home the next day...The thing about my dad is that he's one of these guys you can see coming a mile off, in a way he's a lot like Batou, big, strong, wickedly good at mee-lee fighting and had one hell of a mean temper, despite their sick sense of humour the gangs that lived in our neighbourhood knew him by his reputation, and what would happen if they targeted me or my mum, as such, they never went near us; they'd throw their insults if they saw us in the streets but they always made themselves scare when my dad was around...but not all of them were aware of this unspoken rule and after receiving a pretty tough shake down from dad after he threw a rock at me, one guy and his idiot friends decided to pay me and my mum a visit after my dad returned to his base...It was late at night and we were awoken by the sound of the lounge windows being smashed, there were three of them and they brought their four Staffie'swith them. I ran into my mum's room and helped her barricade the door, it brought us enough time to get out onto the roof and climb down into the back garden, from there we climbed over the fences and ran down the back alley behind the houses, we managed to get some distance but the dogs soon picked up our scent and they quickly followed us. I was so scared they'd catch us; my mum picked up a cricket bat from a nearby garden and told me to stay in front. As we run round the corner the dogs caught up to us...and, they..." he dropped his head as his face twisted into a expression of hurt and anger rolled into one, desperately he fought back the tears that threatened to run down his cheeks, he gripped the railing so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

The Major stood in silent aghast as she absorbed all of what he just told her, though she didn't let it show and she maintained her usual calm poise, deep down a piece of her went out to him as she began to see it how such a horrific event could leave its scars on a child of that age, it was a sad fact of life that not every child was destined for a happy upbringing, seeing that fact on paper as part of crime statistics was one thing, but coming across one of those statistics in the flesh was quite another, and here, she didn't know what to do or say that could bring even a slight measure of comfort or reassurance, all she could do was drop her head in sympathy. At that point, Ashley took a deep breath as she tried to slow down his heart and let the wind cool his face, for a moment he simply listened to the winds blowing high above, then when he felt himself calm down enough, he continued in a more steady voice.

"...She told me to run, I wanted to stay and fight but she forced me to go...so I ran, right through the high street and just as I turned another corner a police patrol car came down the other way, I waved it down and they stopped, but when I ran to the driver's side and they got out...I couldn't believe it was him..."

"The sergeant?"

"...Of all the police officers to be on that patrol that night why the bloody hell did it have to be him? When I told him what happened I begged and pleaded with him to follow me to try and save my mum, I knew he was still raw over what happened before but at that point I didn't care, I just wanted to save my mum...but he...he just got back in and said 'serves you right you little fuck' and drove away..."

The Major was stunned. As Ashley stopped for another breath, she found it hard to comprehend the level of bitterness the sergeant had had, how could anyone hold a grudge that badly that they'd be willing to ignore the fact that someone's life was in danger? And being an officer of the law made it all the more scathing.

"So what did you do?" she asked, curious, and slightly eager to know.

"...Fortunately by the time I ran back and found mum some people walking back from the pub had found her and managed to help her fight the dogs off and call an ambulance. After that night everything went into a spin, while mum recovered in the hospital's intensive care unit my dad was more pissed than ever, after he discharged himself he did a number of things, first, he reported the Sergeant to the police complaints commission and got him sacked for breach of conduct and police neglect. He then went to find the kids who attacked us and dragged them to the police station; rumour has it he broke their legs and made them walk the full three miles"

"You don't know for sure?"

"...I wouldn't know..." Ashley replied with a venomous tone, a pause before the Major decided to leave that one alone.

"So how bad was your mother's condition?" she asked in a more sympathetic voice

"She was in hospital for over eight weeks, the dogs did a real number on her left side and she lost a lot of blood that night, fortunately the doctors manage to get a whole load of donor blood into her veins but she needed further treatment for the tissue damage from the bites, I got off with 62 stitches to my arm. After mum was given the all clear both she and my dad made up their minds to pack up and move down to live with my dad's side of the family, all of who I had barely heard about up till that point, and my cousins in particular I knew nothing about...but after everything that happened I couldn't care less if the whole Bromley estate burnt to the ground, I was glad to get away from that shithole...but despite it all...it didn't make the knowledge of what the Sergeant did that night go away, or make it any easier to bare"

"And it probably never will; betrayal has a way of stinging you where it really hurts. What he did to you and your family was inexcusable...and you can't beat yourself up for what happened that night" she replied. He looked at her with a somewhat exhausted look in his eyes, the measure of the memory of that night reflected in his eyes with regret and anger.

"... I didn't know what the hell I was doing, or even if it was right...but after we moved I remember just feeling so angry all time, angry at myself and thinking just how many ways I could have done better if I had the chance to do it over again...so yeah, for a long time I really was a punk..."

"What changed?" she asked, Ashley glanced sideways with a small smile.

"...Deathshot did...after he came into my life he put a whole load of things into perspective. I thought my problem were bad, after he told us about the war and what he lost I just felt like shit for wallowing in all my self-pity...but more than that, he showed me just how lucky I was that it could have been a whole lot worse... After that I swore I would never be selfish to think I'm the only one that matters..." said Ashley as he gazed over the city. For a long while the Major leaned against the railing as she contemplated his story, while she held a level of sympathy for his past plight she also found herself admiring how, at that young age he went through such an ordeal and yet emerged from it a wiser boy, and how through it all, life's hard dealings taught him the valuable lesson of humility. She silently began to regret her earlier contemplations on teaching him that important virtue herself. As she looked this 12 year old up and down, and gazed on the scars of his arm, she didn't see a little punk kid asking for trouble, she saw a brave (albeit blunt and) boy with spunk and tenacity looking to protect what he loved, and trying (in his eyes)the best he could not to screw up.

"...You may not be aware of this, but you still did right by your family, even now you're still doing a good job of keeping them safe. You were young back then, how can anyone expect a seven year old to know what to do in that kind of scenario? For what it was worth it proved that you have courage, and that you know that sometimes you have to be willing to go the extra mile if it means you can succeed...but on another more important note, I meant to say thank you..." she said as Ashley looked up in surprise.

"For what?"

"For saving me and my men's lives a week ago..."

Now it was his turn to look surprised, but he merely smiled.

"It's okay...why don't you and I just start over? You know; no hard feelings?" he suggested.

"Alright...but seriously, I'm no sweetheart" she smirked

"Fair enough" he chuckled

"Come on, I'd like to see what your 'teacher' has been teaching you all day," she said as she pushed away from the railing and started walking back towards the roof doors with Ashley following close behind. Though neither of them outwardly expressed it, both Ashley and the Major felt a sense of calm in the back of their minds, that somehow the underlining tension that had stood between them had been lifted, for some odd reason, it felt good.

Across the other side of the roof, next to the air vents that fed down into the building, Ravage watched as they disappeared through the doors. He passed a heavy sigh through his vents and snuck away silently back towards the fire escape.

As the afternoon slipped into the evening, the sky steadily grew darker, as the sun's light disappeared beneath the horizon the city began to come alive as its millions and millions of lights illuminated the vast cityscape, and the usual night-goers emerged from their homes and hiding places to roam the streets, either going about their usual business of just looking for a good time.

After a long day Togusa was certainly looking forward to going home, but there was something he had to do first, since Ravage 'teased' him in the firing range he'd been feeling angry for not taking a stand against the giant panther, for most of the day he had been fuming over the incident and had been feeling pretty tempted to walk back into the firing range and pull out his revolver out on him, the idea of being gouged and sliced to death by those claws and that mace of his were the only things stopping him, as such, he felt raw and pissed off.

As he strode through the underground parking lot, the Autobots flashed their indicators as he walked by, "Good night guys" he called over, "Be sure to tell Anny we said hi!" Bluestreak replied. As he carried on down to the third level, he noticed half of the whole level was pitch black with the lights turned out; walking over, he suddenly stopped as he saw something glisten in the blackness, as he strained his eyes he could tell something was there.

"Hello?" he called out, his voice echoing off the concrete walls, a noise behind him made him turn around, nothing was there but when he turned around again, he jumped when he saw Ravage standing before him.

"GHAA! ...What the hell do you want?" he exclaimed angrily.

"_Relax. I just want to talk"_ he purred as he gently passed backwards until he was halfway in the blackness.

"Really? Well that's convenient because I've got a few things I want to say to you!" Togusa replied sarcastically as he shot the panther a glair, Ravage merely curled around in a tight circle and sat down on the ground.

"_Very well, you first..."_ Ravage said impassively, Togusa looked at him bemused, what the hell was he up to now?

"What?...no snide remarks? No trying to scare me half to death?" he asked incredulously

"_No, believe it or not I'm here to offer my apology for earlier"_ he growled in a low tone, which felt like it echoed through his mind as the panther's voice came over the cybercomm.

"You seriously expect me to believe you?"

"_No, but it's the right thing to do I suppose...your raw and you've been wanting to vent your anger at me all day, so go ahead, vent all you want..."_ he growled impassively, Togusa stood there for a long moment in bemusement, what was the panther playing at?

"What's with the sudden change in attitude?" Togusa huffed as he placed his hands on his hips.

"_...I've contemplating about earlier and how much I really learned about you" _Ravage purred, now the detective was really confounded.

"What do you mean?" he asked

"_You'd be surprised by what you can learn from others when their fears are aroused, it certainly gives an incentive not to lie, for fear of the consequences. But with you, that wasn't so much the case of testing the truth as it was...confirming a suspicion..." _Ravage purred in a cryptic way, letting anger give way to curiosity, Togusa relaxed his stance and dropped his hands from his hips.

"What do you mean? What suspicion?"

"_That you really are one of the Major's team, and not simply kept for 'window dressing'" _Ravage replied, Togusa felt tempted to take it as an insult, but he was more intrigued to know where that came from and simply shrugged it off.

"What made you assume that?" he asked as he glowered at him. Ravage looked at him with a small grin, now he had his full attention.

"_...From the moment we first met, I made it no secret that I didn't initially trust any of you, a bunch of techno-organic machines passing themselves off as humans has probably got to be the worst parody of humanity I've ever known...but what confounded me more than anything else was why they kept you around. A fully organic human, with no augmentations, who was part of a team of stronger, more durable 'cyborgs'..." _he growled

"...Fair enough, it's a reasonable argument. But why would being a cyborg be a parody of humanity? I know there are people in this world that don't like the idea of going full prosthetic, but it's not like your human so why be insulted by our technology?"

"_True. I'm not human. But from what I've learnt of your kind, being organic is a fundamental fact of your design, and for all its grossness I accepted that fact without question. But in this world...your kind have developed the technology to fully remove your brains from your bodies and put inside a stronger, more durable prosthetic form, essentially turning yourselves into a whole new, albeit completely defective species"_

"New species? But genetically we're still human, our DNA has to be kept in whatever body we swap into by law" Togusa argued.

"_Inconsequential...While you and your team-mates were busy covering our tracks with your superiors, I helped myself to one of the spare computers in the underground safe house and did a little research on the subject. Cyborgs cannot reproduce, so how does your kind intend to carry on its lineage when the genetic stock is completely turned into computerized data?" _Ravage purred.

"Well that's easy, there are a large majority of people worldwide that are still in the bodies they were born with, they can still reproduce" Togusa retorted

"_For the time being, but according to international figures the total number of 100% natural humans stands at barely over 22% and is dropping at a rate of 3% ever year, in addition the global birth rate has been dropped by over 25% in the last thirty years, sort of a coincidence that the numbers started to drop around about the same time that fully prosthetic bodies became commonplace hmm?..." _Ravage purred, Togusa looked at him in mild surprise for a brief moment, '22% of the planet is still all natural?' he thought.

"You make a good point, but are you implying that one day we'll be extinct because of it?" he asked

"_For sure, and you'll have no-one to blame but yourselves"_

"But that's ridiculous! That'll never happen; there will always be humans that'll never accept prosthetics"

"_Perhaps, but when the numbers of organic humans have dropped to a certain point then the genetic stock will be insufficient enough to sustain a sable gene pool. The drop in birth rates is merely the first sign of this, in the near future you run the risk of your DNA format being tainted by genetic disorders, slower growth rates, loss of immune function and eventually sterility..." _Ravage replied frankly, Togusa didn't know what to make of this revelation, as Ravage got up and sat upright, he leaned a little closer with a small sly grin across his jaw.

"_...Heh, you humans are such an unbelievably presumptuous species...even in this universe, when it comes to planning for the long term future, you're not particularly good at it..." _he continued. Looking up into the panther's one eye, he wasn't sure he liked where this particular subject was going.

"You said before that you were confounded by the fact the Major had me on her team, care to enlighten me on that front?" he asked defiantly, Ravage merely smiled and leaned back on the base of his tail.

"_As I said before, I wondered why she had you around when clearly you're completely organic, though from your scent you could easily pass for a cyborg, you've obviously been around them that long...in all the time we've been together so far I pondered on why you? Among other things, you're not as fast, and judging from that scar not as durable..."_ he said gesturing to the human's chest, Togusa lifted up his turtleneck sweater and saw the scar just below his collarbone, he suddenly remembered the night of the narcotic suppression squad's attack on the sunflower society, and how that one round went right through him, he looked up at the panther in surprise.

"How did you-"

Ravage lifted his paw and tapped the side of his optic, looking carefully, Togusa noticed in the centre of the complex structure of shutters and spokes what looked like a tiny but complex scanner.

"-Right..."

"_Anyway, after a time I realised my own ignorance was what blocked me from reaching an answer, and I began to think a little more broadly, it was then I realised that your talent does not lie within the capacity of physical ability...true you have a knack for diligence and your more of an 'out of the box' compared to the rest, more, 'originally' human. And that's when I realized that was part of the principle of why they need you...you're not just an asset in terms of your skills as a detective, you serve as a constant reminder to them of what a real human actually is..."_ he growled. Togusa looked at him impassively for a moment before dropping his gaze in thought.

"...Not necessarily...When I first joined section 9 I wondered why the Major wanted me on the team, being around cyborg's for the most part unnerved me in a way, and to an extent I did feel like the weak link, but when I asked her why she told me 'If we all reacted the same way, we'd be predictable, and there's always more than one way to view a situation. What's true for the group is also true for the individual. It's simple: overspecialize, and you breed in weakness...its slow death'..."

"_Hmm, logical and dynamic...but it did little to ease your perception of yourself among them, didn't it?..."_ Ravage purred, Togusa snapped his head back up.

"_...Hmm, a bunch of cyborg's keeping a human around to remind them that humans are, for the most part flesh and blood, and by extension remind themselves that they were still human themselves. There was a time once I would have laughed so hard my CPU would have blown up inside my helm, now, I don't know whether to think it's strange or just plain sad..." _the panther sighed in a deadpan tone.

"Sad? I wouldn't say that was the case, I'll admit there are moments when we question ourselves and what we are but it's never been to the extent we wallow in self-pity. I'll admit I do sometimes doubt myself but that's part of life, every human in this world doesn't go through life with experiencing doubt in one form or another. Surely even you've doubted yourself somewhere down the line?" Togusa asked incredulously, now it was Ravage's turn to be surprised as he found himself caught on the spot, he resisted the urge to snap at the detective and merely got up and stretched, he paced over to the blackened out area of the parking lot as he raked his mind back over the last several thousand years. It annoyed him that this human, with one simple question, could make him feel the weight of all his years as they bared down on his armoured shoulders; it was one of the few rear moments he felt a sense of his mortality, to doubt yourself even for a moment was a liability, for if you doubted yourself all the time, you'd never have the absolute courage to go all the way in a dangerous situation, and after all the countless missions and battles he had been through and survived, doubt was never a subject he could recall touching upon, and whatever doubts he might have had on a subconscious level only Soundwave would have known about them, there wasn't a lot that got past his creator's telepathy.

"_...Whatever doubts I had brought to bear in my life, they were not the sort I would let hinder me in my objectives..."_ he growled as he hunched his head between his shoulders

"And what were your objectives?"

"_To get the job done by any means necessary..."_

"...Need I ask what that entailed for you?" Togusa asked, he instinctively flinched backwards as the giant panther looked him down straight in the eyes.

"_...Unless you want to have nightmares for the rest of your recharging life...I suggest you don't ask..."_ he growled, Togusa immediately dropped the subject and straightened up. Suddenly, he then noticed that he was standing only a few meters away from Ravage and he wasn't scared like he was earlier, as he stood in a bemused stupor, Ravage smirked and gave a light chuckle.

"_...A funny thing is fear, and in humans it works on a number of levels, not seven hours ago you feared I would claw you to pieces, and yet here you are right this minute standing before me with the last of your tenseness slipping away..."_ he chuckled. Togusa instantly caught on as he remembered why he came looking for the panther in the first place, he wanted feel angry and raw again but instead felt a sense of sturdiness were his tenseness had been, in a way it felt odd, as if somewhere inside a switch had been flipped and now he was standing here with breaking a sweat.

"...You distracted me, from the second I got down here you knew I've been pissed off and you knew I wanted to confront you for what happened in the firing range!" Togusa frowned, Ravage lifted his head with a toothy grin and chuckled in amusement.

"_Heh, I may have been out of line earlier, but I did you a small favour"_

"That was a favour?" Togusa exclaimed sarcastically

"_You had plenty of opportunity"_

"Huh?"

"_I left the way to the main entrance clear; you could have bolted on the spot anytime you pleased"_

"Only because I thought you would have pounced on me! I don't know if you noticed but you're the size of a horse! You could kill any one of us easily with one swipe of your paws or tail!" Togusa angrily retorted

"_True, but even I have my limits as to how far a situation can be pushed, and I'd say that incident didn't go totally over the line or your femme commander would have tried to kill me there and then...but the problem for you afterwards was not so much a case of being totally angry at me, but to a degree your angry at yourself"_

Togusa inhaled a sudden sharp breath in readiness to object, but as he dropped his gaze he looked back on the afternoon and the time he spent getting his nerves back in shape, he found his rawness had been in the form of his own self loathing for not standing up to him. Beating himself up and imagining a thousand ways he could have done anything else but just stand there and shake like a leaf. Looking back up at the panther, he realised where he was trying to take this.

"_Don't be so hard on yourself; no all humans have what it takes to stand in the presence of a true killer, and this was your first time...I would have thought, from what I've learnt about your line of work that you had faced true fear many times over, but apparently not..."_

"WHAT! I've been on dozens of dangerous missions and yeah! You'd been insane to not be just a little bit scared!"

"_For humans, fear is inherently vital to every aspect of their natural functions; it's one of the key mechanisms that helps to assure your survival, impractical and illogical by usual cybertronian standards but the course of your evolution on this world had dictated your format as such, what's true for the organism of one world is not necessarily true for another from another world. What you are is the sum of millions of years of a particular course of evolution that has determined an early warning system in the form of fear, namely the inherent knowledge that there are other organisms that can devour you"_

"Like you? You're a machine you don't even eat meat!"

"_No, but you do. The way you humans ravage your own planet, I could have been lead to believe you were sparked with the taste of blood on your tongues, always hungry, and always eager to watch something die...haven't you ever felt a sudden rush of fear when you least expect it?-"_ he smirked with a sly grin and in one fast move spun around and snapped his jaws right in front of Togusa's face, the detective flinched back but straightened up and stood his ground, he defiantly glared at the panther in the optic.

"_Heh, that's the fear I'm talking about..." _Ravage grinned as he slinked around the detective in a circle before stopping in front of him

"_You sensed what I was the second you first saw me? Even that first day we arrived into this world..."_ he continued

"Yes"

"_Then you've been angry not because of your lack of courage, but because you failed to act on your fear at the moment when you needed it the most"_

"I supposed"

"_But you know better now?...if you had the opportunity to go back in time, what would you do differently?"_

"...I would have pulled my revolver and shot your eye out"

"_Very good Togusa...I believe this is what some might call 'making progress' and you've come a long way in the time we've been talking"_ the panther smirked, Togusa merely glared at him.

"I think I'm going to end up hating you entirely when this is all over, if you were a human you would pass for a sadist"

"_Maybe, but I am a hunter and a killer. My nature is no more changeable than yours we both are what we are, and if we were one and the same species it would be 'karma'"_

"I still think you're twisted"

"_Perhaps, but it won't serve you any good to think like that while we're in this partnership, we've got a job to do, hunting those four humans will be a tough, and though it's only a feeling at this point, I think once we find them that won't be the end of it..."_

"And you're sure of that?"

"_Of course not, but I've lived long enough not to question that feeling when it's at the back of my CPU...either way, you might prove to be more than you think in all this. Don't doubt yourself; you've got more intuitive instinct than you think, use it well..." _Ravage grinned as he turned to walk towards the ramp at the far end of the parking lot level.

"Huh? What do you mean by that?"

"_...Like I said, I don't question that feeling, only go with it..." _he replied as he slowly paced along, Togusa dropped his gaze in thought as he considered his cryptic words; what was trying to put across? Be it philosophical or practical it didn't make sense, he turned back to ask but saw to his surprise that Ravage had gone. As he stood in the half dark parking lot he felt both confused and slightly frustrated. Ravage may have been the untrusting type but for some obscure reason, it felt like he had sheared a kind of wisdom that can only be interpreted on an instinctive level, true he wasn't scared like he was earlier and maybe he really did do him a small favour in that regard. But despite his twisted sense of humour, he suddenly remembered all the doubts he had held over his being an all natural human in section 9, and how in a surreal way it seemed to mirror Ravage's own position with the kids and Autobots. Just as he used his 'all human insight' to profile the criminal mind and guess the actions of the suspect for the section, so too that must be the principle reason as to why the Autobots valued him despite his character, he could think like the enemy and guess their moves so as to give the tactical advantage. Now that he thought about it, the four strangers were (by all and every known account) evil by nature, and maybe an evil mind was what it might take to catch another evil mind, for all that it was worth, it was a wild card only the Major would approve of.

As his mind spun with this invigoration of this hypothesis he ran back up the ramp, up to the elevators and pressed the button for the floor the Major's office was on, hopefully both she and the chief might still be there.

* * *

R&R, and please be kind this time round, my was all over the place when I did this chapter! .


	36. Chapter 35: Down To Buisness

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 35: DOWN TO BUISNESS

"Code 12384?"

"N-n-n-nope!"

"Bi-code 369?"

"S-s-stillnothing!"

"And what about the other 13 files on the E and C class levels?"

"N-n-nope! C-c-checked'em a-all, s-stillnothing!"

"Alright, we'll move onto the next lot, this time with the breakers on set D and keep the decryption code programme running at just under 15%, we can afford to keep the signal pace at a minimum while the firewall's still intact...I'll be back in a sec,"

"Your getting more coffee? That's your fifth cup and it's not even gone nine yet"

"Yeah well I need it, it's Monday and it's too damn early in the morning for me"

"Tough break kid 'cause your gonna be seeing a lot more early mornings with us. Hey if you're going up to the canteen, can you bring us down a few cups of the black stuff?"

"Sure..."

Danny rubbed his eyes and gaped his mouth wide open as he yawned, drawing in as much oxygen as possible to wake up his still half asleep brain, he was one of those individuals who always felt the Monday effect, and it always sucked. As he walked down the corridor he stopped to watch the city from one of the building's many wall windows. New Port certainly looked lovely in the morning, even if it was 8:12am and too early for his liking. After ambling his way to the elevator and navigating the corridors, he eventually arrived at the canteen. Grabbing a polystyrene cup and pressing the button on the coffee machine for a latté with milk and two sugars, he took one large swig and sat down at the window side bar and rested his head in his arms, just a few minutes rest for his tired eyes wouldn't hurt, and the other could wait for a few minutes. But just as he started drift off into a state of semi consciousness, he didn't hear the footsteps that approached from behind.

"Hey, you okay there?" Togusa asked as he pulled up a seat next to the redhead.

"Mmm? Oh. Morning Togusa" he mumbled as he tilted his head to the side.

"Not an early riser huh?"

"I hate Mondays" Danny grumbled

"Heh! I know what you mean, but it looks like you didn't get much sleep last night" Togusa commented as he noticed the faint dark patched beneath the teenager's eyes.

"We didn't get back to the safe house until gone 11:30, and I had to help Darren with making an automated switch for our 'cybercomms'; I don't think we finished until gone twelve-ish..." Danny replied as he lifted his right hand, revealing a silver ring covered with cybertronian glyphs and a tiny silver thread connected to the top which ran along the back of his hand and connected to the sleeve of his holo-form suite.

"How does it work?" Togusa asked

"The switch on the underside of the ring is triggered when you clench your fist; it's loaded with specialized sensors that can detect the difference between your fingers and another surface so as to prevent it switching on by accident"

"And you made them last night?"

"Helped to make them, their Darren's design"

"Geez, is there anything that kid can't do?" Togusa smiled

"If it's anything to do with computers and cybertronian tech, then no I'm afraid not" Danny chuckled

"But what about you? You're pretty good with that kinda stuff"

"Yeah, but it took me a bit longer to catch up, cybertronian's actually not that hard to learn, surprisingly. It's kinda the same principle of learning to ride a bike, it's hard at first but when you actually get moving and start to get a feel for it, the basics just seem to slot into place. I remember when D taught me and my cousins how to read it, it took us all less than a few weeks; which is weird in a way, 'cause most people struggle with learning new human languages nedalone an alien language" Danny said as he gazed out of the window.

"Hmm, guess you'll have to teach me sometime if it's not that hard to learn"

"_Hey Danny, you might wanna come back down here, I think we found something, and flip your holo-form back on, there's some more of those military dudes somewhere in the building" _Glen said over the comm.

"_On my way_...let's see what we got?" Danny said as he pushed himself up and stood up, turning on his holo-form. Togusa still couldn't get over at how it incredible it was for him to just flip a little switch and completely change his age and identity in a second. Even though he first met the Autobots and their charges only two weeks ago, he still found himself in awe at them. He followed the now late twenty something man back down to the dive room, where they found Ishikawa, Boma, Glen and Frenzy. Frenzy's head had several wires plugged in which were linked up to Glen's external hard-drive which fed into his laptop, which in turn was linked into one of the dive rooms hard drives. The chief, Major, Batou, and the rest of the kids were all gathered around the main monitor.

"Hey, what did you find?" Danny asked as he sat back down in his seat.

"We think we might have found something that could point us in the right direction" Glen replied.

"We've been going over Hidaka's financial assets and records, both with the ministry of foreign affairs and his own privet accounts with Kenbushi and several major privet online backs as well as several high profile E-stock and shares traders. I know they say a fool and his money are soon parted but this guy is anything but a fool when it comes to money. His stock portfolio is worth over 45 trillion yen and his contract fees with Kenbushi pay up to 30 million yen every year. Plus, aside from his links to the foreign affairs ministry and Kenbushi keeping his wallet topped up, he owns several major shares in the Megatec body corporation and a small number of wine banks in France, Italy and England. Basically, this is one really rich bad guy" Darren said

"So what did you find that might help us nab him?" Batou asked as he leaned on the back of Darren's chair.

"We went through all his financial records and he's got one hell of a system set-up. The files with the ministry and Kenbushi were pretty tough to get to but the attack barriers and firewalls that protect his personal files are built like a Kazakhstan bunker, and the fact that he's built most of the system's programmes to work manually made it all the more hard to slip through, there's no AI's controlling this system. But regardless, I looked over his assets concerning all his stocks and shares and found several inconsistencies between the outgoing margins of the Megatec shares, when I ran these past the records we dug up for his annual net worth figures, I found that even though the outgoing was anywhere between five to fifteen percent, the incoming revenue has been at eleven percent like clockwork over the past nine years. When we checked the figures against Megatec's overall revenue we found they didn't match, in all that time nearly 638 trillion yen is unaccounted for" Ishikawa explained.

"Holy crap! That's a hell of a lot 'a wonga!" Ashley said as he gawked at the figure on the main monitor. "Dude, that ain't a figure that's an intergalactic zip code!" Miles concurred

"On that note we dug a little deeper and found tucked away in a seven layered stealth barrier, a collection of files which we think might be his secret ledgers. The file's themselves are divided into two main sections, financial figures and financial transactions; it looks like he has more than just a third party helping him with his scheme because all the people he's done business with are referred to by their initials..." Darren said as he brought the data up on the main monitor, sure enough it showed Hidaka's 'business' transactions in detail, as the data scrolled down the screen, everyone was surprised to see just how many set's of initials there were.

"This can't be right, for this many people to be involved and have no-one notice somewhere down the line doesn't seem right" Togusa frowned

"Unless a majority of them are from other schemes he's been involved with over the years, look at the date stamps" the chief gestured to the numbers in the top right corner of the screen.

"October 2022? How long has he been under the radar? And what else has he been doing all that time?" Mikaela asked offhand

"I don't know, but we counted over 135 files" Boma replied, the whole group all glanced at one another in surprise

"This has got to be the evidence we need to arrest him" said Tom

"For every illegal activity listed her it will be, but we'll need to find the file that suggests or gives any reference to the Autobots in anyway, that way we can charge him with breach of national security" The chief replied

"That's what I thought, and look what Frenzy found hidden behind another stealth barrier..." Ishikawa said as he typed on the keyboard, on the main screen another file popped up, this one was red and wasn't numbered or titled in any way. As Ishikawa opened the file a video stream popped up and began to play, it was the Autobots battling the black HAW-206 tanks and the mantis-bots the day they first arrived into this world, everyone watched in stunned silence as memories of that day suddenly came back to mind. Another series of data windows popped up, displaying a series of financial sums and other financial transactions, along with several streams of bar-codes and numbered reference files.

"Where the hell did he get that video?" Sam gasped

"If he works for the foreign ministry then chances are he acquired it from section 6, they were meant to be there as back-up for us that night" the Major replied, as Ishikawa typed away on the keyboard, another file popped up, this time it was a large collection of image cells from the video feed with certain areas and portions of the Autobot's anatomy highlighted, next to which were small windows of data displaying what looked to be the starting prices for an auction, a wave of shock and anger spread through the group as they watched the data came up one by one on the main monitor. But for all their wanting to explode in a fit of rage at the men responsible for this unforgivable crime, in the back of their minds they knew it ultimately wouldn't serve any good (though one would be mad to say it wasn't tempting). For their part they kept their ire to themselves, though they couldn't keep it hidden as the section 9 team watched as the deep, albeit brief, silent storms of anger passed by and mellowed into glairs of mild irritation, lending to their incentives to catch theses criminals.

"Has anyone placed any bids yet? If it's an E-auction we could easily trace all the bidders by back hacking their link to the online auction site" Togusa suggested

"We checked that out already and we couldn't find any online addresses, it looks like the auction itself will be held at a secret location, the address of which has been encrypted and hidden in a random code programme, the same goes for the full names of Hidaka's clients and the accounts to which the bids are collected in. It'll take a while to decrypt them but in the meantime we can use Hidaka's online shares E-trade codes to see if we can find his 'backers'" Ishikawa replied.

"Excellent work, carry on with the decryptions and notify us the minute you have a list of the clients names and the address of the auction site. In the meantime, Major, Batou, Togusa, you'll join in Saito and Pazu staking out Hidaka at his home and work place, as for the rest of you stay close by and follow the Major's orders, the same goes for your friends down in the parking lot too" the chief said as he left the dive room, the kids and agents looked to one another in confusion, Sam was about to ask the chief something when the door slid shut behind him, he turned to the Major instead, who looked at him with that 'don't worry, we got this covered' look in her eyes.

"Did he, just say we're going on a stake out with you guys? I mean, for real 'bugging someone's apartment tailing them wherever they go staying up all hours of the night eating take-out' kinda stake out?" he asked, slightly tensely.

"Well? You got a problem with that?" the Major smirked in a slightly teasing way

"Uh No! Nono! It's just uh; I didn't expect your boss to be so, well-"

"Trusting of you all?" she finished for him; Sam looked at her nervously before relaxing his guard. He knew it was useless trying to soften a point, for she would only pierce right through it.

"Uh yeah, but seriously your cool with that? I mean 'cause I kinda thought with you being the field commander and having such standards and all I would have thought you would-OW!" Sam exclaimed as Ashley elbowed him in the ribs

"Ah shut it Witwicky and just run with it! Seriously though, you're cool with us helping you out in the field? Even though we're not cops?" the 12 year old asked

"The chief wouldn't have said so if he didn't think you were up for it, and considering how you've all handled yourselves thus far, I think you'll be fine, albeit you're going to have to learn on the spot since we don't have the time to put you through the fire-arms exam and preliminary field test, but we do have time for a quick debriefing, come on..." the Major replied with a confident smile as she beckoned them to follow, even gesturing for Danny, Darren and Glen to come along. Looking at one another in further bemusement, none of the kids said anything as they followed her close behind, all of them wondering just what she had in store for them.

"Think the chief made a good call on this one? Don't forget three of them are barely in their teens yet" Boma asked offhand as soon as the door closed.

"It feels weird, but look on the bright side, at least these kids don't need baby-sitting" Batou grinned as he left the room.

As the day wore on and the early morning waned into the mid-day hours, the sun beat down upon New Port as the city still bustled and thrummed with its never-stopping beat, but there was a lull in the pace of sorts as its inhabitants stopped to rest and replenish their strength with their lunch hours; a brief pause to have time to one's self, take time to reflect and prepare for the afternoon's work that lied ahead. The city was at rest, but for the kids and Autobots, it was anything but restful. It was loud, fast, bright, colourful, vibrant, and it thrummed with a rhythm never before heard.

The rhythm of human life, encompassing and vibrating with energy as it stirred the being and lifting the spirit to sing to its near eternal tune, beckoning all to join this dance of human life, beautifully choreographed to the balance of order and chaos, like the tides upon the shore. To follow the masses as they turned and weaved their ways to form living rivers of countless individuals, like ants along a trail or blood in the veins, everyone moved together as one without command nor direction, they just all knew where to go. And at every turn, there were new things to see, to hear, to smell and to touch, a virtual paragon of treasures for the senses and a wealth of stimulation for the mind, you could wonder this place forever, and though you might get lost it would not be a wasted journey.

At least, that's what the kids thought when they first stepped out of their guardians.

This was a city, unlike any that existed in their world.

Never in their young lives had they seen such buildings, structures and architecture of such vast and unreal proportions. Many of the skyscrapers looked as if they went on forever, for at their bases the lines of perspective didn't seem to stop, and some were so wide and clustered so close together that broad terraces and bridges stretched between them to form vast platforms for other equally impressive sized buildings and gardens, some even had tunnels built into them for highways to go through, a few even had roadways snaking along and around them like waterslides or rollercoaster tracks, forming a vast network of highways (the superhighways) that rose some fifty to sixty feet above the ground. Equally, many of the skyscrapers foundations were integrated into other huge subterranean structures, some were like strip mines, vast and wide, circular or curved pits lined with high-end boutiques and other stylish shops with bridges and elegantly shaped balconies that criss-crossed across the open space; while others were like geo-fronts, large expanses of space that dropped down sharply and were often lined with five star restaurants, cafe's, high class apartments for the upper classes, beautifully landscaped gardens, and in one in particular, a large river that flowed down from the mountains was allowed to cascade down some 70 feet into the bottom, to form a giant boating lake that looked to be some 600 yards wide, before being allowed to flow onwards to join the main waterways and out to the sea.

The sea too played an important part in shaping the city, the various river channels, cannels and wide estuarine rivers made it Japan's answer to Venice, all the grandeur, scale and romanticism, but with an Asian twist. The waterways were lined with shops, restaurants, homes and apartments and office blocks, and everywhere up and down the deep muddy waters boats of every size, shape and purpose drifted by, water taxis, water buses, water cafe's, even whole market stands atop barges drifted from stop to stop.

New Port was not just a city; it was a world of its own with its own climate and stratosphere.

As the (disguised by the holo-forms) kids gawked upwards at the vast (ground level) cityscape, standing on a balcony overlooking one of the many vast subterranean shopping plaza's that went some eighty feet down, and standing under a sky-bridge (giant modified balconies and bridges that support/hold other buildings) that extended for over 90 meters between two skyscrapers some further two hundred feet off the ground, Batou and Togusa looked at one another in amusement as they watched the kids lose their minds in disbelief, the sight of their bulging eyes, even with the holo-forms, brought a particular satisfying grin to Batou's face, The Major on the other hand, was starting to think that perhaps taking them out before hand to get use to it all would have been the better option, rather than just take them out and hope they could help do the work without distraction, obviously for a bunch of kids who had no city's like this where they came from, that was not the case.

But on the other hand, it did present the opportunity to see if how well they could keep their minds on the job, among a few other things she had in mind.

"That. Is so unreal" said the twins as they gawked up at the buildings.

"Dude, that's a mall between those buildings, and its 200 feet up in the air!" Miles said

"Who the hell designed this city? I wouldn't mind some of whatever they were sniffing" Tom grinned.

"I don't care how the hell this whole thing ends, I am so getting some photo's of this place before we go home!" Hailey concurred as she bounced back and forth on her heels.

"Just make sure she doesn't see any boutiques or she'll have a heart-attack" Sam whispered to Batou over his shoulder.

"Huh? Why?"

"Because she'll realize she didn't bring her dad's platinum card" Sam replied, at that Batou had to stifle a giggle, as did Sam and Miles.

"Okay, lunch is over, time to get down to business..." the Major said as she paced off, everyone fell into line and followed close behind, all the while the kids couldn't help but glance up and around as they walked along, occasionally bumping into people as they lost sight of their line of direction, at one point Miles accidently walked into a lamp post and fell flat on his back, electing a few giggles among the group, "eyes forward Miles" the Major said in a flat tone, though it wasn't very becoming of 'new section 9 rookie' she helped him up never the less. After navigating through a network of plaza's and small streets they soon arrived at a huge highway intersection, across the one of the roads Saito appeared from around one of the street corners and made his way over to the group.

"Nothing new to report, he hasn't moved from his office in the last hour, but his itinerary says he's got a meeting with the British and French ambassadors in half an hour. The Tachikoma's are keeping an eye on the IR system outside" the sniper said

"Alright, this is where we spit up; Tom, Hailey, twins, you'll be with Togusa, Ashley, Miles and Sam your with Batou, and Morri and Mikaela, your both coming with me, so remember, stay close and don't lose your concentration, report in at 16 hundred hours" the Major said "Rodger!" everyone replied and duly went off with their assigned partners. Morri noticed out the corner of her eye the Major shooting Batou a wink, bemused, but not wholly concerned she shrugged it off and followed the section 9 field commander.

"So what are we doing first?" Mikaela asked discreetly as she and Morri flanked the Major's sides as they walked along.

"First, we cover all the bases, there's a few places we need to check out before we begin the more serious work, this'll be a good chance for you two to learn firsthand how to pass off for being police officer's, you're going to need to know how to 'talk the talk' as well as 'walk the walk'..._and you're going to have to get used to using the cybercomms, there are something's that have to stay privet when out in the field_" said the Major, meeting both their eyes with sideways glances, the girls both gave a discreet nod and flipped the ring switches in their palms, a slight ping in their earpieces signalled the comms being activated.

"_So basically just watch and learn huh?"_ Morri asked with a small smirk

"_That's the idea, and make sure your paying attention; I'll be pop quizzing you both later"_ the Major smirked, the girls looked at one another puzzled, whatever she had in store they knew they'd find out sooner or later.

For the next two hours the Major lead the way to the more 'glamorous' areas of town, namely the outskirts of the more seedier areas that consisted of high class strip clubs and bars, shops that sold fake or illegally attained goods (not that anyone in this end of town was in the habit of asking questions) and underground meeting places for the less honourable of society, generally, this was the place to come if you needed information, and not the kind that could easily be attained from the other police agencies. As she went to work with her 'line of inquiries' (namely shaking down the Yakuza and loan shark underlings, or anyone else she knew had the information she needed), Morri and Mikaela hung back as they watched her work. Like a mother wolf teaching her cubs how to hunt, the Major was particular in pointing out the essentials; how to stand and look with an intimidating presence, how to grab someone's attention with a simple gesture, how to pick up subtle cues in a conversation and how to hold someone's gaze with a single look. She also pointed out the importance of feminine wiles for getting the necessary goods. Though it was tough to not to break out into giggles nedalone smiles, the younger girls were finding this 'field trip' to be quite fun in a strange way, it felt risky and daring, as if they were breaking the rules and getting away with it. For Mikaela it brought back memories of her younger days with her father, the little thrill she used to feel when they jacked each car in the dead of night, the same thrill swelled up inside and egged her on to learn all she could. For Morri, it was a conflict of consciousness that gradually gave way to the conclusion of 'this needs to be done, for the guy's sake'; once or twice she wanted to ask the Major if this was really necessary, but the Major sensed her slight unease and at times reassured her with a 'don't worry, you'll be fine' look, deciding to throw caution to the wind and trust the Major's intuition, Morri said nothing and watched and learned as they continued through the town. The Major too found this little exercise to be both interesting and somewhat enjoyable, it wasn't everyday that you got to have a bit of fun on the job with two 'rookies' that were good at learning on the spot (they certainly proved to be more competent and attentive then most rookies in some of the other public security sectors). For a moment she really wished they were real rookies, at the rate they catching on they could pass for being good section 9 agents in no time. Finally they arrived outside a rather tacky looking underground cocktail bar, another obvious meeting place for those of a criminal persuasion.

"So what are we looking for in this place?" Morri asked

"To see how well you've both been learning, this is your pop quiz..." The Major smirked; the girls glanced sideways at one another and braced themselves for whatever was coming next.

"So, who's got what in this place?" Mikaela cautiously asked

"A guy by the name of Nohara comes here regularly for his daily martini and olive; he's a go-between for some guys in the Niihama Express and the Nagasaki Times and there's a certain piece of Intel he's promised to share with me before he takes it to the highest paying journalist. Here. Give this to him, tell him it's the 'regular payment' and mention me by name, he won't refute but he won't necessarily hand it over just like that, you're going to have to smart with him, and convince him your not to be messed with, he catches on fast so he won't argue..." the Major continued, slipping a small piece of paper with a bar-code printed on into Mikaela's hand, they both looked at the Major with a pair of 'are you sure about this?' looks.

"When you go in, ask the barman for the back room, he'll know what you're talking about. And don't worry, I won't be far away..." the Major smirked and flipped on her therm-optic camouflage, disappearing into the street. Morri and Mikaela both looked at one another, then at the front door and shrugged. "Well here we go" Morri said in a hushed voice. Keeping their backs straight and sucking in deep breaths, they both entered the bar, remembering the Major's lessons in making a good appearance they both walked down the stairs and across the floor in an alluring way, catching the barman's gaze with an equally sexy flutter of the eyelids, he found that couldn't turn away as they glided towards him. He was a big guy with obvious cyberizations done to his head, smartly dressed in a waiters uniform he was obviously a muscle man with a piercing through his lower lip and had a half cast African profile, though he looked big and tough, he seemed to turn slightly bashful as they approached, 'wow, I can't believe this works' Morri secretly thought.

"Uh, um, what can I do for you pretty ladies?" he asked in a sweet and gentle voice.

"We're looking for the back room please?" Mikaela asked sweetly, the barman looked at her with a knowing look and smiled

"Right this way please" he smiled, and lead them behind the bar, through to a door which opened out into a larger bar with several people sat at various tables, they all noticed the young women enter with casual glances, all but one noticed them come in, he was a scruffy looking chap with messy unkempt hair and a note book sticking out of one pocket of his neatly pressed suite, and on the table next to him was a martini glass with an olive floating in the drink.

"_That must be him" _Morri said through the comm, Mikaela nodded in reply.

"Would you ladies care for any refreshments?" the barman asked trying to show off as polite.

"We'll be fine thank you" Morri replied as she and Mikaela both gave a slight bow and proceeded towards their target. As they approached the table the man looked up and acknowledged them with a discreet nod, to which they returned the gesture, he looked them up and down as they leaned against either corner of the table opposite him in an alluring way, making sure they both had his full attention, he smirked in a sly way which seemed to suggest he thought they had something on offer. Perfect, he was right where they wanted him, with the Major's words in the back of their minds, they proceeded.

"What can I do for you two?" he grinned, the girls glanced at one another with a smirk, Mikaela held up the piece of paper leaned forward slightly.

"The Major sent us; you have something she's interested in" Mikaela said, the man looked at her with a quirked eyebrow as the grin on his face steadily turned into a slightly incredulous look.

"Is that so? I don't see my regular payment anywhere" he said folding his arms, Mikaela placed the piece of paper down on the table and slid it towards him, being sure to let her fingers linger over the paper as she pulled her hand away, the man looked at the paper and the bar-code upon it, from out of his pocket he produced a tiny black rectangular micro chip, reading his expression, Morri could see he had something in mind, frowning, she raised her guard and slid along next to Mikeala.

"Is that it?" Mikaela asked

"Of course"

"So why don't you just hand it over?" she asked

"Why would I? This particular piece of Intel's quite sensitive, and I don't think the regular payment is going to cover it this time round" he said with a sly grin

"Really? Because that's too bad, we'll then have to tell the Major...and I'm sure you know how she doesn't like to be disappointed" Morri said with a small taunting smirk.

"Why the hell did she send you two? She usually comes in person" he retorted as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"She's busy giving someone a wrapping over the knuckles, which will be you very shortly if you don't hand it over" Morri replied, Mikaela slid off the table and moved off to the man's side, staying just behind his shoulder.

"Oh please, you seriously expect me to buy that bluff?" he sarcastically retorted, Morri glanced up at Mikaela with a nod, she understood Morri's cue and returned the gesture.

"No, but I expect you to get this subtle hint..." Morri grinned, in one quick move Mikaela pulled his chair back until he fell flat on his back with his legs in the air, and before he could get up Morri quickly pinned the guy down, holding him down by the neck with her foot, her heel dug uncomfortably into the side of his neck, prompting him to stop his struggling. Everyone in the bar noticed this but said nothing and returned to their drinks, this was not the kind of place where you stepped into other people's business; it was a sure fired way to getting on the wrong side of the wrong person in this end of town, and these girls certainly looked to be no exception. With a seductive twist of the hips and legs, Mikaela knelt down next him with a sweet and innocent smile. "Now we're gonna ask you nicely, if you hand over what we need and accept the payment, we'll leave this whole little altercation out when we report back to the Major, what do you say?" she asked, he looked between back and forth between them and finally relented with a sigh of defeat, he held up the micro chip, which Mikaela snatched up and stashed away in her pocket while Morri removed her foot, allowing him to get back up.

"Thank you" Morri sweetly replied

"Geez, where the hell did she find you two?" he glared at them both as he rubbed his neck.

"If we told you that, you'd be as smart as us, and can't have that now can we?" Morri replied smugly as they turned to leave for the door, the guy simply watched them leave in bemusement. 'Since when the hell did she start sending out lackeys to do her job for her?' was all he could think as he watched them disappear up the stairs.

"Oh, leaving so soon?" the barman asked as he watched them emerge from the back room.

"Afraid so, sorry but we got people to see, places to be, maybe another time" Mikaela politely replied and they both duly exited the bar, as he watched them disappear he passed a melancholy sigh, wishing he had asked for their numbers.

"Well, I see your old habits haven't changed much?" the Major's voice said from behind.

"GHA!" he jumped in surprise

"Still a big baby as always, you know I don't bite, much" she said, he could practically hear the smirk in her voice, realising who it was, he relaxed a little.

"Oh it's you, don't scare me like that" he replied

"Hmm...So how long were you listening at the door?" she asked, his eyebrows flew up in surprise, realising what she meant.

"You knew?...What? Were they?-"

"Just some new recruits on their first field test" she replied, he looked at the empty space where her voice was coming from and gave a small smile.

"Ah, so that explains the message you sent me ten minutes ago about Nohara, you needed some fresh meat for them to try out, it's not often that you set something special up for new recruits, they must be special" he said

"You could say that; thanks for the favour, and tell Nohara I'll talk with the DEA about cutting him a deal if he pleads guilty to that incident concerning the press leak on those witnesses in the Nagaoka murder case, he'll know what you're talking about...and of course I'll pay you in cash, same as always" the Major said as she slipped him a small piece of paper with a bar-code printed on, she slipped away and started walking up the stairs.

"Hey wait, if your girls aced their test you can treat them to a few drinks, it's on the house" he called up the stairs.

"A generous offer; and we would take you up on it if you actually had anything that wasn't a generic brand or watered down" she replied

"That's a little uncalled for" he simply replied

"See you later Buranamo" she replied as the door closed behind her. Down the street the girls leaned against a wall, breathing a few sighs of relief as they regained themselves.

"Hell am I glad that's over, you didn't think we overdid it a little do you?" Morri asked, "I don't know, I hope not, at least we got the Intel" Mikaela replied as she pulled the little micro chip out of her pocket and rolled it back and forth between her fingers, "Yeah, but where was the Major?" Morri thought aloud, "I did say I wouldn't be far away..." the Major smiled as she reappeared in front of them.

"And from where I was standing, I'd say you both passed with straight A's" she continued with a satisfying look, the girls both looked at one another in a mix of excitement and slight confusion, "So, does this mean we're going to be joining you on a lot more of these little 'intel gathering trips'?" Morri asked cautiously; "Well it's a start, at least I know you two can handle yourselves, there'll be times when those kinds of skills will be needed in much tighter situations, but for a first time, you did real good" the Major replied with a smile. Feeling a measure of relief the girls allowed themselves to relax, but Mikaela straightened her back as a feeling of slight alarm went through her. Both the Major and Morri noticed the startled look on her face.

"Wait a sec, if this whole afternoon was you're way of teaching us the ropes, then what did Batou have in mind with Ashley, Miles and Sam in tow?" she said, both women were speechless for a moment before Morri face palmed her forehead with a particularly loud smack and the Major frowned with a sour look on her face.

"Oh my god..." was all Morri could sigh.

Meanwhile, halfway across the city in another seedy neighbourhood, Batou and the boys had been having quite an afternoon.

That is to say, when Ashley (rather cheekily) joked to Batou that Sam was somewhat of a geek and that Miles was descended from a long line of hippys 'going all the way back to the age of Woodstock', he decided to take it upon himself to help the lads 'toughen up' and show them the intricate art of interrogation.

The said interrogation included storming one of the neighbourhood yakuza hideouts and taking on every thug and underling that came at them until they could get to the middle men hiding in the back rooms of the establishment. Miles (in all his impulsive and alternative wisdom) believed he had somehow strayed into some Tarantino style kung-fu movie and had acted accordingly with a flurry of crude yet still effective karate moves and an even cruder set of one liners (with the BSHB on his back enabling him to do practically anything, taking on a bunch of yakuza thugs was a way to really indulge in a few 'boys romp' fantasy's), Sam however was not so enthusiastic, whilst cheering his 'bro' on he kept to the sides of the room, dodging every bad guy that was knocked out and sent flying, whilst simultaneously trying not to completely freak out as Batou and Ashley took the lead, contently taking delight in the whirl of chaos of bloody knuckles and broken noses.

"_You know Bayou, It's a real crying shame I ain't a real rookie, 'cause I could really get use to this!" _Ashley grinned as he swung a left hook into one guy's chin, Batou grinned in satisfaction as he watched the kid take a flying kick, knocking four guys in a row right through a plaster board wall and then flipped around to punch another guy out cold.

"_Kid, at this rate, you're the rookie I wish I had!"_

"_Uh, you guys DO know the girls are totally gonna nail our nuts to the wall for this?"_ Sam asked in alarm as Batou knocked another bad guy out

"_Relax bro! We totally got this covered! Look out dudes it looks like their bringin' out the big guns!...LITERALLY!" _

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Another semi-stand-alone chapter, & this one starred a charcture from episode 4 of first Gig, did you spot him? (five points & a cookie to the winner! XD) R&R on your way out please! :)


	37. Chapter 36: Hot Wax & Small Talk

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.

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SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 36: HOT WAX AND SMALL TALK

"Now...you all know what to do, you've got the soap, you've got the hose, you've got the buckets and you've all got sponges, squeegee's and towels, and when we get back tonight I expect to see my reflection his aft plates! The Major has assured me that unless there's a state of national emergency, you four twits are staying here for the rest of the day to think about what you did! You have permission to stop for lunch and bathroom breaks, but otherwise, I suggest you get scrubbing!" Morri reprimanded sternly as she strode off towards Bumblebee and climbed in next to Mikaela and Hailey.

"Why the hell am I being punished here? I didn't even throw a single a punch!" Sam retorted in a mild panic

"Because Witwicky, It'll teach you to think better about letting mister Terminator over there talk you into it!...honestly Sam, you are SUCH a little girl!" the 22 year old gestured over to Batou, who simply stood on the spot with a mock hurt expression on his face.

"I don't get it why the hell did the Major let you pick this out?" Miles asked

"Kid, would YOU rather let the Major deal the punishment?" Batou asked with a deadpan look, at that Miles and the others winced at the thought of the Major handing down some iron fisted punishment for them. Various nasty little thoughts tugged at their minds as they imagined fates far worse than this.

The day before was supposed to have been a day for section 9 to assess just what the kids could do out in the field, the Major's assessment of Morri and Mikaela had passed with flying colours, and Togusa's assessment of Tom and the Waineright sisters had been a success, even Danny, Darren and Glen had proven to be class A hackers by Ishikawa and Boma's account.

Batou's assessment however, had proven to be quite...interesting to say the least.

After they managed to obtain the necessary Intel and make a quick and (somewhat less than) discreet getaway before the local police showed up, Batou, Ashley, Sam and Miles returned to section 9 HQ looking like they had just been through the battle of the Somme in one quick go. Both the Major and Morri were stunned, speechless (at first) and puzzled. The four of them were a mess, covered in cuts, scrapes, blood stains (most of which were not theirs), gun powder residue (from when the yakuza thugs brought out their fully automatics loaded with heavy armour-piercing rounds, fortunately Ashley's force field saved them from being turned into Swiss cheese), soot (from when, as a last resort, they threw a grenade at them and blew them clear out of the building, they were on the 8th floor of an apartment block), and torn pieces of laundry (from the dry-cleaners they crashed into on the ground floor, the rest of their injuries were from the beatings they got courtesy of the ladies washing their undergarments who thought they were a bunch of perverts). Needless to say, even the Major couldn't believe their explanation, even when Batou had to share his external memory of the whole event; the others fell over one another as they watched it on the main monitor in the debriefing room. Glen nearly choked when a piece of doughnut got stuck in his throat whilst laughing, prompting one the Tachikoma's to attempt the Heimlich manoeuvre on him, Ishikawa laughed so hard he had to lie down for over 20 minutes and Frenzy giggled so fast his CPU nearly fried and had to be put in the canteen refrigerator to cool down (literally) for over an hour. Everyone else just fell over one another in a fit of paralyzing laughter, even the other Autobots (who were parked in the HQ parking lot) accidently set off their own car alarms as they laughed so hard too. After the whole section had calmed down the Major decided to let Morri deal the punishment, saying:

"At this point its better you then me, I'm just going to be too cruel..."

No-one said anything, and the boys and ex-ranger certainly didn't argue.

Which had lead to this current situation, it was the following day and Batou had been ordered the day before to report to the underground safe house first thing in the morning. He, along with Sam, Ashley and Miles were giving the task of giving Deathshot a thorough wash and wax from nose cone to tail fin. Standing in a line with buckets and sponges in hand, looking up at the 30 foot Autobot sniper, the four of them gawked as they realised just how mush armour there was on him to wash, Deathshot merely smirked down at them with a distinct 'it's your own fault you got into this' look with his arms folded.

"D, you're in charge, and don't let them sweet-talk you into slacking off!" Morri called up to him as Bumblebee rode alongside his foot.

"Don't worry, they're not going anywhere" he grinned

"And if they do escape, we'll go an' drag 'em back!" Sideswipe piped up from behind the sniper's broad wings, to which the sniper's grin dropped and was replaced with a deadpan look, the red twin never failed to get on his nerves.

"See you guys later!" Morri simply said as Bumblebee followed Jazz and the others up the ramp and out of safe house, when the ramp finally closed up, the four guys looked up back up at Deathshot and sighed.

"Well, I recommend that if you want to be finished by tonight, you better get scrubbing..." Deathshot said as he took a step back and transformed back into his alt mode and situated himself into the centre of the underground garage. Near the computer terminals Jetfire was still recharging in his alt mode and the Lambo twins had both sat down by the wall, each with an energon cube in hand, ready to keep an optic on the four humans whilst Scorponok sat curled up in the corner under some tarpaulins, his only means of retreating 'underground' on account he didn't like to burrow through concrete, he found it was too hard on his claws. Batou looked down at the assortment of buckets, cleaning solutions, sponges, squeegee's, mops and the long hose that was hooked up to the safe houses water supply, and passed a deep sigh.

"Alright, were would you like us to start?" he huffed

"Anywhere you please, I'm not particularly bothered...although, my top side guns could do with a good wash" Deathshot recommended via his loud speakers on the side compartments of his canopy. "Alright, forward plasma lazars or rear anti-aircraft guns?" Ashley asked, "Start with the front most one's, that way you can work your way to my rear quarters" the sniper replied. Batou propped a ladder against the side of his nose cone and climbed up onto the top of the sniper's canopy and wings, from where he stood he could see just how big Deathshot's alt mode really was, as the sniper swung his main wings out the ex-ranger estimated the wingspan to be 50 to 55 feet across whilst his fore-wings were about 25 feet across, it was certainly impressive. Behind him Sam, Miles and Ashley climbed up with a couple of buckets, sponges and mops in hand and placed them behind the base of the cockpit. After a few minutes filling up the buckets with both ordinary and soapy water, the four humans rolled up their sleeves and got to work; Deathshot popped open a pair of small elongated compartments on either side of the front of his cockpit and two long black gun barrels slid out with a whir and locked in place with a thunk. Further back along the fuselage at the base of his vertical tail fin, Deathshot opened another two compartments and produced two larger and slightly more stocky looking guns that clanked into place, the four humans spit up into pairs, Batou and Ashley took the frontal guns whilst Sam and Miles took the rear ones and together they got started. By this time the sounds of creaking rusted metal and squeaky unoiled joints alerted them to Jetfire, who had woken up and transformed back into mech mode, as he stretched his wings and arms upwards various flakes of rusted metal fell off him, even his vents and air-intakes clanked and whirred like an old broken down engine as he passed the Autobot equivalent of a big yawn of air out of his after burners. Looking around the garage area, he noticed the four humans perched on top of Deathshot's fuselage.

"Hmmm, so this is your punishment for your little escapades yesterday eh?" he smirked as he grabbed his walking stick and ambled over. Ashley blinked in surprise.

"You knew she had this in mind?" the 12 year old exclaimed in disbelief.

"Well of course, your femme cousin was rather ticked off last night, and her recharge bunk is right next to my recharge space, I could hear her entire rant through the air vent in the wall" the old seeker replied

"Yeah! She made Sunny look like a turbo-mouse the way she was about to blow a few fuses!" Sideswipe peeped up, which quickly got him a smack around the back of his helm from his brother. Ashley dropped his head for a brief second before looking back up at the seeker with a slight look of regret on his face.

"She was really that angry? I know we kinda got a little carried away yesterday but it's not like we totally screwed it up" he said

"Yeah dude, I mean, we got the Intel and managed to get away?" Miles concurred

"Yeah? Only AFTER we got blown outta the apartment and landed in that dry cleaners full of 40-something year old house-wives who beat the crap outta us because they thought we were there to sniff their g-strings and y-fronts! Not to mention we couldn't use our BSHB's because we could've blown our cover right there and then!" Sam retorted in annoyance. Ashley looked at him with a deadpan face.

"If you're still sore about that fat lady nearly slicing your nuts off I've already said I'm sorry! How was I supposed to know she had a set of straight razors in her purse?" Ashley argued

"At least you didn't get bitten by that little old lady!" Miles piped in

"The one with the walking stick and the glasses that were several sizes too big? I thought she had false teeth? I found' em on the floor" said Sam

"That was after she spat them at me from across the room and they bit me on the neck! Dude, I swear she was like Dracula's Grandma or some' thin!" the blond teen replied as he rubbed the sore bite mark on the side of his neck

"Oh, so that's where you got the love bite?..." Batou teased with a grin.

"I don't know why you're looking so pleased; didn't that lady in the pink overcoat try to land you one in the nuts with that bra loaded with a pair of watermelons?" Ashley smirked

"He nearly did, I barely got outta the way before he went flying out the front door and into that lamp-post" the ex-ranger sniggered

"But you-Wait a minute HE? She was a HE? How did you-" Sam squeaked in surprise

"I grabbed his overcoat to try and stop him, but part of the skirt ripped and I uh, accidently got a peek between his legs" Batou winced with a painful looking grin, secretly wishing he'd have let the guy fall and never know. They all stopped and looked between one another in surprise, then broke out into laughter. Jetfire merely rolled optics as he strode over to the portable mini energon processor and poured himself a small cube of the pink stuff.

"Well, even if the girls gave us a right royal chewing out, at least it was fun!" Ashley chuckled

"Yeah if your idea of a fun day out is beating up a load of yakuza punks" Sam replied in a deadpan tone.

"Aw come on Witwicky!...look, the important thing is that we got out alive and with all our extremities intact" Ashley reassured

"And considering how well those pricks were armed, compared to us with our bare fists, it shows just how well we had it covered" Batou concurred, Sam simply glared at him but said nothing, he wasn't in the mood to argue today and simply returned to scrubbing down the rear guns.

"I have to admit Ashley, I was somewhat worried from where I was hovering, but from the BSHB bio readings I could see you were doing fairly well in terms of your hand to hand combat, I guess Ravage's teachings really paid off" Deathshot said via his loudspeakers.

"I have to say, his high level melee skills certainly got the job done, though it was hard to learn them on account I don't have a tail" Ashley grinned

"Hey that's something I've been meaning to ask you, how did Ravage become your combat teacher in the first place?" Batou asked curiously

"Well, after I first learnt how to master the BSHB Jazz and D agreed he could be my combat teacher, he made a good point of saying that it was better that I learn how to use it responsibly rather then not know and inadvertently cause an accident" Ashley replied

"Makes sense, but what if you weren't allowed to use it? Could it easily be removed?" Batou asked

"Of course it can be removed, but suffice to say the machine to do that is back in our world, the BSHB isn't just stuck to the top layer of skin, its physically bonded to the human body's major systems, if it were to be simply ripped out you'd run the risk of sending the nervous system into shock, or worse" Deathshot replied, at that, Batou quirked an eyebrow. "So, you guys were first freaked out at the fact I'm a cyborg yet you had an alien device strapped into your bodies this whole time?" he continued, Sam and Miles looked at one another in bemusement as they both suddenly realized the irony of the ex-ranger's observation.

"Damn! Why didn't we see THAT before?" Sam said offhand

"You only JUST realized that?" Ashley replied, Batou looked at them and simply grinned, "Dude, at this point, I don't think it really matters anymore, what's one bit of alien tech thrown in with a cyberpunk world?" Miles grinned

"Cyberpunk?" Batou asked

"Never mind, I'll let the twins explain that one, their all into manga and anime" Ashley piped in. After a while the guys finished cleaning the guns, Deathshot folded them away and they got started on the rest of the fuselage and canopy.

"...You know I've been thinking..." Mile said offhand

"Uh oh! Run for cover!" Ashley joked; Mile shot him a sarcastic look.

"Yeah yeah, anyway; I was thinking, when Wheeljack finally gets the DRD working again and he and the others manage to come through to this world, if we're still investigating those four creeps by the time they come, what do we tell them? It's not like we can just the whole thing and just go back" Miles said, the others stopped and looked up at him for a brief second in thought.

"I'm sure Prime will understand when we explain it all, and I'm sure he wouldn't make us abandon our responsibility's, after all, he would do no less that's for sure" Jetfire replied

"But it does beg the question, what will happen when they do eventually come for us? Besides the military presence at the dome to contend with, there's also the fact that they won't have any idea about what technology the humans of this world have. Even though they were primitive, those HAW-206 tanks were much better built and re-enforced than the A1 Abram's tanks back at NEST, and those choppers that came for us at the first safe house were pretty formidable, even I had a little trouble keeping up with their manoeuvrability" Deathshot replied

"YOU had trouble keeping up with the Jigabatchi's? Seriously? You were like an eagle taking on a sparrow the way you were slicing them up with those talon's of yours! I actually felt sorry for the pilots in those choppers that night they came for us" Batou exclaimed in amazement

"Well I have to say; those Jigabatchi's are certainly capable of holding their own against a ground-based opponent, but suffice to say, I was built to take on far bigger machines in airborne battles and compared to a lot of Decepticon's I've put down over the eons they would come close to passing for decent scout drones" the sniper replied casually

"Do you really have to be so modest? It's unbecoming of a sniper like you" Sunstreaker said with an impassive glare

"Wow Sunny, since when did you start paying compliments?" Sam said as he hosed down the topside of Deathshot's right wing; the golden warrior merely glared at the teen with a cold look.

"He never compliments anyone, and when he does, he'll only say it to slag them off" Sideswipe quipped

"Why doesn't he like humans anyway? The rest of you guys are pretty decent but why not him?" Batou whispered to Sam as the thumbed towards Sunstreaker behind him. Sunstreaker heard him but simply folded his arms and huffed through his vents in annoyance (it hadn't been the first time some human had asked one of the other bot that question).

"Because I honestly don't see why the slag we have to bother with such a primitive species that can't go more than 10 years at a time without a war of some kind, the fact you haven't blown yourselves into extinction by now is truly incredible..." Sunstreaker replied curtly, Batou couldn't help but feel a mix of annoyance and guilt as he remembered his days during the fourth world war, back when he ran with the Rangers. The atrocities inflicted on the innocent thanks in part to the CIA's project sunset. Maybe he was right, maybe war was something; that in some twisted and unfathomable way humanity couldn't seem to live without, it made him feel a soft pang of shame somewhere deep inside.

"Oh pay no attention to his slag! You're not the first organic sentient being he's slagged off, and you certainly won't be the last! Some bots just can't appreciate the fact that organic life on some worlds is capable of attaining sentience. Don't forget, there was once a time in our people's history when the idea of organic life becoming sentient was laughed at, no-one would ever take you seriously if you asked!" Jetfire replied as he took another swig from his cube.

"I suppose that makes sense in way, there was a time long ago when humans thought the whole earth was flat" Batou thought aloud.

"You actually thought the earth was flat!-" Sideswiped exclaimed in surprise before he keeled over onto the floor in a fit of laughter, his brother merely rolled his optics and huffed as Jetfire looked on unimpressed.

"Anyway; what was your home planet like before the war?" Batou asked

"Ahh, it was a glorious sight to behold..." Jetfire said as he held up his hand and activated his hologram projector, an enormous ten meter high image of Cybertron materialized in mid-air next to Deathshot's right wing, the four human males stopped scrubbing as they looked up at the image in wonder, Batou was in awe at how intricate the surface of the planet was. It looked as if it were covered by an endless city with tiny pointed spires reaching up into the atmosphere, like rows and rows of pins and needles; on certain areas of the sphere were vast areas of silvery-grey flat ground with pattered lines and cybertronian glyphs embedded in the ground, similar to the Nazca lines of Peru, the whole planet looked more like a vast endless computer-like entity rather than a sphere of rock.

"That's Cybertron?" Batou breathed

"Oh yes, this right here was the planet's capital city state of Iacon, where I got my first upgrade..." Jetfire pointed to a large area on the Northern hemisphere very near the North Pole, Batou noticed a large looking structure right on the North Pole of the planet that seemed to be a pyramid shaped pagoda of some kind with four tall towers on each of its corners.

"What's that structure right at the top?" he asked

"That? Ah, that was the temple of Primus; and the seat of the Allspark, this was where its power flowed into the whole planet" Jetfire replied, the hologram changed, showing a close-up of the temple itself. The entire complex seemed vast as the main temple seemed to stretch high into the strange blueish-orange sky. The building itself was surreal and unrealistic as it looked more like seven pyramids piled on top of one another, each pyramid getting smaller the further up it went, the entire surface was covered in intricate detailed images depicting various cyberonian scenes, tall bipedal bots interacting with other strange creatures and various star like shapes intertwined with cybertronian writing. The buildings four corner were flanked by tall towers that resembled the Chrysler building with warped arches covering their surfaces. A huge wall surrounded the building in a vast wide circle, its only opening being a tall gate flanked by two hexagon-shaped towers and two huge robot-like statutes either side of the entrance. Within the circular complex was a forest of silver tree-like structures similar to the North American redwoods, tiny pathways snaked in and out and connected to a series of smaller towers whose tops barely reached above the treetops. It was more than just impressive, it seemed to actually have a spiritual essence to it, as though one were gazing at the Taj Mahal or wandering through Vatican City, though it was only a hologram, it seemed to hold a power all of its own, and simply looking at seemed to send a feeling of some sort of spirituality through the mind.

"Wow, you've never told us about THAT place before?" Miles said as he leaned in to have a closer look

"You never bothered to ask!" the seeker replied

"That's the temple of Primus? I heard Perceptor talk about once, said it was kinda like the Vatican, you know, the centre and birthplace of the Order of Primus?" Sam said offhand

"Indeed, this is place where the Allspark breathed life into our world after creating it, and this was where Optimas and Megatron originally resided" Jetfire replied

"Megatron? But I thought you said he was the one who started the war?" Batou asked offhand

"He was, but he was also Prime's brother, they were sparked merely 5 solar cycles apart making Megatron the eldest sibling, of course this fact wasn't well known to the general populous, and most couldn't believe it anyway considering how stark their differences in personality's were" the old seeker replied, Batou eyebrows flew up in surprise.

"Megatron was his brother?" he breathed in amazement

"That's what we said when Ultra Magnas first told us, talk about being the black sheep of the family, it was bad enough Megatron wanted to use the Allspark for universal conquest, the fact he was Prime's own flesh and blood, so to speak, made it all the more personal for him...no wonder he wasn't keen to talk about the subject too much when we asked" said Sam as he mopped a section of Deathshot's wing

"That was just the half of it. It was bad enough Prime had to go up against his own brother, but he had to protect his sister from him too" Jetfire replied, everyone's ear's/audio's pricked up at the last nine words he spoke, the twins leaned in closer while the three human boys stood bolt up in surprise, the metal under their feet jolted slightly as Deathshot too had been taken aback by this revelation.

"What?"

"A sister?"

"Prime had a sister?" asked Sideswipe

"Not just any sister, she was Megatron's TWIN sister..." he replied with a cryptic look in his red optics, the Lambo twins were stunned, for once Sunstreaker didn't know what to say.

"I don't recall ever coming across the mention of Megatron having a sister?" Deathshot mused aloud

"That's because Prime made sure there never was, he went to great lengths to protect her and her daughters from her brother's wrath, which included expunging all the data records of their existence and whereabouts" Jetfire replied

"But...why? What happened? And who was she?" Ashley asked, Jetfire leaned back against the wall, took a long swig of energon from his cube and heaved sigh through his vents.

"Her name was Majestrix Prima and she was the first femme in Cybertronian history to be in line for the title of Prime on account she was a descendant of the first original Primes. When they were younglings she and Megatron used to be fairly close, being twins naturally they shared everything together, but when Optimus was sparked and first came online he so jealous of his little brother getting all the attention, so she used to protect him from his older brother's bullying. As time went on and they grew older their sibling rivalry levelled out and when the time came that they were named the new Primes and guardians of the Allspark they actually got along okay, albeit Optimas had to keep his brother in check on account of his temper. For a long time there was peace upon our world and all was fairly well...but, good things never last long and over time Megatron began change; he became more recluse, more edgy, and more volatile. He and Prime began to argue more over how they should govern the planet as well as other things, but what really alarmed everyone was how he began to shut Majestrix out, even blocking her spark link out..." Jetfire explained; the twins stared in morbid horror at the ancient seeker.

"What's wrong with you two?" Batou asked offhand

"Is that supposed to be a joke? HE BLOCKED OUT THEIR SPARK LINK! That's like, we always knew he was evil, but it proves he was ULTRA EVIL beyond all measure!" Sideswipe shouted in a mix of rage and hurt, the humans jumped back as his voice echoed loudly around the hanger.

"Geez! Do you HAVE to be so loud?" Sam replied as he rubbed his ears, then huffed in annoyance as he suddenly realised he just rubbed his ears with wet soapy hands.

"What he means is...do you remember back at the first safe house Bumblebee explained how twin sparks are formed?" Jetfire asked, "Yeah, he did mention that" Batou replied, "When twin sparks are formed, they're essentially the same spark split down the middle so they pulsate on the exact same wavelength, a wavelength that retains a subtle yet potent link between the sparks so no matter how far apart they are the sparks are always aware of each of other's presence; essentially this make's cybertronian twins empathic, if one is happy the other becomes happy and so on, which is why you never see these twits far away from each other..." Jetfire gestured to the twins "Severing the link requires a powerful will, angry, painful, even hurtful emotions in order to drive the other twin away. The fact Megatron managed to shut out his twin sister's spark link without incurring the usual feelings of loneliness, despair and sorrow that follows the severing, gave everyone involved at the time a real impression into the depth of his mental state" Jetfire sighed

"So that's why it's so terrible for you two, being rejected by your own twin wouldn't just hurt emotionally, it would literally feel like you lost part of your soul" Batou said offhand in a solemn tone as he looked over at the two twins sat close to one another, Sunstreaker hung his head impassively as Sideswipe put his arm around his brothers shoulder with a sympathetic look in his blue optics.

"Sunny is so much more than my brother, in all the time we've been fighting he's ALWAY'S been there to cover my back...when the war first started and our home was attacked we lost everything and the only thing we really had left is each other...Sunny doesn't get ticked off easily because he has sociopathic tendencies like most the humans back at NEST think, it's because he can't stand the idea that if I die, he won't just lose part his spark but he'll lose everything else that he's tried to hold on to, including hope..." Sideswipe said honestly, his brother snapped his head back up in alarm as he realised what he just said, despite his desire to whack him hard over the head, the fact that the others all heard it only filled him with embarrassment. The others however, didn't find it to be a laughing matter; they simply gazed at the two twins with a sense of sympathy. Sam in particular, after having listened to Sideswipes words had suddenly gained a new perspective of them, they weren't simply a pair of trouble makers that delighted in making a mess of things, they were brothers who shared each other's essence, and because of that it made both of them whole. Feeling compelled by a guilt, he stepped over to the very tip of Deathshot's wing, balancing in the tip of the swallow wing appendage, he got as close to the twins as possible and in particular Sunstreaker, this time the golden warrior acknowledged him with a simple impassive sideways glance, neither glairing nor casual.

"Hey, whatever hard feelings there were, I don't think they matter anymore. I just thought you were being a jerk for the sake of it, but...now I know better, and I'm sorry buddy..." he said hesitantly, Sunstreaker simply looked at him, his face still impassive. But rather then scowl this time; he simply averted his gaze back to the opposite wall. "Just don't call me buddy" he replied listlessly, Sam allowed a small smile to cross his lips and went back to cleaning Deathshot as he threw a bucket of water over part of his left wing 'fine by me' the teen thought to himself in satisfaction.

"What just happened?" Batou whispered to Ashley

"Sam was the first human Sunny ever met and they didn't hit it off too well. I think some water just went under the bridge between those two, its okay, I think they'll be fine" Ashley replied.

"So like? Why did Megatron start blocking out his sister's spark link? If that was any indication of him being the universe's biggest evil dude ever then why didn't anyone act on it?" Miles asked.

"On the contrary, it revealed a much darker secret that Megatron had been hiding...he had been absorbing energy from the Allspark; drinking up its power and gaining it's infinite knowledge in an attempt to overthrow Prime and take over cybertron. But what he didn't appreciate was the danger involved; that all that energy would corrupt his spark and warp his mind. The Allspark wasn't just a great source of power; it was a living sentient entity that contained the source of the essence of all life, both living and dead" Jetfire replied

"Living and dead? But dead things aren't alive" Batou said offhand

"Aren't they? If there's one thing I've learnt in my long lifetime is that life and death are intricately woven together in harmony, they define one another and are a part of the great mechanism of how this entire universe functions, one cannot know life unless they know death, ergo, you cannot be truly alive unless you die. Death is merely a phase of this never ending cycle and when the physical body of a life form naturally expires and dies, the life force that powered and gave life to that body shifts to a new level of existence, becoming a part of the life-force of all things. Most beings fundamentally don't understand this and usually meet it with fear and ignorance, only if their willing to meet their end, usually on the battlefield or as a sacrifice to spare the lives of loved ones, do they truly see the greater picture of their place in the cycle of life and death" Jetfire continued in more revering tone

"How do you know that?" Sideswipe asked with a quirked optic ridge, Jetfire looked at him with a sideways glance then dropped his gaze to the floor deep thought.

"...When I was still a sparkling, I was fortunate enough to be taken to the Temple of Primus by my creators, there I was taken before the great cube to be blessed by its vest all knowing power. In the brief instance that I lay my finger upon its surface it unveiled a tiny piece of its infinite wisdom, in that one tiny second I understood why life and death are so, they are not the toying's or whims that gods play with at their own leisure's, but necessary and vital elements to how the universe functions as a whole...and though I can't be sure because it must have been my youthful imagination filling in the gaps from all those long eons ago, I think I felt the presence of Primus himself..." Jetfire said as he stared off into the middle of the hanger, his mind playing back the vague memories of those far and distant days.

"Who's Primus?" Batou asked

"God, as he is to them" Ashley simply replied, a moment of silence passed through the hanger before Batou asked: "So, what happed to Prime's sister?" Jetfire snapped himself from out of his musings and leaned forward slightly.

"...After Prime discovered what Megatron had done he was furious. He fought his brother and threw him out of the temple, telling him never to come back, but not before Majestrix had pleaded with Prime to give him a second chance, being his sister she thought she could help him, heal their spark bond and break him from his dilutions; being of the fairer of the two brothers Prime was reluctant, but allowed her to help him. But what she didn't realize was just how corrupted and twisted her brother's mind had become, no sooner was he allowed back in the temple he attacked her and tried to rip her spark chamber out, but fortunately she took after him too much and she was able to fight him off singlehandedly, but not before he tried to kill her daughters...From what I heard it was a terrible fight, the younglings barley got away with their lives, Majestrix had been badly injured during the fight and Prime had to stop his brother from profaning the temple...Majestrix was left broken and bitter at what her brother had tried to do to her, so hurt in fact that she severed the spark link all together...not long after Megatron came back but this time with great force, it turned out that in all the time he had been accessing the Allspark's energy he had been secretly building an army that numbered in the thousands...that was the day the war begun, when Megatron ordered the genocide of the all the femmes and sparklings...after the first attacks on Iacon Majestrix so wanted to put her brother down again, but she knew she couldn't drag her daughters in the conflict so Prime helped to make arrangements so that they could get clear of the planet, in the process Majestrix made arrangements of her own, after gathering together a company of other bots and femmes seeking sanctuary, she left cybertron and left the war behind" Jetfire said in a more rueful tone

"Where did she go?" Deathshot asked

"No one knows, a whole load of rumours were put out to throw off any spies that might have been trying to pick up her trail, some said she retreated to the Valpax Sii system, other's said she made a quick stop at the Galfrexian out-post before it was attacked, but one rumour that kept reoccurring was that she joined up with some other bots to form a paramilitary outfit, one that fought from behind the Decepticon's front lines. Whether that was true or not is anybody's guess, there so many other stories flying around back then that in the end it didn't seem to matter, it was just all chaos" the old seeker continued as he downed the last of his energon and passed a deep sigh through his vents.

"Do you think, now that the wars finally she might find her way to earth...and her brother?" Miles asked

"...It's hard to say, no-one has seen her since before the war, and after everything that happened between her and her brothers I'm not sure if she'll be joyous that Megatron is dead or enraged at the fact she wasn't the one who got to deal him the death blow; considering how much she had in common with her twin brother I'm inclined to think the latter...but wherever she is, I hope she's found a measure of peace in her life" Jetfire smirked, Sam shifted uncomfortably, suddenly realizing that a female version of Megatron somewhere back in his universe, and that (heaven forbid she ever found out) she might be wanting to squish him for killing her brother, just so she could kill him herself? 'Man, no wonder Prime doesn't like to talk about his family' he thought as he kept on scrubbing the metal plating on Deathshots canopy, trying not to think too hard about it.

The rest of the morning past by at a slow pace, eventually the four humans completed cleaning Deathshot's entire topside and soon it was time for lunch. Batou went out with Sideswipe to get some pizzas and soon the four humans settled down for a bite to eat, sitting down on some fold out chairs under Deathshots undercarriage.

"So how much have we got left to do D-man?" Miles asked as he stuffed his mouth with a slice of ham and pineapple

"There's the wings, undercarriage, undercarriage doors, air intakes, booster rims and the gun port sensors. Not much really" the Autobot sniper teased

"Oh yeah, not a whole lot there D" Ashley replied sarcastically as he took a bite of his pepperoni

"Hey come we got the whole topside done let's not get the mood down now" said Batou

"So? What's been playing on your processor?" Deathshot asked

"Huh?"

"I may be in alt mode but I know the wavelengths of a busy CPU when I detect them, even if it's organic...so what's been on your CPU?" the sniper replied, Batou looked up at jet and passed a weary smile

"Just little things really, I find it weird yet funny how you guys use different words in comparison to us; like, a brain is a CPU, sleeping is recharging and a fuel tank is a stomach, etc. Considering the physiological differences between our species it's not surprising but it's still surreal to hear it you know" said Batou

"That's one of the many things that sticks out when you first hang with the guys, but I found it's proven to be one of those things that either keep's sticking out or you get used to it, it purely depends with how easily ticked off you get" Miles shrugged as he took a slice of ham and mushroom

"I remember Ratchet and Perceptor's lectures on human biology 101, and how they roped us into helping out by being the 'show and tell' portion of the talks; I'll never forget the looks on their faces when Ratchet lectured on reproduction and digestion..." Miles grinned, the lambo twins however looked like they wanted to purge their tanks as a look of dread crossed their faces.

"Please, that STILL gives me bad memory reruns!" Sideswipe pleaded

"What struck me about that lecture was just how simplistic your fuel tank format is, one long continuous tube that consists of specialized tissues and organic acid and enzyme compounds, really weird, but highly effective at processing organic fuels" Jetfire commented offhand

"Well that is kindda the point, the fundamental rule of evolution is that you adapt to your environment and make the most of what's available, we evolved according to organic standards, you evolved to be mechanical, it's not rocket science" Ashley replied

"But it's still bizarre" Sunstreaker mumbled

"I remember when we taught D how to paddle for the first time; that was a laugh!" Ashley chuckled, Batou quirked an eyebrow as the image of the giant 30 foot sniper paddling on a beach began to play in his mind, a grin spread across his face at just how funny it must have been.

"For you perhaps, but I wasn't sure if that seal wanted to attack me or just leer at me!" the sniper retorted

"A seal?" Sam asked

"Six words; don't piss off a horny seal. Especially if they happen to be a beach master with a harem of females nearby" Ashley smirked

"Dude, you have seals where you live?" Miles asked

"Load's of 'em, we live on the coast so we see them all the time, our garden leads right down to the water front so they sometimes use our beach as a haul out sight during the breeding season" Ashley replied

"You have your own beach? Dude, why've you been holding out on us?" Miles grinned

"It's not a big beach, just somewhere we haul our little boats out during the winter and swim and play on in the summer, and it's big enough for D land on when he comes round" Ashley replied

"Must be nice to live by the sea, living near desert all year round all we ever see is sand, rocks and cacti and spend our summers sweating out the heat" Sam said

"We get sea storms from January through to March so we spend our winters shivering and hiding from the cold, what about you?" Ashley asked Batou

"Well, since New Port is on the south western side of Japan we see a lot of dry summers, a lot of rain between spring and summer and a hell of a lot of snow in winter" the ex-ranger replied

"I remember when we saw snow for the first time last winter; it was so...surreal, everything was covered in pure whiteness. I've been on many worlds but I'd never seen anything like that before" Jetfire said

"But it was fun to play in! That snowball fight was so awesome! The biggest in snow day history!" Miles grinned

"Apart from when Ironhide tried to fire giant snow balls out of his cannons and ended up firing steam, the look on his face plates was priceless!" Sideswipe smiled

"I quite liked the cherry blossoms that bloomed near our hideout, I find it so humble how the humans of Japan put such a sacred value upon such a tiny little flower" Deathshot said in a thoughtful tone

"Yeah, the cherry blossom festival was fun while it lasted...until Anny ran off" Sam said as he dropped his gaze to the floor, Batou passed a deep sigh as he pondered on whether to offer anything on the subject, he was about to say something when Ashley beat him to it: "Batou? The chief said that you guys had been tailing us since that day we first arrived here; if you were tailing us at the park did you know where Anny was the whole time?" he asked frankly, Batou looked at him a brief second and figured in the back of his mind that it didn't really matter if it was secret or not anymore, they were all friends now and the 'honesty is the best policy' approach had been working fine for both the section and Autobot gang since they first met.

"Well, what you have to understand was that we didn't have a single inkling that your friends were aliens back then, we thought they were some new high end tech war machines that someone somewhere had created and had let loose on our turf. The day of the cherry blossom festival we kept pretty close tabs on you guys but we had no idea where Annabelle ran off to, round about the same time Togusa's daughter ran off too and they both met each other somewhere in the park, later they turned up at Togusa's neighbour's apartment and that's how we found her" he explained

"Yeah Anny told us...if things had different, what were you going to do with her?" Mile's asked

"We were hoping to use her to lure the rest of you out into the open and arrest you, at that point we had you kids pegged as vital witnesses and our only possible link to the 'war machines'...She wouldn't have been in any danger I promise you, but when Annabelle was in Togusa's apartment the Major overheard Frenzy sneak into the bathroom and explain your 'escape plan' to her, we thought there and then we could turn the tables and catch you off guard, we already knew at that point you guys weren't natural combatants with any form of military training so we thought it would be a piece of cake nabbing you on the spot..." Batou said with a small smile, as he remembered that night outside Togusa's apartment.

"Boy did you get that wrong!" Ashley chuckled

"Yeah, after that night we knew we were dealing with something that was way out of our usual league, the idea of aliens being on our planet sent everyone involved into a panic, for the first time in god knows when the cabinet really didn't know what to do" Batou continued

"So they let section 9 stay on the case just like that?" Sam asked

"Not necessarily, the military had been itching to jump in and take care of you guys there and then but the prime minister gave the word to let us continue investigating the case. When it comes to dealing with tight situations we're the ones that get called in, purely because we know how to handle it right" Batou replied

"So is it just the prime minister you report to?" Miles asked

"We're the only public security sector to report to the prime minister directly during a crisis or state of emergency, the rest of the time we report to the ministry of home affairs, we may function in much the same way as some specialized branch of the military but at the end of the day we're still only the police"

"Heh, you could have fooled me! The way your HQ is set up and all the fancy high tech computers you have, I'd have thought you could pass for being Special Forces" Ashley smiled

"That's what I thought when I first joined, but the big difference between us and the military is that we get a lot more leeway in what we can do, section 9 is what you might think of as an 'unofficial paramilitary' police unit, because we do a lot of stuff that's 'officially' off the record, we're the guys that get called in when something or someone has to be taken care of and the head honcho's don't want it getting out in the paper's, that way it save's a whole load of trouble later" Batou explained as he wiped his hands on one of the paper napkins, reached for his bucket of fresh water and sponge and started scrubbing the side of Deathshot's nosecone. The other's followed suite and got back to the cleaning of the Autobot sniper.

"So you're not just police but also the prime minister's privet hit squad?" Miles exclaimed in slight alarm

"Ha ha ha! No!...but seriously, there are times when we have to deal with termination orders..." Batou replied, the three human boys stopped scrubbing and looked at one another in concern.

"Termination order?...you mean, like an assassination?" Sam asked cautiously, Batou stopped scrubbing and looked over at them, the subtle yet alarmed look in their eyes told him maybe he'd better change the subject, but not before offering some form of reassurance, however insubstantial it may be."...Unfortunately, yes, but the only people we've ever had to 'take care of' over the years are high end terrorists and the like. When you read some of the files on these kinda guys and what they've done to innocent people, it only makes you want to put them down more" he said with a slight frown.

"...Do you...have you ever regretted anything? About your job?" Ashley asked softly, Batou looked down at him and kneeled down so he was closer to his level.

"Yeah, but what you have to remember kid, is there are very few people who can do this job. There are some real evil and twisted freaks out there who can think of a thousand and one ways to kill innocent people, people who for the most part are just trying to live their lives with the average weight of the world upon their shoulders and live their lives as best they can, the last thing they need is for someone to come along and screw that up for them. You don't just decide one morning to pick up a gun a shoot another human being without hesitation; when it really comes down it, people like me are the only thing that stands between the good people and the ones that want to send it to hell...It's never an easy choice, but if it means innocent people get to keeping on living that little bit longer, then doubt is a small price to pay..." Batou said as he looked into the 12 year olds slate blue eyes, Ashley didn't know what to say as he averted his gaze away in doubt. Though he wasn't a parent Batou knew that look; it was the one stark fact of reality a child of his age should not have to bare, not until he came of the age in his life when would be ready for such truths, but the reality was, he was already in a situation that was in no-one's control of, and one that had already thrown him far from all he knew and tested his mantle and strength. Would it be right to make him bare another cold fact of this world? Or was his world really any different from this one? Either way, this boy, along with his family and friends, had already proven themselves to something more than what they were, passing a deep sigh, Batou laid his hand on Ashley's shoulder and the kid looked back up into the ex-ranger's prosthetic eyes.

"...But listen, no matter what happens on this case, that, is a choice you don't have to make, if things get real dicey and you find yourself backed into a corner, I'll be there to back you up..." Batou continued in soft, father-like tone.

"But...anything could happen, how can you be so sure you'll be there every time?" Ashley asked

"Because I will kid, I may not have the luxury of making promises in my line of work, but after everything that's happened, everything we've been through, I do promise, one way or another I'll help you all get home..." Batou said firmly, he suddenly noticed Jetfire leaned over the snipers wing with a rueful smile upon his withered and rusted face.

"For what it has all been worth, when this is over and before we return to our world, we will repay you in full for everything you have done for us" the old seeker said

"And that is a promise we intend to keep so don't argue" Deathshot said, Batou could practically hear the smile in his voice.

"You know, it'll be a damn shame when you leave...throughout this whole thing there's been a whole load of people that have dying to meet you guys" Batou smiled

"Really? Who?" Miles asked

"Quite a few individuals in the Intelligence department, GSDA and Navy; apparently they were pretty pissed off when they heard someone had ordered the attack on the safe house, the said individuals were also going to be part of the 'welcoming committee' that was supposed to meet you guys the day you were supposed to be transferred to that top secret base" Batou replied

"So, some of 'em in the cabinet actually wanted to meet us?" Ashley blinked in surprise

"Hey even bureaucrats, politicians and military leaders are entitled to bathe in a little awesomeness at least once in their lives, and you gotta admit, the kind of awesomeness we get hang out with isn't something that comes around often" Sam replied

"Still, the looks on everyone's faces sure would have been priceless" Miles grinned

"It's always priceless Miles; you'd think it'd be boring by now but it really isn't, it certainly did wonders for putting my low self esteem at an all time high" Sam replied with a small grin

"Sam your low self esteem has been on an all time high ever since Bee became your guardian. Well, apart from that whole incident with Alice..." said Miles

"Bro, don't even go back there, I STILL have nightmares about that five foot tongue!" Sam winced

"At least she didn't get a chance to get to second base" Miles offered

"That. Only disturbs me even more!" Sam replied with a slight shudder

"HOLY SHIT THAT REMINDS ME!" Ashley exclaimed in shock.

"What! What is it?" Sam jumped, looking around for the emergency

"That leotard the Major was wearing yesterday-"

"Yeah, she always wears that when she's on duty, what about it?" Batou asked, puzzled as to where he was going with this

"She's a police officer right? So if that's how police women in this world dress, Then what the hell do the hookers wear?" the 12 year old exclaimed, everyone fell silent for a moment, completely dumbfounded, then Batou broke into a fit of laughter, nearly falling over as he pitched forward with every hard breath he laughed out, the boys soon fell over one another in giggles. But the atmosphere abruptly screeched to a halt when Batou suddenly punched himself in the face and fell flat on his back.

'She was listening this whole time?' Batou thought in alarm, the boys and other Autobots looked at him as though he had lost his marbles, but he waved them off as he got back up.

Time passed on by as the humans spent the remainder of the day washing down Deathshots armour plating, they whiled away the hours talking various other things; baseball, favourite hobbies, comparisons between different earths. The Autobots threw in their two cents with their views on different likes and dislikes, Jetfire showed a hologram of his ideal femme, another SR-71 Blackbird, the twins described how they would love to try their servos at drift-racing while Deathshot described how he would just love to get out from this underground hanger and go flying high above the city, Jetfire concurred to that also. Before long the four humans had finished their assigned punishment and stood back to admire their handy work. Deathshot transformed back into mech mode and looked himself over with a satisfying smile.

"Not bad at all gentlemen, I think Morri will be most pleased" he said

"She better be, all that waxing was damn hard!" Ashley huffed as he looked down at the pale prune-like wrinkled skin on his hands.

"Well I can certainly see my face in your aft plates!" Sideswipe grinned

Deathshot was about to say something when the huge ramp down began to open up behind him, turning around, he saw the other Autobots roll on in and park in their respective places, after letting their human friends out and transforming back into mech mode they approached the sniper and four human males.

"Whoa! D-man! Lookin good there, I see you four did a fine job!" Jazz grinned; Morri and the Major stepped over looking the sniper up and down with sceptical eyes, but their smiles made the boys breathe a couple of sighs of relief.

"Looks like you didn't bother to slack off after all" Morri smiled

"Oh please, as if we would!" Ashley replied a mock hurt look

"So are we cool now?" Sam asked cautiously, the two women looked them up and down and smiled.

"Yeah, we're cool" Morri reassured

"Besides, Darren and Ishikawa are close to breaking that encryption code on Hidaka's secret ledgers so we might be busy fairly soon so we're going to need everyone at hand ready if need to move at a moment's notice" the Major added

"So, did you boys have a nice time?" Morri asked sweetly

"Eh, not too bad" Miles shrugged as he walked off to the human sleeping quarters. Morri quirked an eyebrow as she glanced sideways at Ashley, who only offered a shrug "We talked a lot" he offered.

"Really? And what did you guys talk about?" Morri smirked

"All kinds of things" he replied

"Really? Nothing at all to do with the standards of how police women dress perhaps?" the Major smirked; Ashley and Batou suddenly broke out into cold sweats and glanced sideways at one another.

'Oh boy...' Batou thought.

* * *

Be sure to put a pin in their conversation about Majestrix Prima, naff said! Also, just a quick head up to say me & my folks will be on holiday in France from the 9th through to the 15th this month so the story won't pick up until after then, so take a breather & I'll be typing again after I get back, till then, I'm off to enjoy some red wine and pastries! See Ya! don't forget to R&R please! :)


	38. Chapter 37: New Port Drift

Hey I'm back! :) France was lovely and the food and wine were delicious! The time away was sell needed to recharge the old batteries, but unfortunatly the plot bunnies stalked me at night & I had a whole bunch of differant idead for the story come to mind. But then I realized whilst all these ideas were awesome, I had so many that I couldn't use them all otherwise I'd compleatly ruin the story! so, contrary to my spoiler alaert in chapter 34, I'll primarily be keeping with the stand alone chapters but there won't be as many as I had originally planned, guess I was kinda on a high back then huh?. Anyway, hope you all didn't miss me too much because It so nice to be getting back to the story! Enjoy! :)

A/N: Oh, & in case you forgot, here's a quick reminder of who's comm's are who's:

Normal speach

_Section 9 cybercomm_

**Cybertronian comm link**

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 37: NEW PORT DRIFT

"Okay, one last wire...and, we're done. That should do you fine buddy!" Darren beamed as he placed the small panel back in its place, screwed it on and put his tools away, a series of rapid clicks and whirrs resounded from underneath the panel, indicating all the new hardware was assembling itself in place.

"Thanks Darren, wow! These software system syncs are far smoother than the other ones!" Trailbreaker replied in a happy tone.

"Only the best for you buddy, now we can hack on the go 24/7..." Darren grinned as he laid back in Trailbreakers driver seat, the seat slowly began to lean backwards and grew soothingly warm under the 15 year olds back, the glove compartment opened up and a black laptop folded out on a compact arm-like stand, four small Perspex panels folded out from the sides of the screen and flashed to life as various windows of data scrolled down them, Darren smirked at his handy work and gently reached across to wipe them clean with a lens cleaning wipe he had stashed in his miniature tool kit.

"Heh, Perspex monitors, they'll be all the rage one day..." he said offhand

"They are compact and lightweight, its only logical they'll catch on in time as soon as conventional human technology catches up, though in the meantime it was nice of Deathshot to spare us some of his optical image graft nanites, you know, the ones you used to make your special sunglasses with?" Trailbreaker replied

"I know, I did design and make them remember?" Darren smiled as he adjusted a few dials on the sides of the laptops arm stand

"I don't know how you find the time to do all this Darren; you've been working hard enough with Ishikawa and Boma decrypting those legers, surly that in itself is enough to keep you stimulated?" Trailbreaker asked, Darren leaned his head back on the head rest and looked up at the parking lot's drab grey concrete ceiling through the Autobot's roof window.

"You know, it's weird; but in an odd way I sometimes feel like I've known how to handle cybertronian technology all my life. I mean, when I first joined NEST I didn't know what the hell to make of all the fancy alien gadgets Perceptor gave to me to practice on, I honestly thought I was going to suffer some kind of awesomeness seizure. But within 6 weeks I was able to put together my first hybrid human/alien tech laptop, no-one at NEST had ever come close to achieving that before...Sometimes I don't know if it's just my techy's zealousness for it all, or something else I can't quite put my finger on..." Darren said with a clouded look in his eyes

"Well, according to your records you've always been good with your people's technology; your creator-I mean mother, once said that you put your first motherboard together when you were only 7, that's highly advanced for a human sparkling...maybe your just so good at what you do that somehow it feels like you've been doing it for longer than you think. I wouldn't worry about it too much; working under pressure is your forte anyway" Trailbreaker replied

"Hmm...My dad once said: if you want to find true happiness in a career, just do what you love and if you make a few cents along the way then it's a bonus. I really can't complain about my position at NEST, it's every techy's dream job, but maybe some time off after all this would be nice, just you and me on one big road trip, what do ya say?" Darren said lazily

"I say why don't you invite us to come along? We could make a real party of it! We could go all the way to Las Vegas! Or LA? Or San Francisco? You know maybe we could-"

"Blue, your rambling again, and I believe he was asking me?" Trailbreaker smirked.

"Uh sorry, I really gotta-oh, hi Togusa!" Bluestreak called out to the detective as he approached the parked Autobots

"Hi guys, so this is where you've been sneaking off to during your lunch breaks" he smiled as he approached Trailbreaker; Darren shot the detective a smirk as he got out of his guardian.

"You make that sound as if I'm playing hooky; I just finished installing Trailbreakers new compact hard-drive and computer systems, now we can hack any computer whilst on the go" Darren replied, Togusa looked in through the windshield at the elaborate system setup and whistled in amazement.

"Wow, glass monitors? Very stylish, you built that yourself?" he smiled

"Perspex actually, but yeah, just a little something I whipped up" Darren replied with a slight smug looking grin as he leaned against Trailbreakers hood

"How the heck did you find the time to do it? Isn't Ishikawa keeping you busy enough with decrypting those ledgers?" Togusa asked

"That's what just I said" said Trailbreaker

"What can I say? I thrive on pressure" Darren grinned

"That's putting it sooo lightly! He gets so wrapped up in his work that you could drop a nuke next to his head and he wouldn't even notice anything's off!" Hailey called over as she walked over to the parked Autobots with her little sisters in tow. "Hey cutie Blue! Look what I found in the Tachikoma's hanger, a bubblegum scented air freshener, your favourite flavour!" she chimed as she stroked Bluestreak's hood, the young gunner reared up on his axel as he savoured the touch of her warm soft hands, in return his metal grew warm to the touch (the cybertronian equivalent of blushing).

"Thanks, my insides were starting to get a little stuffy!" he happily replied

"You like bubblegum scented air freshener? How do you know what bubblegum smells like when you don't even have a nose nedalone a tongue?" Togusa asked

"True I don't have a nose or a tongue, but most Autobots have in-built chemical analyzers that can identify air-born chemicals, kinda like your nose. I like bubblegum cause it smells sweet in a nice organic kinda way, not too strong like anchovy pizza, I hate the smell of anchovies! I look at them and I just want to roll away! But on the other hand I like strawberries; they smell sweet and look like those tiny little-"

"Blue" Hailey interrupted, the blue gunner jolted on his wheels as he stopped himself from his rambling and sank down on his tires.

"To cut a long data stream short; Autobots can detect odours like you can with your nose" Hot Rod interjected.

"Huh, I didn't know you guys could do that" Togusa replied

"You never asked" the Waineright twins chimed

"Speaking of asking, why'd we get dragged along today?" Sideswipe piped in at the end of the row of cars

"Yeah, I planned to beat that old fart of a seeker at poker today and win back my wax polish!" Sunstreaker concurred

"Call it a hunch but the Major sounded like she had a plan when she spoke to us this morning. That, and I want to give Jetfire a break from you two today, he's been more crotchety than usual so won't help if we have to fight again; plus, you two need to practice your 'human socializing' a little more, you've both been cooped up in that hanger too long and that'll inevitably lead to some kinda trouble we could all do without" Jazz smirked

"How so?" Togusa asked

"Uhh, don't even go there! Those two are THE most infamous pranksters in the universe! They take no prisoners and have no mercy on anyone! Trust me, you don't want to know!" Darren cringed as the memory of his 'initiation' into NEST surfaced at the back of his mind. The lambo twins both smirked to themselves in satisfaction as they remembered the event in question. Togusa just looked back and forth between the lambo's and the 15 year old as he recoiled away back into Trailbreakers driver seat and decided to leave the subject well alone.

"Okay, well, I think the Major might have something in mind; she's been at the Prime Minister's residence all day with Batou and the chief as well as those guys from Intelligence going over the records from two weeks ago so I think we might be covering a different angle on the case" Togusa said

"You mean the names in Hidaka's legers? Yeah I figured we'd be continuing something along those lines, fortunately we managed to pin down the encryption code's programme functions with that barrier breaker me, Frenzy and the Tachikoma's put together yesterday, it won't take it long for it get the first names out" Darren sighed

"What I don't understand is; if Hidaka's secret records prove he's been up to no good over the past several years, why don't we just use all that to arrest him?" Hailey asked as she stroked Bluestreak's hood.

"Because we need to prove he was involved with those other guys the night the military attacked us. Don't forget, the Prime Minister and the cabinet went to a lot of trouble to put together that protection order for you guys, and since that was classified above top secret the fact that Hidaka knew about the Autobot's prove that he was in breach of national security, only a handful of people outside the cabinet the military knew about the Autobots but we can only prove that with the necessary physical evidence. While Hidaka is no doubt one the main collaborators of the plot we still don't what his real role in all this really was; whether he actually ordered the attack remains to be proven, but he's also our only link to the other three collaborators, so until we're in a position to hold the upper hand we can't move in on the guy" Togusa explained.

"Without a doubt, but does it really take this long to find that 'necessary physical evidence' we need to nail him?" Becky asked in a slight pout as she leaned against Bluestreak's passenger door, "Hm, I'm afraid so, you gotta remember detective work is like fishing in a lot of ways, it's all about being patient, waiting for the right opportunities and more importantly; when the circumstances call for it, learning how to nab the perp with the right bait" Togusa replied as he folded his arms and leaned next to Trailbreaker's hood

"Guess that makes sense, but really, I never would have guessed working for an outfit like Section 9 could be so...tedious and complex. They always make it look so easy on Law and Order..." Hailey sighed in thought as she twisted one of her bangs back and forth between her finger and thumb. Togusa was about to ask something else when the door at the end of the parking lot floor opened up and Ishikawa walked out followed by Pazu, Boma, Ashley, Miles, Sam, Glen and Tom. "Hey guys, what's up?" Darren called over as they approached and congregated around the parked Autobots.

"We finally got some info from the ledgers, the barrier breakers are still decrypting the remaining files so it'll take a while more until we get all the names but in the meantime we might have a good lead to follow..." Ishikawa said as he activated the optical display setting in his cyberbrain and a data window appeared in Pazu and Boma's range of vision. With their holo-forms activated and their specialized sunglasses acting as their cybernetic vision, the data window appeared in the lens of the kid's sunglasses, allowing them to see what the agents were seeing. A police profile with a photo of a young man with slate blue eyes, black spiky hair highlighted with bright scarlet red streaks, piercings in his ears with one right through his right eyebrow and a somewhat sharp looking face.

"This is Riku Hidaka, son of Masaru Hidaka, our perp's nephew and apparently a young wannabe entrepreneur; his father runs the Blue Sakura club in the Minato District on the corner of Kaku Street, on the outside it's just a run-of-the-mill bar and 'doll house', but the club's been pegged by Section 1 and the narcotic suppression squad for years. On the surface Hidaka's brother Masaru is a stock-broker for several high profile e-traders, but away from his day job he's a well known high ranking yakuza who distributes and sells the cyber drugs 'speed heat' and 'ruby shock' for the Korinkai here in New Port; up until that incident with the Laughing Man case the narc squad had been trying to nail Hidaka's brother for years but he proved to be quite a slippery customer" said Ishikawa

"So how does his nephew fit in?" Darren asked

"It seems Hidaka likes to keep things in the family, and his nephew is actually quite the businessman despite the fact he dropped out of college a year before graduating. We found in the legers some notes Hidaka keeps on all his business dealings and from what we learned it looks like Riku has a good head for figures; his father left him in charge of taking care of some of the money tied up in the club, among other things including running payments and arranging deals with the local drug dealers, guess he thought it would have taught him some discipline because according to police records the kid's apparently quite a punk with priors for assault, vandalism and countless traffic violations" the veteran hacker continued

"Traffic violations?" Hailey asked

"Yeah, it seems he's the DK of the local drift racing scene; he's also the leader of the drift-race gang, the 'Doro-Yurei's', the road ghosts. They've been the bane of the traffic cops for years but no-one's had the nerve to chase after them because their motors are so powerful, it's the perfect way to run his dad's drugs from one location to another" Glen replied, the Autobots rose up on their axels at the mention of the words 'drift racing', intrigued as to where this was going.

"So as side from being his father's business partner what's this Riku kid got that's relevant to the case?" Togusa asked

"In his notes Hidaka mentioned something about giving some paper media files to his nephew for safe keeping, telling him to hide them in a place where he himself couldn't find them; he didn't mention specific details but the notes seem to indicate that the files contain certain details on his military connections, possibly even the guys he was talking to on the night our safe house was attacked. It may seem unusual to put vital information down on paper in this day and age, but when you consider it can be an efficient way to avoid any back hacks that could get at it, it makes sense to print it off, delete the online files and then hide it somewhere" Ishikawa replied

"If that's the case then there must be something in those files he doesn't want anyone to know about, so what are we going to do?" Ashley asked

"I've already spoken with the chief and he's given us the go ahead to try and pin Hidaka's nephew down and bring him in for questioning, but the main problem for us is actually trying to catch him; according to recent police records Riku and his gang have been quite active of late, namely racing against a number of competitors from rival gangs and other yakuza families, possibly to settle a few disputes and maintain order among the gangs. After a quick peek into a few of their personal net-hotlines I found that their holding another race tonight down in the Hanto district near the Naval docks" Ishikawa said, he jumped slightly when Bluestreak rolled up behind him and nudged him with his bumper in a rather eager manner.

"You know Ishikawa, if he's got a fast ride then you're going to need an even faster set of wheels...perhaps maybe, we could-" the young gunner said with a smirk in his voice

"I was wondering when you were going ask, you guys mind giving us a little hand tonight?" the veteran hacker smirked

"Finally! A chance to have some real fun at last!" Sideswipe exclaimed happily as he bounced up and down on his front tires in excitement.

Several hours later and the day had slowly ebbed into the evening and the city of New Port slipped had into its nocturnal phase; all around the city buzzed with a party-like vibe as its clubbers, party goers and general night life emerged to walk the streets, looking for good times and good fun. Over on the coastal region of the city, the docks were bathed in the grungy orange glare of the city's illumination and the pale silver light of the moon, aside from a few coastguard patrol ships out in the bay and one of the Navy's gun ships docked in the Naval docks, everywhere was still and calm.

Until the loud roar of car engines broke the silence and made the night air vibrate like thunder and the screeching of tires on tarmac echoed among the various buildings and high-rises.

At the end of a long row of shipping crates situated next to a large warehouse complex, a large congregation of cars, motorcycles and various gangs consisting of both yakuza and basic street thugs had gathered to compete against each other in the fast paced sport that was drift racing. The atmosphere buzzed with a party vibe, the music was blaring loudly, the liquor was flowing in copious amounts and all around the racers and their groupies were enjoying the party. But whilst the betters, hustlers and race spectators were enjoying the festivities an underlining unease between the main racers made the air thick with tension, these were not just races for them, the stakes of each other's reputation was on the line and their prides bristled at the prospect of coming in at second place. In the centre of the hubbub and excitement Riku Hidaka stood to one side, flanked by his two bodyguards whilst two other guys were performing some maintenance on the engine of his motor, there was no way in hell he intended to lose tonight.

As he surveyed the party, the load roar of several engines caught everyone's attention as seven cars sped across the open space of the dock area in formation, spun to their sides and screeched to a halt in a neat long line with the head car right in front of the DK. Riku watched with stunned annoyance as the doors opened to reveal a tall black man with a medium build and tribal tattoos covering his arms; he was dressed up like an A-list rapper, sporting a dark pair of sunglasses, a black and gold throwback jersey with a rich burgundy hoodie on top, black jeans with air Nike sneakers and around his neck were three large thick gold chains and a diamond studded set of dog tags whilst his head sported a black du rag. From out the back of his golden yellow Lamborghini came two blond twin sisters with blue streaks in their hair wearing a matching set of baby blue mini dresses and stilettos, they flanked both his sides as the other occupants of the cars emerged. Everyone's attention was perked when they saw these strangers strut onto the scene, who were they? They weren't Japanese that's for sure, judging from their accents and (with the exception of the African-American) their Caucasian profiles they were Americans, whoever they were, judging by their fashion trends and motors it was clear they had some serious cash to burn. The black guy noticed Riku and with his girls on his hips he confidently strode over to the DK; Riku's bodyguards stepped in front to block his path, but the stranger looked the two obvious cyborgs up and down with distain, he calmly removed his shades and looked the two guards straight in the eyes. Riku watched in a mix of annoyance and curiosity; annoyed that these gaijins had the nerve to show up here unannounced and uninvited, but he was curious as to see just what they were made of.

"Yo bitches! What's your game? Not letting a dude have the pleasure of meeting New Port's favourite DK? You want ma boys to bust a few cap's in 'yo asses for bein' rude?" he asked, his voice betraying his obvious annoyance, behind him two other guys came up, both with their hands in their breast pockets, it didn't take a genius to figure out what they were holding. Before they had a chance to react Riku gestured to them to step down as he came forward until he was right up in the strangers face, with his arms crossed and back straightened he was laying his dominance down with his bravado, the rest of his crew watched from the sides, curious to see how this was going to go down.

"Who the fuck are you? And how the hell did you find this place?" he asked coldly, the stranger smiled and gave a small chuckle as he threw up his arms and gestured for his boys to step back.

"The name's G-Ice. Me an' my homies are kinda new around these parts and am simply lookin' for a good time, word on the street is this here is a good place to drift, and from what I hear, you're the best there is bro!" he replied in a smooth voice, Riku looked him up and down sceptically.

"You from America?" he asked

"Damn straight! Fresh from the empire and looking to 'establish' my rep in this town, ain't lookin' for trouble so I thought I'd be polite an' meet you in person, from what I hear you're the guy to see if you wanna be made in this town" G-Ice replied, Riku smirked as he relax his guard, his crew quirked a few eyebrows in bemusement.

"Hmm, nice to know you ain't no fool, but what do you have to offer?" he grinned, G-Ice smiled broadly and snapped his fingers, suddenly one of the cars, a yellow Camero with black racing stripes, roared to life and was spinning doughnuts at an unbelievable speed for such a confined area, as it spun the smoke began to form into a twister whish stretched up into the sky, a chorus of cheers and wows went up from the crowd, Riku watched in amazement as he noticed there was no driver in vehicle, his crew was equally amazed, Riku simply looked back at G-Ice with a impassive look.

"I see you and your boys have good taste in AI's, but can you drift?" he asked

"Why don't we find out? You and me to far end of the naval base and back again?" G-Ice asked

"You're on"

With that, a collective cheer went up as the crowd overheard the challenge, Riku stepped into his ride and gunned the engine with a deafening roar, G-Ice got back in his ride and fired up the engine with his own crew cheering him on from the sidelines. But as he rolled up to the start-line he activated his comm-link.

"_Okay people, I got him to race me, is everyone ready?"_ Glen asked as he looked across at Riku.

"_We're ready, just make sure you keep with him" _Ishikawa asked

"_Dude, I'm ridin in Sunstreaker! The problem won't be try' in to catch up; I'll be trying not to leave him behind!" _Glen retorted

"_Just don't lose sight of him, anything can happen in these races so be prepared for anything!" Ishikawa replied_

"_Geez! You really-hang on, I gotta race!" _Glen hastily replied as he switched the comm off andreadied himself as the countdown was about to begin, three girls from one of the other gangs lined up between the two competitors, all around the crowd was cheering loud and hard and another loud burst from Riku's engine grabbed their adoration, Sunstreaker gunned his engine even louder.

"THREE!" one girl called out

"TWO!" another called

"Don't worry, I got this covered" Sunstreaker whispered via his sound system, under him holo-form Glen tried desperately tried to subdue a squeak of panic.

'Aw shit! Why the hell couldn't Mile's do this?' he thought

"ONE, GO!" the final girl called and the two racers took off like a shot.

The next several seconds seemed to slow to a crawl. As the cars took off with a powerful burst of speed Glen felt the hardest adrenaline rush of his life; he felt his pulse thudding his ear, hot flushes rippled down his spine and his hands became cold and clammy as he held onto the steering wheel for dear life. Fortunately his fight or flight reflex took over and his fear quickly turned into sheer thrill as he unexpectedly found himself liking this. But getting lost in the moment would have wait as his mind snapped back to reality and focused his eyes on the road ahead.

"HOLY SHIT THIS IS SOME SPEED MAN!" he yelled in exhilaration

"Yeah well, I don't intend on coming in second place!" Sunstreaker retorted as he came up alongside Riku, Glen and Riku looked sideways at one another for a tenth of a second before Riku pulled sharply in front of the Lamborghini, Sunstreaker didn't take kindly to that move and with an angry burst of speed he served sharply which caused one whole side of his body to tilt onto his left side tires, Riku gasped in surprise as the Lamborghini squeezed through the narrow gap between him and the shipping crates, the Lamborghini then fell back onto all four tires and sped off.

'Pretty good but it's only the first mile!' Riku thought as hit the accelerator and sped off after G-ice.

Speeding along at around 120 mile per hour between them, the two racers soon left the rows of shipping crates behind and quickly approached the warehouse that overlooked the gathering place; as they sped through the complex Sunstreaker pitched hard on every corner, drifting across the tarmac as if he were slipping across ice, Riku was struggling to keep up with the Lamborghini as it slipped past every obstacle like a shark over a reef.

"HAHAHA HA HA! MAN THIS IS DAAAAMN GOOD!" Glen called over the screeching of the tires.

"_I'm sure it is but you better start backing off when you pass the half way point, Saito's gonna put out his front tires when you pass under the highway at junction 36, you don't wanna be in his line of fire!"_ Jazz said over the comm.

"_I heard ya! We're about to head for the cranes!"_ Glen replied, he held on tight to the wheel as Sunstreaker spun round another corner and crashed through a wire mesh gate with Riku close behind on their tail. The scene of the docks soon changed again as they whizzed past another several rows of shipping crates and emerged onto the open waterside, four huge sets of shipping container cranes stool high and idol against the dark night sky. The open space was the opportunity Riku needed to make his move and without fail he hit the gas and overtook the Lamborghini in one swift move. Sunstreaker tried to overtake but Riku kept swigging the back end of his ride to try and knock him away.

"Damn! This guy knows how to pull a move!" Glen muttered through his teeth

"He maybe good but I'm just getting started!" Sunstreaker retorted venomously as his engine growled more angrily than ever, Glen held on tighter than ever as the golden warrior sped up to 160 mph. Within minutes the racers were speeding alongside the New Port Naval dock's perimeter fence, the base was vast and enormous, much bigger than any of the other complexes on the waterfront and the whole fence looked like it could go on forever. Glancing sideways, Glen noticed a highway leading down to the far end of base, far beyond it, nestled among the various waterside office blocks was a particularly large apartment building with terraces on the sides, somewhere up there Saito was waiting to take his shot as soon as Riku's car was in range, he swallowed hard, hoping in the back of his mind to stay well enough back, as soon as the sight of the base's radar and communications tower came into view Glen gently applied his foot to the break, to which Sunstreaker jerked back up making him slam his foot against the foot well.

"AAAURGH! Geez! What the hell was that for!" He protested angrily as he recoiled his foot as far back as the space would allow.

"He's getting ahead!" Sunstreaker exclaimed

"That's the point dumbass! We need him to get ahead if we're to catch him!" glen spat back

"Aw no! No way am I gonna be bested by a flesh bag! .ON!" Sunstreaker ranted, Glen shifted uncomfortably as the seat beneath him grew hotter. 'Aw great! This is all I need!' he thought in a panic

"_JAZZ WHERE ARE YOU GUYS! Sunny's lost the plot an' aint backing off!" _he shouted down the comm link.

"_Don't worry Glen; I'll make him stick to the plan..."_ Deathshot replied calmly, before Glen could say anything else he suddenly began to feel a strange tingling under his hands on the steering wheel, he began to feel all the hair on his body begin to stand on end as the sensation of static electricity began to fill the car interior, he began to panic slightly as he noticed his holo-form began to flicker back and forth between his disguise and his true self. Looking down at the speedometer he saw Sunstreaker's speed dropped substantially and Riku overtook him easily, the golden warrior revved his engine in an attempt to catch up but to no avail.

"What's going on? I'm losing speed!" he loudly protested

"_That's the point dumb-aft! You're meant to let him overtake, now hang back and let us do the rest; the others are coming within range, and don't think about trying to reroute your blade's electro charge to give yourself a boost or I'll come down there and remove them myself!" _Deathshot replied sternly, Sunstreaker didn't bother to reply as he managed to close the distance between him and Riku; the youngster looked at them through his rear view mirror with a smug grin, which annoyed Sunstreaker to no end.

"What the hell just happened?" Glen asked as his noticed his hair on his arms fell flat against his body once more.

"A low level EMP field, what a dirty trick!" the melee warrior grumbled

"Ha! Any dirtier than the stuff you and Sider's get up to when no-one's around?" Glen retorted

"Hmm, point taken. Well at the least I'll have the satisfaction of kicking his plates to the curb! The sniper may have him but I intend to have the last laugh on this little punk-aft squishy!"

"Aw hell let's just get on with it an' quit yer bitch'in!" Glen retorted in frustration, Sunstreaker didn't complain as he sped up to Riku's rear, for the following several hundred yards they stayed close to the perimeter fence, grabbing the attention of the guards who were on patrol. The main entrance soon came into view and in one move Riku pitched a sharp turn and went flying up an access ramp that opened up onto the highway, Sunstreaker followed suite but pitched at a sharper angle, giving him the opportunity to overtake Riku once more, Glen was about to protest when he suddenly noticed the large apartment building several miles ahead, and remembered who was up there.

"Slow down you fool! We're in Saito's range we have to pull back!" Glan shouted in a panic

"NO WAY! I won't lose this race!"

"Forget the race we'll get shot if we don't back away!"

"I don't care! I'm not letting this meat sack get away!"

Several miles up ahead, on the 60th floor of the apartment building, Saito watched the two cars come into range through the scope of his 50 calibre long range sniper rifle, he clenched his teeth in frustration as he noticed Sunstreaker wasn't backing away far enough to give him a clean shot, the range for the prime shot wasn't far and they only had about another four miles before they were out of range.

"What the hell is he playing at?..._Glen what's going down there? You were supposed to fall back at the access ramp!"_ he sternly asked down the comm.

"_Try telling that to mister sunshine here! He still thinks this a race! I can't negotiate with him!"_ Glen retorted

"_Sunstreaker? Sunstreaker come in!"_

"_Don't bother, he's had the section 9 end of the comms turned off all night" _Glen replied in exasperation.

"_Then I guess I better give him a little gentle prompting..."_ Deathshot smoothly replied, Saito watched as a tiny electric blue ball of light shot down from the sky a good 300 yards up in the air and hit Sunstreaker dead on centre of the hood, a whole range of colourful cybertronian curses could be vaguely herd echoing over the comm. link as the melee warrior's speed decreased dramatically.

"_Target is clear, you're free to take the shot Saito"_ Deathshot continued

"_Thanks..." _the human sniper replied as he looked through his scope and lined up his shot, upon activating his Hawkeye he established the satellite uplink within seconds and his cybernetic left arm adjusted the gun's angle according to the wind direction and trajectory, though it was only a few millimetres, such minuet differences made a big difference over 759 yards. Within less than ten seconds, he fired the shot; the bullet pierced the night air with a thunderous crack and hit the front right tire of Riku's car dead on, the car swerved with the force of the impact and went into a wild tail spin; desperately he spun the wheel in an attempt to regain control but the car just didn't seem to stop. Then suddenly two cars appeared from off a side road; one silver and one blue and orange; they lined up close together and rammed Riku's car at the front and back ends, pinning both the hood and the rear end bumper and together they slammed him into the concrete road divider. Despite the fact that the whole front right wheel and most of the wheel well was blown off Riku refused to be pinned down like this, he revved his engine as he angrily tried to get away, Jazz and Bluestreak pushed him harder into the dividers but the rear tires on Riku's motor had some serious grip, even after all the drifting of the last several miles. Together they steadily crept along the road at a snail's pace and just when Riku gave one good gun of the engine and started to slip out of the Autobot's grip Sunstreaker swerved around to face him head on and rammed into him with one hard crash.

"_Nice to see you actually trying to stop him at last!"_ Jazz reprimanded

"_So I got a little carried away, big deal!" _Sunstreaker shrugged

"_I'll talk to you later, but right now, back up and let the kid out" _Jazz ordered, As Sustreaker slowly backed up, Boma and Pazu emerged from around the corner of a nearby building with their hand guns aimed at the driver's side, the door opened and Riku collapsed to the floor in a daze, the crash he knocked him for six and he had no idea right now which way was up Boma grabbed him by the shoulder and whipped out of his pocket a small black handgun- like device; a cyber tranquilizer, a standard issue police gadget that applied a specialized device that greatly subdued a suspect's body, he could still walk and move around but the device subdued the suspect's conscious control over their body, rending them harmless and safe to handle without the use of handcuffs, it also cut off their cyber connections to any online networks they might have set up. Boma aimed the device at the ports in the back of Riku's neck and 'fired', a soft click and a red light indicated it went in and Riku slumped forward in a semi-conscious state, Glen stepped out of Sunstreaker and sat on the divider as he sighed in sheer relief that the race was finally over.

"So we got him, I was kinda expecting it to be a little harder than this" Hailey said offhand as she and her sisters stepped out of Bluestreak

"Even so, that was one awesome race dude!" Mile grinned as he patted Glen on the back; the hacker looked up at him and offered a listless smile, "I guess, but that's the last time I race with sunshine here!" he retorted, glaring at the Lamborghini, who merely shifted on his tires in agitation.

"_You guys better get outta there fast, when you pinned Riku down we picked up an SOS he sent to his crew, their on their way right now and their packing some serious heat!" _Ishikawa said

"_Copy that, we're outta here, _girls help me get him in Jazz" Pazu asked, the twins took him by the arms and unceremoniously shoved him onto Jazz's back seat, Pazu and Boma both got in and sandwiched him in the middle whist Mile's and the others hastily got back in, just as they fired up the engines once more the sound of revved engines approached at a quick pace.

"Let's go!" Hailey called over and the three Autobot's sped away Riku's crew skidded around the corner and came after them, some totting guns out of the windows, some were on motorcycles and were able to be more nimbly in terms of manoeuvrability. Just when it seemed they were right on their tail, five huge plumes of pale smoke exploded on the road behind the Autobots and sent several cars and motorcycles into tailspins, crashing into one another and into the dividers, looking over the back seat the twins watched in shocked surprise.

"That had to be some of D's smoke bombs!..._Deathshot are you covering us? Why not just hit them with an EMP?" _Becca asked offhand

"_Unlike Sunstreaker I can't use a wide-angle burst to hit them, least I take out several city blocks and I don't want a repeat of Annabelle's retrieval, I'll slow them down as best I can, you guys just gain as much distance as possible!" _the Autobot sniper replied.

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Bluestreak yelped in alarm as one of the yakuza thugs in one of the remaining cars fired off some rounds from his semi-automatic, the girls screamed in a panic as the bullets pinged of the gunner's sides, Sunstreaker fell behind and with one sharp swerve he hit the hood of the car with his rear bumper and sent it into the dividers, he quickly sped up again to cover the rear.

"You girls okay?" Bluestreak asked in alarm

"We're fine but we need to lose them right now!" Hailey replied as he stroked her hair bangs out of her face.

"_I got an idea! Make a left at the next intersection and stay on my tail!"_ Jazz ordered

"_Yes sir!"_ Bluestreak replied. Sure enough the two mechs followed the first lieutenant as he sped towards the oncoming intersection, pitching in hard to the turn they drifted across the large square space, the screech of their tires echoed off the nearby buildings and several cars coming from the other directions screeched to halt to avoid going head on into them. As the remainder of Riku's crew chased after them two more cars went to fast to make the turn and ended up crashing into a lamppost and the corner of an office block, only three cars and four motorcycles were left.

The Autobots soon entered the town and from another main road Trailbreaker and Sideswipe appeared and joined them at their sides, _"Hey guys! You finally turned up!" _Bluestreak happily exclaimed, _"We thought you could use a hand with these amateurs, get Riku outta here and we'll hold them off!"_ Trailbreaker replied. Sideswipe and his brother fell back to try and knock the remaining three cars off the road, but as they sped further into the town they pulled forward again as the risk of them accidently hitting pedestrians became more threatening. _"It's getting too risky here! We might hit a bystander by mistake!" _Glen yelled, _"Agreed, lead' em back to the docks and we'll go on ahead"_ Jazz replied_, _Trailbreaker, Bluestreak and the lambo twins broke away and turned off sharply onto another road heading back to the waterfront, but looking back in Trailbreaker's rear view mirror, Darren realised the gangsters weren't following them as planned.

"_Dammit their not following us, they know you got Riku Jazz!"_ He called back

"_I know! Their catching up to us faster than I thought! Bumblebee, Hot Rod, where are you?"_ the first lieutenant asked in slight alarm

"_We're coming around from the opposite direction but we're having trouble with the traffic!" _Bumblebee replied

"_Alright, it looks like we're on our own guys-"_

"_I wouldn't be so sure Jazz!"_

Close behind him the three cars and motor cycles suddenly swerved uncontrollably and crashed into one another as a hail of gunfire ripped their tires to pieces, abruptly stopping them in their tracks. Jazz screeched to a halt and swerved up to park next to the curb some distance away.

"What the hell just happened?" Miles asked offhand as he looked back over his shoulder at the crashed vehicles, scanning the surrounding area for the source of the gunfire Jazz spotted Batou on top of one of the roofs of the street side shops with his favourite Tachikoma at his side, it's claw gun had a whisp of smoke spiralling upwards "Batou happened" Pazu replied coolly as they jumped off the roof and approached the silver Autobot, both looking quite pleased with their handy work.

"When did you get back?" Boma asked as he leaned out the back window.

"Just now, we'd been listening in on this little op on our way back and the chief wanted to make sure we guys weren't having too much fun" he smirked

"Not enough more like! I'm so bummed we didn't get to have a descent chase through the city!" Miles huffed as he slumped in Jazz's driver seat.

"Eh, tough break buddy; at least we got our perp so it's back to HQ, throw him in the interrogation room and put the thumb screw on the guy, see you back there!" he said as he walked over to the back of his Tachikoma and opened up its pod, "What about them? We can't leave them in the middle of the-" Mile's words were cut short when the sound of police sirens could be heard approaching and Batou shot him a knowing look. "Ah, gotcha, alright we'll see you guys there!" he continued, "Hey you wanna race?" the Tachikoma asked in excitement, "Another time Tach, let's just get back, I seriously need a few drinks" Batou huffed as he got back in and lead the way as Jazz followed close behind him. Several miles away back up on the apartment block, Saito had finished folding away his rifle back into its secure carrier case and had gone up to the roof to await to be picked up by Deathshot, he suddenly heard a loud deep thrum and from out of thin air Deathshot's undercarriage opened up with a shaft of blue light coming down, the strange lotus like doors were just as he remembered them the night the Autobot sniper neutralized him and took out his weapon. When the light swiftly swept forward and enveloped him, he suddenly felt the effects of the Autobot's anti-gravity field take a hold of him and pull him up into the undercarriage, as he emerged into the strange alien subspace he let go of his case as two thick black slender cables snaked out from above and grabbed a hold it, pulling up into a strange compartment that seemed to disappear as quickly as it appeared. Ahead of him a pentagon shaped opening appeared and he rolled up into the foetal position to fit through the small opening which emerged into a small dark space comprised of smooth panels with cybertronian patterns all over them, another five black cables snaked out from the corners of the opening and positioned him onto a bed like structure. He suppressed the urge to shudder as the strange things crept across his body, two of them flattened their 'bodies' to form a soft but secure harness across his chest and shoulders, a series of strange electronic sounds could be heard as the panels began to fold and rearrange, the bed sat up and transformed into a jet pilot's seat which rolled forwards and upwards behind another pilot seat into a large cockpit with a yellow canopy, Ashley peeked his head around and greeted the sniper with his trademark mischievous grin.

"I see you remembered to tuck your legs in this time, good thing we had that little practice run before coming out huh?" he grinned

"For sure, but no matter how cool the rest of this jet is I'll never get used to those damn cables!" Saito scowled

"Aw don't be so sore, they're not that bad once you get used to them" Ashley grinned, Saito noticed a cable sneak up next to him and as the silver arrow like head hovered in front of him, the tip split open and a bunch of blue fibre-optic wires wriggled out and moulded into a smiley face which bobbed up and down at him in an attempt to illicit a laugh, the human sniper simply folded his arms and slouched down into his seat.

"What's wrong?" Morri asked as she glanced back through the gap in the seats from where she sat in the front, Saito didn't replied as he averted his cold gaze out the window, Morri simply sighed and turned back to face forward. "If it's about Sunstreaker getting carried away like that don't worry, Jazz'll talk to him later when we get back to the safe house...I know he's not exactly the most 'agreeable' bot there is; but, suffice to say you can shake him down all you want but at the end of the day he's still entitled to his personal choice to be an arsehole" she replied, Saito looked back at her with a quirked eyebrow, Ashley turned round in his seat and simply offered a shrug.

"In other words you guys have little choice but to keep him around because he's valuable in terms of his fighting skills, I believe that's how Jazz put it?" he said in a deadpan tone.

"I'll admit I'm not keen on the bot myself, but he and his brother are excellent melee fighters and have proven their worth a million times over on the battlefield, if it were anyone else it would be a different situation, but as it is we can't afford to take chances and sideline them whilst we're in hiding, in case your forgot they seriously put those soldiers in their place when the military attacked us and there's no guarantee they may or may not find us again" Deathshot replied via the consol speakers in the back of the seat in front of him.

"I wouldn't worry about it mate, it's just the karma of the universe, no matter what planet your on there's an arse hole in every town" Ashley said offhand

"That's true" Saito replied as his face softened into an impassive gaze. He was about ask something when his head nearly knocked against the canopy as Deathshot swung around sharply and stopped in midair, "D? What's up?" Ashley asked, as he hovered silently a strange electronic sound began to filter through his speakers and an even stranger frequency reading appeared on the monitors in each of the consoles that were set into the back of the seats, bar Morri's who's was set in the main console in the front.

"What is that?" the 22 year old brunette asked offhand as she watched the monitor.

"_I don't know, .Jazz do you read me? I just picked up a signal coming from the vicinity of the naval base, it's on the right frequency wavelengths to be cybertronian but it's not running on the usual current consistency to allow multi-coded data streams to be sent in one piece, what should I do?...Hello? Jazz are you there?"_ the Autobot sniper asked, a garbled stream of electronic buzzes on the main console indicated the comm frequency had switched over to a different wavelength.

"**I heard you D-man; switch over to your cybertronian comm link and keep speaking cybertronian, Trailbreaker just picked up the signal too, he and Darren are analysing it right now. Ishikawa just said all the cyber-comm frequencies have gone down and that some kind of jamming frequency is being sent out over the area"** the first lieutenant replied

"Why would all the cyber-comm frequencies suddenly be blocked by a jamming frequency?" Ashley asked offhand

"It must be the national emergency legislation local restriction provision; the military's up to something that requires that all comm frequencies outside the military's I.S ID codes to be blocked, whatever it is, they must be up to something" Saito replied as he straightened up in his seat.

"Whatever their up to their starting to get really tense, I'm picking up a lot of chatter on the military comm frequencies and that signal has levelled out now, it seems to be some kind of short message that's on a loop, it's still too messy for me to decipher clearly" Deathshot replied

"**Darren and Trailbreaker are having the same problem, whoever's sending out this signal is obviously trying speak cybertronian but ain't got their CPU around the correct frequencies and wavelengths in right orders, whoever they are its safe to assume their human" Jazz said**

"**But if all the other frequencies are down and our's is the only one outside the military's, then-"**

"**Their listening for us! Everyone turn your comms off! D-man, get to that base and see what's goin' on, but keep your distance and report back as soon as you're satisfied there's no threat, I'm sorry but you guys up there are on your own on this one, Jazz out-" **and with that the signal went dead with a sharp blip, the humans sat in silence of a brief second as they allowed the odd situation to sink in, Deathshot was already moving towards the waterfront when the three of them snapped their minds back to reality.

"What kind of surprise are we going to get this time?" Morri muttered

"I don't know, but someone crudely knows how our language works and how to duplicate it. That in itself is a surprise" Deathshot replied calmly as he approached the naval base and dropped low until he was approximately 100 yards off the ground. Saito couldn't help but watch in amazement as they slowly and steadily drifted through the air, as if the Autobot himself were a fish in water, and all the while he held the presence of a ghost; silent and unseen. They pasted over several large buildings before reaching the centre of the base right on the seafront next the communications tower. As he circled the area, Deathshot felt like he was standing before a vast electric river as all the various comm signals filled his scanners and many human voices could be heard all at once, filtering through them all he concentrated on the garbled signal that was emanating from somewhere nearby.

"Hey, what's going on down there?" Ashley pointed down to the ground, sure enough, down below on the tarmac was a large set of four antenna like structures about 7 meters tall with a network of cables and wires of varying size connecting them all together, at the centre were three large supercomputers, each about two meters tall and connected to the antenna via the mess of wires, several feet away was a huge generator the size of a Topkick truck sitting on the back of a dark greed army truck. All around the odd structure were a group of men in white coats, from up above it appeared they were trying to keep it working as they dashed around adjusting various dials and typing on specialized consoles as they tried keep it ticking over, guarding them were a group of twelve soldiers in black and dark grey armour and off to one side were three men in suites watching them go about their work and quietly chatting amongst themselves.

"What the hell is that thing?" Saito said offhand

"Whatever it's supposed to be, it's the source of the signal" Deathshot replied

"Anybody else getting a sense of Deja'vu here?" Morri frowned

"Defiantly, but let's see what they have to say..." Deathshot replied as he activated his external microphone and zoomed his hearing range in on the group. As the Autobot sniper scanned the faces of the soldiers, the three humans in the cockpit gasped as they recognized their faces as they appeared on the consoles.

"The Rangers? What the hell are they doing here?" Ashley exclaimed, Saito frowned, as suddenly got a bad feeling about this but stayed silent as one of the suites, a breaded man with glasses in a reddish brown suite and a long tan trench coat, stepped forward and seemed to address the head scientist.

"Well, what do your readings say?" he asked in a clam manner, Morri blinked as something about his voice rang a bell, but she couldn't remember from where.

"The output is good and the power's holding steady, but tell control we need the jamming frequency's wave length to drop down the three point five" the head scientist replied.

"Will that be a liability?" another stranger in a grey suite asked

"Only if the wave length drops to point two, then we'll be at risk from being breached by any external interference" the scientist replied

"Very well, proceed" the bearded man replied

"We're taking a hell of a risk, if Aramaki's reports are accurate one of them could be nearby and we'd not even know about it, are you sure we shouldn't at last have a tank or armed suite on standby just in case?" the third stranger in a dark navy suite cautiously asked, his voice betraying his obvious worry as he approached the other two.

"No, we have to let them know we mean them no harm, we cannot afford to scare them off again" he replied

"But do you seriously think they'll believe us when they believe that the military is the enemy?" another said, Deathshots passengers listened in as their curiosity peeked as to where this conversation was going, and they were referring to.

"Which is why we have to find them and explain the situation that somewhere in our ranks is a traitor and that their the one who's responsible for the attack. I'm well aware it's doubtful they'll be willing to trust us and I don't blame them, but this is only going to get worse if at the very least we don't get a fix on their location and make sure their alive and well. The prime minister has already gone to enough trouble to finalize a new 'Alien Autobot's Protection Order' now she's putting only the most loyal of us together to sort this sordid affair out!" one retorted. That last statement grabbed everyone's full attention.

"But that's just it, how do I know either of you are loyal, or vice versa? I know everyone who been willing to actually help sort this out for the sake of our country rather than our own political gain is the only form of proof of trust we have right now, hell knows I've already gone to a lot of trouble and I'm about to stick my neck out even further. But if it presents the opportunity to catch whoever's responsible for that attack then I'm game" the reddish-brown suite sighed

"Do you think Aramaki should know about this? The prime minister already considers him and his section above reproach and considering how he handled keeping the aliens in custody he'll probably have few bits of advice for us, because heaven know I sure as hell couldn't step up to a challenge like that!" one said offhand as he wiped the sweat from his brow with a white handkerchief.

"That's just what I was thinking; he's already filed the discloser requests with the GSDA and the Navy so he has access to anything 'above classified' anyway, in addition, his team had first hand contact with the aliens and that's the one commodity we really need. I've already spoken to my superiors and I'll inform him tomorrow. In the meantime I'd like your boys to continue working here trying to contact the Autobot's, the second you get anything out of the ordinary notify me immediately...Commander Kagawa, you're in charge" the reddish-brown suite replied as he and the grey suite saluted the Ranger's field commander and left to re-enter one of the nearby buildings, Deathshot slowly rose back up into the air and turned the leave the base.

"Aramaki will want to know about this" Morri said offhand

"For sure, step on it Deathshot" Saito replied and with a burst of speed the Autobot sniper zoomed across the cityscape, making a bee line for Section 9 HQ.

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R&R please! :)


	39. Chapter 38: Irrevocable Reasons

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or Ghost in the Shell, just my OC's and the plot.

Additional Disclaimer: The girl described at the end of this chapter is the OC of a great fellow fanfic writer, I don't own her and her respectful owner is JillTheCrazy1 (a great writer who's OC glows with awesomesauce! you don't approve? don't bother to comment in the review box!)

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Whoever undretakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwreaked by the laughter of the gods. ~ Albert Einstine

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SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 38: IRREVOCABLE REASONS & STRANGE REASONINGS 

It was an odd sort of day today, a rather gloomy day, in terms of the weather that is.

The high fronts and sunshine that New Port had been enjoying for the last week or so had abruptly been replaced with a very low front which had brought in sea fog overnight. All around the city was bathed in thick mists and grey clouds swirled around the skyscrapers like water over rocks, bank after bank of think fog passed through the streets on a soft zephyr wind, rendering every colour to the same drab monotone shade of grey and making buildings and people appear and disappear at regular intervals, the vaporized water also made everything damp and wet, as if heavy rain had passed through as well. All in all, the weather really levelled the city's mood today.

But it was the perfect cover for someone to go about their business without the worry of someone noticing them easily.

Somewhere in the city, hidden deep in the metropolis away from prying eyes, Chief Aramaki stood at the corner of an alleyway not far from some back street bars. Some several meters away Pazu and Boma stood watch to make sure anyone who wasn't supposed to be there came walking along accidently, at length a man in a dark reddish-brown suite and a tan trench coat inconspicuously appeared out of the fog and came up to Aramaki, the chief recognised him immediately.

"I know you said we mustn't be seen anywhere too public, but don't you think this is being a little too ridiculous Kubota?" the Chief asked

"Not at all, this area of the city is so deep into the yakuza's territory even the e-police daren't not come here after dark forget during the day, besides, it's the only place I could think of on such short notice" he replied. The two men regarded one another for a brief moment, Kubota noticed Aramaki had that shrewd yet stubborn look in his eyes, he knew why he was here and he knew he was impatient as always to get to the heart of the matter. With a sigh he relaxed his guard and approached him with an open look on his face, as if to say he had no intention to grant his old friend any trouble over this.

"You said you needed to discus something important; I assume it's to do with the national emergency legislation local restriction provision that was abruptly implemented last night? Along with the jamming signal that followed," Aramaki stated bluntly

"Hm, still don't miss a trick do you?" Kubota sighed with a small smile

"Not when I get an encrypted message from out the blue that's using an old GSDA code informing me of a new strategy by Intelligence for pinning down whoever ordered that military deployment on the Autobots...so, what's been going on?" Aramaki replied with a slight frown, wishing not to beat about the bush. Kubota produced a blue A4 sized book from under his coat and handed it to the chief.

"What's this?"

"The latest intelligence report from our data analysts, and several other key reports from certain individuals in the GSDA's applied sciences division" Kubota replied, for a few minutes the chief flicked through the reports scanning over certain paragraphs, until a certain report grabbed his eye and the more he read through it the more his eyes began to betray his inner doubt, which quickly turned to concern, he looked up at his old friend with a stunned expression, Kubota merely reflected his inner surprise too.

"Is this accurate?" Aramaki asked

"Yes, we've finally confirmed the falsified data on the military network, and it's far worse than we anticipated...we were expecting something like a few files that weren't there before or even a dormant back-door hack into one of the administrative barriers, but as you can see; there's evidence of whole files being erased and replaced with false ones, classified access terminals that have had their ghost key recognition codes reconstructed and changed and, the administrative barrier that stored the details of the A11 Alpha virus, as well as various other above classified viruses, had been hacked into with a back door programme installed in the barrier from the inside. Whoever's behind this we now know for sure that it has to be someone on the inside...The analysts in question who conducted our end of the investigation are old acquaintances of mine; I know they wouldn't have gone to the trouble to get this data unless they knew it could cause a great deal of trouble for everyone, and not just in the short term, the amount of falsified data on the military network leads us to believe this has been going on for months, possible even years... How the hell we didn't even get inkling to all this is still making the minds of the top brass reel" Kubota sighed as he dropped his gaze, Aramaki stood in silent shock for a brief few seconds before continuing.

"...This is very bad; I had surmised someone on the inside was responsible for the falsified data but even I had no idea it had been manipulated to this extent...so if this is the scenario now what are the top brass doing about it?" Aramaki asked as his expression turned dead serious.

"Hm, as if they didn't know how to approach this business with the Autobots to begin with, now the fact has arisen that they have more than just a few traitors in their ranks has really put the thumbscrews on them; they don't know whether to tackle this head-on and scrutinize everyone beneath their rank or wait and see if anything new turns up that may open an opportunity to resolve this. Either way is not going to resolve this, scrutinizing all the various agencies, departments and divisions will simply waist time and resources and we in the Intelligence department can't afford to wait on this, if anything happens and the prime minister declares a state of emergency we'll be crippled under the first blow. They may think they can take their time to think this over, but they're not the ones who are on the front lines of this whole mess" Kubota frowned, his eyes betraying his inner annoyance at the situation; this didn't escape Aramaki's notice.

"Hmm, you sound like you have enough resolve to have something in mind for this" Aramaki suggested, Kubota looked at him, for a moment he seemed to hesitate, unwilling to say what was on his mind, but he knew he couldn't keep anything from the all knowing Aramaki, the old ape always got what he needed, with a deeper, heavier sigh the veteran officer threw his caution to the wind and as a particularly thick back of fog swept through the alleyway he stepped closer to his old friend.

"...Before I tell you the real the reason for why I asked you here, let me explain from the beginning. The real reason why I requested to conduct this investigation...From the beginning when the Autobot's true nature had come to light I, we all knew, this unique situation would have far reaching consequences that would affect everyone on every level, and even far into the future. And even though the press blackout is still holding tight, sooner or later the truth or a portion of it at least will reach the public in one form or another. To that extent, whist the original Alien Autobot Protection Order was being written up; some of the analysts and programmers in our department were brought in to brainstorm new approaches and counter measures in the event any data on the Autobot's had been leaked to the general public; after remembering the events behind the Dejima incident we decided to keep this strictly in our department; call me sceptical but the Cabinet Intelligence Service had somewhat fallen out of our favour..." he smirked, Aramaki returned the gesture. "Anyway, during the course of our 'hypothetical scenario' work up's we accidently discovered a discrepancy in several barrier mazes that were meant to guard the reports you made on the Autobots and their charges, between the time you submitted them to when they were brought up to be used as reference to the protection order, someone with high level clearance had accessed them without consent. Working backwards through the line the of the administration barriers we weren't able to identify who it was, but we found out where the reports had been accessed from and sure enough we found a very big surprise...true to the Autobot's accounts we discovered 'the dome', and the 'rift' within it...Needless to say we informed the prime minister and the cabinet right away and they were as stunned as we were, at the same time we filed a disclosure request with GSDA for details on the site, but they didn't reply for nearly three days and finally when we did get the intel from them we found there were several key pieces of data that had been cleverly falsified. This gave us the grounds to send in some of our people over to the site and determine just what was going on, but...the investigation revealed that indeed someone had covered the 'anomaly' up, but we didn't get a chance to find out who was responsible" Kubota continued, Aramaki quirked an eyebrow.

"The investigation was compromised?" he asked

"No...Something, unexpected happened...something which has lead us believe to the Autobot's not only knew of the attack beforehand, but had a good reason to run... " Kubota replied with a hint of nervousness in his voice, Aramaki looked at him in surprised silence for moment, being careful to keep his face impassive and not hint his concern. From out his coat pocket Kubota produced a small red disk, Aramaki in turn produced a small black device crudely resembling a large cell phone and inserted the disk into a slot in the side, he pulled out a small black wire attached to the bottom of the device and connected it to the port in the back of his neck.

As he closed his eyes, his field of vision flashed and changed, a small buzz in the back of his skull told him it was an external memory; he realized he was looking through the eyes of one of the Intelligence agents and therefore wasn't in control. He found himself standing in the middle of a steep forested valley and off to one side of a large field of grass, some of which had been burnt away by fire; in front he saw a giant white dome some eighty or so feet high with another smaller dome about forty-five feet high. Both were connected via a huge tent corridor with huge concrete barriers surrounding the bases. All around military personal in black armoured uniforms were guarding the domes, yellow army trucks with bio-hazard symbols on the sides were parked up along with several heavy armoured army trucks (the modal of which he had never seen before or recalled being implemented by the military in the first place), and close by people in orange and yellow bio-hazard suits were coming and going from the smaller dome to the trucks through a series of air pressured doors. Suddenly, there was something going on, people started shouting and running around in a near panic, the agent ran into the smaller dome which was filled with all kinds of electronic equipment and large computers and made his way to the entrance of the larger dome; halfway through the tent corridor the agent was nearly blinded by a blaze of multicoloured lights and nearly fell to the ground as the earth under his feet shifted abruptly and the air was filled with a strange hollow electronic buzzing sound, swallowing hard he nervously carried on. Through the bright lights he could make out a crude bubble-like form shimmering and wobbling in midair, in the centre of the strange thing something seemed to be forming and then an object, a cylinder about a meter long with rings around it and covered in strange crop circle like patterns, fell out and dropped to the ground, several men in bio-hazards suites rushed up to it and began holding Geiger counters and other kinds of scanners up to it. It was brought through to the smaller dome and put through a series of large scanners, tested and experimented on for nearly twelve minutes, all the while they were going on about confirming the presence of a signal being emitted from the strange thing. Soon the sound of helicopter roaters drew the scientists attention upwards, another haz-mat ran into the dome and informed them 'they' wanted to see it immediately, reluctantly the men carried the strange cylinder out, the agent followed close behind and stopped at the main entrance to the smaller dome and watched as four strange figures exited a large chopper and stoop before the device as the scientists presented it to them. For several minutes they talked among themselves whilst looking down on the strange cylinder, the agent tried to scan their faces but they had their backs turned to the site's flood lights and they were too far away to listen in on. Then suddenly, three explosions covered the open area in thick grey smoke, the agent was far away enough that he didn't get swamped by the obvious cover and noticed some several meters up in the air a faint glimmer, then a shimmer in the odd form of what looked like a huge four winged jet with a pair of clipped wings and swallow wings and tail fins with a vertical tail fin, it rapidly shot upwards and disappeared, but not before clipping the top of the smoke clouds on its way out. The whole base then went into pandemonium as soldiers and haz-mats ran around, orders were being barked, vehicles and choppers deployed, and in all the confusion the agent discreetly slipped away. The external memory stopped there.

As Aramaki handed back the disk, he felt his mind begin to spin one too many thoughts too fast, in a way he felt backed into a corner. However, he stayed calm as he knew he still had options at hand, with a fake look of surprise he met Kubota's gaze with equal shock, Kubota passed another deep sigh and continued.

"...The agent in question made his getaway, but before he left the site he confirmed the armed unit that attacked the safe house was deployed from that location...obviously it was now too big a situation to keep to ourselves and we headed out to the prime minister's residence to report the incident, but a lot can happen within the space of an hour's drive across the city and by the time we arrived the situation had changed again and the report of the Autobot's desertion and disappearance had just come in"

"I remember. That's when someone in the cabinet thought me and my men were somehow to blame and held me for questioning" Aramaki replied

"I know, as soon as I heard that detail I asked the prime minster to see her in her chambers and I gave her the details of that night's op. Needless to say she wasn't just stunned but shocked that this had been going on the whole time under very nose, and that someone in the military had known about the 'rift' from day one. During that night she ordered us to remain on standby until the details of the attack could be verified, I don't know what your team were up to in the middle of all that but they arrived a couple of hours after the first attack and managed to clear the details up...I'm sorry I couldn't help you out there but-..."

"It's alright, we all had our duties that night, you and I were simply doing ours regardless of whatever else was going on" Aramaki replied

"...So, after that night the prime minister gave us the task of trying to figure out just what the hell went on, and what's been going on, I knew it wasn't going to be a light investigation so after showing the falsified intel report to my superiors I requested to investigate the matter further, and with the amount of evidence at hand they certainly didn't refuse. But I knew there'd be areas we couldn't get to with our usual lines of inquiry so that's why when you approached the prime minister with the request to investigate the GSDA I persuaded one of my superiors to sign off on the approval order"

"Hmm, I guessed as much, I knew I couldn't be only one with their head screwed on the right way"

"...During the course of investigating the falsified intel report from the GSDA we discovered other discrepancies in the network that extended all the way up to the administrations that were above classified; that's when I decided to bring in the analysts mentioned in those combined reports to really give us an impression of just how far this went up, sure enough we looked and found the military network and several associated major online mainframes had been corrupted and altered, all without triggering any barrier mazes, firewalls, chimera viruses, stealth gates or attack barriers...at that time we all but panicking as the gravity of the situation had presented itself in the worst way possible, and worst still, none of the evidence we found gave any hints or clues as to who could be behind it...then, that's when I remembered something from the night of the attack. It was just after you arrived back from your questioning and your team showed up; What was it you stated? 'While this incident has pointed out that they are undoubtedly formidable and far superior combatant's...has anyone cared to look over the number of fatalities incurred tonight?'"

"...'Despite the battle, the fact no-one has died is a clear sign that the Autobots are being's of their word, I believe that if there is any further pursuit of this matter then it might not hurt to consider being men of our word and letting them go, least we spend trillions putting the armed forces back together again' I believe that's what I stated?" Aramaki said

"That's it, after you left that had quite an effect on the other cabinet members and military officials, no one was willing to argue that point afterwards, but as I left the room I glanced back and noticed one guy looked like he wanted to explode, putting it down to a dented ego I left without thinking anything further of it. But later when I was in that one cafe across from the building, I saw him come in with another man, they sat down behind the screen next to my table so I could hear everything they said but it seemed like they didn't notice I was there because I heard him slip: "If Hidaka's going cover his bases via his underworld connections then why'd I even bother going to the lengths of falsifying that report, it's not like Intelligence have a real interest in this anyway'..." Aramaki quirked an eyebrow, now his full interest was piqued. "Talk about a stroke of luck, using my external memory I ran his voice against military records and came up with a name..." Kubota continued as he flicked a few pages of the book until he came to a page with a profile and photo ID of a stern looking man in a black suite. Aramaki was shocked when he recognized who it was.

"Colonel Gorou Saski?" Aramaki gasped

"...Unfortunately yes, even though the war is long since past he's still highly regarded among many for his ruthless determination and ferocity, he was formerly of the GSDA and military Intelligence as you well know and aside from his links to the CIS it's rumoured he has strong ties to the Umibozu, one story that's been flying around the GSDA for a number of years is that it was because of the information he provided that the Umibozu were able to successfully take back Nemuro at all" Kubota continued, "A low-key check into his background reviled his military personal file was one of the many that had been corrupted, but whether he's responsible or not remains to be seen, but further inquiries show that he has close ties to Megatec's development section, and that one man you've been investigating, Osamu Hidaka? Saski's apparently done business with him in the past in terms of looking after some money for him to procure some of Megatec's company shares"

"Well well, that is interesting"

"Indeed, but in other places it seemed you and I weren't the only ones to willing to stand up and actually do something to help resolve this situation. We got a report in from Etami, Toshima and Nishi bases stating that on the night of the attack several of their unmanned Jigabatchi's took off, supposedly with the clearance codes from control but when the head's of the base's requested the reason for the deployment their requests were denied, the next they heard their aircraft were smouldering wreckages in some rice paddy fields, Field Marshal Yuuta of the Airforce was not happy to learn the clearance codes had been dispatched without his authorization, and the head of Setion 4's Rangers was even more angered when he learned his men had been set up to terminate those children, when he gave the order to bring them in alive only"

"So that night's events caused some huge ripples among the various branches of the military hmm? I knew this was going have a big knock on effect, but I guess even after a lifetime of working in this business you can still be surprised" Aramaki smirked

"Indeed, which brings me to why I asked you here; with the prime minister's approval we're attempting to contact the Autobots, we're well aware they'll be unwilling to trust us which is why we're requesting you to help if you know how to contact them. You and your men did have first hand contact with them and managed to build a repore with them and their charges, no-one has gotten to know them better than you Aramaki" Kubota explained, Aramaki's expression was a mix of disbelief and seriousness "Despite everything else the heart of what happened that night revolves around that object that fell out of the 'rift', whatever that was, be it a message or a device of some usefulness to them, it was vital enough that one of them travelled all the way to that site to retrieve it. It's clear that whoever's out to get them, their disappearance threw a big spanner into their works and now their searching high and low for even an inkling of their whereabouts and if they find them first then they'll be in trouble. That's why we want to find them, to explain that there are people on this planet that genuinely are concerned for their safety and that not everyone is out to get them"

"That's one hell of a long shot, and one with no guarantee of success; when the Autobots were in our custody they made it a note to remind us of their abilities and just where we stand with them, even if I were the one to attempt to talk to them I can't be sure if they'll be willing or not, don't forget, that incident at their hideout had them spooked, if they come it won't be without caution" Aramaki replied sternly

"I know, which is why we're keeping this as low key as possible; aside from the prime minister the only other people in on this plan are; the chief of the Rangers and his field commander, the head of the Air force Field Marshal Yuuta, a few select members of my analysis team, the Admiral of the navy and of course the minister of home affairs. All of whom are eager to resolve this discreetly without causing a mess, and considering everything that's happened, I'd say it's high time someone took a stand and do the right thing for the right reasons"

"...On that point I agree, but with our investigation into the military taking top priority at this time I can't just drop everything. Mt team and I may have known the Autobots first hand but they made it clear that we had to earn their trust before anything else" Aramaki argued "When the military came and they had to run we didn't stand in their way and regardless of the cabinets overall distain for my choice in strategy, ask yourself if YOU would be willing to stand under the foot of a 30 foot alien robot?" Aramaki argued.

"...I certainly can't argue with that logic, but the big difference with this plan is that we have no intention to take the Autobot's into protective custody"

"You don't?"

"You're surprised? That's a first...No, we simply want to know they're okay and to reason with them and hopefully come to a mutual agreement. The prime minister amended the protection order for the Autobots which will grant them the freedom to stay on Japanese soil anywhere in the country, providing they keep their whereabouts unknown, don't approach and reveal their bipedal forms to civilians and to not attack anyone unless it is in self defence; if they require any supplies or resources we'll be happy to provide them with anything they need, just so long as they promise not to unveil themselves"

"Hmm, a very tempting deal but one which will arouse their suspicions even more"

"We know, but it's the best offer we got...because in all the confusion, suspicions and deceptions, on-one has seen the flip side of all this"

"The flip side?"

"Yes, instead of exploitation, we want to, hopefully, learn from them...it's not every day you find out you have an alien species in your back yard and this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to really learn just what's out there among the stars...Personally, the fact that everybody either wants to take advantage or to make a quick buck off the back of these unique beings has discussed me to no end, and that's no way for the human race to introduce itself to its interstellar neighbours...No, we've all made a mess of this whole thing as it is and it's time to set an example and lead by wisdom, not by ignorance...we know we're risking everything for this, even the prime minister knows she risk's being ousted from office by approving this new protection order...but if we don't make the first move and at least bring some form of resolution, this cycle of irrevocable deception will never stop, and I think in some way, we'll have lost the opportunity to prove that we can be better, and not so arrogant as we so easily allow ourselves to be..." Kubota said in reverence as he looked up at the foggy sky. Aramaki regarded his old friend for a moment as he had never heard Kubota speak so personally before, had the situation really grew to such proportions that it touched those behind closed doors? Was it worth taking such a risk that if it succeeded not only would the Autobots be safe, but it would prove those in power could stand up and do the right thing for the benefit of all? Aramaki dropped his gaze in thought as he considered the logic of Kubota's plan, and his words. But then, something else came to mind.

"...For all the sincerity of the philosophy that plan hold's there is one other thing; you said in your message that Intelligence had an idea how to pinpoint the culprit behind the falsified military data; if Saski is a suspect we can tail him, but how does your plan to issue the Autobots with a new protection order fit in?" Aramaki asked

"Since the Autobots had gone to ground we surmised that the individuals looking for them have been using the military network by way of a wide spread look-out for them, based on the studies of the back hacks and which particular files had been replaced we hypothesized that they're taking a wait and see approach so the minute we get a confirmed sighting of them they'll try to step in and catch them off guard...or at least, that's the impression their giving out, after studying this wide spread infiltration of the network we realized that they might be getting desperate, a lot of the data they hacked were mainly false alarms from various military bases up and down the country. Now by itself that fact is not necessarily anything new at this point, but had they accessed the administration barrier mainframe, the one titled 'Main Report Register', to see which reports had been flagged as 'confirmed false alarm' first then they would have saved themselves a lot of time and energy. But we found no evidence to suggest that that particular mainframe had been accessed or tampered with so the fact that they're accessing the reports directly and bypassing the Main Report Register means their checking for new reports as they come in, so why didn't they set up some kind of flag programme to alert them of any new Intel? We asked ourselves, and that's when we realized they might be starting to over-correct their own methodology; thinking that setting up certain programmes into certain levels of the system would create a trail leading back to them, they decided to rely wholly on their wizard-class hacking skills to go the long way round, and if their methods primarily rely on using online data as a medium and deception then their information-by-proxy is likely to be a facilitation of systems corruption as a pose to actual 'slipping in and out the old fashion way' so to speak. In other words, if they're so busy covering their trail online they'll be neglectful of covering their trail offline...which is where your team come's in, if our anaysist's theories are correct and the culprits have underestimated the importance of external data, then it would be a simple case of placing some good hackers in the right position to catch them at the moment they try make their move. By contacting the Autobots we'll be giving the culprits the incentive they need to come out of hiding..." Aramaki was about to protest when Kubota held his hand up to stop him. "Now I already know what you're going to say and I've got that aspect covered, the Autobots won't be in harm's way I promise you," Kubota was quick to reassure, Aramaki just looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"Than just what do you have in mind?" Aramaki demanded, Kubota smirked with a somewhat sneaky glint in his eye.

"Remember back when Colonel Tonoda had us run that little 'errand' on that Captain at the Fukuoka garrison and he needed to be 'seen' in Kyoto whilst he was running that termination order on that one terrorist from Taiwan? Do you remember that 'double switch' technique the Colonel showed us?" he said in a cryptic tone, Aramaki smirked as he remembered the incident in question and knew as to what he was implying.

"Ah, so in that event it would allow us to search out the culprits with minimum risk of being compromised, if indeed they're ignoring the value of external data as a means to cover their offline activities then it will be a simple case of 'baiting the cage' and letting them blow their own cover. But what's the prime minister position on Hidaka? Since we've already collected enough physical evidence of his 'under the table' dealings, will the evidence of his involvement with Saski be admissible if it transpires they are responsible in any way for the data manipulation?" Aramaki replied

"The prime minister's already read your progress report and has asked me to assure you that she'll deal with him when the time is right; despite all this she has got a public image to maintain, so I apologize on her behalf"

"That's fair enough...In the meantime, when do you intend to implement this plan?"

"As soon as we know we're ready and have everyone and everything in place. We won't be taking any chances on this so don't be surprised if any last minute change of plans aren't announced before hand"

"...What makes you think I'll agree to this?"

"Come on Aramaki, how long do we have to stand here chatting when we both know you've already made up your mind?" Kubota asked, Aramaki was silent for a moment.

"I'm afraid you're mistaking plausible logic for common sense, even if I wanted to agree I can't just force my men to put their lives in danger like that again, contrary to popular rumours about my section they're not superhuman, just anti-terrorist police unit trying to do their jobs to the best of their abilities, I can't ask them for anymore than that" Aramaki answered as he turned to leave.

"Even so, many would dismiss it and few will admit it, but you are the best when it comes to handling a crisis Aramaki; your expertise and unique standing in all this might just prove to be the deciding factor we need to bring this whole mess to a close, and ensure that the Autobots get to keep their freedom, that's the thing we can't overlook in all this..." Kubota pleaded, Aramaki glanced sideways at him for a moment, but dropped his gaze in thought, seemingly halfway between convinced and doubtful. He turned back to face his old friend who simply offered him a sympathetic look.

"...I'll have to talk to the prime minister just to be sure on this...when we're sure we're ready on our end I'll call you, but for now...if, when you succeed in contacting the Autobots and they agree to meet with you, let me part one very good piece of advice...brace yourself, because it will be an experience like no other..."Aramaki said, Kubota quirked an eyebrow but said nothing as he took onboard the old ape's advice.

"I'll try to remember that, you just be careful okay?" said Kubota as he turned to leave.

"As if you even have to be concerned..." Aramaki replied as he walked away and disappeared into the fog. After several meters or so down the alleyway Pazu and Boma stood at their posts and acknowledge him with discreet nods, "We're done here, let's go" he said simply and with the two agents at his back he carried on down until he reached a road that was near an intersection, there was hardly any traffic on the road in either direction as the sounds of the city drifted over the roofs of the buildings. Parked up on the curb nearby was a familiar silver hardtop with its blond haired driver waiting patiently in the driver's seat, the rear passenger door opened up by itself and the chief climbed in, Pazu and Boma walked off and disappeared around the street corner; the chief past a deep sigh as he closed his eyes to regain his strength, though Miles couldn't tell as the chief was sure to keep his expression impassive.

"You okay dude?" Miles asked as he looked back over his shoulder

"I'm fine, I take it you managed to listen in alright?" the chief replied as his trademark hard-nosed expression came back on his face.

"We heard everything, I have to say that's quite a plan the dude's got in mind, bold and a long shot to say the least...If say, we oblige him on this do you trust him enough that he'll be true to his word on this revised protection order for us?" Jazz replied via his loud speakers

"Kubota's been a good friend for many years; his particular line work may put him in the position of seeming to be less than honourable in trying to maintain his status as a good Intelligence officer, but he's one of the few who works to put the needs of the many weak before the needs of the powerful few. I have to admit this plan is extreme even for him, but if he's actually willing to risk his career like this then I can only surmise that the situation has caused far more than just some very big ripples behind closed doors" the Chief replied

"_But if this revised Alien Autobot Protection Order means we don't have to hide anymore surely its worth taking a chance and meeting this Kubota and his friends face to face just to see if their on the level?"_ Bluestreak piped in

"_It sounds too easy and too much like a baited trap, and what guarantee is there that one of the instigators of this plan isn't one of the traitor's themselves?" _Ravage growled incredulously

"That is a risk, but as you heard, if indeed the hackers are neglecting the importance of external data to cover their offline activities then it's possible we can catch them in the act if they get wind of the Autobots making reappearance" the chief stated

"_If it means we can finally catch theses little slaggers then I'm game! And if their getting sloppy then we might as well catch them ourselves, we maybe few in number but we still hold the upper hand with our far superior technology! Not to mention we have Deathshot, if anyone can sneak up on a slippery target he certainly can!"_ Sideswipe retorted

"_As much as I'm flattered, need I remind you superior technology doesn't equal a better opponent; this strategy is quite risky and if we decide to do this then we have to plan our approach carefully...I'm sure your friend may be above reproach for you Aramaki but you'll understand that we'll have to find a way of determining whether or not he, along with the other's involved in this, are really being true to their word"_ Deathshot replied

"I have no objections, just as long as you're not too 'vigorous' with them, perhaps something other than a face popping out of a computer maybe?" the chief suggested

"_Aw but that's half the fun! Watching them being scared shitless-OW!"_ Ashley replied as an audible whack could be heard as someone hit him over the back of his head.

"Well, we'll think of something, 'cause Primus only knows if this really is a good opportunity to nab the ones responsible for all this then I say it's something worth exploring...but we'll have to have some details, more intel on this; say Aramaki? You mind sharing the contents of that report when we get back to HQ, as well as some other things?" Jazz asked

"Hm, understood, in the meantime however I have to get to the Prime minister's residence; there are a few things that still don't fit and I think she may know where to find the right pieces, if they really do intend to contact you then the least I can do for the time being is stall for as long as possible until you can come to your own decision" the Chief replied

"Right on dude, we'll talk this over before the week's out" Jazz replied

"But it's a Friday man" Miles whined as he placed his hands on Jazz's wheel and the Autobot fired up his engine

"That's the point Miles" Jazz muttered as he sped off.

Back at Section 9 HQ the morning's work had been progressing at fair pace; down in one of the interrogation rooms Batou and Ishikawa were putting Riku Hidaka through the proverbial wringer for about the sixth time that morning. After a night in one of the holding cells the young thug had learnt very quickly that the ex-Ranger was not the type to be negotiated with...negotiating in Riku's mind meant trying to bribe Batou with a whole wad of rolled up Yen, after that, the two agents had been playing the old good cop bad cop routine and putting the wannabe gangster in his place, in the meantime his father had been informed and had wasted no time in calling the family lawyer (for all the good it had done since most of the interrogation had taken place the night before after he was arrested).

Meanwhile, up in the Section's canteen Togusa sat alone with his thoughts as he watched the gloomy fog steadily drift by the window, his memory turned back over the last several days; a mish-mash of different things rolled over through his mind without much focus, and without any particular thought in mind. Then, as he took a swig of his coffee, one particular memory grabbed his mind and began to fill him with a feeling of hollow failure, it was strange; as if it were a feeling of failing an important task before it had even been carried out, or standing on the edge of an endless black abyss and the essence of helplessness seemed to circle around. All the while he could hear the deep sinister echo of that damn panther's voice in the back of his mind, taunting him like some demon from beyond the ether. He was so lost in trying to interpret this sensation that he failed to hear the Major's soft footsteps approach his from behind; he jumped slightly as she pulled up a seat next to him.

"A little jumpy today aren't we?" she politely smiled

"Sorry, you just, caught me off my guard..." he replied listlessly and took another sip of coffee; the Major was quick to pick up his anxiety.

"Well we can't have that now can we?...So what's on your mind?" she asked, Togusa hesitated, glancing at her sideways for a moment before looking back out the window.

"...Something Ravage said a few days ago that's been bothering me...Major, how many all natural humans do you think there are left in the world?" he asked bluntly, the Major blinked in surprise.

"What brought this on?" she asked

"Ravage told me that while they were hiding in the second safe house he did a little research and found that the rate of all natural humans stands at 22%, and has been dropping by 3% every year..." he replied, the Major began to wonder where he was going with this.

"I had no idea, but how did Ravage find this fact to be interesting?" she asked

"...It's kind of complicated, but he shared his view that cyborgs are a parody of humanity, that we've doomed ourselves to our own extinction by not being able to reproduce in prosthetic bodies..."

"Cyborgs being a parody of humanity? A little twisted don't you think?" she politely retorted

"For us humans yes, but he told me that 'being organic is a fundamental fact of our design' and that, in his mind, we've turned ourselves into a whole other species; one that's stronger and better in many ways, and yet incapable of reproduction and child birth, and the fact that a person's DNA is stored inside their prosthetic body is inconsequential because it's been turned into computerized data" said Togusa, the Major found her curiosity piqued by this and decided to indulge her philosophical intellect.

"Well, if you want to look at the possibility of mankind dying out through the intervention of technology, ask yourself if it's conceivable that whoever crunched those numbers and did the research is feeling strongly enough to make a point of it if they posted their findings on the net. Something like the drop in birth rates aren't treated lightly in this country and there are many that view it as a real concern; but the problem is because 3% is such a small number you could easily pass it off as one of those flukes of nature that crop up every few decades or so" the Major reasoned

"That maybe, but it still doesn't exclude the fact that the number of all natural humans stands at barely one-billion-three-hundred worldwide. A couple of days ago I found the website Ravage had used for his 'research' and found, to my surprise, it wasn't just that the figures were legit, but that that website in question barely got above 8000 hits a day...so the fact that not many people are aware of this makes it pretty sobering" he replied.

"For sure, but if it came to the point that the worldwide population of all natural humans was under threat of becoming genetically unstable surly there would be a massive outcry for some kind of action to be taken? I find it hard to believe that everyone overall wouldn't eventually begin to realize that there are fewer and fewer children being born into this world" the Major argued

"That maybe everyone for the most part, but what if something like this wasn't brought the public's attention by those in power because it's a very inconvenient truth? And inconvenient truths never settle well for those who have agenda's. When you consider the overall infrastructure of our society is based on the way information is interpreted and interacted with, it's not hard to understand why Gouda and the CIS were able to manipulate the public's line of thinking in such a way that it played their advantage to have everyone think negatively of the refugees, and when you look at how information on the net can be deliberately altered or randomly altered by chance on a number of levels by those who know the system, the way all the data can come together is something akin to a cold virus randomly mutating into something else because the circumstances allow it to do so without being hindered. In essence, the accumulation of the flow of data in the system gives rises to random spontaneous occurrences through the parallelization of the human psyche through the networks that are mainly under the conscious influence of cyberbrains, so in that respect it's not hard to see why phenomena like the stand alone complex are liable to come about" Togusa explained, the Major blinked in amazment.

"Well, I'm impressed, nice to see I'm starting to rub off on you" she smirked; Toguse looked at her and passed a light chuckle.

"Nah, it's just something that's been floating around my mind these last few days...But, if it's conceivable that a standalone complex can happen through the intervention of random data like the laughing man case, or by the deliberate manipulation of cyberbrain consciousness like the individual eleven; is it conceivable that a purely alien influence could cause another standalone complex to occur, regardless of being random or deliberate?"

"You think the Autobots presence in our world is likely to cause another standalone complex to come about?" the Major asked in surprise

"...Well I'm not implying that they'll do anything to deliberately harm us. The fact that didn't kill any of the soldiers the night we were attack proves they care for human life and at this point I don't think they'll try anything that would put anyone in harm's way. But what if, when this is all over and they can finally go back home, there are unusual elements that start to spring up out of the woodworks as part of an 'echo effect' to all this? Or worse, the fact that they're far superior in terms of technology is an understatement; what if something occurs that doesn't fall within the usual parameters of what we're use to dealing with? And if whoever's responsible for the data manipulation of the military network knows more to this then we think, and their data in question gets onto the net somehow how will it have an effect?" Togusa pondered, the Major was silent for a brief moment as she considered the logic at hand, and turned her gaze to the window with a slight frown as another thick bank of fog drifted over the building.

"...I don't deny there will be repercussions to follow this, and in all likelihood the way in which the data concerning this whole affair may become the infrastructure for another standalone complex to become possible. The problem with the standalone complex is that it's reach onto the system is only as vast as the number of conscious minds that drive it to cause an effect on the populous; if it comes about through random circumstances then it would require a certain level of psyches to give sustenance to its level of influence, in other words random people who trigger the phenomena could end up discovering the Autobots without even realizing they know about them, or, someone somewhere could or might think that that the people have a right to know of these alien it were out of some misplaced philosophical view of 'reveling the truth behind the alien conspiracy' then it will be no different from the way the laughing man case went down and it will be a simple case of following the circumstances as they follow through; but if someone somewhere has serious ulterior motives for this then we'll have to be doubly cautious...Either way, nothing is ever going to be the same after this, and the 'echo effects' will be felt by all for years to come" said the Major in a sober tone, for a while they both watched the fog drift by. High up above the city a tiny piece of blue sky revealed itself before disappearing again into the gloom, Togusa glanced sideways at the Major and passed a sigh.

"...As for cyborgs being a parody of humanity? I think he meant it more as a tragic comedy; the idea of us humans thinking we're so much better at being cyborgs and reveling in it that we failed to see what will happen in the long term, and that it makes us presumptuous..." Togus said offhand

"...As much as I don't like him, I can't help but agree in a way; when you look back on human history and the rise and fall of men like Hitler, Poll Pot, Stalin and many others who saw themselves as those who could rise above all others, it's certainly true to say presumptuousness is an understatement, how anyone can presume to know the wants and needs of a country without first knowing what's required of its leader is part and part of what leads to their downfall as well as ignorance and arrogance tacking root and corrupting logic and reason...We can't look back on the past and say we didn't try to learn from our mistakes, for instance, the 9/11 incident in New York back in 2001 shocked American's to the core and gave them the incentive to re-hall their airport security protocols...But when you look back on many such incidences throughout history where a great loss of life has been incurred you'll see that the changes to rectify it only takes place after the incident and not before hand despite any warnings of the aforementioned event...it seems a tragic fact of human society that lives have to be lost before anyone takes you seriously, and even in this day and age people like us are still hard pressed to play catch up with the criminal underworld as a whole, and it's even more insulting to all the good people of this world when they don't get justice done in their names when our world leaders don't take seriously the fact that the problems criminals place on us are growing worse year after year" the Major replied with distain in her usual cool manner, underneath Togusa knew it was one of the reasons that drove her attitude as a police officer, his own reason was that he had his family to fight for, the idea of one less criminal on the street so his wife and children were that bit little safer was the one thing that allowed him to sleep at night, when he knew they, and everyone else was safe.

"...But, if it takes a disaster of tragic proportions to sway minds and take action, what will we do, when one morning we wake up, and there are no more children born into the world?..."Togusa sighed in a solemn tone. The Major looked at him in slight alarm, her gaze steadily returned to the window as she failed to find an answer; for the longest time the two of them sat in that awful silence, the hollow rushing of the wind resonated on the glass and fog steadily grew thicker and darker as it mirrored their own uncertainty. Just outside the canteen door, a few feet down the corridor, Frenzy stood next to his big brother Ravage in silence, having just heard the conversation he looked up at the panther with his spindly hand clasped together in worry.

"**What should we do brother?..."** he asked over their privet comm channel, now that Soundwave was gone from their lives it was the only substitute to their telepathic link together. Ravage dropped one ear in uncertainty, gazed back at his younger sibling and quietly turned to leave.

"**...Come, it's not our place to say..." **he replied somberly

At the same time, somewhere far beyond the city, far away beyond the hills the rivers and the mountains, deep beneath the earth in a place far beyond the reach of any human...

Something was stirring

Two huge glowing blue eyes pierced though the darkness, their owner's form hidden from sight in the pitch blackness; they looked up and gazed far above, as if watching the stars.

But there were no stars in this place.

The eyes looked down again as two other sets of eyes appeared from nowhere, one pair was bright scarlet red and other were blueish yellow, they came closer and hovered silently.

"It would seem events are starting to shape the near future...our saviors can't be far from learning the truth now?" a stern female spoke

"Unfortunately, it is not that simple my disciple, I'm afraid it is going to get far worse before anything good can come of all this, and sadly, there will be a high price for our freedom..." another more deeper and older male voice replied mornfully, the eyes exchanged worried glances and looked back as if to plea with the blue eyes.

"...But...surely there must be a way to minimize the collateral damage? There are so many innocent lives, we cannot just let them suffer!" another female voice demanded

"...I am so sorry my child, but fate has cast its hand and my power cannot undo what is about to be done...there will be death, and so many suffer because of him..." the male voice replied

"But we still have options! Even down here we can still do our part to hold the enemy back for as long as possible! Surly there must be some way to warn the humans in advance?" the stern voice pleaded, the blue eyes dropped their gaze as in thought, and then met the other two pairs of eyes with an answer.

"The sniper's mind is already within my sight, even from here I can sense the direction their path is taking through him...but they still have so far to go, if things do not change now it will be too late...let us see what their paths can lead us to..." the blue eyes spoke, in the darkness a bright wisp of glowing orange smoke drifted up into the air and twisted and twirled around to form the faces of the section 9 team and Autobot gang, all of them were laid out in a circular pattern connected to each other with thin white wisps of smoke, as if they were on a vast spiders web. The blue eyes scanned over each of them carefully as if looking for something in particular, then, they hovered over Batou's face and lit up when a new wisp of smoke materialized around the image to form the image of a young woman with a tiny bright white star glowing on her forehead.

"Yes!...There is another, and she has the sight! Now, we have hope at long last!" the blueish yellow eyes exclaimed in joy

"She has indeed been sparked with the sight, we finally have a means to bring the truth to light...but remember, if we take this course of action the events that follow can never be taken back nor undone. We stay the course we set...are we in agreement?"

"Agreed"

"I agree"

"...Then let us begin..." the blue eyes replied, in the middle of the darkness the smoky spectres dissipated and from below the spectral image of the young woman asleep in her bed steadily rose into the black space between the three pairs of eyes. She was young but mature for a human female; she had medium length black hair with ash blond streaks running through and had a fair but strong looking face. From out of the darkness a giant armoured hand with long slender fingers gently came to hover above her, from out of the darkness two more glowing clouds materialized, one red and one purple, both formed into the Autobot and Decepticon insignias. The fingers coiled around the insignias and grasped them tightly, the long index finger extended out and softly made contact with the woman's forehead; all at once a bright white light burst out from her forehead and she jolted with a sharp intake of air, as if though she had been struck hard by an electrical shock. The blue eyes glowed more intensely and looked upward once again as high overhead the universe materialized from out of the darkness and the light of a thousend stars shined downwards.

"...Primus...Bless this child with your all seeing sight. Let her see the future that lies before us, give her heart the strength to stand tall and to move forward and help guild her to our brothers...for if they do not learn the truth that lies beneath this mountain...mankind will soon become a memory..." the male voice spoke sombrely, up above the universe slowly began to fold in on itself as if gathering the blackness around it like a velvet cloak, but before it dissapeared, several multicoloured shooting stars shot out and went upwards and dissapeared into the dark. The giant hand retracted back into the darkness and young woman relaxed in her bed, she began to shimmer and eventually faded back into the darkness too, the three pair of eye's slowly closed and drifted back into the stillness.

Silence fell and somewhere far beyond all that was known or ever could be known, a vast and unseen entity began to make its move.

* * *

R&R Please!


	40. Chapter 39: The Secret Of The 3 Sisters

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 39: THE SECRET OF THE THREE SISTERS

"So, it turned out he had more to hide then we thought..." Darren said offhand in a deadpan tone as he concentrated on the road ahead, Ishikawa who was in the passenger seat next to him simply passed a heavy sigh and ran his fingers through his unkempt hair, Batou, who was in the back, simply watched the foggy cityscape whizz by with a sour scowl on his face.

As if this morning's revelation about the military Intelligence department's secret attempt the contact the Autobots was surprising enough, the rest of the day had gone downhill somewhat. Shortly after Riku Hidaka's lawyer turned up to post his bail, the chief had ordered an emergency warrant for his external memory to be analyzed by the section's psymechs under the pretence of withholding vital information after it transpired he lied during the initial interrogation the night before. After lunch, Batou and Ishikawa attempted to have another go at the old 'good cop bad cop' routine on him; only to find him in a crumpled up heap on the floor of his cell, he had attempted to commit cyberbrain suicide by overdosing on the cyber-drug Ruby Shock, a large syringe of which he had cleverly stashed away in a hidden pocket of his trousers.

"...But I still don't understand how he could pluck up the courage to do that to himself? After looking over Ruby Shocks spec's I'm stunned anyone would even want to touch that stuff with all the side effects it causes nedalone pay a fortune for it! Even Crystal-meth isn't that potent, it's just...so unbelievable" Darren continued as he stared off into space, the steering wheel under his hands moved by itself as Trailbreaker took over the driving.

"I know, but it does prove Hidaka's got something to hide if his nephew is willing to commit cyberbrain suicide for him; the only reason this whole day wasn't total loss was because he injected it in the wrong place and he's all natural with only a cyberbrain. Ruby Shock was designed specifically for those who are over 85% prosthetic and because his lymphatic system was all natural it could recognise the drug's synthetic proteins and as such it soaked up the worst of the drug; as a result he's now in a coma and having to have micro-machine treatment to amend the damage to his liver and thyroid gland" Ishikawa replied

"But fortunately because his brain wasn't affected too badly it means his memories are legally admissible and we can still use them as evidence!" Batou's agent Tachikoma interjected as its icon bounced up and down on the screen of Trailbreaker's fold out laptop system.

"Speaking of which, mister Boma must be nearly finished on Riku Hidaka's memory analysis, if the drug didn't affect his frontal lobes then we might still be able to find the location where he hid chairman Hidaka's files" Another Tachikoma said as it appeared on one of the transparent Perspex screens. "He's been with the psymechs all day and its starting to get dark, It-" an alarm on the laptop drew Darren's attention away from the road, letting Trailbreaker take over the driving he reached over and pressed the enter button on the laptop and a live image of Boma came up on the main screen "Hey, what's up B-man?" Darren said.

"The psymechs are finally done, we now know where Riku stashed his uncles secret files; but it isn't going to be easy getting to them..." he said, Trailbreaker's three occupants sat up in their seats and leaned in to listen "Why? Where'd he hide them?" Batou asked with a concerned frown.

"According to Riku's memories there's an old nuclear bunker buried somewhere up in the eastern hillsides on the edge of the Shinseina Oka national park that was meant to be a strong-hold during the war. We couldn't get any specifics out of the memories recovered so Deathshot's going back to the safe house to pick up Scorponok to help with the search, The Major, Togusa and I are heading up there with some of the kids, you guys will be needed as well, it's somewhere on the north side of the San-nin Shimai mountain range" the big cyborg replied in a deadpan tone.

"That's a lot of ground to cover" Ishikawa said offhand

"For sure, but the Chief doesn't want to wait on this one, see you guys up there" he replied and the feed cut out.

"Why do we need Scorponok?" Batou asked

"Dude, if anyone can find a buried nuke bunker Scorpy certainly can, his ground penetrating sonar can put dolphins to shame" Darren smiled

"Still, Hidaka must have some real juicy morsels hidden away to go to the trouble of hiding his files away half way up a mountainside" said Batou

"For sure; back when I was a privet contractor for the military I heard a rumour that some privet security firm that specialized in building personal 'protective retreats in times of war' had chosen the mountain range north of the city to build their clients bunkers because they thought the thick granite rock would make an adequate shield against a nuclear blast. Mind you, this was over thirty years ago, and over twenty eight years before the Japanese miracle was ever invented" Ishikawa said as he folded his arms.

"Japanese miracle?" Darren asked

"Micro-machines that remove radiation from any environment before or after a nuke goes off, we're the only country in the world that has it and it's what put us up there with the big dogs after the third world war" Batou explained, Darren twisted round in his seat with a shocked look on his face.

"There was a THIRD world war?" he exclaimed in alarm, "You don't know about the third and fourth world wars?" one of the Tachikoma agents asked curiously, "Third AND fourth world wars?" Darren exclaimed in even more alarm. Batou and Ishikawa looked at one another and sighed 'well, at least our destination is over an hour away' Ishikawa thought.

An hour quickly passed by as Ishikawa and Batou gave a rundown of the history of the last thirty or so years in their world, to which both Darren and Trailbreaker met with both fascination and shock; all the while Trailbreaker made his way out of the city towards the mountains that outlined the northern boundaries of the Niihama coastline. The landscape changed drastically as they left the towering skyline behind and entered the forests, climbing upwards into the hills along the country roads, though no-one could tell where they were on account the fog had steadily grown thicker over the course of the day, it was now so think that Trailbreakers headlights could barely see through a couple of meters of fog at any one time and the higher up the road went the thicker it became, and the falling darkness of night made it even more difficult, and spooky to say the least; Trailbreaker had his long range scanners on their highest setting as he steadily drove along at a safe speed, being wary of other drivers coming in the opposite direction. Finally they reached as close to their destination as possible, after traversing a small dirt road for some two hundred or so yards they emerged out into a small gravel parking lot with a picnic area off to one side, through the thick fog Batou could make out the Major as she stood with her arms folded with Morri, Mikaela, Sam, Mile's, Tom and Ashley standing at her sides with Togusa and Boma standing behind, some distance behind them they could make out the towering outlines of Bumblebee, Hot Rod, Jazz and Deathshot standing among the trees, their glowing blue eyes were the only lights that pierced through the thick fog and oncoming darkness. After letting his occupants get out, Trailbreaker transformed and joined his fellow Autobots.

"So you guys found your way up here alright? I'm surprised any of us managed to find our way alright in this pea soup" Tom said offhand as Trailbreaker carefully stepped over the gathered humans.

"I know, though I have to say it's the first time I've ever encountered 'fog'. So, what are we all standing around for?" Trailbreaker asked

"We're waiting for Scorpy to finish his sweep of this area, we figured with a forest this big Hidaka wouldn't want to go too far so here's as good as anywhere to start" Mikaela replied, at that moment a rumbling sound drew everyone's attention to the tree line, from in between Deathshots feet Scorpy exploded from out the damp ground and landed next the humans and from out of the forest four of the Tachikoma's came running up.

"SLOW DOWN! We can't keep up!" one of the tanks squeaked as it screeched to a halt next to the Scorpion. "So, anything?" the Major asked

"_The tree's roots go down deep and their closely intertwined together; if that bunker is buried underground we want to look for a clearing in the trees, I doubt they'll want to grow over it"_ Scorponok replied over the comm. Looking around at how thick the fog was, the Major passed a frustrated sigh; "At the rate this fog is growing thicker we'll be out here all night looking for any kind of clearing" she said, "Dude why don't we just wait 'till morning? The fog's bound to pass through by then?" Miles offered, "If we had the luxury of time in our sides we would, but if Hidaka discovers what we learned from his nephew's memories then he'll panic and probably go to ground, we need to find that bunker tonight before anything happens" The Major replied. "Alright, well we know it's not buried anywhere near this parking lot; maybe it's somewhere further up the slope?" Morri offered. "If it was meant to nuclear bunker then it's likely to be carved into the rock of the mountain, I ran a quick check on Trailbreakers computer on the way up here and looked at the geographical lay out of the mountain; the western side is mostly comprised of granite and serpentine, which is this side but it's about 5-6 miles further up on the higher slopes of the mountain, if anything's buried up here then we're in the right area" Ishikawa replied.

"Then if we're gonna have any hope of finding the bunker we need to spread out to cover more ground; D-man, you head on up in the air and do a topographical sweep of the mountainside, Scorpy, you head back down underground and keep looking, only this time head further up the slope, Bee, Hot Rod, Trailbreaker, we'll spread out and scan the forest floor, Ravage, you and Ashley are on point" Jazz ordered, the Major noticed the glow of Ravages one optic high above the group behind the Autobots, obviously sitting on the limb of a tree, though in the fog it looked more like just a red light. "And what are we suppose to do? Break out a couple of shovels?" Togusa asked, Jazz merely grinned.

"Dude! Shoulder ride!" Miles replied enthusiastically as he hopped up and climbed up Jazz's extended arm, the Major was surprised at just how nimble and quick he was as he took a seat on his guardian's shoulder, Bumblebee, Hot Rod and Trailbreaker followed suite and kneeled down to let their charges climb up, Sam and Mikaela climbed up onto Bumblebee's shoulders, Darren got up on Trailbreakers right shoulder whilst Tom and Morri climbed up all 30 feet of Deathshot's height as he couldn't bend down on account of the trees boxed his wings in. Ravage leapt from out the trees and lowed hid fore-quarters to let Ashley mount up, the section 9 agents watched as they stood back up and looked down at them with content smiles, "And what about us?" Togusa asked in a slightly sarcastic tone, the Major couldn't help but smirk as she was very tempted to say 'isn't it obvious?' "Easy, you guys can hitch a ride with us, Hot Rod's shoulders are free tonight" Tom called down as he thumbed towards Hot Rod, who looked down at the now uncomfortable looking agents, all but the Major and Batou were apprehensive about perching on the Autobot's shoulders.

"What? You're serious?" Togusa exclaimed in disbelief, Boma looked like he wanted to agree but stayed silent.

"Well we'll cover more ground without being left behind; you fancy running all over this mountain all night by yourself?" Ashley smirked from where he sat in between Ravage's spiked shoulder plates.

"Chill man it's like riding a bike, these guys are well balanced and you learn the knack pretty quickly, it's all a question of sitting as close to the neck as possible with leaning too far forward" Mile's called down from Jazz's shoulder, perched like a cat ready to leap off, Togusa, Ishikawa and Boma didn't looked convinced. "Ah come on mister Togusa! Don't be such a chicken!" Batou's Tachikoma called out in a mocking tone as it leapt onto the side of Deathshot's shoulder next to Tom, Batou had to stifle a giggle. "Yeah come on, it's not that bad, and besides, how often do you get to ride on a giant alien robot's shoulder? It'll be something to tell the grandkids" Batou grinned as he leapt 20 meters up into the air, landed in Deathshot's outstretched hand and was carefully placed next to Tom and the Tachikoma.

"But what if-", "You fall off? Relax Togusa I got this covered-" Hot Rod replied as he bent down and swiftly lifted the detective up into his clasped hands, "H-HEY! What are you-"Togusa tried to protest as he squirmed about in the Autobot's hand but before he could say anything further Hot Rod had placed him on his left shoulder, looking down at the ground made Togusa shuffle as close to the Autobot's neck as possible whist fumbling around to find a good grip on the edge of the smooth armour, "Aw hell!" he nervously hissed under his breath while the Tachikoma's giggled in delight. The Major simply offered the poor detective a friendly smile as she too leapt up all the way onto Deathshot's shoulder and sat down next to Morri. "Come on guys it's not that bad, if we can learn to do it you certainly can!" Morri called down to the remaining two agents, Boma and Ishikawa looked at one another and sighed, Boma approached Hot Rod and was placed on the other shoulder, he was surprised at just how big the Autobot's hands were, and just how gentle his grip was. Ishikawa got placed on Jazz's shoulder and nervously held on tight as the Autobot began to steadily walk into the forest. "Okay, if you guys are all done getting acquainted with our shoulder plating's, I suggest we get moving" Jazz smiled, "Agreed, if anyone finds the bunker first, hold your position and we'll follow your signal, now let's move it!" the Major ordered and without further a due the Autobots and their passengers split up and headed off in different directions into the fog whilst Deathshot steadily hovered up into the air and disappeared; Scorponok reared up, leapt up into the air in a near perfect arc and disappeared into the ground in a plume of dirt and soil while the Tachikoma's split up and followed after the Autobots. As the fog quickly concealed them, Ravage quietly and swiftly took off at a steady trot into the forest and up the slope, the sounds of the Autobots footsteps could be heard echoing through the trees as the panther and his human student took a strategic position on the far flank, that way if anyone was coming in the opposite direction, from the other side of the slope, they'd be the first to hear or smell anything, as the panther slowed down to a stalking-type walk Ashley looked around but could only see the faint outline of the tall trees.

"You know, it is kinda spooky what with it getting dark" Ashley said offhand

"Scared are we?" Ravage smirked

"No not at all! It's just, this is the kinda fog that makes you jump at shadows, you know, the kind that makes you think there's something big, fierce and hungry out there?" Ashley replied as he looked around

"Tonight, the only big, fierce, hungry thing in this forest in me so stop worrying" Ravage promptly replied, a moment of silence followed as the pair could hear Togusa's protests to sitting on Hot Rod's shoulder echo across the still evening air.

"Heh, if there is anyone following us here at least his fussing will draw their attention, and leave us to sneak up on them" Ravage smirked, "It's an idea, but one I don't think the Major will approve of" Ashley replied.

"That reminds me; you two seem to be a bit more harmonious, I take it you resolved your differences at last?" Ravage asked, Ashley looked at him in mild surprise and allowed a small smile to creep across his lip.

"...You could say that, a couple of nights ago we had a chat and kinda agreed to start over; she's actually okay, ballsy and scary to say the least, but she's got that certain something that makes her stand out from everyone else...considering her level of combat expertise, I think even my dad would respect her, and he's a hard guy to please" Ashley replied in thought as he cast his gaze downwards.

"Your creator would be a fool of epic proportions to underestimate that femme's abilities"

"No I don't mean like that. When it comes to soldiers and combatant's dad doesn't beat about the bush, if he sees anything off in someone he knows it means they won't be able to cut it out in the field and he won't give them the time of day; dad's always had a knack for spotting peoples weaknesses and strengths and putting them to good use at what their good at. I guess that's why he became field commander so quickly when he joined the Marines"

"A commander who knows how to put his troops to good use is one to be wary of; if Megatron had applied that principle more frequently we could have won the war far sooner" Ravage replied in distain, Ashley hesitated slightly as he wondered about asking the next question, it had been one that had been weighing on his mind for some time now.

"...Do you ever think...if something happened and you had the opportunity to rejoin the Decepticons again, would you go back?..." Ashley asked, the hint of worry in his voice didn't escape Ravages audios and he stopped in his tracks. Looking at the 12 year old on his back and seeing the sombre and confounded look in his organic blue optics, Ravage's mind was split two ways, for the first time his spark was tugging in two opposite directions, for the first time in his life, something deep down inside began to feel like sparkache. He looked away as his thoughts whirled around, the answer wasn't clear, like looking into a dark fog, much like the one around him now and it wasn't simple as he met the boy's gaze with a sympathetic look with one ear tilted to the side in uncertainty.

"...When I defected to the Autobots, I did it only with the intention of preserving my life, because that's the final order my creator ordered me to do, survive and live, no matter what. When Starscream seized power after Megatron fell he decided to kill those who he deemed a threat to his new position of 'leader'...Subsequently, as I explained to Prime, he not only destroyed most of the other cons but ensured they could never be brought back from death and tore apart their spark chambers...There's not a day that goes by I don't miss Soundwave and my brothers, and believe me if Starscream ever returns to earth I will make him pay in full for what he did...Frenzy is all I have left in this life, and if things had been different and Soundwave had lived, I would return to his chest compartment in a sparkbeat..." Ravage replied quietly, Ashley looked at him and sunk his head in sadness at the prospect of losing his best friend, seeing the torn look in his optics; Ravage grabbed his attention with a flash of his red optic.

"Youngling...it wouldn't be anything personal, I simply wouldn't give up my family, not even for the preservation 6 billion humans...There isn't a day that goes by you don't love your cousins and creators, nor they you. Surely you must understand the depth of such a bond?..." Ravage replied sympathetically, Ashley looked at him for a long moment as his heart heavily accepted the panther's answer; with a rueful sigh he nodded.

"...Yes, but, would we have to fight each other? 'Cause I know there's no way I would leave D..." the boy asked ruefully.

"...So far you've proven to be an excellent combatant, of all the opponents I've faced you would be the only one I would spare in battle no matter what the outcome...I can't explain it, but in some odd way there's something about you that seems...familiar to me..." Ravage replied, slightly bemused at his own words

"Familiar?" Ashley asked

"...I don't know, but whatever it is I do know there something about you that tells me you have great potential, I suppose familiar is the word that comes to mind because you remind me so much of myself when I was quite young...I guess what remains of my telepathic traits are still sensitive to these kinds of things" the panther replied as he carried on walking up the slope.

"You still have telepathy? But I thought you said it went away when Soundwave died?"

"For the most part I thought it had; because of the nature of his telepathic ability Soundwave allowed me and by brothers a portion of his ability, but because I was his first sparkling I was granted a more 'advanced form' of his telepath, more of an 'empathic reach' reach you might say...When Soundwave's spark was purged from his spark chamber I felt the connection severed forever, and with it my inherited gift...when I first arrived on earth I felt alone, bitter and utterly enraged. Even having Frenzy with me did little to calm my temperament , and as I'm sure Lennox told you when you first arrived at NEST, I was in no mood to let anyone near me" Ravage growled as he leaped over a fallen tree, Ashley hung on tight and leaned forward with the jump, after landing he straightened up and sighed.

"Considering you saw your 'dad' got killed I don't blame you for how you felt back then...but, maybe that's the reason your ability wasn't working in the first place?"

"Err?...What do you mean?"

"Well, I assume, this ability takes a level of concentration? I mean, sensing someone's mind can't be easy if your own mind is clouded right?"

"It required a level of calmness if that's what you mean, what are you-" Ravage stopped in his tracks and blinked in surprise, he looked back at the 12 year old, who simply gave him a knowing smile, with a contented purr he let the boy slide off his back and nuzzled him in appreciation.

"Hmm, so it was my own anger that blocked it this whole time, how could I not see that?...But how did you know?" Ravage purred as he nuzzled the boy's face.

"Up until now I didn't...well, for a long time now I could tell something was on your mind, and because of the way you always keep your guard up I figured it was something you didn't want to talk about until you were ready...if there's one thing I know from firsthand experience it's that being angry really doesn't do you any favours" Ashley smiled as he stroked Ravages neck plates.

"Hmm, and your trying tell me this was something I had to learn for myself?"Ravage smirked

"Would you have really listened to me if I had told you? We both know how stubborn you can be" Ashley grinned as he mounted back up onto Ravage's back and the panther continued up the slope

"I suppose not...but thank you..."

"Hey we're cool. Changing the subject; do you think this plan by the military Intelligence to make contact with us to level this whole situation out is really a good idea? I know you've already got an opinion of some kind, it sounds too easy if you ask me" Ashley asked in a more serious tone

"I'd have to agree, it does sound too easy and fact that their being so bold as to try and catch their quarry by using us as bait is all the more reason we should leave the city and continue to hide on our own. I'll admit Aramaki has honoured our deal well but even he won't be able to keep this kind of arrangement up forever, as much as the scope of his shrewdness even astounds me I doubt he'll be able to amend the unforeseen factors in this whole equation" Ravage growled

"I don't know what he's got in mind but from what I heard when we all listened in this morning it sounded like he had something in mind for keeping us safe; and if this plan is the only way to catch whoever's after us then I'd say it's a gamble worth taking if the winnings are greater than the loss. At this point I'd figure anything's better than nothing" Ashley shrugged

"Don't be so blasé, even if the odds are in our favour we still have to contend with whoever's been feeding the falsified data onto the military's network systems; as much as this 'Kubota' would like to think he's covered all the bases to his plan there are still something's that don't make sense"

"Such as?"

"Well for starters we don't-"

"_Hey guys! We found something! Come on up here!"_ Tom announced over the comm.

"_On our way_...That was quick, I'd figure we'd find much later" said Ashley

"That is if it's what we're looking for, hold on!" Ravage replied, Ashley gripped his forward shoulder plates and held on tight as Ravage sprinted through the fog-laden forest, his long range scanners could see many meters in front as he leapt and bounded through the thick fog and in between boulders and fallen trees. Ashley held on tight and leaned from side to side as he moved with the panther's turns, leaps and sprint, trusting his superior senses to see for him as he ran up the slope. Bit by bit the slope grew steeper and more rugged until Ravage had to climb up a near vertical cliff-face and leap from boulder to boulder until the ground levelled out again, only now they were far higher up and the forest had thinned out across the more rocker ground, high above their heads the distant hollow sound of air moving through the atmosphere could heard all around as they were now on the mountain side. Some distance away the heavy footsteps of the other Autobots could be heard approaching and as Ravage craned his head up high to look around his scanners picked up Deathshot's outline in the fog, bounding over to the edge of the tree-line he stopped just short of the giant sniper's feet; Ashley leapt off his back and landed on a boulder in a cat like manner while just behind him the other Autobots arrived. Togusa couldn't get off Hot Rod's shoulder quick enough as the young Autobot placed him back on the ground, Boma merely shook his head as he climbed out of Hot Rod's hand; Ishikawa too was fairly relived to be back on terra firma whilst Miles patted him on the back with a particularly smug grin.

"For your first time that was pretty good dude" the blond teen grinned

"Oh yeah, excuse me while I contain my excitement" Togusa sarcastically replied as he leaned against a tree to catch his breath

"Ah come on now that's uncalled for, it wasn't that bad and Hot Rod was walking as slow as he could go" said Sam as he hopped off Bumblebee's shoulder.

"Seriously, if I had been walking any slower I'd have been standing still. You really need to relax more" Hot Rod interjected with a deadpan look, Togusa was about to retort back but couldn't be bothered as he stood up straight, one of the Tachikoma's came up behind the detective and placed a friendly claw on his shoulder, making him jump slightly.

"Ah don't worry mister Togusa! If you're not comfortable with riding mister Hot Rod's shoulder you know one of our pods is always available!" it squeaked cheerily

"Somehow I don't see how that would be an improvement" Togusa replied in a deadpan tone

"Huh? Still trying to be a wise guy eh?" the Tachikoma retorted

"Stow the chatter you two..._Major? Where are you guys?"_ Ishikawa asked

"WE'RE UP HERE!" Tom called out from some distance away. Noticing Deathshot's vast silhouette through the fog the Autobots, humans and Tachikoma's walked past the tree line, across a dry shallow gully and up part of a slope; from out the fog the group came face to face with a steep granite cliff side going up some 60 or so feet and at the base was a large cave going several meters back into the rock with Deathshot standing next to the opening with Scorponok standing by his feet, in the centre of the cave wall was a huge metal door about five metres tall by about three meters wide; the Major, Batou, Tom and Morri stood by waiting patiently as they approached.

"So this is it?" Darren asked offhand

"Yep, now all we need to do is get in" Batou smirked as he wrapped his knuckles on the door, creating a dull booming clang.

"I've already scanned the door and it's well built with re-enforced lead and carbon steel armour plating, and it's an old fashioned mechanism that utilizes a system of quadruple locks and bolts. In other words it's going to be tough to break through" Deathshot coolly replied

"So? Scorpy can dig a hole under it?" Mile's shrugged, the robotic scorpion chirped in agreement

"Is that such a good idea? There could be booby traps inside; what if Scorpy accidently set's one off when he comes out the other end?" Mikaela replied

"If there are any nasty surprises inside I can disarm them with a dispersal of airborne electro-jammer nanites; anything primed and functioning in there will have its circuits fried in seconds, Scorponok, I need you to dig a hole with a small opening, then come back out okay?" the sniper asked, Scorponok nodded and burrowed down at the foot of the door, the Major stepped to the sniper's side and tapped his foot to grab his attention, "Airborne electro-jammer nanites? I assume that's not exactly healthy for us cyborgs?" she asked, "Don't worry, all my nanite varieties come with a standard self-destruct sequence built in, once they've done their work I'll send out the self-destruct code and they'll permanently delete their programming and self-terminate, you'll be alright, but just to be sure and safe we'll allow ten minutes" Deathshot replied as Scorponok scuttled backwards out of the hole and moved aside. As Deathshot lifted his arm a series of small holes opened up along his wrist and several black and silver striped cables with glowing purple fibre-optic heads snaked out and found their way into the hole, once they were in position at the other end a slight hissing sound could be heard as the cables squirmed about.

"How long will it take?" Batou asked

"It depends on how big the chamber inside is, and how many-" Deathshot stopped as a small red light flashed on the side of his wrist next to one of the bases of the cables, "Huh, there's nothing active in there, it's all clear" the sniper replied, a green light flashed this time and a purple glow could be faintly seen flickering out from the hole, after a few seconds the cables recoiled out of the hole and retracted back into the sniper's wrist, "Okay, nanite self-termination is 100%, you can go in now" Deathshot replied as he stood back up, Ishikawa blinked in surprise.

"Huh? Just like that?" he asked

"Just like that, open the hole up Scorpy" Jazz ordered and Scorponok dug back down again and widened up the other end. When he finished he backed out and gestured for the humans to enter, the Major and Batou took point and the kids filed in behind with Togusa, Ishikawa and Boma bringing up the rear. "Alright, even though there's no automated traps it doesn't mean there might not be any old fashioned trip wires, we'll go in first and secure the chamber, Jazz, you guys keep an eye out here" The Major ordered as she and Batou disappeared down the hole, "Will do Major, Autobots stand guard: take up flank on all sides" the first lieutenant ordered.

The tunnel was a basic U-shape, going down then curving upwards into a pitch black opening, with their cybernetic night vision the Major and Batou cautiously emerged out onto a concrete staircase in a long narrow tunnel, the Major took point with Batou at her side, signalling to advance forward they staggered their moves down the stairs, going down for about 40 yards until they emerged into a huge empty chamber, the air smelt stale and musty, obviously no-one had been down here in a long time. Finding a light switch next to the door Batou turned the lights on and readjusted his vision, the chamber was a basic 25 meter square layout; there was nothing but bare walls, a series of water pipes protruding out of the wall in one corner and bunch of cables rolled up and stacked in another corner. There was nothing in here, putting their guns back in their holsters the two agents looked at one another and sighed.

"Is it safe?" Morri called down, her voice echoing off the tunnel walls.

"It's empty" the Major called back

"What?" the others promptly came down and entered into the chamber, looking around their expressions turned from cautious to disappointment.

"We've been had!" Tom exclaimed

"Aye!" Ashley huffed as he folded his arms, looking around the room Togusa noticed the floor, walls and ceiling were covered with smooth metal three by three foot tiles, "Maybe not, this whole room is tiled, maybe there's a secret compartment?" he suggested, without hesitation everyone dispersed around the room, feeling and tapping the tiles, listening to the metal's clang for any indications of a hollow space behind; as they worked towards the far end of the chamber Mile's tapped a tile and heard a deep distinctive thonk, his head snapped up in response as he tapped the tile again and tapped the surrounding tiles to make sure, this tile not only sounded different, but as he pressed against it he noticed one corner was ever so slightly bent outward.

"Hey guys! I think I found something!" he called excitedly, as everyone gathered around Batou stepped up to inspect the tile, noticing it's protruding corner he whipped out his combat knife, dug it into the gap and with a twist and sharp tug the tile fell off the wall and hit the floor with a loud clang. In the empty space where the tile was there was an access terminal with a keypad, wires and ports and a small monitor; the words 'ghost key confirmation' flashed on the tiny screen.

"Whoa, what's that?" Sam asked

"A lock terminal, one that can only be accessed with a ghost key, not a problem though..." the Major replied as she placed her dummy barrier collar around her neck and pulled out a wire from the portable interface on her belt, she plugged the wire in one of the jack ports and plugged one of the terminal's wires into the collar; the kids watched in curiosity as her eyes glazed over and stared off into empty space as she went to work decrypting the codes in the device. Darren leaned in front of her and noticed how her pupils seemed to dilate every few seconds, "No matter how many times I see her do this, I still think the eye thing is creepy" he commented offhand, finally a green light on the terminal flashed and the words: accessed granted: rolled across the screen. A hiss and a thunk could be heard, looking around the chamber everyone noticed a large trap door had opened up in the floor behind them, "Score!" Miles said as the Major's gaze snapped back to reality and she pulled out the wires and put away her dummy barrier. As Batou and Boma lifted up the thick metal door, everyone was eager to see what was down there; it was a small chamber with four large black metal trunks neatly tucked together side by side, they had no outstanding features other than tiny access panels on the fronts and they were each numbered one, two, three and four in white on the tops.

"Think Hidaka's secret files are in those?" Mikaela asked the Major

"Considering that that was the only access terminal for this whole room, I don't see what else it could be?" she replied as she bent down into the small space and helped Batou and Boma lift out the huge trunks.

"How do we open them? There aren't any buttons or jack ports on these panels" Darren said as he ran his hand over the side of one of the panels, the Major frowned in bemusement as she inspected the trunks more carefully.

"Strange, I've not come across this type of access panel before, Ishikawa when we get back run a structural analysis on these trunks and try to find what information you can on the make and manufacturer, in all likelihood they could be booby trapped on the inside" the Major replied

"That's just what I was thinking, what kind of key would you use on this? No port jacks or numbers to type in, this is an odd design" Ishikawa replied

"Well we'll know as soon as we get back," Batou grinned as he lifted up one of the trunks with hardly any effort, the kids and other agents all shared the weight of the other three trucks between them as they pulled and lifted them up the staircase, the differences in cyborg strength and all natural human strength was pretty obvious as some of the kids struggled with the weight of the heavy trunks whilst the Major and Boma helped them without breaking a sweat. Finally they reached the top and got Scorponok to help get them out, finally all four trunks were out in the open and the kids took a moment to get their breaths back as their guardians knelt down to inspect the black metal boxes. "Whatever's in those trunks better be worth all the fuss to get them up those stairs and out that damn hole" Sam said offhand as he wiped his brow with the back of hand, "At least this trip wasn't a waste, something's got to be in those trunks if they were hidden under a trap door" Mikaela replied as Deathshot took the trunks one by one and stowed them away in one of his subspaces.

"Even so, you'd think Hidaka would go to the trouble of setting up at least one booby trap in that chamber; that just seemed too easy" said Sam

"Maybe Hidaka just loves his money so much that he couldn't be bothered to fork out for even a basic trip wire trap?" Ashley shrugged

"Well whatever his reasons the important thing is that Riku's memory proved to be reliable for the most part, if it turns out this is a decoy then we're back to square one, but since we came all the way up here we might as well see what's in those trunks" the Major replied as Ravage sniffed the ground where the trunks had been, he tilted his head to the side and twitched his ear, as the others began to walk away he snapped his head back up.

"WAIT!" he growled loudly, everyone stopped and stood still as the panther bounded to the front of the group and craned his head up high to sniff the air.

"What's up?" Jazz asked in concern

"I just picked up a scent, something's down the slope" he replied as his nose slits twitched with every intake of air, "What did he say?" the Major asked, "He just picked up a scent" the first lieutenant replied, "Someone followed us up here?" Batou asked offhand, _"I don't know, I didn't pick anything when we were scanning the forest floor...they're not human" _Ravage replied on the comm.

"Cyborgs?" Sam asked

"_Maybe, something's not right here...look..."_ Ravage gestured down the slope, the Autobot's focused their scanners through the thick fog and trees, and sure enough standing about 300 yards down the slope where seven distinct human shaped figures standing in a line between the trees.

"What do you guys see?" Sam asked in slight worry

"Seven humans by our scanners standards; from the way their standing I'd say they know we're here" Jazz frowned

"What are they doing?" the Major asked

"Nothing, their just standing there, it's like their waiting for something...maybe for us?" Hot Rod replied as he watched the strange figures through the trees.

"We can go and check them out!" Batou's Tachikoma said

"No, stay put!" the Major ordered

"Do they even know we're here? This fog's pretty thick and we made sure none of us were tailed whilst driving up here? D, can you tell if their armed?" Mikaela asked, "No, I'm not picking up any traces of firearms on them, whoever they are their unarmed and not wearing any combat gear" Deathshot replied in a hushed tone as his specialized left optics scanned the figures, he was about to say something else when the seven figures suddenly darted off down the slope at an astounding speed in a synchronized formation. The Autobots gasped in alarm, the humans at their feet instantly grew worried as they looked up and noticed the alarmed looks on their face plates.

"Whoa! What the slag?" Trailbreaker exclaimed

"What? What just happened?" Sam

"They took off, and way too fast for any human or cyborg!" Jazz breathed in awe. For a moment nobody said anything as they exchanged puzzled and confused looks, what just happened? Even the Tachikoma's didn't what to say for once. Then, Ravage turned his head upwards, his ears twitched in every direction until something caught his attention in the other direction, coming from the opposite side of the slope leading away from where they had just come up.

"_Do you all hear that?"_ he growled, everyone looked at him and stood silently as they let their ears and audios scan the still night air; it was barely noticeable at first, a subtle vibration of sorts, but slowly it grew into a deep rumbling thrum that seemed to resonate through the trees and echo up the whole side of the mountain, but at the same time it sounded distant, as if it were coming up from the hillside that flanked the mountain's western side, after listening all around the group finally found themselves looking down the slope towards the direction of where the sound was coming from.

"What is that?..." Morri asked offhand in complete bemusement, Scorponok burrowed his front quarters into the earth to listen more closely underground whilst Deathshot flipped open his left optic patch and scanned over the tops of the trees down towards the bottom of the mountain. "It, sounds like some kinda engine, or jet turbine?" said Miles, "No, it's sounds too low in volume to be a jet turbine, it sounds closer to the ground somehow" Mikaela replied, "It sounds more like a tank but even the HAW-206's aren't that loud from a distance" Batou said offhand.

"_It's not a tank!..." _Scorponok replied as he withdrew his head from out the ground and shook the dirt off, _"Whatever it is its way bigger than those tanks we fought, and their on at least sixteen sets of wheels each!"_ he continued

"Sixteen sets of wheels? And there's more than one?" Sam asked in alarm

"_Yes, but they've stopped now; best I can make out is that their right below us on the edge of the dirt road, what should we do?"_ Scorponok replied as he looked up at Jazz for an answer.

"I got an idea..." Ashley said as he grasped Batou's jacket sleeve, a faint blue aura surrounded the two humans as they began to float up into the air, Batou smirked as he realized what the 12 year old had in mind, catching on quickly the other kids all grabbed one of the agents and activated their BSHB's and followed Ashley and Batou up into the air, Togusa, Ishikawa and Boma were now twice as nervous compared to earlier when the rode on the Autobot's shoulders whilst the Major simply took it in her stride as she held onto Morri's arm, Deathshot activated his thrusters and hovered silently up into the air above the trees, the kids came into hover under his wings but made sure to stay clear of his engine intakes. "Stay close to the ground, we'll follow behind" Jazz called up as he and other Autobots transformed and drove down the slope back towards the gravel parking lot with Ravage, Scorponok and the Tachikoma's flanking their sides. Like a shoal of pilot fish on the belly of a shark the kids hugged Deathshots sides and shoulders, staying as close as possible to avoid getting snagged by the tops of the trees and letting the sniper's long range scanners see through the darkness and fog for them; Togusa was like a cat being held by the scruff of the neck over a tub of water, he kept his limbs in close to his sides as he nervously watched the forest fly past below, "Dude, will you seriously relax? I'm not gonna drop you!" Miles hissed. But Togusa's nervousness began to ebb away as he realized the mysterious sound was growing nearer and nearer; As they continued down the slope the ground below began to level out as they left the mountain slope and entered the foothills, though no-one could tell because it was now almost completely dark and the distant glow of New Port was the only light to be seen coming over the other side of the mountain range, the Autobots could be barely heard as they silently drove along the ground whilst keeping pace with the sniper above. As the strange sound grew louder and more clearer Deathshot descended down sharply and flew close to a 70 foot cliff that overlooked one of the main roadways, upon finding a long stretch of steep upturned cliff edge he landed on all fours, folded his wings and tail fins back and kept as low to the ground as possible by lying completely flat on his front; the humans climbed into his folded arms and onto the backs of his shoulders for a better view. Behind them the other Autobots had transformed and quietly crept along the ground and joined the sniper at his side with the Tachikoma's following suite, without a word they all watched down below as a large part of the fog dissipated to unveil a huge open stretch of empty ground that had a wide dirt road running alongside it and the edge of the forest could just be made out in the distance.

In total silence, they watched as the source of the sound made itself present.

The air vibrated and the ground rumbled as five huge black rectangular shapes loomed out of the fog, as they approached closer the group realized in amazement that they were trucks, but not like any they had ever seen. They were ENORMOUS, towering at over nearly 45 feet high, they were 20 feet wide and over 90 feet long; they drove on sixteen huge sets of tires and the cabs were similar to in design to a Peter-built but much more bulky and the driver's seat must have been at least ten meters up from the ground. Part of the trailer sat over the cab and in the centre of the long vehicles the trailers were split in two and connected together by a corridor connector, just like the sort on a passenger train, obviously to enable them to go around corners. They turned off the dirt road and parked up in a row at a diagonal angle, several load hisses emanated from under the black behemoths as they sank on their suspensions.

"Holy crap! What kind of trucks are those?" Miles whispered in amazement

"No idea, I've never seen trucks like those before..." Batou whispered back, equally amazed by the scale of the huge vehicles.

Down below something seemed to be going on as a series of flood lights on the tops of the trailers pierced through the fog and illuminated the whole area, the Autobots ducked even lower and remained as still as possible for fear of being spotted. Some small doors on the sides of the trailers opened up with sets of foldout step ladders unfolding down to the ground; several figures dressed all in black got out and gathered together behind the first two trucks, a mechanical whirring sound could be heard and the group could vaguely make out the third truck's rear ramp was being lowered down, but couldn't see it entirely because the first two trucks in front obscured most of it, only the end part of the big ramp was visible from their position. From out the truck in question several more figures dressed black came down the ramp and walked over to behind the opposite side of the first truck nearest to the cliff. Some shouting and laughing could be heard from the strangers as they bantered with one another, but they fell silent as another figure emerged from out the third truck; they seemed to stop just short of the seven strangers and seemed to talk to each other for a minute before they turned and returned to the truck. It wasn't close enough the group could see over the tops of the trucks but it was close enough they could just make out the sounds coming from below; straining their ears and audios to pick up every faintest sound there was. But both the humans and Autobot's were left at a lost at what happened next...

Suddenly, screams and howls of pain ripped through the night air as the seven strangers fell to the ground and convulsed violently, as they watched their long casted shadows coming out from under the opposite side of the first truck, the kids flinched with horrified looks upon their faces as the bloodcurdling cries continued for another several seconds, the section 9 agents scowled in disgust as they could only assume what was going on down there; Batou was very temped to reach for his gun and jump down there but one stern glances from the Majors eyes told him to stay put.

Next the sound of clothing being ripped mingled with the screams, and the even worse sound of flesh being ripped apart echoed loudly off the cliff-face, a series of gargled chokes, splutters and hacking grossly seemed to morph into a series of electronic shrieks, clicks and growls. The human and Autobots could only listen in horror as their minds spun in a mix of fear and confusion, What was going on? Through the BSHB's Deathshot could sense the kids systems going into a frenzy as their heartbeat, lungs, blood pressure and nervous system activity went into serious overdrive with a rapid simultaneous release of adrenaline, with all the readings it almost sounded like their whole bodies were screaming at them to run away, the agents weren't far off from being the same as poor Togusa resisted the urge to through up and kept pushing the lump in the back of his throat as far down as it would go.

"What's happening down there?" one of the Tachikoma's whispered in a panic

The sound of metal clanging and moving about could be heard and a series of bright red sparking lights could be seen flashing from under the truck on the other side, several deep basso voices could be heard too but they couldn't be made out clearly, even Deathshot had trouble adjusting his audios to listen in properly. Then, the unmistakable sound of a cybertronain's transformation sequence could be heard and from behind the truck, more than one in fact, suddenly seven black sports cars, each a varying modal, sped out and chased each other around on the dirt road, two of them preformed doughnut spins before one of the trunks honked their horn, the flood lights switched off and together the cars and trucks sped off down the dirt road and disappeared into the fog, as the loud rumbling of the trucks engines grew quieter and quieter, the Autobots and humans nervously looked down the cliff and looked at one another in terror.

"What...the hell just happened?" Sam squeaked in fear, cautiously standing up, Bumblebee shone his headlights down on the spot where the seven strangers had collapsed; the group was further repulsed and horrified by the sight of a large pool of dark red liquid, the right shade of red for blood, pieces of torn clothing, and the chunks and ripped pieces of what looked like human flesh. Darren bolted up from the ground as he ran to throw up in the nearby bushes, Togusa and Ishikawa both slumped against Deathshots arm in confusion Batou and Boma both stared at the pool of blood in confused horror.

The Major was silent in her own sense of fear as she sat down on the edge of Deathshot's wing, her mind span round and round, trying and straining to find an explanation as to what just happened; but nothing came and she simply sat in silence whilst everyone's minds and processors were reeling and trying to recover. The silence of the night filled their ears and audios as the fog closed in around them; no other sound could be heard for miles around, except the distant hollow rush of air through the mountains and over the hills.

It was uncomfortable, and unbearable...

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Didn't see THAT coming did ya? You better hold on tight, because from here over the next couple of chapters on we ascend to a whole new level of action & WTF! naff said! 8D don't forget to R&R please! ;)

On a personal note: sorry for the longer than usual wait between chapter uploads, now that I've left college I've been busier than usual with other stuff to do; but fear not! I'm still around & still typing! :D


	41. Chapter 40: The Twilight Hours I

Time for another stand alone chapter! And this time it's a 2-parter! This one's a little tribute to those childhood memories of creeping out after dark & getting up to all kinds of mischief ;). Only for this, our little heroines get a lot more than they bargained for! Naff said! Enjoy! :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot

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SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 40: THE TWILIGHT HOURS I

The scent of earth and water drifted on the breeze as the sun cast it's morning light across the city, the fog had thinned out and moved onwards up the coast overnight, leaving the air crisp, fresh, clear and warm. The Yanagi Meiro park was starting to come to life with the first of its regular commuters; joggers running along the pathways, office workers making their way to the nearby subway station and a handful of dog walkers out with their furry friends for a run of the vast green parkland. In the park the last of the cherry blossoms clung to their bowers as they were slowly replaced with fresh newly sprouted leaves, all over the park the flower beds and tree lines had come to life with a flurry of colour as the first flowers early summer bared their first blooms, all around the air was filled with the songs of birds and in the Kohoku residential district the tinkling of wind chime bells resounded from some of the apartments, one particular apartment had an impressive collection of Furin wind chimes, little glass bells with goldfish and koi painted on, all sparkling in radiant golden sunlight as they twinkled their delicate little tunes, it made a welcome melody compared to the usual echo's of traffic rushing by on the nearby highway.

As the sounds of the far off city drifted through her bedroom window, Mizuki Nobuyoshi stirred in her bed, the bright sunlight that came in through the gap her curtains teased at her eyelids, making her retreat back under the covers with grumble, a light knock at the door made her frown as her mother quietly stepped in,

"Alright girls rise and shine!" she chimed sweetly, Mizuki rolled over and saw Annabelle at the foot of her bed stirring in her futon, she too protested at being awakened at such an unruly hour.

"Mmm just five more minutes mommy?" Mizuki mumbled

"Huh? So you girls don't fancy going to Chiyo's birthday party today?" her mother smirked, at that the two girls sat bolt upright and hopped out their beds and ran through to the kitchen, Mei smirked as she opened the curtains and went back to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.

Having only stayed with the Nobuyoshi's for a little under a week, Annabelle had settled in fairly quickly; she and Mazuki had become so close they were practically like sisters now and she loved playing with Mizuki's little brother Haru. Mei too had found herself becoming really fond of the little American girl; having being told by her husband that her parents were high ranking cyber-drug dealers that had skipped the country without her, Mei felt it was her duty to watch over this 'forgotten little one', going on her maternal instincts she felt both sympathetic and angry at the situation, she knew if she ever were to see the girl's mother face to face she would certainly have more than just a few words to give on being a good parent.

After the incident on Dejima Island Togusa had been allowed to divulge the fact that he worked for section 9 to his wife, and that he actively participated in field missions, under cover ops and other such 'classified' tasks; it had been a real surprise to say the least as Mei remembered the news coverage of the laughing man affair and the individual eleven incidents. For a while she didn't know whether to think of this revelation as a good thing or a bad thing, but then she contemplated on the reason why he wanted join section 9 in the first place. She remembered back when she first Togusa in college, how ambitious and driven he was back then, she put it down to his youthful optimism at first, but after they had been dating for over two years she gradually realised that he had real depth in the belief of justice and the law and how no-one should have to suffer for someone else's misdoings; but where had the strength for it come from? When he finally proposed to her on the night of their graduation, he revealed his real reason, telling her:

"...When I first came here, I wasn't sure if I could do it, if I had the strength and will to really commit to this...but when I saw you across the lecture hall for the first time and saw how you smiled at me...I knew there and then that I would do this job for the rest of my life, because I'd have you to fight for..."

At that she said yes and they were married the following spring; in a way the revelation made her realise why she fell in love with him in the first place, and why he was always such a dedicated detective, true the long hours and hard work were a tough thing to live but she accepted it without question, but the idea of her husband and best friend going off to apprehend the country's worst criminal elements worried her to no end. But at the same time it filled her with such pride to know he was doing his job without the usual government bureaucracy and having substitute justice for a political 'quick fix'. But while she was pleased that he could finally be totally honest with her about his job, she knew it was also a burden on him, whilst she only knew the name of section 9 and what they specialized in, she got the impression that she had somehow stepped into a spy novel with all the air of mystery, secrets and political skulduggery, as if uttering the name 'section 9' somehow incurred a very bad instilment of karma and that somehow something bad where to happen to you, (even if she and her children weren't directly involved, it felt like 'being aware' from afar). At least, that's the impression Togusa gave her when she asked just how bad the job got at times, and it would seem the job had been very hard on him of late; last night, the first thing he did when he got home was hug her and held her tight, he didn't talk about what happened, only that an 'very unforeseen' incident occurred and that he couldn't talk about it.

But suffice to say; whilst Togusa had not been keen on the idea of getting his family involved in section 9's affairs in any way, these particular circumstances had compelled him to ask Mei for her help, and for once she liked the idea of being able to help her husband in an official capacity, for one thing she was being given additional help to keep Annabelle safe. After she handed the girls their bowls of cereal and put Haru in his highchair, she excused herself and went into Haru's room which housed the family computer. As she turned the computer on and sat down she reached across the desk and pulled out an envelope with a barcode on the front, as the screen came on and the desktop window appeared a small window with a set of barcodes and numbers popped up, then another widow with the words: please entre ID clearance: scrolled across the screen. Opening the envelope she produced a small white credit card with a set of barcodes on one side and a silver microchip on the other side, she slotted the card into the computers card reader (a standard feature of many home computers in this day and age for the sake of online banking, shopping and other online financial transactions) and the window then read: access granted: and one of the animated Tachikoma's bounced onto the screen.

"Good morning misses Nobuyoshi!" it chirpped happily

"Good morning Tachikoma..." Mei smiled, as part of Annabelle's 'protection order', one of the sections Tachikoma unit had been assigned to monitor and safeguard the Nobuyoshi residence, both online and offline. Mei thought they were so delightful and funny, she couldn't understand for the life of her why her husband wasn't keen on working alongside them, but then, he was never keen on robots period, 'must be a guy thing in some odd 'all natural' way' she surmised.

"Have you got everything checked out for today?" She continued

"Let's see..." the Tachikoma said as a calendar with dates and hours scrolled down the screen, today's date and hourly planner popped up, highlighted in yellow, "Ah yes! Your daughter's attending her friend's birthday party today, I've checked the route and there's no IR camera's along that pathway, your clear to go!" the agent Tachikoma replied happily.

"Thank you, but we walk that way to get to the day-care centre, it's perfectly safe, even if there are no cameras" Mei replied

"Even so, you can never be too careful, and it's my job to make sure you all stay safe!" the Tachikoma proudly stated as it saluted, Mei merely smiled as she leaned back in the chair, she couldn't help but be taken by their spunky attitude.

"Hm, you know, I don't know why Togusa doesn't appreciate you little guys, I certainly wouldn't mind having one of you around the house full time" she smiled

"I know! Mister Togusa can be such a bigot at times! Oh, and I'm afraid our offline bodies aren't so little, I wouldn't be able to fit through your front door if I tried" the chirpy AI replied as it wrung its claws

"That's a shame, but thanks for cleaning up our computers software system anyway, I had no idea a home computer could catch that many spam viruses"

"Oh yeah, corporate advertisers really know how to target the 'stay at home moms' category of society, you should be fine with the new and improved firewalls I set up for you...well, I gotta go keep my eyes on you guys! I'll be checking in again at 8:00 pm tonight, have a nice day!" the Tachikoma chimed as it saluted again and bounced off the screen, the data window with the barcodes and numbers disappeared and Mei turned the computer. After the children had been fed and washed Mei set about helping the girls dress up for the birthday party, there wasn't a theme per se but they had both decided to dress up none the less, Mizuki wore a purple dress with a frilly hem and lilac tights with swirly patterns running down the legs, on her back she wore a dainty pair of purple fairy wings. Annabelle was looking pretty in pink; wearing a pale pink frilly skirt and bright pink velveteen top with a big red heart in the centre, she too wore a pair of pink fairy wings and between them the girls both were both decked in their favourite dress-up tiaras, necklaces and rings, "You look cute!" Annabelle beamed, "You look like cotton candy!" Mizuki chuckled. Haru however was dressed up in a simple pair of blue shorts, a red T-shirt with yellow zigzags going around the waist and an orange pair of baby sneakers, he fussed and wriggled about in his mother's arms for he knew something exciting was going to happen and he eager to see what it was. As he was placed in his stroller and buckled in the girls came skipping into the hallway and bounced up and down at the door like a couple of overexcited puppies, "Come on mommy! We gotta get to the party!" Mizuki chimed, "Yeah come on! Come on!" Annabelle chimed in unison, "Hold on a minute Annabelle, we mustn't forgot to put your special coat on" Mei interrupted as she took the light grey rain coat that was hanging on the coat stand and helped Annabelle to slip it on, Annabelle took the little dial that was attached to it and pressed one of the button's to activate it, a deep humming emanated from the garment as it became invisible; she tucked the dial into her skirt pocket and threw the hood over her head and zipped the coat up. Mizuki giggled in titillation as she thought the therm-optic camo suit was so amazing and Haru giggled at the funny sound it made.

In the brief time Annabelle had been with the Nobuyoshi's, Mei had been careful to make sure she didn't go outside too often, but made sure she didn't suffer from cabin fever either and had taken her out at certain hours of the day when the number of people passing by the apartment block was at a minimal, and always to the maple tree avenues in the park where there was plenty of cover away from any prying eyes, or cameras, not that the parks cameras were a problem as one of the Tachikoma's had always been on hand to switch the image feed so no-one knew they were there. The young girls had really grown to like their twilight play hours, but going out during the full daylight had become few and far between so the girls were particularly excited to be going out today. As they slipped out the door Annabelle walked side by side with Mizuki, holding onto the crook of her arm with one hand, being sure to keep pace with her best friend.

"So, who's Chiyo?" Annabelle asked Mizuki in a hushed voice

"She's my best friend from the day-care centre, I've known her all my life, both her mommy and my mommy are really best friends" Mizuki replied

"Cool! Who else is coming to the party?"

"Um? There's Haruka she's always fun to play with, and there's Kiko she's really good at playing hide and seek. There's Shiro, he's cute!" Mizuki giggled, Annabelle couldn't help but giggle too, "And there's Tai, he's big but he's really sweet, he always picks flowers for me! I don't know who else will be there, Chiyo handed out a lot of invitations so maybe hundreds of people will be coming!" Mizuki grinned, "Wow, that's a lot of people, do you think they'll all fit in her apartment?" Annabelle asked, "Chiyo doesn't live in an apartment like we do; she lives in a really big house on the side of the park, and has part of the forest in her back yard" Mizuki replied, "Cool, I used to live near a forest, but that was a long time ago, maybe..." Mizuki looked at the empty space where Annabelle's head was hidden by the therm-optic camo suit, "Maybe what?" she asked, "Never mind, I'll tell you later" Annabelle simply replied.

The family continued walking through the residential district until they came to the more affluent side of the Kohoku district; they walked along a wide boulevard lined with cherry trees and large mansion like houses on either side of the roadways, each sporting spacious gardens with neatly trimmed lawns and black metal gates. Eventually they came to one house that had big rose bushes lining the flower beds and pair of white marble fu dogs standing either side of the big front door, Mei bent down to help Annabelle take her therm-optic camo suit off, disengage it and discreetly slipped it into a bag she had hidden in the carrier tray under Haru's stroller. Upon ringing the doorbell, a maid android dressed in a black and white Lolita style outfit answered the door, "Hello, we're here for Chiyo's birthday party?" Mei said as she handed the android the party invitation, the maid politely took it, scanned it over and stepped aside, "Of course, Miss Nosaka has been expecting you, please come on in" the android smiled and lead them through to the hallway, "may I take your coat ma'am?" she asked, "thank you" Mei replied as she slipped her jacket off, at that moment a blond woman in a scarlet red dress walked in with a beaming smile, "Mei! So glad you could make it darling! It feels like forever since you were last round here!" She smiled as she approached and landed a kiss on both Mei's cheeks, the kids watched the two women as they exchanged pleasantries, "It's only been a few weeks, sorry I've been so busy of late" Mei smiled as she hugged her friend, the woman cast her gaze down to the children and her smile grew even wider, "Hello Mizuki, Haru, my your both getting so big; and you must be Annabelle, how are you settling in dear?", "Okay I guess" Annabelle replied sheepishly, "Well you make at yourself at home, there are drinks in the kitchen and the party's out the back, Chiyo's been waiting for you all morning so you kids go and have yourselves some fun together!" the woman said as she turned back to Mei. As soon as Mizuki unbuckled Haru he was out of his seat and toddling off like a shot, it hadn't been long since he first started walking and ever since he discovered his legs he hadn't wasted any time in making the most of his newly found mobility, his sister and Annabelle chased after him as he made a bee line for the patio doors through the lounge. "You kids play nice now, we'll be inside if you need anything!" Mei called after them, "Okay!" the girls called over their shoulder as they disappeared out the door. "Well, while their busy playing; the girls are in the red room getting started with the margaritas" the woman smirked with a cheeky wink, "At this hour of the morning? Really Aiko you're just incorrigible!" Mei reprimanded in a mock tone as she hooked her friend by the arm with a mischievous grin, "Maybe, but it's been too long since we last together darling and everyone's been dying to hear how things are on your end!" Aiko chuckled as she led Mei away to the red lounge room where all the other mum's where waiting to catch up on all their usual gossip.

Outside the girls were greeted by a whole horde of other kids playing and running about the huge back yard while raising an absolute ruckus, everywhere colourful balloons were tied down to the wooden perimeter fence, bright party streamers had been hung over the rose trellises and patio doorway and off to one side of the wide patio a long buffet table had been laid out with a myriad of cupcakes, candies and other tasty treats. A young girl about Mizuki's age came running up; followed close behind by some other kids around the same age, all of them were ecstatic to meet Mizuki as they squealed in delight at meeting her, all the while Annabelle shrank away as she began to realise just how much she stood out; many of the kids, including Mizuki, were noticeably Japanese by appearance, she was the only blond haired blued kid in the crowd and this fact hadn't escaped the other kids attention as they suddenly became aware of the foreign stranger in their presence. Mizuki was quick to step in and begin introductions; she felt proud for having someone from a far off land for a friend, it felt like being the owner of some special treasure, something that was rear and uncommon and it felt nice for her.

"Oh yeah! This is Annabelle everyone! She's from America, she been staying with us at our apartment" Mizuki announced, this only made Annabelle shy away even more as dozens of eyes fell on her and inspected her in detail.

"Her eyes are blue" one little kid piped up from the front of the crowd, Chiyo came and looked her up and down incredulously, "Are you really from America?" she asked promptly, "Yes?" Annabelle replied, feeling a little nervous, "Awesome! You wanna play with us?" Chiyo chirped as she broke into a spontaneous smile, Annabelle eased up a little as the sudden positive vibe reassured her a little. "Okay!" she replied and Mizuki and Chiyo took her by the hands and lead her away to join the party.

Over the course of the morning the kids had grown to be quite intrigued about their new American friend, they asked her about all kinds of things about her home country and what it was like; all the while the party raved on as the little kids played games, the older kids and teenagers hung around discussing the latest trends and the toddlers were aloud the run of the play pen; later on the kids sat around as Chiyo opened her presents and at lunch time the family came out to sing happy birthday and watch Chiyo blow out the candles on her birthday cake. It was now mid afternoon and the some of the younger kids and toddlers, including Haru had retreated inside the house for a nap time whilst the other kids continued their fun. Annabelle, Mizuki, Chiyo and two of the other kids had retreated away from the party to the tree house that sat in one of the trees at the bottom of the back yard, the whole end of the garden boarded part of the forest that lied on the north side of the park and had a good view over most of the other gardens in the neighbourhood and part of the parkland itself.

"Wow, you can see everyone's back yard from up here! I don't have any trees to put a tree house in back in my back yard, but I have a Wendy house" Annabelle said offhand, "Really? That's too bad, I like to come up here when I want to play or just watch what people are doing in their back yards" Chiyo replied, "I don't see why people can't live in trees all the time, my mommy says it would be wonderful and would help the environment because no trees would have to be cut down to make room for more buildings in this city" a young girl peeped in as she fiddled about with a leaf that had blown in through the little window, "That sounds like fun Haruka, then that way we could keep squirrels and monkeys as pets because they live in the trees anyway!" Chiyo grinned, a young boy about five years old came up through the opening in the floor and handed both Mizuki and Annabelle a posy of daisies each, "I picked these for you both, hey! You wanna go watch a movie? I think your mom's gonna put on one of those old movies, It's Ponyo I think?" the kid asked, Mizuki and Chiyo both perked up in delight, "I love that movie!" Mizuki squeaked in delight, "Mine too! It's my favourite! You coming Annabelle?" Chiyo asked as she descended down the step ladder with Mizuki and Haruka in front below her, "Maybe later, I wanna hang out here a little while more" Annabelle replied, "Okay see ya later!" Chiyo called up as she reached the ground and ran across the lawn with some of the other kids as they ran into the house. Annabelle was about to reach for one of the toys on the little table when she noticed something moving under the play blanket in the corner of the tree house, as she threw back the blanket she was surprised to see a boy about her age sitting with his arms around his knees in a tight ball, he had a black buzz cut hair style and had pale slate blue eyes and had a little black cat plushie in the crook of one arm; as she met his gaze, she noticed he looked sad and looked like he wanted to cry, she kneeled closer to his and looked him straight in the eye with innocent curiosity.

"Why are you sad?" she asked quietly

"Because I don't want to go home" he mumbled as he held his little cat plushie closer to his face

"Why don't you wanna go home?" Annabelle asked

"Because the scary men might be back tonight" he replied

"Who are the scary men?"Annabelle asked as she sat down by his side, curious to know what he was talking about. He passed a deep sigh and laid his legs out straight on the wooden floor.

"The scary men are the men dressed in black and have red eyes; they come out at night to take little kids like us away"

Are you sure you ain't talking about the boogie man? 'Cause I know for a fact he doesn't exist! My best friend Ironhide chased' em all away!" Annabelle proudly stated, the boy looked at her in disbelief of moment, from out his pocket he pulled out a small crumpled piece of paper with a crude crayon drawing of a tall figure coloured all in black with bright red eyes, in his hands were two limp looking figures, children with blue tears falling to the ground and red scribbles all over their bodies.

"What's all this red stuff?" Annabelle frowned in confusion

"Their blood..." the boy sobbed as tears welled up in his eyes, he held his little plushie even closer for comfort, Annabelle didn't know what to think as she handed back the picture, he wiped the tears away with the back of his hand and pasted another sad sigh as he cast his gaze down to the wooden planks.

"What's going on?" Annabelle asked

"Last week I went to play with my friend Yuki while my mommy was at work, Yuki lives three doors down from my apartment and I see him every day, Yuki let me borrow one of his games that day but when I went to give it back to him the next day his mommy said she didn't have a son and she never heard of anyone called Yuki...On Sunday I went to see my friend Sana but her mommy said she never heard of her, and when I went to see my cousin Kaito on Tuesday her mommy said she didn't know here either..."

"It sounds weird, but how do you know the scary men took them?" Annabelle asked

"...I began seeing strange things in the park; these people dressed in black would walk from out the forest late at night and walk towards the apartments, at first they only used to stand near the buildings and just look at them, then I used to start seeing them carrying little kids out by their necks...I found this red stuff on the grass yesterday morning where they had been when I asked my daddy what it was he said it was blood...there was a trail of it and it lead into the forest...for the last two weeks I didn't see them but now their back, and there's more of them. And that's not all; every time they come there are strange red lights in between the trees and I sometimes hear these weird sounds that sound far away" the boy explained nervously.

"Did you tell anyone?"

"Yeah, I told my mommy and daddy, I told my Grandpa and my uncle but nobody will believe me; I only see them because I hide in there...they never go near there..." the boy pointed out the window, in the distance on the edge of the tree line was a large electrical power distribution station that fed cables onto two long rows of pylons that both ran alongside the outer limits of the suburbs, "and it's not just me, some other kids have seen them too, I showed them that place and now we sneak out every night to hide there, so they don't come after us" he continued

"But someone must know about this? People can't just kidnap kids in the middle of the night!" Annabelle protested

"...No-one knows about them, and every time they come no-one sees or hears them, they just walk through and no-one knows they're there, it's like their ghosts, only, not dead..." he sobbed as he looked back at her with teary puppy like eyes.

"...Mizuki told me, that you have friends...giant robots called the Autobots?" he asked

"Yeah, their my friends" she replied as pulled out the Autobot medal pendant from beneath her top, the boy held it in his hand as he inspected the strange red face.

"...Do you think they could find the scary people and make them go away?..."

"Maybe, but they're hiding in the city so they can catch some other bad guys their after...but, I can ask them if they'd help you?" Annabelle reassured him, "Can I copy your picture so I can show them?" she asked, he nodded and handed her the picture, tearing out a piece of paper in a drawing book and reaching for a little tub of crayons, Annabelle carefully inspected the drawing and slowly but steadily copied the picture, being sure to copy it detail for detail, including the scribbled blood. Once finished she tucked her copy away in her skirt pocket and handed the original back to the boy.

"What's your name?" Annabelle asked

"I-I'm Shiro" he sobbed

"Okay Shiro, I'm going to ask the Autobots for help, and I'll help too" she stated, he looked her in shock.

"You? But how can you help? There are so many of them! They'll catch you and drag you away! All the kids they've taken have never come back! Please don't help! Their gonna take you too!" he pleaded desperately

"They won't take me, the Autobot's won't let them, not as long as I have this with me," Annabelle replied as she held up her medal, "If someone's in trouble they have to help, it's their job to help and protect humans no matter what" she continued, Shiro fell silent for a moment as he tried to comprehend her words, was she mad? Brave? Or plain silly? He looked back up at her with confusion in his slate blue eyes as he wondered if she really was for real.

"Are you sure they can really help? 'Cause I've been watching them for over seven months now and no-one has ever seen them!"

"Seven months! You've been watching them for seven months?-" Annabelle stopped when Shiro hung his head in his hands and sobbed uncontrollably, feeling both guilty and uncertain Annabelle placed her arm around his shoulder and gently squeezed him.

"...I promise I'll find the Autobots and get them to help, they have to come...But don't tell anyone about them okay? Mizuki's daddy is a cop so maybe he can help too, we'll go and talk to her..." she said, Shiro nodded as he leaned his head into her shoulder.

"I think you need a cupcake, come on, let's go and see if there's any left..." she said as she got to her feet and helped him up, "Okay" he sighed as he let her take him by the hand and lead down the step-ladder, together they walked through one of the roses arches and went into the house. As Annabelle left Shiro in the kitchen to help himself to the cupcakes, she went to find Mizuki in the lounge watching a movie with several other kids, noticing Annabelle standing at the door Mizuki beckoned her to join, but with a serious expression on her face Annabelle shook her head and beckoned Mizuki to join her, following the honey blond into the kitchen, Mizuki stood and listened as Shiro told Mizuki everything he told Annabelle, the three of them talked for while on what to do and how to seek help. Another hour passed by and soon the party was partied out, the kids were tired and exhausted, the teens were bored, the little kids were sleepy and cranky whilst the toddlers were beginning to kick up a fuss. Haru wriggled and whined as his mother buckled him into his stroller, "Mizuki! Annabelle! Time to go!" Mei called down the hallway, the girls and Shiro had moved up to Chiyo's room for the sake of privacy whilst the birthday girl dozed on one of the couches in the lounge, the two girls got up and made their way downstairs and after saying their goodbyes to everyone the Nobuyoshi family made their way at a slow pace down the street. Annabelle glanced back over her shoulder and saw Shiro being carried away by his mother in the opposite direction; as his eyes locked with hers, his gaze was pleading her not to forget her promise to him, they watched each other from across the distance of the street until they rounded a corner and disappeared. Now that they were away from everyone, Mei pulled into in a small alleyway and help Annabelle slip her therm-optic camo suit on. As they slowly walked back Annabelle and Mizuki didn't talk, Mei figured they were just tired and simply wanted to rest; but something at the back of her mind was telling it more than just fatigue, had they fallen out over something? Whatever the reason she let it go.

The rest of the day slowly turned into the early evening as the Nobuyoshi's and their guest spent the rest of the day chilling out and relaxing from all the excitement of this morning, after a much needed extra long nap and a nice lavender scented bubble bath Haru was in a much better mood. But the same couldn't quite be said for the girls, Mizuki and Annabelle both sat by the railing of the apartment's balcony, watching the setting sun light up the countless windows of the tall skyscrapers with radiant golden light, making it look as if they were coated in pure gold, Annabelle held her copy of the 'scary man' as she pondered on just what to do.

"Could it really be possible those scary men are taking little kids away and nobody can ever see them at all? Mizuki pondered aloud.

"Maybe, I mean, if my friends can hide in plain site as cars and jets then people can too, maybe their doing it differently?" Annabelle replied as she tucked the picture away.

"I'm sorry I told Shiro about the Autobot's; I didn't mean to tell, but they just sound so cool and...I just wanted to impress him" Mizuki said in a melancholy tone

"It's alright" Annabelle replied with a rueful smile, but the smile suddenly dropped from her face as she noticed the clouded look in Mizuki's eyes

"If these scary men do exist, and they really are taking kids away...could we be next? Could they find where we live and take us away during the night too?"

"I don't know, but when your daddy get's home we'll talk to him and I'll ask if I can see my friends to talk to them, he'll-" Annabelle was interrupted by Mei as she stepped out onto the balcony, "Hey girls, Daddy just rang he's going to be pulling an all-nighter tonight so he won't be coming home tonight okay? Dinner will be on the table in ten minutes" she said as she retreated back into the apartment, the girls looked at one another in alarm, "he's not coming home tonight?" Annabelle exclaimed, "daddy get's up much earlier than me, he leaves to go to work before I wake up so we won't see him until tomorrow-night...What will we do? If the scary men come tonight, they'll..." Mizuki eyes grew wider in alarm. Annabelle dropped her head as she pondered for a moment then met Mizuki's gaze with determined look; she leaned in closer, being sure Mizuki's mother couldn't hear her.

"We'll look for them ourselves, Shiro said they don't go near that place with the tall metal towers and cables, we'll go there and wait for them, and we'll take a camera to get pictures of them too" Annabelle whispered

"But how?" Mizuki whispered back

"We'll do exactly what we did that night you helped me get back to the Autobots; we'll wait until everyone's asleep and we sneak out the apartment and go to Shiro's hiding place, I saw where it was and I looked for it as we were walking back, it's over on the other side of the park, near that road with the tall trees, then we wait for them to come, if we don't see anything we'll sneak back as the sun begins to come up and get back into our beds...sound good to you?" Annabelle asked

"I don't know, if mommy finds out we snuck out we're both gonna be in big trouble!" Mizuki replied

"We're in big trouble if the scary men are real! We have to get proof so we can tell your daddy so he tell his friends back at sec- I mean the police station; Mizuki, if Shiro's right and kids around here are being taken we have to warn someone!" Annabelle hissed, Mizuki looked at her for a moment before nodding in agreement.

"...Alright, I'll try and find my daddy's camera in the kitchen, we'll get our clothes and hide them under our pillows then we'll get dressed after mommy turns the lights off okay?" Mizuki suggested

"Okay, for now, we just act cool" said Annabelle as she got up and went back into the apartment with Mizuki close behind.

Several hours waned by as the evening turned to night and the sky grew darker with a full moon lighting up the land, the stars twinkled high overhead whilst nearby the city was bathed in its grungy orange luminescence, it was ten o clock and the Nobuyushi's apartment was still and silent, the distant sounds of the city could be faintly heard on the other sides of the windows and the orange glow of the street lights came in through the window, but this didn't matter as this was the hour for the human mind to abandon the waking life and retreat to the untouchable land of dreams within the soft womb like comfort of sleep.

However, only two were truly asleep in the apartment tonight.

Looking up at the clock on the wall, Mizuki noted the time and sat up; Annabelle too sat up straight, instead of pyjamas they were both dressed head to toe in the only black, they got out of their bed/futon and reached for a set of face paints sitting on the dressing table, dipping their fingers in the black and dark green paint they painted a set of diagonal stripes across their faces, Annabelle had explained earlier that her daddy painted the same pattern on his face so as to stay hidden in the shadows.

"Okay, camera?" Annabelle whispered as softly as she could

"Check, I managed to get a hold of daddy's video camera instead" Mizuki whispered back

"Good, what about the torches?"

"Check"

"Camouflage suit?"

"Check...Are you sure we can do this, cause I'm feeling scared" Mizuki whispered uneasily

"I'm scared too, but Shiro needs our help, just pretend we're spies on a secret mission, only this time it's for real...don't worry, I'll be with you all the way, now let's go!" Annabelle said, she tucked a piece of folded paper under her sheets and led the way out the bedroom door and down the hall to the front door, Mizuki was able to find her mother's spare apartment key hidden in one of the kitchen draws earlier in the evening, carefully and as quietly as possible she unlocked the door and opened it slowly, being sure not to make it creek as Annabelle watched hallway for any sounds or signs of movement, all the while the adrenaline began to steadily stir up and put them both on alert. After successfully sneaking through the front door and closing it softly, the girls quickly paced along the apartment block walkway towards the elevators, being careful to keep their footsteps soft and as quiet as possible, when they reached the elevators Mizuki pressed the button for the ground level and the doors opened up; in the strobe lit metal box the girls breathed a deep sigh of relief.

"Oh, my hearts beating so fast! I didn't think we could do that!" Mizuki smiled

"Yeah, but we still have to get to Shiro's hiding place, help me get the camo suit on, we'll share it together...By the way, you look awesome in black" Annabelle said as she placed the suit's dial in her jacket pocket and slipped the oversized coat on, "You too, we really look like secret agents huh?" Mizuki replied as she took the long coat hem and threw it over her head, the hood was wide enough she could see through from over Annabelle's shoulder alright; surprisingly the coat was able to completely cover both of them, as they went past the tenth floor the girls positioned themselves in front of the doors, their little hearts were pounding in their ears as they felt a surge of energy rush through them, it was hard to concentrate but as they took in deep breathes they psyched themselves up ready to go.

"Okay, now remember, the coat will hide both of us but I'll be leading the way, when I go or stop you go stop, and remember, don't make a sound okay?"

"Okay, here we go!" Mizuki frowned with determination as she saw the third floor whizz by, Annabelle pressed the button and the deep hum of the therm-optic camo suit sounded to life as they both faded from sight.

Near the apartment block in the parking lot, two beat cops were making their routine patrol, the youngest of the two, a rookie, noticed the elevator door open but no-one came out, thinking nothing of it he quickly forgot it and followed his partner on along the pathway.

Annabelle and Mizuki quietly snuck out and found the pathway they took to Chiyo's neighbourhood, the pathway was certain a stark contrast compared to how it looked during the daylight; it was barely lit as the street lights along the route were few and few between, meaning they had the traverse through areas of pure darkness until they reached the next street lamp. The experience was scary to say the least, for any other four year old would most likely be too scared to move in such pitch blackness, Mizuki felt nervous as her fight or flight reflex was now at its peak, every sound both near and far made her look around as best she could over Annabelle's shoulder, the only thing to stop her panicking was the knowledge that they were hidden from sight by the therm-optic camo suit, and that Annabelle was holding her hand in reassurance. Annabelle however was far from scared, having inherited her father's sense of courage and determination she wasn't going to let a few dark shadows put her off her objective, a more mature person would call it foolhardiness, but she didn't care right now.

As they approached the park Annabelle looked all around for any signs of movement or any sound that could indicate someone was nearby, "See anything?" Mizuki whispered, "No, no-one's around, let's go" Annabelle replied as she lead the way following alongside the path, relying on the soft grass to muffle the sounds of their footsteps. Halfway along Annabelle spotted a pair of police officers and abruptly ducked into the nearby bushes, both the girls hearts pounded like a set of drums and they opened their mouths to soften the sound of their breathing as the two men casually strolled by, too deep in their conversation to notice anything, when they were a good several meters down the path the girls stealthily continued, letting the moon light guide the way. They soon came to Chiyo's neighbourhood and they both recognized the fu dogs as they passed by her front door up to the end of the boulevard, they came to an intersection which turned off to the highway straight ahead, a panoramic view city of New Port could be clearly seen from this position, Mizuki's fear died down a little as she watched the city with awe.

"Wow, it's so pretty!" she whispered on Annabelle's ear, "I know" she replied as she looked all around for any sign of the power distribution station, then, the black silhouettes of two rows of pylons rose up from behind some buildings.

"The towers are over there! Come on!" Annabelle whispered as she followed the road down a steep slope away from the highway down into the area of town where all the grocery shops were, Mizuki found it strange to see all the shops dark and shut up in such a spooky way for she had only ever seen them open during the day. They carried on down for another two hundred yards until they came out onto a long stretch of empty ground bordered by a pitch black forest and up ahead was the power distribution station, relieved to finally find their destination the girls ran on up to it. It was a huge set of twelve black metal blocks, each about twelve feet high, each in four rows of three, at one end of the rows were three taller blocks with power transformers on the top with big black cables connecting the two rows of pylons to the transformers, at the other end was a rusted old shed of some kind while dotted randomly in between the blocks were what looked like access panels for maintenance work, overhead the sound of buzzing and humming could be heard as the cables carried the high voltage through them and all along the perimeter fence were the ominous black and yellow :Danger of death: signs; looking up at the imposing structure, the girls looked at one another as they approached the only padlocked gate in the fence.

"How did Shiro get in? It's too high to climb up" Mizuki said offhand

"Let's look around, maybe he found another way in..." Annabelle replied as she led the way around the base of the fence, it wasn't until they walked behind the complex, between the fence and a close line of tall bushes that Annabelle spotted a shallow hole in the ground going right under the fence, there were scuff marks all around the hole, someone had been here recently. "Here! Here's how he must have gotten in!" Annabelle said as she disengaged to therm-opics, pulled it off and folded the coat in half, "You go in first then I'll pass the cost to you and I'll follow through" Annabelle said, without a word Mizuki got down on her front and army crawled her way under the fence, she fit through the shallow hole perfectly, once out on the other side she took the coat from Annabelle and honey blond followed behind, once back on their feet they got out their torches and headed into the complex between the huge metal blocks.

"Shiro! Are you here?" Annabelle quietly called out as she shined her torch around

"Shiro! It's me Mizuki, if your here say something!" Mizuki hissed; she stopped suddenly as she saw a large crack in the contrite slabs on the ground, underneath was a dark hole and within it a pair of pale red spots that seemed to be reflecting off the torchlight. What was it? An animal's eyes of some kind? Nervously she approached; her legs were liked a cocked gun, ready to bolt at a moment's notice, peering through the blackness she could make out a face and a set of shoulder's and sighed in relief when she recognised who it was.

"Shiro! Your here! I knew we'd-" Shiro dived out of the hole to cover her mouth with his hand, Annabelle ran over to what was wrong and saw Shiro halfway out of the hole in the ground.

"Shut up! They'll be here any second now! Quickly, get in!" he hissed and the girls promptly followed him down the hole which opened up into a larger space that sloped down at an angle, several feet below the hole turned sharply downwards and the sound of rushing water could be heard echoing out. Clinging to the rocks and soil, several other kids were present too, all with tired yet terrified looks on their faces, the watched as the girls took a seat next to Shiro and another slightly older kid.

"I'd knew you'd come, thanks for keeping your promise" Shiro smiled at Annabelle

"We'll be alright, I bought my daddy's video camera so we can get proof the scary men exist!" Mizuki peeped in, Shiro's face lit up with hope as Mizuki produced the little hand held camera from the coat pocket.

"You mean, we'll finally be able to prove their real?" Another kids asked eagerly

"Yeah, now all we have to do is wait...by the way, where does that go?" Annabelle pointed to the hole in the ground, "That goes down to an underground river, I went down there with my brother once, it goes on for a long while but it connects to all the city's waters ways, you could walk everywhere under city through there!" one other kid said.

"So you've all seen the scary men?" Annabelle asked

"Yeah, and seen them take little kids away in the night, we all told someone but nobody's listened to us, if we get proof their real then we don't have to worry, we'll wait here until morning then go to the police prefecture!" another piped in

"Are you sure they'll come this way?" Mizuki asked as she folded her legs

"They don't come near this place, but they'll go in the houses and apartments, if you want a good shot of them I'd-" but Shiro didn't finish his sentence as a sudden darkness fell up above, cautiously climbing back up and sticking their heads out the hole, they saw all the street lights in the district had gone out, Shiro inhaled sharply as fear began to set in and the other kids promptly ducked back into the hole.

"It starting..." he said in alarm, taking that as a cue, Mikuki loaded fresh batteries into the camera and flipped it on, hitting the record button; as she scanned the darkness she couldn't see anything at first, until she caught the faint outline of someone standing by the trees, gradually more and more people wearing long coats emerged to form a long line in front of the trees, the moonlight barely made their black clothing visible. Suddenly, the air felt like it was vibrating and the ground began to rumble as the deep sound of engines filled the cool night air, then, a huge 45 foot tall truck about 20 feet wide and an incredible 90 feet in length steadily rumbled along the ground onto the grass and parked some 50 yards away from the power station. Annabelle, Mizuki and Shrio all gasped in disbelief at the sheer size of the vehicle and cautiously ducked halfway back into the hole.

"That's the biggest truck I've ever seen in my life!" Annabelle breathed as she watched the strange figures by the trees move towards the truck, "I know, that truck always comes but I've never seen it this close before!" Shiro gasped in amazement. Mizuki did her best to hold the camera steady as she filmed the strangers standing off to the sides of the truck as a huge ramp lowered down from the back of the truck, zooming the focus in to see what was inside, Mizuki was surprised to see it the inside looked like a hospital room, there were beds, strange looking machines on the sides and hanging from the roof, computers and all other kinds of things, all bathed in a pale green light. More strangers dressed in black walked out and then a black sports car drove out and stopped.

The kids watched in total silent shock as the car seemed to fall apart but reassembled itself as all the various parts slid, sided, interlocked and rearranged into new positions, forming into a 20 foot tall black and silver spiky looking humanoid robot with ominous glowing red eyes, all the while Annabelle recognized the unmistakable alien sound of a cybertronian's transformation sequence and was shocked to see it was someone she had never seen before.

"What's that sound?", "What's going on up there?" "Tell me! What's happening?" the kids whispered in desperation as they peered out the hole and were confronted with the sight of the giant robot standing barely 50 yards away, one kid clasped his hands tightly over his mouth to stop himself from crying out whilst the others just crouched down and stared in shock and disbelief.

"What is that thing?" Mizuki whispered as she tried to keep her voice from shaking

"A Transformer, but I've never seen him before" Annabelle replied nervously. The kids watched as more of the dark strangers filed out of the truck and together they all headed towards the houses, the kids lost sight of them as they disappeared among the buildings, but through the camera lens Mizuki watched as one other figure emerged from the truck, but this one was different; instead of being dressed all in black he wore a dark grey suit and tie, he was tall with a strong build and seemed to have spiky hair that was combed back, as he approached the foot of the imposing bot they seemed to be talking about something, Mizuki tried to focus on his face but he was too far away. Soon, some of the strangers returned and grasped firmly in their hands were the limp bodies of children they had taken, they held them by their necks as they took them into the truck and promptly went out again towards the houses, Annabelle and Mizuki exchanged horrified looks for a brief second as they continued to watch the macabre scene.

"I told you they would come!" Shiro whispered in fear

"The Autobots have to stop this! This will tell them where we are!" Annabelle said as she grasped her Autobot medal and clicked a little button on the top, the back flipped open to reveal a tiny monitor and three tiny buttons, one red, one yellow and one blue; Annabelle clicked the blue button and the Autobot insignia on the front started to flash and beep like a heart monitor

But suddenly, the strangers all stopped in their tracks, dropped the kids they were carrying and stood perfectly still like statues, "What's going on? Why did they just stop?" Shiro said offhand, then the kids gasped in shock as all the strangers eyes began to glow bright red then their heads all snapped around to face the power station, "Did, they just spot us?" one kid asked nervously. For a few seconds a terrible uneasy silence fell over the scene as the unidentified bot locked it's optics on the power station, the kids didn't utter a sound as they watched and hoped he didn't see them.

"Then, it happened

"AUTOBOT!" the robot angrily yelled out in a deep electronic basso voice, the strangers all moved together as one as they charged towards the power station, the kids yelled in horror as they ducked back down into the hole, acting on reflex Annabelle clicked the blue button on the medal, essentially cutting off the SOS signal.

"They spotted us! Quickly! Everyone down the hole!" Shiro yelled, nobody argued as they slid down the rocks and through the hole, they landed on a flat concrete surface about five feet down and scrambled to get back up; as the sounds of the power transformers could be heard exploding and zapping up top Mizuki switched her torch on as the kids ran to the edge of the surface and saw several feet below a wide fast flowing river about 15 meters wide, "Come on! The city's this way!" Shiro pointed out, climbing down a metal ladder on the side of the huge concrete slab the kids then dashed along a narrow pathway, letting Mizuki's torch light the way as she desperately pulled out and lengthened the camera's strap so it would go around her neck. The sound of earth shifting and concrete breaking made the kids pick up their pace, "Their coming!" one kid screamed in sheer terror; up ahead around a bend Annabelle noticed something big and long snagged on a metal pole on the side of the river, as they ran up she saw it was a large tree trunk about ten meters long with think branches sticking out.

"WAIT! Everybody stop! I've got an idea!"The little honey blond called out as she stopped suddenly, the other kids kept running and only Mizuki and Shiro stopped to see her climbing onto the log and tried to push it off from the pole it was wedged onto.

"What are you doing? They're gonna break through any second we have to go!" Shiro shouted as he tried to pull her away, the sounds of the robot digging and pounding through the concrete spurred him on but Annabelle grabbed him by the arm and forced him onto the log., "I've got an idea but you have to get on now!" Annabelle shouted at him, not wanting to argue Mizuki carefully climbed onto the slippery piece of wood and positioned herself on one of the branches, Annabelle opened up the back of her medal and pointed the insignia at the metal pole, upon clicking the red button the insignia glowed brightly and a red beam shot out from the face and struck the metal pole with a bang as the part of the tree and concrete were blown away in a small fireball, the tree instantly broke free and tilted to the side slightly as it began to float down the river, picking up speed as the current carried it and it's three passengers away. Shiro and Mizuki both looked at the medal in amazement.

"Whoa! What was that?" Shiro asked

"A fire-blast, it's kinda like a lazar gun, is the camera okay?" Annabelle asked as she turned around to face the rear end of the tree, being careful not to slip into the water. "Yeah, I got it; you can shoot things with that?" Mizuki asked.

"Yeah, and I'm gonna shoot that bot when he comes down! Grab the branches and hold on tight!" Annabelle shouted over the rushing water, Mizuki took the torch in her other hand and tucked the camera under her top as she and Shiro shuffled along the tree, grabbing a branch each and held on with everything they had as one almighty crash and a miniature tidal wave coming down the river signalled the transformer had broken through the tunnel wall.

"Hold on! Here he comes!" she shouted

Sure enough the heavy pounding of metal footsteps on concrete grew louder and nearer as the big bot appeared at the far end of the tunnel behind them and chased after the tree, Mizuki was about to scream when Annabelle held up her medal and fired at the terrifying giant, the red beam hit him on the shoulder and knocked him backwards with a big splash, the resulting wave caused the tree to tilt dangerously to the side and the three kids held on as they nearly went in the water, but as the tree corrected itself again as the bot got back up again with an angry growl and held up his fist, Annabelle gasped as she noticed had a huge gun mounted on it.

"YOU MISERABLE LITTLE PARASITE!" he angrily bellowed, but before he could fire Annabelle fired the medal first and struck him dead on in the left optic, the bot held his face with an agonising howl of pain as he keeled over into the water, Annabelle fired again, this time keeping her finger on the red button as she aimed the beam at the tunnel walls, essentially blasting away the concrete which caused the whole tunnel roof to collapse down on the bot. One enormous chunk of rock fell down into the water and caused a massive tidal wave to surge down the tunnel at a fast pace. Annabelle closed the back of the medal up and scurried down the tree to grab the branch Mizuki was clinging onto just as the wave hit the tree and pushed it along like a surf board, as they rounded a corner Shiro spotted the other kids up ahead, looking back at the wave he realized it would sweep them away, nervously climbing to the end of his brush he leaned out with one arm extended out, the other kids looked back over their shoulders and spotted the tree and it's three riders, as well as the oncoming tidal wave.

"JUMP ON!" Shiro called out, acting on impulse the other kids took one big leap and dived onto the tree, one nearly fell off but Annabelle promptly grabbed him and pulled him up with all her strength, letting him sit behind her as they surfed away down the tunnel.

With terrified yells, squeals and scream of fear, the kids held on with all their strength as the tidal wave picked up speed when the river began to flow downwards at a steep angle; with barely any light save for Mizuki's torch the whole tunnel was pitch black and the loud rushing water only made the wild ride all the more scarier. With every twist and turn the kids held on, terrified at the prospect of falling off and being swept away; fortunately the tree proved to be a sturdy ride, keeping them above the water and it didn't roll over once. Finally the wave began to lose its momentum as the river began to level out, allowing the tree to slow down; thinking the worst of the ride was over the kids cautiously eased up their grip as they allowed themselves to breathe a sigh relief, but their adrenaline was still keeping them high alert and up ahead the kids could see lights up ahead. As the tree drifted on at a fair pace they could make out the shapes of pipes and thick cables lining the tunnel side and roof, small fiber-optic lights lined the walls and offered much need relief from the pitch blackness.

"Is it over?" the shortest kid nervously asked with a shaky voice as he looked around the dimly lit tunnel.

"I think so, see all those pipes? Their part of the city's power grid system, which means we should be under the city right now" Another slightly older kid replied

"Where does this tunnel end?" Shiro asked

"I don't know, this is as far as my brother brought me, we didn't go any further than here" the kid replied, Mizuki climbed down from her branch and shuffled towards Annabelle who was clinging onto another branch with two other kids huddled tightly together, letting go the four year old hugged her best friend in relief.

"Thank you for saving us" Mizuki sighed; a little taken aback by the surprise bear hug, Annabelle hugged her back and allowed a small smile to creep across her rosy lips.

"It's okay, we're all okay" Annabelle replied as she wiped her wet bangs from her face.

"What was that thing? Is it still casing us?" one of the kids's asked

"No, I made sure he didn't follow us" Annabelle replied

"How?"

"She fired a lazar beam at him and made the tunnel fall down on him and crush him!" Mizuki replied

"Oh, okay...So, what do we do now?" The kids looked at one another as they suddenly realized they were far from the power station, and their neighbourhoods, not that they were eager to go back, nobody wanted to back.

"Hey! My brother told me all the underground rivers flow down to the sea; we could stay on this log and wait until we reach the harbour or the docks!" one of the kids piped up

"But how do we get to the harbour or docks? This tree doesn't have a steering wheel on it" Shiro interjected, the kid sank his head down in disappointment.

"Hmm, do you remember before the scary men and huge truck showed up all the lights went out?" said Annabelle

"Yeah? The lights always go out before they come" Shiro replied

"Then that must mean they don't like the light, it must hurt their eyes which is why they have to turn the lights off when they come!" Annabelle concluded

"Hey yeah, their eyes did glow red, maybe the light stops them from doing that, that's why they need to stay in the dark" one kid piped up from where he sat on the far end of the tree on the furthest protruding branch

"The city's full of lights so they won't come after us! If we let this log take us into the city, we can get off somewhere and find a place with lots and lots of lights and I'll be able to contact the Autobots again!" Annabelle perked up

"Who're the Autobots?" one kid asked

"They're my friends! They can find the scary men and stop them, when we show them what's on the camera; they'll have to help us!" Annabelle replied, hearing that, Mizuki reached into her top and pulled out the camera, alarm bells began to ring in her head as she noticed how wet it was, turning it on and pulling out the little monitor she clicked the replay button. She sighed in relief as the footage played back in one piece okay.

"The camera's okay, the video too, but we have to be careful so it doesn't get wet again" Mizuki said as she turned it off and tucked it back under her top.

"So where do we get off?" Shiro asked

"I don't know, but I wanna rest a little while before we go anywhere, my legs are cold and I'm all wet!" the youngest kid piped up

"We're all cold and wet!"

"I'm okay actually, I don't feel cold" Mizuki replied offhand as she watched the lights on the wall drift by.

"So what's your name?" one kid asked

"I'm Annabelle" she replied

"I'm Ren and this is my little brother Ryo"

"I'm Ichiro"

"I'm Kenji"

"And I'm Taichi, we all know Shiro but who are you?"

"I'm Mizuki" the little brunette replied

The kids remained silent as they let the tree carry them down the river; the tunnel began to open up wider and wider, and more and more cables and pipes appeared out from other larger pipelines, once or twice they passed other rivers and waters ways that connected to the one they were drifting on but the tree didn't divert down any other waterways, they just kept on drifting in a straight line.

'I hope we find them soon' Annabelle thought in the back of her mind.

* * *

A/N: If you think I've done a poor job at doing the kids any justice then feel free to give me a right royal whipping on this one: Kids can be either very senitive or very resilient in a tight situation, depending on whether you let them discover their own strengths & weaknesses for themselves, I really like that fact & this time round I really wanted to let Annabelle & Mizuki's own strengths shine through. I like the idea of Mizuki's inner strength out-shining her father's own anxieties in all this craziness, that is something worth portraying! ;) either way, this was just a good excuse to let the kids play the hero for once! Don't forget to R&R on the way out & stay tuned part 2! :D


	42. Chapter 41: The Twilight Hours II

Here's part 2! And it's a real down-the-rabbit hole experience! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 41: THE TWILIGHT HOURS II

"Hey look! There's a bright light up ahead!" Ryo exclaimed in delight, the others all looked past the end of the tree as a series of bright lights appeared up ahead at the far end of the tunnel.

The children had been afloat on the tree for quite a while now, how much time had passed was anybody's guess; but in the time since they left the rapids behind they had calmed down and their adrenaline levels had subsided, but there was just enough alertness left to stop them from falling asleep, they were tied but they were focused (in their own young and inexperienced way), they were cold and wet but their bodies staved the fatigue and told them to keep going, for they had a mission; to get help, tell someone, anyone, about what they saw earlier in the night. Mizuki held her hands around the camera that was hidden under her top, reassuring herself it was still there, and that it was safe.

As they watched the lights draw nearer, the tunnel opened out onto an open river somewhere in the heart of the city, or at least this looked like the heart of the city as high overhead skyscrapers and vast tall buildings of every form and design towered up into the sky and all around the river banks were bustling with the city's nightlife; boats of varying size and shapes steadily moved up and down the river. The kids were in awe at the nocturnal scene, which until now they never knew existed before.

"Wow, there's so many people here...and all up past their bedtimes too!" Ryo smiled as he watched the crowds along one of the embankments.

"Yeah! I didn't know you could stay up past your bedtime? I know my mom said that's what you get to do as a grown-up, but I didn't think there was stuff you could do" Ichiro concurred

"Uh guys? I don't think anybody's seen us yet?" Shiro said as he looked around. What the kids failed to notice was that the muddy water in the tunnel had stained their clothing until they were a dark shade of greyish brown, plus Annabelle and Mizuki's face paint was mostly still intact; against the dark wood of the fallen tree they all blended in near perfectly, so when they passed under a foot bridge, all the people who looked down only saw a big tree drifting by with several oddly shaped branches sticking up.

"Good, then that means we can sneak past everyone without being spotted...look the log's drifting towards those stairs over there! Come on let's go!" Annabelle said as she shuffled over to the end of the tree, everyone followed suite as the tree gently bumped into the quayside and they all filed off onto the stone stairs, "Bye-bye log, thanks for letting us ride you!" Ryo whispered as he waved the log goodbye while it drifted on down the river. His brother took his hand and led him up as the kids climbed up to the top of the stairs. They were amazed to be greeted by the site of all the riverside clubs, restaurants and cocktail bars, it was all so colourful and shiny, the temptation to go in to any one of the places was nearly overwhelming.

"Whoa! There's TONS of bright lights here! No way are the scary men coming here!" Ren grinned.

"So where do we hide here?" Shiro asked

"I don't know; let's go find some place, it's so big here I bet there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of places to hide!" Annabelle said as she wandered off, "Yeah, I wonder if we can hide up there?" Ichiro pointed up to the top of one of the skyscrapers, "maybe, that would be so cool!..." Annabelle replied as she led the way with the others all following close behind. "Hey Annabelle? Can you tell the Autobots where we are?" Mizuki asked, Annabelle took out her medal and flipped open the back panel, the tiny monitor above the buttons read : recharged at 55% :, "Not yet, we have to wait for the batteries to recharge, when their full I can call them, but first we have to find somewhere to hide" Annabelle replied as she closed the medal up and tucked it back under her top, "Okay" Mizuki replied.

Time passed as the kids followed the river along to one of the city's many high-rise shopping malls where it disappeared underground in another tunnel. Mesmerized by the pretty and neatly arranged window displays, the kids stepped in and wandered down the main arcade; all around the ground floor was filled with cafes, restaurants and fancy boutiques of every variety, catering for every conceivable whim, fancy and fashion trend. As they entered the main food court they gazed in amazement at the number fast food restaurants that lined the ground floor and terraces overhead; the mixed aromas wafting by was near overwhelming to the point it felt like torture; as his nose caught the scent of a cheese burger Taichi's tummy gurgled loudly, "I'm hungry!" he said as he felt his mouth begin to salivate. "Me too" Mizuki said as she rubbed her own tummy, looking around the large communal dining area, Shiro perked up when he noticed several empty tables with trays of food left on them, "Hey! Let's see what's left!" he said as he paced over to the tables, to everyone's delight there were some fast food left on the trays, albeit it in meagre portions; there were some half eaten burgers, a few burritos and tacos, a couple of cartons of noodles and dumplings, eggrolls, plenty of French-fries and several half-full cups filled with soda, cola and iced tea. Everybody made short work of the left-over's as they tucked in; like a pack of wolfs feeding on a bison carcass the older kids called first dibs on the portions whilst the younger kids had to snatch their share's away quickly or wait to be given something, Mizuki and Annabelle were the only ones who shared their portions. As the kids tucked into their free meal they failed to notice the odd looks they were getting from some of the other dinners, with their clothes all dirty and in a partially dishevelled state they looked no different to any other homeless kid wandering the city and as a result were getting some sceptical comments, not that they heard anything for they were too bust eating;

"Poor things, looks like they haven't had a descent meal in ages"

"I can't believe they let homeless people in here!"

"Wherever they mother is, she ought to be ashamed of herself for leaving them in that state!"

"I wonder how long before they get snapped up by the Yakuza and chopped up and sold for parts?"

Soon the trays had been picked clean, and not before long as Ren locked eyes with one of the malls security guards and saw him frown in his general direction, Ren jumped out his seat and dragged his little brother away as the guard started running towards them with an annoyed look on his face. "Hey you! Stop!" the guard called out, not wasting anytime the other kids jumped up and dashed down the arcade after Ren and Ryo. Their shorter sizes proved to be an advantage as they ran through the large crowds, ducking dodging and weaving in and out of the sea of people; the guard had a hard time pushing by all the other shoppers, he soon came within grabbing distance of Kenji until he ran head on into a potted palm tree and fell flat on his back, the kids didn't stop as they kept on running towards one of the main doors, after running some distance across the mall's entrance plaza the kids stopped to catch their breath on a bench.

"I'm not staying in there!" Ichiro panted

"Me neither!" Shiro concurred

"So where do we go now?" Ren asked offhand

"I don't know, but we gotta keep looking, come on" Annabelle replied as she looked around the street they had run out onto.

"At least I'm not hungry anymore" Kenji said offhand

The kids carried on once again as they made their way down the street, they noticed this street was much bigger with a wider roadway and bigger shops, and the crowds were much bigger here too; they stayed close and held hands to form a line with the youngest in the middle to make sure they didn't fall behind. Soon they came to what had to be the biggest road intersection they'd ever seen. Hundreds of people stopped at the side of a huge box-junction as cars, trucks and trams whizzed by whilst the traffic lights flickered red, amber and green, making one column of traffic stop while another column continued on in a synchronised pattern of timing; as the kids watched the traffic they saw the lights for their crossing changed to red and all at once the crowds moved together as one like a vast herd of wildebeest, the kids had to quicken their pace from a brick walk to a full run as they tried to stay ahead of the crowd, as soon as they reached the other side of the wide road they kept on running before the crowd dispersed and all went their own ways.

The kids kept on heading in a straight line, looking all around at the various features of the cityscape as they tried to find a suitable hiding place and once or twice they stopped to take a breather before carrying on. After heading down a few other streets they soon noticed the layout of the town changed as they walked by a series of clubs with bright neon lights flashing on the signs and doorways, this was an odd place as they noticed most of the signs had pictures of scantily clad ladies on them, there were neon lights in the shape of girls and women posed in odd poses too and outside most of the doorways were gentlemen dressed in tuxedos inviting people to come in whilst a pair of other larger, more scarier looking men in dark suits stood with their arms folded. But what really made the kids eyes peel wide in amazement was the number of ladies dressed in skimpy clothes and bikini's walking around and approaching men with friendly smiles and asking if they were looking for a 'good time', as they walked by the women gave them some odd remarks:

"Aww, you lookin' for someone to read you a bedtime story?" one girl sneered

"Sorry hon' no mammary on tap here" another remarked

"You boys come back in 20 years and maybe I'll give you a half price deal" one grinned

The kids slowed down and stopped as they looked all around at the colourful scene, trying to figure out just what this odd and somewhat intimidating place was.

"This is weird, I've never seen a place like this before" Shiro said in bemusement

"Me neither, and we've been into the city loads'a times before" Ren replied, his little brother nodded in agreement.

"Hey! That sign says there's a peep show in there! Do you think they let you 'peep' at your birthday presents before your birthday? I'd like that!" Ryo said as he pointed to a doorway with 'peep show' written above the entrance, the side windows had photos of women in exotic looking clothing all posing in funny (and somewhat painful) looking positions. Mizuki and Annabelle glanced at one another in uncertainty; until Mizuki spotted one particular club sign that made her perk up in excitement.

"Look! That sign say's there's a doll house in there!" she pointed to a large club with the words 'Oba Doll House' above the doors in striking blue, red and purple neon lights.

"What! I don't wanna hide a stupid doll house! Dolls are for girls!" Ren huffed as he folded arms in annoyance.

"Fine! We can stay in there and play while we wait for the Autobots to come and get us while you keep on walking around!" Mizuki retorted as she paced over to the entrance of the club, "Yeah! See ya!" Annabelle concurred as she followed after her best friend, "maybe they have action figures in there, come on, we need to hide somewhere anyway!" Ryo said as he led his brother after the girls. As the kids entered through the doors they were immediately bombarded with the thick stench of nicotine smoke and some other strange smells that were unpleasant. They walked on into the dimly entrance and found themselves standing on a balcony with two sets of staircases going down into the club itself; the kids watched in wide-eyed puzzlement as they stared at the scene down below. At one end of the dance floor was a set of four raised platforms with thick sliver poles in the centre that were attached to the ceiling high above, on each of the platforms were woman wearing only thongs and high heels but nothing else, twisting and curling their bodies around the poles in time to the music whilst a crowd of men were packed around the platforms cheering, hollering and wolf-whistling and raising an absolute ruckus over the loud music. Off the dance floor were even more (practically) naked women carrying trays of drinks to the various tables around the bar, all along the walls were doors with a number and the words 'play room' written across, every now and then one of the woman would lead one of the customers into the rooms and followed them in; the air was hazy with smokers smoke and lit up in a myriad of colours as the disco lights flashed around.

"Uh? Guys? Why are those ladies wearing no clothes?...and are all those men shoving money down their pants?" Shiro shouted over the music, unable to divert his gaze away in complete bemusement.

"What are they doing on those poles? That looks painful!" Ren asked as he gawked in confusion.

"I don't see any dolls around here" Mizuki said offhand

"...I don't like it in here, it's too loud and it smells bad, can we-" Ryo nearly jumped out of his skin as a big hand landed on his shoulder, looking over their shoulders behind them, the kids were confronted with four huge bouncers with stern looking faces.

"Ain't you a little young to be in here?" one of them asked in a gravelly voice, before they had a chance to reply each of the men grabbed one of them by the shoulders firmly and frog-marched them back out the door, shoving them out into the street, "Now scram! Kid's your age ain't supposed to be in this end of town anyway!" the bouncer gruffly said, the kids didn't stick around as they took off down the street, "I sure ain't hiding in this neighbourhood!" Annabelle huffed as she ran along, "Sure thing! I don't like this place anyway! Even if it is full of light!" Mizuki replied as she followed close behind as they ran across another road crossing and left the odd end of town behind.

After another 15 minutes of wandering around and finding another rest-stop on the side of a low- lying plinth with a statue of a monk standing on top, the kids had found another river to follow, only this one was wider and fed directly into the sea as part of the vast estuarine system that flowed out into New Port's main bay; the seafront was barely visible through the tall buildings from where they sat. By now everyone was starting to feel tired, but no-one complained as the memory of what happened earlier that night played back in their minds; right now it was the only thing still spurring them on and kept them from giving up, for a long while nobody spoke as they pondered on where they were going to go next, wondering, if at all, they would really succeed in they're mission. As they watched the crowds walk by Mizuki felt the camera tucked down her top and pulled it out, switching it on and pulling out the monitor she watched as the footage of the sinister strangers and that one terrifying robot played back, Annabelle couldn't help but watch the footage over her shoulder and past as deep sigh.

"I don't think my plan was a good plan, we haven't found any place to hide..." Annabelle whispered ruefully, not wishing anyone else but her best friend to hear her, Mizuki looked back at her and passed a sigh of her own.

"...It's okay, you don't know this place so it's okay to not know where you're going, but I know we can't quit, not after what we saw..." Mizuki replied as she watched the shaky footage, Annabelle was silent for a moment as she pondered on what to do, she watched as a van past by with a big red nine on the side. Then, an idea struck and she got up and stood in front of Mizuki with a serious look.

"Maybe we don't have to have to find a place to hide, maybe we need help from someone else as well?" said Annabelle

"But I thought you said the Autobots can help us?" Mizuki asked in confusion, "They can, but I know some people who can help us too..." Annabelle replied, as she looked back the boys she saw they weren't in the mood to be going anywhere yet and took Mizuki by the hand and got her to stand up, "Where are we going?" She asked as Annabelle led her several away from the statue, staying well within view of the boys.

"Just here so we can talk...now listen..." Annabelle said as she leaned in close next to Mizuki's ear. The boys watched as the honey blond blue eyed girl whispered into her best friend's ear, her face was obscured from sight by Mizuki's head so they could only guess what was being said as they watched Mizuki's expression change; first she seemed confused, then she suddenly had a look of shock in her eyes but Annabelle seemed to reassure her as she kept listening. For a long while Mizuki's face was impassive in such a way that seemed to suggest that she had just learned of something big and important, as if a great truth had been told and didn't seem to be so straight forward, finally Annabelle drew her head away and the two girls looked at one another without a word, the boys leaned closer in curiosity, what had just happened? What did Annabelle tell her? Then, Mizuki leaned over and whispered something in Annabelle's ear, then, she smiled and hugged her best friend, Mizuki hugged her and they walked back over to the statue with a look of hope in their eyes.

"What was that all about" Shiro asked

"It's a secret just between us... "Smirked Mizuki

"So where do we go now? We haven't found anywhere to hide, and I don't think we're gonna find anywhere" Taichi mumbled

"We think so too, so instead of hiding we're gonna keep going" Annabelle replied, the others looked up surprise, "Keep going? But we've walked so far already! I'm so tired" Ryo whined, "I know and I'm tired too, but we can't forget why we're doing this, we can't forget about this!" Mizuki sternly replied as she held up the camera monitor for all of them to see, Ryo hugged his brother's side as they watched the footage; they watched in fear as they were starkly reminded of the purpose of their mission. When the footage stopped and Mizuki put the camera away no-one spoke as they nodded in agreement and as they stood back up, they waited in readiness to follow the girls again.

"We know we can't quit this, but why are gonna keep going?" Ren asked

"Because I have a better idea, come on" Mizuki gestured as she started walking along the river back, the others followed close behind, brushing against each other's shoulders in an attempt to avoid getting lost in the crowds.

"Where are we going?" Shiro asked

"To find my daddy, he works at a place called section 9, they can help us!" Mizuki proudly replied, "Your dad works at section 9? I heard about that place, my mom said they're a bunch of big bad cyborg cops that do nasty things to you if you break the law!" Ren replied in worry

"Really? Wow! Then my daddy must be really cool to work with them!" Mizuki thought aloud.

"How do you know them?" Shiro asked

"Awhile back daddy came home one day and told mommy he wanted to speak to her about something important so he told me to go to my room, he ALWAYS tells me to go to my room when it's important; he didn't see me but I hid in the bathroom with the door half closed so could hear them. He told her he worked for section 9 and that he did all kinds of things; he said he went on missions, went undercover and did 'detecting' stuff, and he did something called 'sir-vay-lents'? I asked my day-care teacher what it means and she said it's when people watch other people without them knowing their being watched! It's pretty cool!" Mizuki replied.

"But where are they? Do you know the way?" Shiro asked

"Sometimes when daddy takes me and my little brother out on trips, he always stops by this one big place with big glass windows in the lobby and a lady in a red outfit at the front desk; there's no sign on the doors but if he works at section 9, then that place must be section 9, and that's where we have to go" Mizuki replied

"Okay, but which way do we go?" Ichiro asked, Mizuki stopped and looked at him in surprise, she had no idea where she was, nedalone what part of the city they were in, then, Taichi suddenly had a brainwave.

"Does the place your dad work at have anything that makes it different from the other buildings? 'Cause our house has a big weathervane in the shape of a lotus flower on our roof so we can see wherever it is in our neighbourhood, something like that?" he suggested

"I don't know? All these building are all so tall you can't see the tops! I don't think they'll have weathervanes either" Annabelle replied as she craned her head right back to look up the side of one skyscraper.

"Hmm...I know! I once saw a weird looking aeroplane land on the roof of the building! Daddy said it was called a tiltroater and he got to ride in it all the time!" Mikuzi exclaimed

"So all we do is look for a 'tiltroater'? What does it look like?" Shiro asked

"It looks-" Mizuki gasped as she noticed a large aircraft fly overhead near the tops of the buildings, as if on cue, it was a huge grey tiltroater aircraft, Annabelle too recognised the distinctive design and smiled in delight.

"That's it! That's the tiltroater! Come on!" Mizuki dashed down the street as she chased after the aircraft, "Wait Mizuki! Wait up!" Annabelle called after her as she and the others chased after her whilst looking up as she ran after the aircraft, being sure not to lose sight of it as the plane flew over a nearby building she cut down a side street and emerged out on the seafront; ignoring her exhaustion she kept on running as she tried to keep the sounds of the twin roaters within her hearing range. But she had to stop as she ran to the end of a long walkway that ended in a wide balcony, as the others caught up to her she watched in disappointment as it flew off. But as Mizuki strained her eyes to focus over the vast distance, she saw it turn around in a big circle; then noticed its wings had flipped upwards allowing it to hover. "Look!" she pointed as the plane slowed down to a stop in midair and began to hover over the top of a particular building.

"That's it! That must be where section 9 is!" Mizuki beamed in excitement.

"But it's so far away! It's on the other side of the water!" Ryo said offhand as he looked out over the vast stretch of estuarine water that formed part of the docks. "Its okay, look there's a bridge over there!" Kenji pointed over to a large suspension bridge that spanned the width of the bay.

"But how do you know for sure it's the place?" Ren asked

"Easy! If the lobby's the same as the one my daddy stops at, then we know it's the place! Now come on we have to get there! Mizuki said as she boldly lead the way towards the suspension bridge, the others all filed in close behind, some held hands to avoid falling behind again as they made their way through the crowd.

As they walked along with city on one side and wide open sea on the other, the kids weren't so distracted by their surroundings this time. Every now and then Mizuki would feel the camera under her top just to be sure it was still there while Annabelle watched a large passenger cruiser slowly glided through the water as it pulled into the bay.

"Hey Annabelle? Why don't you press that little button on your medal again? You said it would tell the Autobot's where we are maybe they could give us a lift to where my daddy works?" Mizuki asked, Annabelle popped the back of her medal open, the tiny monitor inside read: recharged at 95%:, "It's still recharging" Annabelle replied, "You know it's weird...When I saw that robot come for us and he was chasing after us, I wasn't as scared as I thought I'd be" Mizuki pondered aloud, "...Yeah...I don't know why, but when I'm scared, I feel like I'm someone else, weird huh?" Annabelle smirked, "Really weird if you think you're a different person...my daddy once said people can do all kinds of crazy things when they're really scared, maybe it's something normal for things like that?" Mizuki smiled, "When I'm scared I like to hide under my bed" Ryo peeped in.

About 45 minutes of walking later they soon approached the towering suspension bridge, Mizuki stopped as she looked all around the bridge and surrounding buildings; "what is it?" Shiro asked, "I know this bridge! We cross it every time we go to the building! Daddy always has to stop at the toll over there!" Mizuki pointed to the long row of toll booths that lined the highway, the traffic was queued back for well over 350 yards as each driver waited their turn to move forward and pay the toll, even the walkway going across the bridge had a toll booth.

"Aw no! We don't have any money! How do we get across?" Shiro asked in a slight panic, Annabelle scanned the long lines of vehicles and noticed the line of trucks waiting to go across, in particular she noticed the metal frame structure between each of the sets of wheels and noticed the spear tires attached to the trailer base, just behind the large fuel tanks under the trailer just behind the cabs.

"We can ride on one of those" She pointed out to one of the more larger trucks

"We're gonna ask one of the drivers for a ride?" Taichi asked

"No, remember, we have to stay hidden, we're gonna ride the truck underneath, by sitting on one of the tires under there" Annabelle replied

"What!"

"Come on!" Annabelle beckoned as she ran along the path and leaped behind some bushes with everyone on her heels, "We have to be fast, the lines always moving so we only got one chance to get on! Follow me!" Annabelle said as she pushed through the bushes and out onto the roadside, from where they were part of the line of trucks curved slightly as they came up the rump onto the bridge, this crated a large blind spot between the trucks and first toll booth which was wide enough for the kids to run through unnoticed and the truck cabs were up high enough that none of the drivers saw them, ducking under the chosen truck Annabelle inspected the metal frame work carefully; having been around Mikaela whilst being babysitted, the little honey blond had gotten to know the basic layout of a vehicle's underside, and after playing peep-a-boo with Optimus many times she particularly knew what the layout of the underside of a truck was like. Spotting the gas tank and the trucks spare tires in their holding casings, Annabelle noticed the wide gap between the tires and the trailer above, it looked big enough for them to get on alright, "We can ride up there!" she said.

"How do we get up?" Mizuki asked

"Easy! We climb up the-OF!" Annabelle lost her grip on the support beams and fell on her behind as the truck nudged forward slowly, the kids ducked down quickly to avoid being hit by any of the metal structure; looking out towards the front of the line Shiro saw they were two trucks away from the booth.

"We're nearly at the front!" he panicked, frowning with determination Annabelle got back up, grabbed one of the metal bars on the fuel tank and climbed up towards the tire, "Come guys! Let's go!" she grunted as she pulled herself up and climbed onto the tire, without arguing everyone scrambled up the truck's metal frame work. As the truck nudged forward again they paused in fright as the sudden jolt made them tighten their grip. "Come on guys come on!" Mizuki beckoned up and soon they were all seated on the tire whilst holding part of the frame to stop falling off. The truck then rolled up to the booth, the kids heard the driver exchanging his money and then the engine fired up as he hit the gas and sped off along the bridge; everyone watched the road whizz by at an alarming speed only a few metres below the open road, they tightened their grip on the frame and not dare to let go.

"This is crazy!" Ren called out over the loud engine

"Yeah, but we didn't have to pay!" Mizuki shouted back.

"It's really windy!" Ryo grinned as the wind whipped up his dark hair. The kids all watched around as the traffic overtook the truck, Mizuki watched as several cars came up from the back, one car in particular caught her attention, "Annabelle, look..." She gestured towards it and Annabelle and the others turned around to see what she was looking at; it was black and silver and looked very similar to the sports car that turned into that robot, as it drove up alongside the truck the kids gasped in shock, it was the same car.

"IT'S THE ROBOT!" Ryo cried out in a panic

"He's still here? I thought I killed him in the tunnel!" Annabelle gasped in alarm.

"How did he follow us?" said Shiro as he watched the black and silver vehicle fall back into the traffic several cars back, Annabelle tried to lean over the side of the tire to try spot it but it was no use, as the kids started to panic she got out her medal and flipped it open, this time the monitor read :Recharge complete:.

"Can't you call the Autobots now?" Mizuki pleaded, Annabelle clicked the blue button and the insignia started to flash and bleep, "Okay, they'll find us now, but we have to stay under here! He can't-" Annabelle's words were cut short as a succession of several loud explosions blasted across the bridge over 70 yards behind the truck, the kids held on with both hands and watched in terror as the black and silver robot charged up the highway on the tires of his feet, blasting and swatting away every car he overtook as he made his way towards the truck; Annabelle noticed part of his face was missing as sparks flew out from the damaged circuitry in his helm and she suddenly realised it was from her earlier attempt to stop him. Another truck veered sharply into his path, causing it to jack-knife and knock into him, blocking his path. The robot only blasted through the trailer and hurried on as the jack-knifed truck had only put about 400 yard between him and the kids.

Frowning in anger, Annabelle held up her medal and aimed through the gaps in the trailers frame-work, clicking the red button she fired the red beam and the kids flinched their heads away as part of the beam blasted the truck's rear bumper off and hit part of the robot's arm, making him topple over and roll violently across the tarmac with sparks flying off his armour.

"Did you get him?" Shiro asked nervously, Annabelle didn't see any sign of him and thought that was it, but no sooner had she sighed in relief, another series of explosions and a loud feral roar signalled the giant was storming back up the highway. He blasted through three cars as he stormed towards the truck, Annabelle fired again but a bump in the road threw her aim off and the beam blasted part of the back end of the trailer away; the kids screamed as the metal debris flew off overhead and the truck swerved in the lane before straightening up and screeching to a halt. Cautiously peering up and around, the kids jumped off the wreckage and looked back down the road but there wasn't any sign of their pursuer.

All around the bridge was now in anarchy; cars were overturned, some were on fire, some had been blasted in half and further back the sounds of more cars screeching and crashing into one another could be heard over the screams and panicked cried of those drivers who had been lucky enough to escape their vehicles. As she looked around for any sign of the robot, Mizuki noticed one gray bulky looking truck trying to correct itself and get back in the lane, the back doors on the rear of its trailer had been knocked open and part of the loading ramp was hanging out the back. "Come on!" she shouted, wasting no time everyone dashed for the truck and scrambled up the ramp just as the truck sped off at breakneck speed; the kids held on for dear life as they struggled to get to the back of the trailer, climbing over a whole stack of large crates labelled :danger high explosives:.

Seeing this, and understanding the lable, Mizuki got an idea.

"Everyone! Help me push this to the doors!" she called over to the front of the trailer, acting on instinct everyone ran back and started pushing the heavy create towards the back of the trailer, "What are you gonna do?" Annabelle grunted as she strained to move the box, "When he come again, we're gonna drop it into the highway and your gonna blow him up!" she replied, "Will it work?" Ren asked, "It will! Now push!" Mizuki ordered, as the create neared the doors Annabelle rushed to the other side of the trailer, climbed up onto one of the crates and held her medal up ready, "Is he there?" Kenji called over, looking back over the bridge Annabelle saw nothing, but then, more cars went flying off the highway in the distance behind the truck.

"I think so!" she replied, overhead two huge grey helicopters swooped down and came in to hover over the highway, on their sides below the cockpits two sets of guns let out several rounds of rapid gunfire that tore up the tarmac and abandoned cars in a hail of bright golden fire flashes, but as one helicopter swooped down lower, the robot suddenly jumped up from behind an overturned truck and grabbed the chopper's tail, with one huge swing he knocked it right into the path of the other and together both choppers crashed onto the highway, exploding in a huge fireball which the robot swiftly missed as he served around the wreakage. Sure enough he spotted the truck with the kids in and raced over bridge faster than before, letting out a string of angry cybertronian curses as he caught up.

"NOW! DROP IT NOW!" Annabelle screamed, and with one almighty push with everything they had the kids pushed the huge create out. It bounced back along the highway for a good hundred yards and as the robot was about to swat it out of his way Annabelle fired the medal a split second before his hand touched it.

The robot was engulfed in flames as the fireball consumed the entire highway and part of the bridge, the explosion was defining and the heat was intense as the blast front knocked the kids clean off their feet back to the front of the trailer, the truck veered dangerously from side to side as the explosion knocked it and the other vehicles on the road into a series of tailspins, some cars slammed into one another, others flipped and rolled along the road while all around the lucky drivers who managed to regain control sped off without looking back.

Everyone in the trailer slowly picked themselves up and looked around in a daze, Mizuki gasped as she felt her chest and breathed in relief as she felt the camera was still around her neck. Annabelle was the first to get up and watched as the fire engulfed the highway, lighting up that whole section of the bridge in a bright golden glow, everyone else got up and watched the fire, completely oblivious to their injuries; Ryo had a cut across his forehead with a little blood slowly oozing out, Kenji had grazes across his left forearm, Mizuzi had two cuts to her face, one above her right eye with another larger one running right over her left eye with the eye itself remaining intact and untouched, Annabelle had a rip in her black pants that ran halfway down her thigh, a little blood oozed out as she had sustained a cut to her leg, Shiro had a long cut running down over his left eye too while everyone else was more or less intact, save for several other cuts and nasty bruises. As the truck drove away, Shiro blinked in surprise.

"...Guy's...we just blew up a giant evil robot..." he said in a dazed stupor, everyone looked at one another a moment, before they broke out into cheers and squeals of delight, they jumped about one another and danced around the trailer as the truck left the bridge and entered the city.

Finally the truck stopped at an intersection in the downtown area; all the while it had been driving along sirens from every direction had been heard screaming back towards the bridge, helicopters could be heard circling overhead and people everywhere had rushed to the bridge to see what had happened; amid the chaos and confusion it had been rather easy for the kids to climb out the back of the truck without being spotted. They ran up to the kerb and took cover behind some bushes as another pair of police cruisers sped by with their sirens on full blast.

"Wow, there's a lot of police out here huh?" Ryo said offhand as he wiped the drying blood away with the back of his hand.

"Aren't you freaked out your bleeding?" Taichi asked as he rubbed the still forming bruise on his shoulder.

"Mmm, not really I think?...it kinda tastes like metal," Ryo replied innocently as he stared at the dark fluid in morbid curiosity, licking a bit off his arm and spitting it out.

"So how far do we have to go now?" Ren asked as he wiped his brother's forehead with his hoodie sleeve. Mizuki looked around and up at the buildings for anything she recognised, walking along the sidewalk she tried to spot the lobby she described as she tried to remember what the rest of the building looked like. As they followed her to the corner of another intersection, the sound of twin roater engines made their heads snap up; sure enough, they saw a huge tiltroater aircraft take off from the roof of a building, following the lines of the building down to the ground, they gasped in joy as they saw it was just down the street.

"We made it guys! We made it!"Annabelle cheered "YEEEAAAAY!" everyone yelled as they all made a bee line for their destination; they ran faster than they had before as the site of the glass walled lobby appeared up ahead. Mizuki, Shiro and Ren were the first to burst in through the glass doors and run up to the front desk; the red suited AI sitting behind the desk was taken aback at the sight of eight dirty looking children clambering around and shouting to see someone right now.

Suddenly the elevator went ding and the doors opened to reveal two men stepping out, one was tall with brown hair and had a moustache and bread, and was wearing glasses whilst dressed in a brownish red suit; the other was shorter and much older with white hair and a more withered face, he wore a light grey suit and black trench coat. The two men stopped as they noticed the kids, the older one looked quite surprised when he seemed to recognize Mizuki; Mizuki however tilted her head in curiosity, maybe one of these men knew where her father was?

"Excuse me? Is this section 9? I'm looking for my daddy, we really need to find him" she asked innocently.

* * *

Phew! I'm so glad to finally get that chapter out my system! ^^' I've been kinda fixed on it the last few days and it's been bugging me to no end! Hope you enjoyed, cause the plot thickens from here! BWAA HAHAHAHA! R&R please!


	43. Chapter 42: Hard Truth, Hard Choice

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 42: HARD TRUTH, HARD CHOICE

Everyone sat in silent disbelief, the chief leaned back in his chair and passed a sigh as he contemplated everything he just heard; Kubota sat in silence as the weight of the situation bared down on his now tired shoulders whilst the whole section 9 team and the 'rookies' all sat in a mix of confusion, anger, astonishment and sheer disbelief.

The night had been fast, intense and nerve-raking to say the least.

At around quarter to ten section 9 received word from the military intelligence department that an unidentified Autobot had been spotted on the outskirts of the city near the coast, but with all the Autobots accounted for Aramaki smelt a rat; within minutes both the section and the Autobot's had mobilized and were on route to the area where the unidentified bot had been sighted, when Deathshot suddenly picked up the SOS signal from Annabelle's medal; he was about to go and investigate when the tiltroater had been fired at from the ground, sure enough down below in an abandoned area of the port was the mysterious transformer, before the tiltroater could land and the Autobots transform, he had taken off.

From there on it had been one huge game of hide and seek around the city, just as the tiltroater and two airborne Autobot's flew over one district of the city, the unidentified transformer had gone and several minutes later his signal popped up again in another place. The team was on the verge of reconsidering their orders when they suddenly they picked up Annabelle's SOS signal on the Niihama-Wan suspension bridge. They rushed to the bridge post haste but upon arriving were greeted with a scene fresh out of a war zone; half the bridge was in flames and in part of the highway was a crater about 15 meters wide, hundreds of people were stranded, many injured and the latest report at that moment confirmed over 55 dead, and the death toll was rising with every body that was discovered in the wreckage. All the while the emergency services were struggling with the scale of the disaster so the prime minister had ordered the GSDF in to help give additional manpower and resources. An unconfirmed report had stated that a giant black and silver robot had been sighted on the bridge and had been responsible for the devastation before being blown up in an explosion of unknown origin. The Autobot gang were beside themselves with anger, panic and grief for their youngest member; having scanned the whole bridge they found no trace of her, not even a bio-signal of any sort, alive or dead; which offered a level of hope that she somehow escaped the devastation beforehand.

And the situation just went from bad to worse.

It was too late to put a press black out in place as the various news channels helicopters had beaten the police choppers to the bridge, so by eleven o clock the news bulletins were filled with footage of the chard and burnt remains of the unknown robot being hosed down and hoisted onto the back of a 30 foot long GSDF flatbed truck whilst being flanked by armed guards and armoured vehicles. Within minutes of the footage being broadcasted the cabinet and military forces weren't just poked bee hives, they were hornet's nest's that had been kicked clean off the tree and into the pond; everyone was demanding answers and sending out orders in a whirlwind of agitated activity.

But apparently Aramaki hadn't been the only one smelt a rat in all the chaos; Kubota had managed to slip away to see the old ape to plead with him to contact the Autobots and find out just what the hell happened, after discussing several items of importance over the incident on the bridge Kubota had given his word to investigate on his end just what had happened here tonight, he was on his way out of the building when he and Aramaki were confronted with the sight of eight children at the front desk, two of which Aramaki recognized as Togusa's daughter, and Annabelle.

That was over an hour ago, and needless to say there had been quite a bit of explaining to do; when asked as to why they were here, Mizuki presented the camera she had been carrying to Aramaki and told him "We got something you need to see...". After the children had been taken up to the medical facility for treatment to their injuries, the Major and her team returned to HQ, Togusa was so desperate to see his daughter he nearly broke his neck after jumping out the tiltroater when it came in to land. The Autobot gang returned with haste and in the privacy of the medical facility the older kids were relieved to find Annabelle was alive and well. After running a few checks the chief had contacted the children's parents including Mizuki's mother, informed them of their kids whereabouts and had been requested them to come to the section 9 HQ building immediately.

As soon as the children had been tended to, the chief had the 'rookies' bring them to the debriefing room to interview them and tell everyone firsthand just what had happened. Intrigued by the children's claim to seeing the 'scary men' and blowing up 'the giant evil robot' on the bridge Kubota had asked Aramaki if he could stick around, to which Aramki didn't argue and allowed the intelligence officer to sit in on the interview; meanwhile Ishikawa, Boma and the agent Tachikoma's had gotten to work on analysing the footage on the camera and pulling up all the IR security camera footage from across the city to verify the children's story by using facial recognition software to pinpoint where they had been.

For nearly three quarters of an hour the children told them everything; the boys first described how they had begun noticing the 'scary men' long before tonight's events and how it was the reason they hid under the power station in the first place. After speaking with Shiro at Chiyo's birthday party, Mizuki and Annabelle described their journey to Shiro's hiding place with the help of the therm-optic camo suit (which certainly got Kubota's attention; 'what were they doing with a set of therm-optrics in the first place?' he thought), they all described the incident at the power station, the ride on the fallen tree down the tunnel into the city, their wandering around the city in search for a hiding place and the change of plans to head to section 9. They got everyone's attention when they described what happened on the bridge; how the robot came after them and how they managed to blow him up; poor Togusa thought he was going to have a heart-attack (not least when Mizuki described how they had wandered into a 'doll-house' in the red light district, Pazu on the other hand had to stifle a chuckle). Finally they relayed how they abandoned their ride and soon found section 9's HQ with the help of the tiltroater flying overhead.

Soon after the children were excused and taken back to the medical facility to get some sleep, Ishikawa, Boma and the agent Tachikoma's had completed their analysis in record time and had presented the findings to the group. For over an hour everybody watched both the footage from Mizuki's camera and the IR footage with confirmed sightings of the children as they travelled across the city (much to Togusa's astonishment as he realized just how determined and courageous his daughter had been), the Tachikoma's even displayed the IR footage of the incident on the bridge, particularly the moment when the kids were seen pushing a large crate of explosives out of the back of a speeding truck and Annabelle blowing it up with the help of her Autobot medal. But more alarmingly the Tachikoma's had pointed out a particular pattern to the unidentified bot's movements; at every location the kids had been to, the unidentified bot had shown up merely several minutes after they had moved on.

Which was what had led everyone up to now.

"...He wasn't leading us around; he was looking for them this whole time, he only attacked the traffic on the bridge because he finally caught up to them!" Batou growled venomously as his scowl deepened.

"It would seem so Mr Batou, we figured he must not have known where they were earlier or otherwise he would have attacked sooner!" the agent Tachikoma replied sullenly.

"We also ran a check on the guy in the grey suit, and we managed to identify him..." Ishikawa said as he brought up a blown up partially pixilated image onto the debriefing room's main monitor; it was the face of the stranger in the grey suit along with a Military Intelligence department profile window that came up next to it. Kubota stared at the screen as his face dropped in shock. The Major too recognized who it was, and was equally as shocked who it was.

"Saski?" he breathed, leaned back in his chair and held his head in his hand as if in shame, Aramaki couldn't help but sigh and gestured to Ishikawa to continue.

"He's Colonel Gouru Saski, formerly of the GSDA and currently with the military intelligence department's administrations liaison's commission; he's a die-hard old school intelligence operative that worked mostly behind the scenes during the final stages of the war, over the last 50 years he's gained quite a reputation, not least for his efficiency and tenacious ferocity and has been attributed to several major strategic military operations, including the intel gathering that enabled the Nemuro landing op to go ahead. A brief glance at his records shows he still has strong links with GSDA, CIS and even the Umibozu; he's also involved closely with the Megatec Body Corporation's development section. For a number of years he worked with them to help develop more efficient data processing neural interface systems for intelligence operatives and special forces personnel" Said Ishikawa

"I've heard of him, even when I was rookie in the GSDA this guy was a legend...how the hell could he of all people be involved in this?" the Major said offhand in disbelief

"We don't know, but the facial and vocal recognition data we ran on the video confirms that it's him, but whether it's really Gouro Saski or someone posing as him in a prosthetic body can only be determined if we were to dive his cyberbrain" Ishikawa replied as he looked back up at the monitor

"I'll request my superiors to have him relieved of his duties and brought in for an unofficial interrogation, I'll need a copy of this as evidence if it's no trouble?" Kubota asked

"Of course, in the wake of this I believe we'll be seeing a lot more of one another" said the chief with his trademark hard-nosed frown

"I believe your right..." Kubota replied

"Chief? Mrs Nobuyoshi has just arrived in the lobby" one of the AI operators announced on the monitor, as both Kubota and Aramaki got up and walked to the door the chief nodded discreetly to the Major, signalling that the meeting was dismissed, the Major gestured to Togusa to go ahead and meet his wife, without a word the detective slipped away and hurried along to the elevators.

"Understandably I'm going to have my work cut for me when I get back to the office, like I said I'll request to have Saski brought in, and at the same time file a protection order for the children and their family's with the military's administration's department; as of now those children are key witnesses and are the only ones who are aware of Saski's involvement with that robot, and the kidnapped children. I'll do what I can to ensure their safety, but Aramaki you have got to contact the Autobots and tell them to come back here! We need to know what happened here tonight and if at all their involved somehow. With the Lennox child in your custody I know they can't be far behind; if or when they do come back, let us know; despite what's happened tonight we're still willing to discuss a peaceful resolution with them, albeit with a few questions on the side...I'm afraid we can't afford to keep the minor details to ourselves anymore, not when the public's safety is at stake...I'm sorry..."Kubota sighed as he walked down the corridor and got into the elevator.

"Well what the hell do we do now?" Batou said offhand

"We've got work to do; we've got to find out where that Autobot came-"

"AUTOBOT? Dude, where the hell's yer head at? That wasn't an Autobot! That was a Decepticon! No Autobot would ever attack innocent people like that!" Miles angrily blurted out

"Decepticon?" the Major echoed

"It had to be, what or who else could it have been?" Said Sam

"You guys said that the Decepticon's were your guardian's enemies', how bad a situation are we talking about if their involved?" Batou asked, wondering with doubt where this was going; the kids turned off their holo-forms and looked at one another with grave and solemn looks in the eyes.

"It's bad...and the fact it's not straight forward in this case makes it even worse" Darren said

"But we might have a chance to resolve this with the right strategy, if we move swiftly enough we can prevent this from turning into the worst case scenario-"

"No Aramaki you don't understand, if that was a Decepticon then it already IS the worst case scenario! If it was just that one then fair enough, we got off lucky; but what if's he has back-up? I'd say judging from the fact he drove out of that truck and was talking to a known high ranking intelligence operative he's already got some friends and not friendly ones at that! And there's the even bigger question of where the hell did he come from? Did he come through the rift before or after us? And if so where the hell was he hiding this whole time? And are there more Con's here in this universe?...Don't you guys remember what Optimus said on the message beacon? Someone in this universe deliberately activated the DRD and opened the rift on purpose, I know it's hard to believe human technology can manipulate something as vast and complex as the space-time continuum on that kind of inter-universal level, but what if it was possible because the Decepticon's intervened somehow and introduced Cybertronian tech to someone in this world?" Danny blurted out in one go, everyone stood in silence as they tried to process in their minds everything the teenage hacker just said, and realise the weight of the situation with a sharp sense of foreboding.

"...He's right, it's the only thing that could explain how the Decepticon's are here in the first place, but how would have they arrive in this universe in the first place?" Becca asked

"I don't know, but the only one plausible explanation I can think of at this point is: that somewhere, at whatever point in time during the course of the Allspark wars in our universe, someone learnt of the DRD and what it could do, they somehow either got a hold of the blueprints or a vital part of the machine and duplicated it somehow, then they activated it and got themselves blasted into this universe and they ended up hiding somewhere at the ends of this earth. They then either got discovered or went looking for help and somehow managed to trick some poor human scientist into thinking they were some poor traveller or travellers from beyond the stars looking to go home and they got them to fix the DRD duplicate, the machine works, the scientist get's killed and the con's are now doing whatever...I don't know, that's the only explanation I can think of to explain why a Decepticon could be here; I don't know my head's still spinning from earlier..." Darren replied listlessly as he rubbed his tired eyes, Hailey placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, which helped him ease up a little.

"_If there really are Decepticons hiding somewhere in this world then it won't be just a case of going in all guns blazing, if I know anything about how a con thinks, and I do, it's that they always have a strategy in whatever they do, whether its covert and well thought out or simply trying to kill as many organics as possible just to score point with one another; either way, it's like that old saying you human's have; 'there's method in the madness'?"_ Ravage said as he appeared from around the corner of the corridor with Frenzy sitting on his back.

"Well you used to be one of them, what do think their doing here?" Mikaela asked

"_For all it's worth I really wish I knew, I've never seen that particular con before, nedalone what kind of format design that was" _The panther said as he bowed his head in thought.

"What do you mean?" Aramaki said

"_While you were all busy with your debriefing Frenzy and I looked over all the IR footage and the footage of the bridge; there was something about the way that con moved that seemed very off, it might have been a malfunction or a design flaw he had but overall there were no external physical 'symptoms' to suggest his software was dysfunctional; but the fact that didn't catch up to the younglings sooner was very strange, even a rookie con can catch a bunch of human sparklings in one move, but he failed to notice them at every turn. Either he was bluffing and knew you were chasing him from the air, in that case the children were only a bluff somehow, or, something was seriously up with his CPU" _Ravage replied in an uncertain tone.

"Well whatever the reason for his actions it doesn't excuse that fact that all those people died and that half the city's now beginning to panic thanks to that news bulletin" Tom frowned

"So if that 'con' was just one of a group or more, what do we do?" the Major frowned. The kids looked at one another for an answer, any answer, unable to think of anything they dropped their heads in a mix of defeat and shame.

"_There's only one thing we can do..."_ Jazz said over the comms, everyone looked up in surprise _"Well have to go to the prime minister and tell her the truth..."_ Jazz continued, but before anyone had a chance to really protest the first lieutenant spoke again with a stern authoritative tone.

"_Listen! If this is the worst case scenario then it's far too big for us to handle by ourselves! The prime minister has a right to be aware of the Decepticon threat and to adequately prepare the city for a state of emergency, but at the same time we have to come clean about what we've been doing with section 9; because if anything happens and the situation escalates, and our alliance get's found out by accident then section 9 could be condemned for hiding truth out of ulterior motives or worse. At least if we, for our part, come forward with the truth on our own then for all the scepticism and suspicion it would arouse it would still be the truth being told for all the right reasons...Chief, Major, we trusted you guys to keep us safe in this world and you kept your word and more, you earned our trust and we wanna do this because at the very least section 9 will be left intact, we'll take the heat for whatever complications this brings up and we'll say that it was our plan and strategy and you guys simply went along with it. Either way, if there are more con's out there then we're gonna need a lot more flexibility to hunt then down and the prime minister's revised protection order for us might be the thing we need to do this right"_

"_...Jazz, do you realise what you're proposing? If you go through with that plan not only will we all be in hot water but we won't have a say in the matter anymore! Plus, there's a chance the prime minister will have the protection order amended in some way, one that may not be so lenient towards you and your team! What good would telling the truth about our alliance do? Even if it is for the right reasons"_ the Major pleaded, for once a tiny ounce of desperation could be heard in her voice.

"_For two reasons; one, you guys have done nothing wrong, like you said Major you did it for the right reasons; the prime minister and the cabinet can debate and scrutinize section 9 for this all they want but in the end it won't matter what they do because you know what we both did was for the sake of protecting the innocent people of this city, at least you guys can walk away with your heads held high in the knowledge that you didn't sink to the level of those who would have simply wanted to 'sweep it under the rug', as you humans would say...Optimus Prime once said that an evil deed can never be seen to go unpunished, but a good deed cannot be seen to go without some form of reward either, and good people should not be punished for doing the right thing, even if it does go against your superiors orders. Whatever the prime minister has in store for you guys we'll argue otherwise, and she won't do a thing because she'll know she won't have any other choice, this situation has just been pushed to a whole new level and no-one is certain of what will happen anymore, not even us...we have to level the odds with everyone if we're to stand a chance against the con's, and to do that we must have everyone look optic to optic with each other, no suspicion, no speculation and no doubt..."_Jazz replied boldly, everyone looked at one another in confusion and doubt as they considered and contemplated the first lieutenant's words. Aramaki and his team didn't know what to think, no-one had ever willingly proposed to throw themselves to the wolves on their behalf simply for keeping up their end of a deal; they didn't know whether to feel flattered or be worried that their friends were being far too hasty.

"_...As much as Optimus would be proud of that stirring little speech, and I agree telling the truth would eliminate the speculation of hiding this alliance out of ulterior motives; what's your second reason for such a bold if not suicidal move?"_ Ravage asked in a deadpan tone, Frenzy nodded in agreement.

"_...Secondly, I think Kubota's plan using us as bait to nab our perps responsible for corrupting the military network might actually work, and in one quick move too...I looked over the report he gave Aramaki the other day and there are a couple of things that suggest our would-be captors are not as 'super class A' as they like to think, not if we come into the picture and lay down a trap of our own; given what Mizuki captured on her camera I think we can all safely assume just who might, or in part, be responsible for corrupting the military network, and for what reasons..." _Jazz said with a sly smirk in his voice, everyone's attention was perked and both Aramaki and the Major frowned as they realised what the first lieutenant was implying.

"_You seriously think he'll fall for a trap? Saski is one of the most formidable intelligence operatives alive, he'll know something's up if we try anything"_ the chief replied

"_For sure, if you try anything by regular human standards, but you got the Autobots on your side, and we ALWAY'S do things a little differently...come on down to parking lot and I'll explain a bit more in detail..."_ Jazz replied, everyone promptly entered the elevators and pressed the buttons for the parking lot levels, Ravage squeezed into one elevator with Batou and Ashley alongside, the two humans tried to give his mace tail a wide berth by squeezing up alongside his tooth filled jaws 'thank god the elevators have heavy-load weight baring cables!' Batou thought as the panther gave him a sly toothy grin, which didn't do anything in terms of relaxing the ex-ranger's nerves.

5:23am the following morning; time had passed and the night had turned to the following day, the tense atmosphere from the night before had mellowed down to a stable sense of ease, as the sun's first ray's shone through the glass walls of the medical facility Mizuki turned over on her side and tried to snuggle back under the blankets. Then, she suddenly felt an ever-so-gentle breath of warm air on her cheek, creaking her tired eyes open (or her right eye at least, for the dressing over her left eye prevented her from opening it properly) she saw her father slumped against the bed with his head on one side of the pillow, sitting on the couch behind him she saw her mother with her baby brother fast asleep in her arms; across the large room she saw the other kids all fast asleep with their sleeping parents at their sides, all slumped to one side on the chairs and couches provided.

Turning over to face the glass wall and propping herself on her elbow, Mizuki watched as a grey military helicopter flew by the building, it's loud roaters made the glass vibrate slightly as it passed by; she noticed how everything seemed to be tinted in the same golden hue as the low-lying sun peeked through the various skyscrapers with the sky a mix of peach, lavender and blue, it was strange, she'd never been up this early before so it was both odd and nice to see the sun like this; after everything that happened last night her concept of time had been thrown for a loop, being up and about well after her bedtime had been an experience and not least because of action she and others went through. As she glanced at Annabelle asleep in the bed next to hers she wondered what would happen now, would her daddy's friend hunt down the scary men and stop them? Or what? As her young mind tried to think straight a light rustling sound drew her attention to her father as he stirred from his sleep, turning back over to face him she gently placed a small kiss on his forehead.

"Morning daddy" she whispered

"Mmm, morning sweetheart...d'you sleep well?" he mumbled as he rubbed his tired eyes.

"Yeah, but you don't look so good" she replied softly

"That's because you worried me so much last night, when I heard you just showed up out of the blue I didn't know what to think..." Togusa replied as he met her chocolate brown eyes; or right eye rather, on account of the long dressing that covered the long cut over her left eye.

"I'm sorry...but we promised Shiro that we'd help him, and you said that when you make a promise you can't back out of it" Mizuki replied, Togusa frowned in confusion, then sighed in annoyance as he remembered that particular talk he had with her about the importance of keeping promises, running his hand through his hair he propped his head on his elbow and sighed again.

"Yes that's true, you don't back out of a promise...but why didn't you tell mommy? Or me first?" Togusa asked, Mizuki hesitated before pulling the blanket over her shoulder and shying away, dropping her gaze with a sorrowful look in her eyes.

"Would you've believed me?..." she asked nervously, Togusa hesitated for a brief second but as he considered the company he'd been keeping with the Autobots over the last three or so week, he realized there wasn't that much that sounded weird or unusual anymore.

"Of course I would believe you, you can tell me anything; we're always here to listen to you" he smiled as he stroked her soft rosy cheek, coming out from under the blankets she sighed as she rested her head back on the pillow.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously, and don't think that I was totally upset last night; because more than anything, I'm so insanely proud of you" he softly spoke, with big puppy-dog eyes Mizuki sat up and wrapped her arms around her father's neck, for a while they sat there in each other's sweet embrace before the sound of another helicopter drew their attention to the window, Togusa recognized it as a Military helicopter.

"That helicopper flew the window before" Mizuki said offhand

"I know, he's just keeping an eye on the place to make sure the scary men don't come back" Togusa replied

"Are you gonna catch them?"

"Definitely...listen honey, there's-" Togusa didn't get to finish his sentence as he noticed Batou standing on the other side of the entrance of the medical facility, gesturing for him to join him outside. "Uh? Hang on a minute; I'll be back soon okay?" Togusa said as he got up and stretched, "okay, can we have breakfast when you come back?" she asked as she scratched the side of the dressing over her eye, "Of course honey, and don't scratch your eye or you'll make it bleed again!" he smiled as he quietly paced across the room and slipped out the door.

"Hey, how she doing?" Batou asked

"The doctor said her eye's okay and the stitches should fall out in a few days time, other than the other cuts and bruises she'll be fine" he said before passing a yawn, the big cyborg sighed as he watched Mizuki through the circular windows of the double doors as she sat up in her bed watching the city through the glass wall.

"...I still can't believe they survived what happened last night; I don't think even a rookie would have known what to do in that situation, nedalone keep it together like they did" he said offhand.

"Well, one of the first things I was told when I first became a father was that kids can be either very sensitive or very resilient, it all depended on whether you let them discover their own strengths and weaknesses for themselves...I've always tried to keep that in mind but I had no idea kids can be so tough at that young age...it was a real shock" Togusa sighed

"Do the other kid's folks know what happened yet?"

"Not really, one of the last things the chief told me last night before I passed out was that they'd be brought up to speed on what happened sometime today"

"Yeah about that, the meeting's not until later this morning but the chief felt you should be the first to know..." Batou said as he handed the detective a brown envelope with a red 'classified' label on the front, opening it and pulling out the documents within, Togusa was surprised as he read over the first paragraph.

"Witness protection order by request of the Military Intelligence Department's investigative unit?" Togusa read aloud

"Yeah, the chief cleared the paperwork only a half hour ago, your wife and kids as well as the other kids and their families are to be placed in military custody for witness protection; If Saski really is dirty, and he was responsible for what happed last night, then he could easily arrange for the families 'disappear' so the kids can't testify to what they saw" Batou explained

"But what if Saski's already caught wind of the kids? If he's as infamous as his profile say's then he might be already making his move to try and get to them!" Togusa said in alarm.

"We know, we just got word back from the intelligence department an hour ago that they put out an order out to have Saski arrested, they've been looking for him all night but he's gone and disappeared. So to make sure there's no room for liability for Saski or anyone else to try anything the Chief convinced the intelligence department's investigative unit to let the families stay here so we can keep an eye on them, Kobuta's sending some of his guys to help with the guard duty; after seeing that copy of the video feed his superiors didn't argue, but then, they've got a whole heap of problems on their plate today" Batou sighed

"I know what you mean, after discovering their top dog was rouge this whole time I should guess their buzzing like a poked beehive" Togusa replied as he put the documents back in the envelope and handed it back to Batou.

"That's putting it lightly-" Batou replied, he was about to say something else when the door next to him opened slightly but no-body walked through, looking down he was surprised to see Togusa's baby son looking up at him, the baby tilted his head to the side as he looked up the towering ex-ranger, Togusa was quick to pick him up and rest him against the side of his hip.

"Hey there little guy, are you trying to get away?" Togusa teased as he landed a kiss on the baby's cheek, but Haru was more interested in Batou's cybernetic eyes.

"Wha-ga?" he pointed to the cyborgs eyes, Batou just quirked an eyebrow as he didn't know what to think.

"Huh?"

"Wha-ga-ama-ga" the baby said again as he tried to reach across to grab the two light grey disks set in the ex-ranger's face, Batou just looked bemused but Togusa only chuckled as realized what Haru was curious about.

"He wants to know where your real eyes are, he's never seen cybernetic eyes before" Togusa grinned.

"Oh, right" Batou replied with an unsure smirk, Mizuki poked her head out from around the door and smiled up at the two men.

"Sorry daddy, he just wanted to see you, can I have breakfast now?"Mizuki asked

"Sure, come on, you coming too?" Togusa asked Batou "Nah I'm good" he replied as Togusa held his daughter's hand and lead her along to the canteen, Haru craned his head over his father's shoulder and watched the big cyborg walked off in the opposite direction.

Down in one of the auxiliary debriefing rooms Darren was lying sideway's on one of the couches fast asleep; the desk and table top were covered in papers, note books, disks, USB sticks, his laptop and Mac notebook along with a few other devices, his holo-form projector collar along with the sunglasses and earpiece were sitting on top of the couch's left armrest and his prosthetic leg was propped against the table side. The door opened up and Ishikawa came in carrying a cup of coffee in hand and a brown paper bag in the other, as he came down the stairs he noticed the teen's sleeping form on the couch, he put the bag and cup down on the only free space on the table and gently shook his shoulder.

"Hey come on kid, rise and shine" he smirked as he sat down on the opposite couch, Darren stirred with a grumble and rubbed his eyes, looking up at the veteran hacker he turned onto his back and propped his head up on the armrest.

"Morning, what time is it?" Darren asked groggily

"5:30am" Ishikawa replied

"Huh, dropped off at 1:55 last night, guess I got a bit too into my work again" Darren mumbled as he shuffled along to sit more upright.

"Looks like it, I brought you some breakfast, and don't worry it's not the 'tar' from our canteen" Ishikawa smiled, Darren took the paper bag and peered inside, he smiled at the site of the two cinnamon swirls waiting to be munched up, and the smell of the latté was heavenly.

"Thanks, you didn't have to do that" he smiled

"Yeah, but you've pulled three double shifts for three nights straight, plus with all the action last night you deserve a break kid" said Ishikawa as he glanced at the pages of one of the open notebooks, "Mind if I have a look?" he asked, Darren shook his head as he took a bite of his cinnamon swirl, as the veteran hacker flicked through the pages he was amazed to see that each worn page was filled with complex diagrams, layouts and general blueprints for various software programmes, viruses, vaccines and other devices all scribbled or carefully draw close to one another, most of it was in cybertronian with some of the footnotes in English. As he noticed several familiar looking diagrams his eyebrows flew up in amazement. "You can already read virtual visualization programming?" He asked as he leaned on the couch armrest with the book propped on his knee. "Oh yeah, those particular data formats are pretty wild but not too hard to learn really...Hey, are you okay?" Darren asked as he noticed the clouded look in the veteran's weary eyes.

"...You know, it occurred to me the other day; you're the only wizard-class hacker I've ever come across that doesn't need a cyberbrain to get the job done...Ishikawa thought aloud, Darren regarded him with a sense of curiosity.

"You mean you absolutely HAVE to have a cyberbrain to get anything done in this world?" Darren asked

"Pretty much, there's not that many areas of society that don't include the intervention of cyberization, people like you, Glen and Danny would be considered unique anomalies in this day and age, relics of a bygone time at the turn of the last century when everything we know now was still the stuff of science fiction" Ishikawa said as he rested his head against the back or the couch.

"Unique anomalies?...huh, they pretty much said the same thing when I was first introduced to NEST, though I think it was more because of the fact I'm 15, genius isn't determined by youth you know"

"...I guess not..." Ishikawa replied listlessly

"...Are you sure you're okay? I know last night was real intense and all-"

"No really I'll be fine, it's just...what Jazz said last night...If that robot was a Decepticon, then how bad is this situation likely to get?..." Ishikawa asked offhand; Darren looked at him with uncertainty, unsure of what to really say without bringing the mood totally down, as he lay back on the couch he turned to look over at the window, letting his gaze cloud over as his thoughts began to stir around like white milk in black coffee.

"...I wasn't at Mission city the day the Autobots finally won their war, hell it was because that one event that I went looking for answers in the Pentagon's mainframe to know what actually happened...but from what I've been told and the few data files I've glanced at...it's either bad or really bad...somehow, I think it'll be worst..." Darren thought aloud, Ishikawa frowned in curiosity.

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"...Have you ever felt like; things happen the way they happen because there's something else going on, or that, something higher up is trying to tell you something?...I'm not strictly religious and I don't go to church every Sunday, but I do believe in the soul, and in things defy logical explanation and the only thing that can glean any form of reason upon them is the human heart...I believe when I see a certain sequence of things or event's and how they transpire, I believe I'm seeing something more than what I just see with my eyes, that there is a reason for why they happen in the first place, and every time I get that feeling in the pit of my stomach, I can't help but think 'What are we meant to learn now?'...weird I know, but its makes sense to me for some odd reason" Darren replied in uncertainty, Ishikawa merely looked at him with an air of fascination as he propped his elbow up and stroked his bread in thought.

"So? Your saying you're seeing something more than just what's been going on here? I don't deny this whole experience with you guys has really put a spin on everything, including us; but are you saying that you believe this all leading up to something?"

"I'm saying that ever since that day we got transported to this world, I can't help but wonder if everything we've done has had a knock-on effect on this world that wasn't by chance or accident? I mean, it's like several giant stones being dropped into a still pool, the ripples have long since gone out and have been bouncing around the sides ever since; last night one of those ripples got out and now a whole city is beginning to feel the effects"

"Hey if you think you guys are to blame in all this, I can tell you you're not! Ever since you came all you've ever been trying to do is pick up the pieces for something that wasn't your fault in the first place!" Ishikawa argued

"Yeah for the most part, but what about those con's who are out there somewhere in this world? We may not be directly responsible for them being here or what they might have been up to, but the Autobots sure feel responsible; they're the ones who've been fighting them since forever, long before our solar system ever existed! God, I don't even want to imagine just what went on in all that time..." Darren sighed; Ishikawa's eyebrow's flew up in surprise but didn't ask into it as he straightened his face again.

"But if in all that time some of these 'con's' did find a way into our world, and they've been hiding here this whole time, then maybe you coming here was a good thing..." Darren looked up on bemusement, "Think about it, if you hadn't had come and everything that had happened didn't happen, we probably would have never known about Hidaka, Saski, the corrupted military network, the Decepticon and all the other related stuff we found because you were here to help; if anything your being here really shined a light into some really dark places we didn't even know exist before...don't beat yourself for all the bad things that have happened that were beyond your control, shit happens to all of us kid and there's not much we can do, but what you can do is concentrate on the good things and saving the people that deserve to be saved" Ishikawa said with a wise glint in his eye, Darren looked at him and couldn't help but smile.

"...Yeah, I'll remember that" the teen replied with an air of confidence in his voice, Ishikawa shifted in his seat and folded his arms as he changed the subject.

"Say, what do think that Decepticon wanted with those kids? We've been scouring over the records for any children living in the area the kids saw them abducting them and we haven't found a single trace of any kids listed as living in that area or attending the local school" Ishikawa frowned

"A hack job?" Darren quirked an eyebrow

"Obviously, and a damn good quality one, no traces of any back-door programmes, attack barrier suppressants or direct infiltration via encrypted software rewrite programmes; whoever took those kids wanted to make sure there were no paper trails that could offer any leads to them, heck even I wouldn't have spotted anything was off"

"Then how did you know it was a hack job in the first place?" Darren asked

"...Because we looked up Togusa's address and there aren't any children listed as living there, both Mizuki and her little brother have been wiped completely from the system, no birth records, no medical records, no pre-school documents, it's like they never existed" Ishikawa explained, Darren stared at him in disbelief.

"Never existed?...But that could only mean, that they were going to be taken last night!" he exclaimed in realisation.

"I know, thank god she, Annabelle and the other kids ran off when they did, we think the only reason they didn't get to Mei and Haru was because they must have taken each of the kids in a systematic order; shutting off the street lights and IR cameras on each block and working one apartment and street at a time to make sure they covered their tracks, obviously in the time it took between Annabelle and Mizuki sneaking away to when they finally arrived here it was long enough that they hadn't gotten around to Togusa's apartment building yet" Ishikawa replied, Darren cast his gaze downwards as his mind started to spin.

"...How, many other kids have taken and wiped from the system?" he asked with a slight nervousness in his voice, Ishikawa looked at him and shook his head.

"We don't know, Boma's still going over all the residential files for the Kohoku district looking for any evidence of data tampering, but we have no idea how long this has been going on so we don't know how many kids in all have been taken" Ishikawa sighed as he hung his head between his shoulders, Darren sat up in alarm as something else suddenly came to mind.

"You know what else Mizuki got on that camera that we've seen before don't you?" he said, Ishikawa looked up and frowned as realised what the teen was on about.

"The truck, it was one of those we saw on the mountain the night before last...what the hell happened on that mountainside anyway?..."

"...I don't know, hell I've seen a lot of horror movies but I never saw or heard anything like that before; but I know the sound of a cybertronian's transformation sequence anywhere; if all the Autobots are accounted for and it wasn't a standard Autobot communication signal Deathshot picked up last night, it couldn't be anything else but a Decepticon" Darren said as he took a sip of his coffee

"For sure, but what caused those other sounds up until we heard them transforming?" Darren hesitated as he raked his brain for an answer, but his mind couldn't move past the unknown horror of that night and his thoughts only kept hitting a dead end.

"...I don't know, but whatever it was it couldn't be good..." Darren replied as he took another sip from the polystyrene cup.

"...But what do you think they wanted this all those kids, they went to a lot of trouble to erase them from the system and to cover their tracks online, even the mafia don't go to those kind of lengths when they kidnap people off the street..."

"...I have no idea, but if the Decepticons are involved, then, I think we'd have to prepare ourselves for the very worst..."

"Why?"

"Because Deceptions DON'T EVER take an interest in us 'organics' unless it serves to help a plan of theirs in some way; Megatron and his forces hated us through and through, as far as the con's are concerned we're pond slime, and are only good for hunting and target practice, as Sunstreaker likes to describe it...whatever they want those kids for, I don't know if I want to what's happened to them..." Darren replied as a sharp chill ran down his spine, Ishikawa merely leaned back into the couch and sighed as he held his head in his hand. Neither of them spoke for long while as they sat in that uneasy silence as watched as the sun's arch ascended slowly into the sky, casting long shadows across the cityscape.

"Hey Ishikawa? Does Togusa know about his kids being wiped from the system and that they were targeted to be taken that night?" Darren asked softly

"Not yet, but I guess it's better he learns it from me first before that meeting with the other families later this morning, you want to come and help Boma sort out those records?" Ishikawa asked as he got up

"Wish I could but I still got these quadruple layer attack barriers to make plus the isolator programme and trip viruses, and after that I got to put together a new set of drivers for Trailbreaker's software analysis systems; I'll probably be in here for most of the day but I should be finished sometime this evening. God knows we're gonna need everything in place for tomorrow's action" Darren gestured to his laptop.

"I know; I still can't believe we agreed to go through with this crazy plan...but then again, the Major agreed to it and if her line of thinking is as unpredictable then I suppose this one's gonna be successful huh?" Ishikawa smirked

"That's one good way of reasoning it, and for its worth and everything we've been through I'd say we've got nothing to lose, other than our sanity" Darren grinned

"Heh, maybe, see ya later kid" Ishikawa said as he strolled over to the door

"Thanks for the breakfast!" Darren called out as the veteran hacker left the room. After reattaching his prosthetic leg and standing up to stretch, Darren sighed in relief as a series of satisfying cracks and clicks sounded in his back, shoulders and neck, after another series of stretches he sat back down, turned his laptop and Mac notebook on and got straight to work.

Several yards down the corridor, watching the city from one of the glass walls lining the face of the building, Mikaela stood alone with her thoughts; looking down at the holo-form that concealed her true identity she felt a slight sense of relief that she wouldn't have to hide behind it for much longer, but at the same time she couldn't help but feel as if she were exposing a vulnerability, for she knew once tomorrows plan will be set in action there'll be no going back.

But then, she and the others haven't had the luxury of going back anyway.

While in some small measure being a whole other person in public had been fun, every time she had glanced in a mirror or some reflective surface she had been taken aback by the stranger staring back at her; at least now she knew that extreme plastic surgery wouldn't do her any favours if she ever decided on a new look in later life. As she smirked at the thought of it, the sound of footsteps sneaking up from behind caught her attention, spinning round she yelped in surprise as Sam hugged his arms around her hips and twirled her around.

"Hey beautiful, I've been looking for you everywhere" the Witwicky boy chimed as he landed a kiss on her neck, Mikaela playfully swatted him away as he put her back down.

"Hm, I thought you were still sleeping?" she smiled

"Ah I couldn't get off, not after last night, what about you?" Sam replied as his face fell straight.

"I managed to get a few hours rest, with the hours they work in this place its amazing no-one flips out from sleep deprivation" she sighed

"You think? I don't think anyone in this place goes home..." Sam said as he brought his arms around her his and held her softly, Mikaela leaned back against him as she looked out the window.

"...Did Anny sleep okay last night?..." Sam asked softly

"Surprisingly, I honestly thought she'd be more shaken up, but soon after I tucked her in she went out like a light, I can't blame her after what she and the other kids went through last night" Mikaela replied offhand

"For sure, but hey she's a tough kid...did you hear about that protection order?"

"Yeah, the Major told me soon after I got up; I said I'd be sticking around to keep an eye on the guys the intelligence department's sending in, understandably she didn't object...but then again, we're all gonna be busy getting ready for tomorrow..." she replied, Sam dropped his gaze with a heavy sigh.

"...This totally sucks..." he mumbled

"What?"

"How the hell we didn't pick up that con sooner, where that hell had he been hiding this whole time?...Did he know about us? Or what?" Sam sighed; Mikaela turned to face him and held his hand with a gentle squeeze.

"Hey, you can't beat yourself up for something none of us knew anything about, you know if we had even the slightest inkling we would have moved in on him sooner...but then it's not like we don't have experience in confronting Decepticons" she offered

"Well that's for damn sure, but even so I'm sure as hell not eager to face any of them again; Megatron was more than enough and he was their leader!" Sam replied with a hint of sarcasm

"Hey nobody said they were eager to face off against any con, God knows after what Anny went through last night I don't want to let her out of my sight ever again!" Mikaela retorted, Sam sighed in shame as he placed his hand on her shoulder.

"...Look, I'm sorry okay? I didn't mean it like that...it's just...I can't believe it is all" he said as he dropped his gaze, with a small understanding smile she switched off her holo-form collar and stroked his cheek, switching off his own holo-form collar, Sam softly gasped as he stared into her eyes.

"What?" she asked in surprise

"Nothing, just forgotten how blue your eyes are" he smiled

"Well maybe it's time you got reacquainted hmm?" she smiled seductively as she wrapped her arms around his neck and brought his face closer to hers, she was about to lean in for a kiss but noticed the spaced out look in his eyes.

"What's wrong?" she asked, he met her gaze with a somewhat serious look.

"Look, if there really are Decepticons hiding somewhere in this city, are you sure you wanna do this again?" he asked softly

"Do this again? You make it sound so blasé, it won't exactly be an open option; we're gonna have to deal with them one way or another so why are you asking me if I want to do it when I already know I have to?" she asked with a slightly incredulous tone

"Well it's just, you're my girlfriend and as your boyfriend I feel it's my duty and responsibility to watch over you and make sure no harm comes to you, it's just the proper thing a guy who's caring, sensitive and concerned should do" Sam stated boldly, Mikaela could help but smirk.

"Oh so it's your duty and responsibility huh? When did you decided to become so chivalrous?" she teased, Sam hesitated for a moment and blushed in embracement.

"Uh, I'm just trying to step up and show more commitment?" he replied, Mikaela quirked an eyebrow, she wasn't convinced, with a sigh he slumped his shoulders and looked her in the eyes like a little puppy wanting a hug. "I'm scared your gonna dump me and run off with Pazu" he said in one go, she blinked in surprise and leaned into kiss him, as they embraced one another, Sam was a little surprised when she finally pulled away.

"You don't have to worry, I don't intend to do anything with him anytime soon, and he knows it, he's too old for my liking anyway" she smirked

"Yeah but that guy is practically in his own climate when it comes to women, next to him I'm like the oh-god of geeks" Sam said in bemusement

"Well, geeks have their merits, for instance, turning out to be hero's of humanity where as jocks are more likely to run away screaming like little girls" she smirked, looking into her blue eyes and seeing the affection they held, he sighed in relief and wrapped an arm over her shoulder as she rested her head on his shoulder; together they watched the cityscape as the morning sun cast it's long shadows across the sides of the countless buildings.

"We can do this, and we'll be ready this time...I just hope this plan will work" Sam said offhand

"Ditto" she replied.

From there on the hours of the day passed by in a whirlwind of activity, much more than what section 9 saw on a regular day; behind closed doors events were taking place, strategies were being discussed, paper work draw up and signed off, and everyone was being briefed on what their part in tomorrow's plan entailed; no secrets were being allowed let slip out today.

It was now 8:43pm and the sun had long since set, shrouding the land and sea in a cloak of deep indigo dotted with tiny glistening stars and a bulbous silver moon hung over the ocean. Any other night and it would have been a night for lovers to love and dreamers to dream.

But tonight was not any other night.

All day long the city of New Port had been buzzing like a disturbed hornet's nest, after the shocking and tragic event on the Niihama-Wan bridge the night before everyone everywhere were talking, debating and scrutinizing over what happened, the military's official spin on the subject had been that it was an advanced unmanned AI combat unit that malfunctioned and had gotten out of control, in addition the explosion had been passed off as one of the AI's primary weapon that detonated due to part of the software malfunction; not surprisingly no-one was convinced, and throughout the day online news forums and current affairs chat sites were at fever pitch over the subject.

But while the city was in a state of unrest, it was the prime opportunity for those hiding in the shadows to go about their business unhindered and undetected.

At the Niihama Naval base, in the lowest level of the central command building, things were stirring as the network's online alarms blared to life; all the technicians and AI operators worked feverishly as they tried to decipher the strange signal that had somehow slipped under the main attack barriers and was now advertising it's presence, as they tried to isolate the source however they found they couldn't pinpoint it. Then, four men, three in suits and one in black and dark grey combat gear stormed into the command centre.

"How long has it been in the system?" one of the men barked, he wore a dark navy suit

"About 12 minutes, it hasn't moved from the D class level" one of the technicians replied

"We were about to run a diagnostic when we realized-" the second technician didn't get to finish as suddenly all the monitors in the centre went black and the AI operators froze still in their seats; nobody moved or said anything as the machines gently hummed away. Then, hundreds and hundreds of lines of strange blue alien hieroglyphs began to roll across all the monitors and strange electronic clicks and thrums could be heard coming from the control panels on the desks; the AI's suddenly slumped forward like ragdolls and the lights began to flicker on and off.

"What the hell's going on?" The man in the light grey suit muttered, but one man in a reddish brown suit and glasses frowned as he watched the hieroglyphs on the monitors.

"It's them" he said. Everyone in the room jumped when the AI's snapped upright, their eyes were glowing with a vivid electric blue light as their head's snapped round to face the four men, the man in the combat gear kept his hand on his gun but didn't pull it from his holster.

"**ARE YOU THE ONES WHO HAVE BEEN TRYING TO CONNTACT US?"** Everyone jumped out of their skins as the AI's spoke in perfect unison, their voices had changed into a mix of strange deep electronic basso voices that seemed to echo all around the room; as he stepped forward tentatively, Kobuta inhaled a deep breath and tried to focus his mind.

"Yes, we are"

"**WHY?"**

"Because, there are things we need to talk to you about, things we need to explain; we are not your enemy"

"**WE KNOW"**

"You do?"

"**DID YOU THINK WE WOULD SIMPLY RUN WITHOUT TAKING PRECAUTIONS? WE HAVE HEARD MANY THINGS, SEEN MANY THINGS, KEPT OURSELVES INFORMED OF YOU...AND WE KNOW YOU ARE IN DANGER...WE ARE NOT YOUR ENEMY, YOU ARE NOT OUR ENEMY, THE KARMA OF THIS SITUATION DEMANDS A PEACE BETWEEN US..."**

"I agree; listen, we know what happened that night you were attacked at the safe house, and we know why you had to run; please understand that we only want to do what's best for everyone, we don't want cause you any harm, but at the same time there is a traitor somewhere in our ranks who wishes to take advantage of your power" Kobuta boldly said as he tried to keep his nerves steady.

"**WE SURMISED AS MUCH; NOT ALL HUMANS ARE DAVOID OF ANY GOOD...ARAKAKI INFORMED US OF YOUR PLAN, AND WE KNOW WHAT IT IS YOU INTEND TO DO..."**

Kobuta swallowed hard as a bead of sweat ran down the side of his temple

"**...IF IT WERE ANYOTHER TIME THINGS WOULD BE DIFFERANT...BUT THIS IS NOT THE CASE AS WE OURSELVE'S HAVE DICOVERED THE PRESENCE OF ANOTHER OF OUR KIND..."**

"You mean that other alien robot responsible for the destruction of the Niihama-Wan Bridge? Tell me, do you know who he was?"

"**...AN EVIL ENERMY FROM OUR WORLD, WHO SOMEHOW FOUND THEIR WAY INTO THIS WORLD...THIS, IS NO ENERMY YOU HAVE EVER FACED BEFORE, AND HAVE VERY LITTLE CHANCE OF DEFEATING WITHOUT OUR HELP...FOR THE SAKE OF ALL WE MUST MEET FACE TO FACE AND CALL A TRUCE BETWEEN US...WHEN CAN YOU ARANGE IT?"**

"We can have everything in place by tomorrow morning at the earliest, but we'll let you call the shots; where do you want to meet?"

"**HERE, ON THIS BASE AT 2:30PM TOMORROW IN ONE OF THE EMPTY HANGERS; YOU HAVE OUR WORD WE WILL EXPLAIN EVERYTHING, BUT EQUALLY, WE EXPECT THE SAME COURTESY; DON'T MAKE PROMISES YOU CAN'T KEEP AND IF YOU BELIEVE YOUR 'TRAITOR' WILL TRY ANYTHING, SEND OUT A WARNING SIGNAL IMMEDIETLY...WE WARN YOU HERE AND NOW, THE CONCEQUENSES FOR YOUR BETRAIL WILL BE DIRE, AND NOT IN THE WAY THAT YOU THINK...BUT KNOW THIS, DISPITE WHATEVER HAPPENS, OUR INTENTIONS ARE FOR THE PRESIVATION OF THE TRUTH AND ALL LIFE, WE COULD NOT REACH THE BRIDGE IN TIME TO SAVE THOSE POOR HUMANS WHO DIED SO NEEDLESSLY, AND FOR THAT WE IN SHAME; BUT NOW, WE BOTH HAVE THE CHANCE TO MAKE THINGS RIGHT...UNTIL TOMORROW, FAREWELL..."** the voice spoke as the room suddenly fell into pitch blackness, several seconds later the power came back on and all the monitors and AI's in the control centre were back to normal, the AI's looked around in confusion for a seconds before getting back to their work. The four men and all the technicians stood in silent shock for a short moment before Kobuta snapped himself back to reality.

"Wh-wh-what do we do now?" the man in the navy suit stuttered as he wiped the sweat from his brow with his handkerchief, Kobuta frowned as he turned to leave the room, the other's following close behind.

"Inform the prime minister immediately of what happened here; tell command HQ we need clearance for code F14-24 to be put in place for tomorrow and put a request through to the Navy to have all active helicarriers, mine-sweepers, gunships and coast guard patrol vessels to stand down from code I.S, whatever activity they pick up on their comm's falls under our command, no acceptations! Commander Kagawa, have your team ready and in place for tomorrow and tell them to be careful, we don't know how this going to pan out so we won't take any chances" Kobuta ordered

"Yes sir!" the ranger field commander saluted and ran on ahead.

"Now that we have their attention, do really think Saski will try anything?" one of the men asked nervously.

"If he does there's only one unit capable of stopping him who's in his league; tell HQ to inform the chief of section 9 of tomorrow's meeting, we'll need Aramaki and his team on standby for any altercations that might incur...and I know in my gut something's going to happen..." Kobuta replied as he paced along

"What about the GSDA and GSDF? They're going to want in on this; Field Marshal Masaru and General Nobu will be furious if they find out you ordered a code F14-24 without clearance from the administration provision department" said the grey suit.

"I know, which is why I'm going to talk to the prime minister directly about it; you let me worry about Nobu and Masaru but in the meantime I need you two to keep an eye on everything here while I head to the prime minister's residence; start pushing the necessary paperwork through and get the clearance in place, if you need any additional resources call me" Kobuta replied as he disappeared into the elevator, the two men looked at one another and gulped hard as they turned back towards the command centre.

"This is getting too extreme" one of them sighed as he wiped his forehead with a handkerchief.

"Maybe, but at least its better than the alternative...I just prey nothing happens..." the other replied nervously

* * *

R&R Please! :)


	44. Chapter 43: TruthDecoy

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 43: TRUTH/DECOY

: 5:24am: 1000 feet somewhere above New Port:

"**External interface driver contact confirmed; sleeper programme is running at 80% with encryption variants functioning within all 65 perimeters; all trip viruses are still in the green with no conflicts detected. Alright Darren, we're ready for the next stage"** said Deathshot

"**Okay, seeing as the 'anchor' key codes I slipped in with your message last night are still undetected I'll keep an eye on the drag-net programme, it'll take at least an hour for the system functions to boot up and a further hour to properly install the guard barriers under the military's firewalls; we've got loads of time before this afternoon so no need to wait up for me okay?" **Darren replied over Trailbreaker's comm link

"**Alright, do you want me to proceed with the other instalments? The network's attack barriers are still at level 3 so it will take at least 2 hours to slip them under and install them into all the corrupted files" **the Autobot sniper replied

"**Okay, the Major said she and Boma going to take care of the hidden back door programmes on the D, C and B levels of the administrative files so we don't have to worry about them, but it will take time to manoeuvre onto the A level so I think we better finish up in time for that; in the meantime Frenzy and Ishikawa are handling the drag net's 'noose's' and installing them onto all the barrier mazes and classified access terminals, the unaffected ghost keys will remain intact but if the programme detects even one discrepancy in the access sequence then the trip viruses will immediately freeze the barriers" **Darren replied

"**Very well, when I'm finished up here I'll return to the underground safe house, make sure you and Trailbreaker are back by twelve o' clock at the latest, we'll be getting ready for our 'grand appearance' by then" **Deathshot said

"**Sure thing, hey how's the base looking from up there anyway?" **

"**Quiet and yet feverishly busy, the comm frequencies may be set to their highest security levels but I can still pick up every order being barked out, everyone's been checking and rechecking everything; the Rangers arrived just ten minutes ago and have just gone into the main complex to be debriefed" **Deathshot informed

"**What about the GSDA? Have they showed up yet?"**

"**Oh yes, the Field Marshals and Generals showed up and hour ago and haven't stopped ranting since; their insisting they should at least provide some back up with their armoured units in case anything unforeseen happens but the prime minister has made it clear that the Navy has command of the situation, needless to say they're not very happy about it" **Deathshot smirked

"**I bet, but it seems Aramaki's guess was right on the money; they'll probably try to hang around in the background and maybe even put a few of their personnel in with the 'welcoming committee'"**

"**If that's the case then we better be particularly prudent in presenting ourselves this afternoon, we don't want to appear too stringent but we don't want to give the impression we're easy either"**

"**Just thank god Sunstreaker won't be the one greeting the prime minister" **Darren sighed in exasperation

"**Undoubtedly, but then again, time is a commodity we need to make this plan work, we have to keep the meeting going until our quarry makes his move...speaking of which, hang on a minute, I just picked up something..." **Deathshot said; Darren waited as a series of strange static clicks filled the comm.

"**...It is him?" **Darren asked, the static noise abruptly stopped.

"**...Matching against military personnel voice recognition files...Confirmed, it's Saski alright; tell Aramaki he's putting out an encrypted message, I'll stay here and try to locate who the recipient is and identify them"**

"**Alright, but don't forget about the instalments, they won't upload themselves you know!"**

"**I know, I started my automated upload sequence three minutes ago, you and Trailbreaker carry on with the prep work; I'll report back with my findings as soon as possible. Deathshot out"**

**

* * *

**: 12:32pm: Highway 42, 30 miles north east out of New Port.

**

* * *

**

"I'm telling ya man we're gonna be cutting this real close" Mile's said as he bit part of his thumb nail anxiously.

"I know, but its way too late to back out know; beside's what're you worried about? I'm yer guardian! I'm gonna be right there with ya!" Jazz retorted through his sound speakers, the roar of the traffic in the other lanes sped by as the ground based Autobot's made their way out of the city.

"I'm not worried, it's the gut feeling thing you know man?" Miles replied as he placed his hand back on Jazz's steering wheel

"Yeah I know, I think? On account I don't have any 'guts' I honestly can't say I can relate. But I have to say, one way or another it'll be interesting to see what our perp get's up to; the real concern we gotta worry about is if he spots the hidden sleeper programme we uploaded into the barrier maze perimeters on the military network; but considering how well Ishikawa dummied up the programme's encryption variant percentages I'll be damned surprise if ANY human hackers can spot'em off the bat..._no offence Major"_

"_None taken, and speaking of human hacker's it looks like we got some bites in Darren's drag net, the silent trip-alarm programmes have already picked up three confirmed hits on the attack barriers encryption codes, it looks our perps are already on the move" _the Major said over an encrypted comm frequency.

"_Good, I'd have been a little surprised if they had left it any later than this; any clues as to what their looking for?" _Jazz asked

"_It looks like Kubota's assumption about their overestimation of external data was right on the mark, they've barely been on the network ten minutes and already their searching though the administrative files on today's 'greeting operation'; they've covered their tracks with an online 'encryption syncer' programme to hide their activity's but there's a consistent number of code rewrites that keeps changing its configuration every four minutes, in which case it means they must be using a high end dummy barrier to do most of the leg work of keeping the attack barriers at bay" _the Major replied

"_Hmm, If their using a 'dummy' to handle their protection, you might want to try bypassing their decrypter programme and try tracking them via the files their currently accessing using the silent tracer programme I made last night, it'll be quicker to keep up with them that way, I can download it directly to your cyberbrain if you want?" _Trailbreaker offered

"_Uh? Just upload it to the section's network under my online access terminal, I'll access it from there" _replied the Major

"_Sure thing!" _Trailbreaker replied

"_WOW! With the level of falsified encryption codes they've swapped out it's no wonder they've been able to practically stroll right in and take whatever information they want! How long do you suppose they've been doing this?" _one of the agent Tachikoma's squeaked

"_It's hard to say, the way in which their able to surpass the protective barriers and not trip any alarms has been very skilful, like the report surmised this could have been going on for months, or longer" _the Major sighed

"_That's so not good, who knows what kinda stuff they could've stolen in all that time?" _Hailey said offhand

"_For sure, and I hate to interrupt but I've just finished tailing Saski's encrypted transmission," _Deathshot interrupted

"_What'cha got for us D-man?" _Jazz replied

"_For starter's Saski is well aware of what's going down today and I think he and someone who've very interested in us is going to try and 'attempt' something; this human is one smart little slagger, I couldn't clearly decipher the encrypted messages for he kept changing the frequency codes at random" _the Autobot sniper explained

"_Messages?" _

"_Yes, three of them; I barely noticed them at first for they all shared the same IVC codes and I couldn't hack into them directly and risk Saski noticing me, but I did pick up the subtle SD codes that indicated the signal was split between three different recipients. The first signal was to someone at the Megatec Body Corporation, the second was sent out on a security level plus one encryption to a helicarrier, the Kawari, that's anchored just on the other side of the Shinso-Su headland, and the third was received at the foreign affairs ministry"_

"_The foreign affairs ministry? Then that must mean Hidaka's in on this too!...but wait, what's he gonna do? Shouldn't we be worried if he's involved in this?" _Becca asked offhand

"_Right now I'm more worried about where that second signal was sent, you said it was sent out to the helicarrier the Kawari?" _the Major asked

"_Yes, and of the three signals Saski spent the longest time talking to whoever was on that ship; I couldn't pick up exactly what they were saying but it sounded like a series of orders being given; do you want me to try and back hack the ship's communication log to see who the receiver was?" _Deathshot asked

"_If it gives us an idea about the nature of the orders then it's a go ahead" _the Major replied

"_Alright, but I'll have to infiltrate the ship directly"_

"_Why? Can't you hack the ship's mainframe system online?"_

"_I would if there were any signals going to the ship for me to back hack into, but the ship's mainframe system and communications hub has been silent since the signal went out; the whole ship and its crew have gone completely stand-alone" _Deathshot explained, for a long moment the line was silent, the sniper and the first lieutenant began to grow concerned as a feeling on unease began to mount.

"_...Uh Major? Are you still there?" _Jazz asked

"_I'm still here, listen, forget trying to infiltrate the ship, I'm going to have to catch to you guys later, there's a few things I need to check out before we can carry on here, you go on ahead and get ready for the next phase, we can't afford to delay this" _the Major replied as her end of the line went silent.

"Uh? What now?" Mile's asked

"We go on ahead and get ready, ain't really anything we can do, we just gotta have faith in the lil' femme" Jazz replied as he concentrated on the highway ahead.

* * *

: 2:10pm: The Niihama Naval Base:

* * *

The guards saluted and stood to attention as the line of black saloon style cars pulled into the main entrance and made their way towards the main complex, several security guards in dark grey suits and dark sunglasses came out to flank the central car as Prime Minister Kayabuki stepped out, followed by her aide; Chief Aramaki, Kubota, the foreign affairs minister and the Admiral and Vice Admiral of the navy stood by the main entrance and greeted her with a polite bow, she equally returned the gesture.

"Gentlemen, I assume everything's ready and in order?" she asked in calm smooth voice as she made her way into the building with the five men following close behind; waiting in the main lobby where several other men in Naval and Airforce uniforms as well as several other security personnel.

"Everything's in place just as you requested madam, all we need to do now is wait for them to arrive" the home affairs minister replied promptly. "What about the girl? Is she safe?" the prime minister asked, "Why not ask her yourself?" chief Aramaki smiled, as if on cue Batou and Togusa appeared from out of a side room with a young girl around the age of four with bright blue eyes and honey blond hair sandwiched between them with her hands grasped in theirs. The whole room watched as she approached, many of them were curious to get a glimpse of one of the alien's human charges; how she came to be in section 9's care was mystery and because the event in question was 'above classified none of them would be privy to know, as the hard and scrupulous eyes fell on her Annabelle tried to stay behind Batou's towering form, as she looked up at the two section 9 agent's, Togusa was quick to assure her with a friendly smile. The prime minister greeted her with a smile and bent down to be closer to her height.

"Well hello, you must be Annabelle, I've heard so much about you" she said in a friendly manner

"Yes, and your Misses Prime Minister Kayabuki, Mister Aramaki told me about you, he said you're a very important lady" Annabelle replied a little sheepishly, the prime minister only passed a light chuckle.

"Indeed, I have a lot of responsibilities to take care of, but today, my job is to see you get back to family, are you looking forward to seeing them again?" the Prime Minister asked politely

"Oh yeah, and I know your gonna like them" Annabelle replied,

"I'm sure we will" the Prime Minister smiled; with a discreet nod the chief signalled Batou and Togusa to take her away to get her ready; as they left through the main entrance Annabelle watched the grown-up's with a sense of uneasiness as they watched her leave, as soon as they were clear of the main complex she tugged at Togusa's hand to grab his attention.

"Is it time yet?" she asked

"No not yet, remember what Mikaela told you this morning? We gotta wait until everyone's ready" Togusa replied in a hushed voice

"...Are they ready yet?" Annabelle peeped

"Hehehe! Not yet, we'll let you know okay? Don't worry it won't be long now; do you remember what to do?" Togusa smiled

"Yep!" she beamed, but the proud smile quickly dropped from her face as she recognised the Ranger's up ahead in their familiar black and dark grey combat gear as the night they had to run from the safe house suddenly flashed in her mind; among the cyborg combatants she particularly recognized commander Kagawa. She pulled her hand from out of Togusa's grip and hid behind Batou's legs as they approached the Rangers.

"It's okay hon, you don't have to talk to them if you don't want to" Batou said in a hushed tone, his eyebrows sinking into a scowl as the memory of that night came to the forefront of his mind too; the little trace of emotion in Batou's voice didn't escape Togusa's notice, he knew it wasn't unusual for the big guy in this kind of circumstance, and especially when there was a kid involved. But he quickly straightened up and put on his 'don't screw with me' look as he kept a protective hand on the top of Annabelle's head. Kagawa and his team noticed the two section 9 agent's approach with their charge and acknowledged their former team-member with discreet nods.

"Batou, I assume you're here to take command?" Kagawa asked, trying not to sound sceptical.

"Yep, my field commander's off on a last minute errand, I'm in charge of my unit till she gets back" Batou replied

"At a time like this? I'd say this pretty much qualifies as last minute, we've only got another 20 minutes until our 'guests' show up" the Ranger's field commander replied in a concerned tone.

"Yeah well she likes to be thorough, and when it comes to cyber-terrorism you can't be too careful" the ex-ranger replied with an impassive look. As the two cyborgs talked among themselves Annabelle cautiously eyed the other Ranger's from the safe side of Batou's legs; noticing the curious little honey blond the other Rangers watched as she eyed them up and down, all the while she held onto Batou's hand for reassurance. Casually glancing around, Togusa noticed just how many extra troops had been deployed for today's guard duty, both GSDF and the navy's MSDF troops were present as well as a handful of GSDA units; most of the forces however seemed to be centred around one of the base's hangers near the waterfront as several jeeps and armoured trucks were gathered outside at the main entrance; overhead a handful of helicopters were circling the base, keeping any news helicopters well at bay. The Prime Minister and military officials soon emerged from out the main complex, got into the line of waiting cars and were driven off towards the waterfront; one soldier ran over and saluted.

"Commander, we've just had a report in that the aliens have been sighted near the east docks, their heading this way sir!" he said hastily

"Very well; that's our cue to get into position, you need a ride?" Kagawa asked

"Well it beat's walking" Batou shrugged as he picked up Annabelle and held her on his arm effortlessly as they got into a jeep nearby, looking around the ex-ranger passed a frustrated sigh.

'Damn it where are they? I know it's typical of her to stay silent till the last minute but Ishikawa and Boma should have at least called in by now...I wonder what they found?' he thought as one the Ranger's sat in the driver's seat and sped off.

* * *

: 2:23pm, elsewhere:

* * *

"**Okay people it is Showtime! Now remember what we went over and don't get yourselves carried away with all the hype! That especially goes for you two slaggers!"** Jazz said as he led the way down the narrow street

"**Oh we promise we'll behave!"** the lambo twins chimed

"Yeah right" Sam muttered under his as he held onto Bumblebee's wheel.

"**I guess that means we can go on ahead and give our little performance?"** Jetfire smirked

"**Yeah you guys go on ahead, but remember; the navy knows they ain't supposed to fire on us so no weapons! Just cruise around the airspace, do a few tricks and swoop past the base while you wait for us to catch up"**Jazz replied

"**Well it's not like we have far to go, we should be coming into view of the naval base anytime now...the front gate's should be open for us" **Hot Rod commented

"'**Should' is the word Hot Rod, and as soon as we turn onto the next exit we'll be in the open for everyone to see...Darren, are you finished with your last minute prep work?" **Jazz asked

"**Yep, just finished setting the last trap, the rest of the drag net should be able to sweep through the A level of the network without being spotted now, plus the sleeper programme's decryption buster variants are up to 99%, we should be good to go in the next four minutes" **Darren replied as Trailbreaker's laptop computer folded back into his glove compartment.

"**Good, then we can begin the final stage," **Jazz said with an air of satisfaction.

* * *

: 2:29pm, the Niihama Naval Base:

* * *

The view out of the open doors of the hanger wasn't anything particularly special, only the loading sector of the docks and a destroyer class gun ship tied up to the long quay side and the wide open ocean beyond made up the scenery, the jeeps and armoured trucks stood nearby, motionless with their occupants waiting anxiously, keeping their eyes on the skies and the main highway leading to the base, waiting and watching for anything to happen; inside the hanger the tension was mounting as the uneasy silence filled the huge space, the PM, her aide, Aramaki, Kubota, the home affairs minister and all the military officials were waiting on top of a wide walkway that rose some 17 feet off the ground and stretched all around the walls of the hanger, half of the Rangers flanked them while the other half, including Kagawa, waited on the ground along with Batou, Togusa, Saito and Pazu. Annabelle huffed as she rested her head on Batou's shoulder, idly twiddling around with his ponytail. Then suddenly, the distant sound of deep thundering jet engines made her sit up straight like a hound hearing a rabbit in the bush, she struggled and wriggled to make Batou put her down, he complied and when he set her on the ground she ran to the doorway and looked to the sky, her sudden excitement made everyone perk up in anticipation.

"THEY'RE HERE!" she cheered as Batou ran up to her.

On the horizon, two silhouettes' cruised through the air at a swift speed, one was a large strange looking four winged aircraft, the other was the unmistakable shape of an SR71-Blackbird; everyone on the ground and in the base's control tower watched in awe as the two jets swooped low over the base with a thunderous roar, rolled sharply upwards and barrel-rolled back and over the sea. The prime minister's aid twitched his head slightly as a message come over his cyber-comm.

"Prime Minister? The Autobots have just arrived at the front gate" he said in a hushed tone, she nodded in acknowledgement. Suddenly, the roar of car engines echoed off the walls of the other buildings opposite the hanger as seven cars sped up, turned hard to the right and drifted sideways into the hanger, stopping just short of the hanger's far end wall and the overhead walkway; leaning on the railings, everyone watched as the doors opened up and the car's occupants emerged, but to their surprise it wasn't kids but section 9's new rookies.

"Huh? What are you all doing here? Where are the children?" the home affairs minister asked incredulously.

"We'll explain in a minute, but first, our friends here are eager to meet you" Morri called up as Annabelle ran up to her side, at that moment the thunder of jet engines sounded outside and hot air laced with the scent of aviation fuel and energon blasted into the hanger as the Blackbird hovered above the ground and touched down on the tarmac, it rolled into the hanger with the other strange alien jet close behind. What happened next blew everyone away in awe; everyone savoured the incredible sight of the Autobots transforming into their mech modes and when each bot was standing at his full height they presented themselves in a line around the walkway, they waited a moment to let the shock sink before each guardian bent down to let their charges climb into their palms and be lifted up onto the walkway, Deathshot opened a large compartment on his back and Ravage, Scorponok and Frenzy leaped out onto the ground.

"You know, a friend of mine once said 'you gotta wonder; if God made us in his image, who do you think made them?'" Glen smirked, Kubota nodded in agreement

"Quite...So you're Prime Minister Kayabuki? Nice to finally meet you under much more 'agreeable' conditions" Jazz said as he shined his trademark prize winning smile in the PM's general direction, Kayabuki hesitated a brief second before straightening her back and taking on a more serious expression.

"Indeed, and you must be Jazz? We're so glad to finally meet you and your team at long last, but we assumed your charges would be here too" she asked

"Oh they're here alright, and suffice to say I really do wish this little meet' an' greet can be under nicer circumstances, but I'm afraid recent events have forced our hands to take drastic action in an effort to stop this whole mess from spiralling out of control" Jazz replied

"Your referring to the incident on the Niihama-Wan bridge two nights ago, we want to know just what happened there, and who that other Autobot was" the home affairs minister asked as he kept his distance from the imposing robots, Jazz sighed through his vents as he folded his arms.

"Before we answer that there's something you dudes have to know first, I'm afraid we ain't been entirely honest, and we've been a closer to all the action than you think," the first lieutenant stated and on cue the 'rookies' reached for their necks and switched their holo-forms off, the Rangers and welcoming committee nearly jumped in shock as the children suddenly appeared from beneath the flickering 3D images dressed in strange dark indigo skin tight suits with strange looking dummy barriers around their necks.

"What the-"

"Oh my God!"

"That's incredible"

"Astounding"

"Fascinating"

"Gentlemen please, what is the meaning of this?" the PM asked in confusion.

"Before you go jumping to any premature conclusions we weren't spying on you or anything like that and section 9 certainly isn't to blame!" Becca peeped in as she unzipped her suit and slipped it off, revealing a simple T-shirt and jeans, the rest of the kids removed their own suits too and flung them over the railings.

"You've, been hiding in plain sight this entire time?" Kubota breathed in astonishment as he looked to Aramaki for an answer; the chief merely met is gaze with an apologetic look.

"Not the whole time, we're sorry for the deception but we had good reason; let me start from the beginning..." Morri started as she and the others proceeded to tell the whole story of what happened the night they had to run and how they got involved with section 9 to help them catch the ones responsible for the attack, everyone listened in mixed amazement and disbelief but all the while the kids where talking, no-one had noticed the sudden absence of the four section 9 agents on the ground down below the walkway.

* * *

: Elsewhere:

* * *

"_Okay Major we're on route"_ Batou said over the comm, keeping his eyes on the road ahead as the Tachikoma's sped along, completely unseen thanks to their therm-optic camouflage.

"_Good, how far away are you?" _she asked

"_We left the base five minutes ago, we should be with you in about 15 minutes; the Rangers didn't even notice the false memories we slipped in under their barriers, Anny played her part just right too...so what's going down on your end?" _the ex-ranger asked

"_Saski's definitely been busy; we've found a whole load of deleted and tampered records of his online activities over the past several hours, there's no way he could have spotted me when I dived the military's system maintenance database an hour ago so he must be anticipating someone to come after him. We've been tailing him via Trailbreakers silent tracer programme and it looks like he's definitely got others helping him" _the Major explained

"_How many are we talking about?" _Batou asked seriously

"_He's been smart in putting out multiple decoy signals, but after filtering out the falsified access codes on his barriers we think there might be only three; someone in the Megatec building, either one of the analysts or scientists, who's supplying a series of high end barrier breakers and virus busters to Saski's online terminal...it seems Hidaka was meant to be the cover and provide a provision order to allow Saski to slip out of the country without official verification in case anything happened if he had to run; but it looks like Hidaka's chickened out at the last minute, we just found out he handed in his resignation paper's this morning and is planning to defect to America today, the chief put out an order to the transport department to close all flights leaving for America before we left HQ, not long after that we found Saski had put a last minute order through for a classified-level termination order on Hidaka, stating that he's in possession of classified information on several known terrorist organisations; talk about tying up loose ends, we think the assassination will most likely be done via long range sniping" _said Ishikawa

"_If he's turning tails on Saski why wait until now to run?"_ Togusa asked

"_Because he knows he's got his hands full right now, we couldn't find the third person Saski was in contact with on the Kawari, but we did find this..." _The Major replied, on the Tachikoma's monitors a black and red widow popped up with a warning flashing across the top bar, the agents realised what it was and blinked in surprise.

"_Huh? An authentication code for the Japanese special force's maritime division? Wait a minute isn't that for the-"_ Batou breathed in worry

"_You guessed right, that order was issued not twenty minutes ago, I think it's fair to say they've already mobilized and are waiting for the final clearance"_ the Major replied

"_Will the Autobots be okay?"_

"_I've already taken care of it, the Autobot's may not do things the same way we do but even they'll be able to pick up the encrypted warning I just sent them, relax, they can handle themselves. Right now our top priority is to stop Saski in his tracks. We'll split up into three teams, each a two man cell, Boma and Ishikawa I want you to head over to Megatec and arrest whoever's in contact with Saski, Saito, Pazu, your to set up a sniper point at the New Port International Airport and stop that sniper, Hidaka's not aware his flight's been cancelled so that should give you time to catch the assassin off guard, once you have him in custody or neutralized him arrest Hidaka; Batou, your coming with me, we're going after Saski" _the Major ordered

"_Where is he hiding anyway? _Batou asked

"_I don't know, the transmitted signal's going to take a couple of more hours to decrypt and Darren's taking care of Saski's location with his drag net, as soon as he locates Saski his laptop will send out an automatic message, you all have your orders not let's get to it!" _she barked.

"_Yes ma'am!" _they all replied back as the invisible Tachikoma's split up and headed off to their various destinations.

: Meanwhile, back at the naval base:

"...So you see, that's why we had to help Aramaki and his team investigate this, if we hadn't had provided our insight into the nature how dire this situation was the chances are a lot more people would be dead by now and all of you would be in disgrace!" Jetfire finished explaining, the welcoming committee took a moment to absorb everything they just heard, the prime minister in particular was taken aback by the truth as it had really been and not just what she had been told on paper. The military leaders didn't know whether to be utterly peeved off or worried that the situation between them had been much more uneasy that they originally thought, after a moment of consideration Kayabuki looked over at Aramaki with a sceptical look and sighed.

"...I understand why you couldn't afford to run the risk of exposing the truth if the situation was that unpredictable, but if you really did allow them to participate in your investigation why didn't you trust us to keep that knowledge safe?" she asked.

"I have no excuses madam Prime Minister, true we took a great gamble in letting the Autobot participate in our line of enquiries; but as I said before even if we had known Saski was in part responsible from the very beginning it doesn't excuse the fact that we could have been infiltrated and taken for a ride too if the Autobot's hadn't been there to help us in their own unique fashion, and because of their help we stumbled upon a much larger conspiracy that Saski's involved with" the chief replied impassively, Kubota looked at him with a knowing glint in his eyes, understanding as to what he was referring to.

"What larger conspiracy?" one of the Field Marshals asked

"Saski's involved with our old enemy's the Decepticons...that's who that bot on the bridge was two nights ago, and we have good reason to believe that there might be more of them" Jazz replied gravely.

"But who are these 'Decepticons'?" the Admiral of the Navy asked

"Our enemy's from our home planet Cybertron, and every human's worst living nightmare; we've fought them for countless eons and finally defeated them in our world some time ago...but, somehow, we don't know how and we don't know why, but somehow they found their way into your world, whether they actually followed us or arrived at an earlier date is unknown at this point, but if they are here we have to find them and stop them, before they can do anymore harm!" Jetfire stated sternly as he struck his walking stick on the ground.

"But, if that robot on the bridge really was your enemy why didn't you go after him?" one of the General's asked incredulously.

"WE DID GO AFTER HIM! We spent half the fraggin' night chasing him around the city! But even if we had caught up to him it wasn't like we could engage him in battle in the middle of the city and put innocent human lives in danger!" Jetfire retorted angrily, Bumblebee put a reassuring hand on his wing to calm him down; the old seeker merely grumbled something in cybertronian under his breath and turned away.

"Listen, believe me we've all been kicking ourselves in the helms over what happened on the bridge, but that Decepticon's presence only raised further question's that make no sense, like why we couldn't pick him up clearly on our scanners, even Deathshot here couldn't track him straight and he's got the most powerful long range scanners of us all!" Bumblebee said as he thumbed back over his shoulder to the tall Autobot sniper who was standing off to the side with his arms folded and wings folded back with his trademark ice cold face.

"That's true, he was able to evade my detection quite stealthily, but only because we believe his systems were defective somehow" he quietly stated, his deep basso electronic voice sounded as intimidating as his looks, it made even the Ranger's reinforced spines shiver.

"Defective?" Kubota echoed

"We won't know for certain unless you can grant us access to the body and let us perform a structural analysis on his CPU and system functions; that is, if it's not too much of an inconvenience?" Jazz asked politely.

"If it gleans us any answers then I can have it arranged; but that depends on whether you're willing to agree to our terms of 'co-inhabitancy'" the Prime Minister replied

"You mean your newly revised protection order for us? I have to say it sounded too good to be real when Aramki informed us about it, you're really willing to let us, within reason of course, have the run of your whole country as long as we keep a low profile?" Jazz stated sceptically.

"Yes, and if you require any additional resources we'll be happy to oblige, here's the official document..." the prime Minister gestured to aide, from out of the black briefcase he was carrying he produced a red envelope with a 'classified' label on the front, he opened it and pulled out a several papers and cautiously stepped forward to hand them over; Jazz delicately took the paper's between his finger and thumb and two blue lazars shot out of his optics and scanned each of the papers in rapid succession, the other Autobots leaned over his shoulders to see what was on the papers.

"Hmm, I see you ain't pulling any punches by keeping it water-tight" Jazz commented as he handed the papers to the kids to read, everyone leaned over Sam's shoulders as he read the documents over.

"No, we decided to stick with the basics to avoid any complications with any minor details that could arise" Kubota replied

"Indeed; but before we consider signing it there's just a few other things we need to discuss, like how you're going to handle the threat of the Decepticons if it transpires that here really is more than one out there" Jazz said, the Prime Minister frowned in concern as that last sentence caught her attention.

"...What do you mean? How bad could the situation already get?" she asked cautiously.

"With all due respect madam Prime Minister, the fact that 79 people died on that bridge already constitutes it as the worst case scenario for us...I can't even begin to put into words just how severe this is gonna get if we ain't allowed to search' em out; we've spent practically our whole lives fighting them and we know how they think and how they fight and with all due respects to you boys this is no enemy you've ever encountered before...the Decepticons don't fight by the same principles of war as you humans do, they never fight fair and they never take prisoners, and I certainly don't exaggerate when I say some of them were capable of levelling city's twice the size of New Port in a single day, and New Port is one damn big city" Jazz stated

"Not only that, but if they did find a way to this world before we ever came, where have they been hiding this whole time? And have they been planning anything in all that time? We can't leave anything to chance" Trailbreaker concurred. The military officials looked like they wanted to say otherwise but Deathshot's cold gaze kept them silent.

"... You said that Saski was involved with the Decepticons, How is that possible?" one of the Generals asked

"The night the Niihama-Wan Bridge was attacked, the con was up to something else beforehand, and he had help..." Jetfire said as he activated the holo-projecter at the base of his wrist and displayed the video feed of the dark strangers kidnapping the children of the Kohoku district, and Saski talking with the unknown robot; as if everything up until this point hadn't been shocking enough, everyone was now at a real loss for words.

* * *

: At the same time at the New Port International Airport:

* * *

"_How long now?"_ Saito asked

"_He'll be here in 30 minutes, have you found the guy's firing position yet?" _Pazu replied

"_Hidaka's going to be going into terminal 3; there are several high rise office blocks and apartments opposite that building that offer a clear line of fire, and there's barley any wind today so our guy doesn't have to worry about the shot straying in any direction"_ Saito replied

"_In other words he's got the pick of the best firing positions and while we're searching for him he'll have already shot Hidaka and be on his merry way...this sucks"_ Pazu sighed in frustration

"_If the sniper's got a Hawkeye like you mister Saito we can easily back hack his satellite uplink as he's lining up the shot and stop him on the spot!" Saito's Tachikoma chimed _

"_That'll only work at the moment he takes his aim, in the time it takes to back hack the satellite it'll be too late...although; looking at the main entrance I'd say that huge dome marquee awning would eliminate the possibility of a shot directly opposite the terminal, our guy would have to take the shot at a 90 degree angle to the doors to get Hidaka in the head and avoid the awning; which leaves the roof of the terminal 5 building or the roof of that office block just off from the highway as the possible firing positions" Saito replied_

"_That's an excellent deduction but which one will he ultimately use?" _the Tachikoma asked, Saito opened the top of the Tachikoma's pod and stood up to look at the layout of the front of the airport terminal. Down below he watched as all the people went to and fro out of the building, the cars and taxi's pulling up to the drop-off zone outside the terminal's main entrance and letting their passenger in and out. Then, he noticed the flow of traffic in the drop-off zone was only going one way, the traffic coming from the west had to turn off at a nearby intersection onto a large bend to get to the terminal entrance.

"_Ishikawa which road is Hidaka taking to get the airport?"_ Saito asked

"_He's on the north super-highway heading out of the downtown area; from there he'd have to take highway 14 heading eastward, it's the quickest route to the airport" _Ishikawa replied

"_Thanks"_ the sniper replied

"_What are you thinking?" _Pazu asked

"_The sniper's going for the office block" _Saito stated

"_How can you be sure?"_ the Tachikoma's asked

"_From the office block the sniper will have a clear line of sight to the rear of the car, he could take out Hidaka without having to drill a round through his driver's head from behind, come on!" _Saito said as he got back into his Tachikoma and sped off towards the building in question. After scaling the 200 foot vertical side of the building the two Tachikoma's opened their pods to let their riders out, Saito grabbed his gun case and placed it down on the gravelled roof, walking over to the edge of the roof he looked down at the huge terminal building and it's front entrance.

"There doesn't appear to be any sign of the sniper, it looks like we beat him to it! YAY!" one of the Tachikoma's cheered.

"We may have nabbed his best firing passion but we still have to catch the guy" Saito replied, the other Tachikoma waddled over to the side of the roof and flinched in surprise.

"Mister Saito! I think we found him!" it hissed loudly, beckoning the two men over with its claw, "Huh?" Saito replied as he came over the edge of the roof to see what it was pointing at, to his surprise, sticking out of one of the window's several feet down the building was the long barrel of a rifle with a silencer on the end.

"Well, at least we don't have to wait for him to show up" Pazu said as he reached for his handgun, but Saito stopped him.

"No look!" he pointed down and along to another window further away; another gun barrel was protruding from building and further along were another several gun barrels sticking out each windows, a total of 19 guns were visible, all in a row on the same floor five floors down.

"Whoa! That's some decoy! But which one is the sniper gonna use? I can't detect any control signals so none of them will fire by themselves!" Pazu's Tachikoma squeaked in alarm.

"Hidaka arrives in ten minutes; we gotta get down there and catch him, Tachikoma, get down there and check each room starting from the nearest window and we'll start from the other end!" Saito ordered

"Rodger!" the Tachikoma's chimed as they shot out their sticky wires from the sides of their pods at the edges of the roof and abseiled down the side of the building; Saito and Pazu ran across the roof to the fire escape, broke down the doors and dashed down the stairs; after running five floors down they came out into a long corridor all lined with doors on either side, remembering the layout of the windows from up top, Saito reached for his hand gun and gestured to the sixth door on the right, Pazu followed suite and drew his gun, ready to break the door down.

"_Mister Saito! We've-"_ The Tachikoma was cut off as a loud explosion sounded from the far end of the building, a small fire ball blasted through the last door at the end of the corridor and tore out part of the wall; the two agents were too far away for the fire to catch them but the intense heat made them raise their arms up to cover their faces and flinch away. As the flames died down and the corridor began to fill with smoke, Saito and Pazu ran towards the torn out wall but stopped suddenly as a figure emerged from the smoke, dressed in a black suit with a long black overcoat on top, the stranger had a sharp looking face with smooth black hair combed back.

"FREEZE! This is the police!" Saito called out as they both aimed their weapons; but the stranger merely began to chuckle in rather unnerving way, making both the agents tense up and tighten the grip on their guns.

"What's so funny?" Pazu demanded

"Do you seriously think those pathetic little pop-guns can hurt me?" the stranger mocked in a sly voice; both agents nearly flinched in shock as the stranger raised his head, revealing a set of glowing blood red eyes.

"Who are you?" Saito demanded, the stranger gazed at them with a contempt smirk.

"Your executioner of course" he grinned and in the blink of the eye the stranger jumped at them both, Pazu fired but the bullet missed the stranger completely, he grabbed Pazu's outstretched arm and in one sharp twist ripped Pazu's arm clear off his shoulder, the ex-yakuza cyborg howled in pain as he dropped to the floor before immediately cutting off his arm's pain receptors; the stranger spun round to come back for Saito but a hail of gunfire through the right hand side wall blew the stranger through the opposite wall of the corridor.

"Mister Saito! Mister Pazu! Are you both okay?" Saito's Tachikoma yelled in alarm as it waddled through the hole on the wall, its body sported several bad looking dents and indentations from the explosion, but otherwise it was okay.

"Is that supposed to be a joke?" Pazu replied sarcastically with a scowl as Saito helped him up and let him lean on his side.

"Seriously, are you gonna be okay?" Saito asked as he helped Pazu into the Tachikoma's pod. "Don't worry, my pain receptors are completely turned off, the cardiovascular block-off vales should stop the bleeding soon" he winced as the pod doors sealed shut.

"Don't worry, we'll get you to-" but Saito didn't get to finish as something grabbed him by the ankle, flipped him onto his back and pulled him several meters through the hole in the wall. "MISTER SAITO!" the Tachikoma yelled as it tried to grab him but the corridor was too narrow for it to turn around quick enough. Before he could react or say anything Saito was grabbed by the shoulder and thrown onto his back, then something hard struck him on the chest pinning him down. Saito was horrified at what was looking down at him; from his right side hip all the way up to the right side of his face, half the strangers flesh had been blown off with the frayed bloody edges hanging off the metal form underneath like half melted cheese, but instead of a typical cyborg body consisting of a smooth outer shell of reinforced carbon steel armour-skin held together by sleek high density silicon muscle sheaths coupled with all natural muscles, instead was a jet black metallic insect like body consisting of numerous sharp edged armour plates interconnected by cable and wire like ligaments, half the face looked like a cross between a cat and a wasp with two sets of glowing red feline eyes in the orbital socket and a mouth with the lower jaw split apart with six sharp mandibles and a set of needle like silver teeth set within the lining of what looked like the oesophagus; the sight of the face suddenly sent a sharp pang of fear through the sniper's spine as he struggled to gasp for air under the creature's clawed foot.

"...Oh my God..." Saito breathed, the creature tilted its head to the side with a strange sense of child like curiosity, the human half of its face contorted into a disgustingly sadistic smile.

"You know, it must be so miserable being a human, all that disgusting and gross flesh hanging off your bones, nothing but meat in a meat sack that eventually rots off; I would pity you but something as, pathetic as you, deserves only death..." the creature spoke in a sharp strange electronic voice, the rhythm sounded eerily similar to Frenzy's but with a slightly deeper tone.

"Wh-what the hell are you?" Saito gasped as the creature pressed its foot down harder.

"Your replacement of course; humanity really has no place on this mud-ball of a planet, and it's not like you've really made much of an improvement on yourselves in this day and age, even with all this delightful yet painfully primitive technology you still can't bothered to evolve...which is why we're gonna do what your so called 'mother nature' should have done the day your weak and pathetic kind started walking on its hind legs-" the creature grinned, but with one hard twist to the side Saito was able to manoeuvre his arm up and shoot the creature in the face with the gun that was still gripped in his hand. The force of the bullet's impact made the creature recoil back and Saito was free to shuffle back towards the Tachikoma that was still trying to turn itself around in the narrow corridor; Saito didn't dare stop shooting and kept firing until the clip was empty, when the creature heard the dead man's click it reared up ready to attack again, but with one hard shove of its legs the Tachikoma freed itself and jerked round, pushed Saito down to the floor with its claw and fired its cannon at point black range right into the creature's chest. The explosion blew it right through the opposite wall and out the other side of the building; as Saito scrambled back onto his feet he looked around the room, making sure the creature was really gone, he walked over to the edge of the burnt and chard hole and looked down in between the other buildings opposite the office block, it was gone, and on the floor in the far corner of the room Pazu's discarded cybernetic arm lay motionless with blood slowly glugging out of the veins and pooling on the floor in a dark red puddle.

"Thanks Tachikoma" Saito sighed in relief as he leaned against its leg to get his breath back.

"You're welcome, what was that thing?" The Tachikoma asked in alarm

"...I don't know, but something tells me this day is about to get a whole lot more complicated..._Major are you there?" _

"_Did you get the sniper in time?" _she asked

"_Negative, the sniping was a decoy, we were set up and just attacked" _he replied

"_Attacked? Saski already knew you were there?"_

"_I don't know, but the attacker sure as hell wasn't human, look!..." _Saito replied as he sent an image of the creature to the Major's external memory.

"_...It looks like the Autobot's assumption about their enemy was right on the mark...Alright listen up! This is a priority A1 alert! All team-members stand down and withdraw from your mission objective, this op has been compromised! Return immediately to the Niihama Naval base to regroup...what happened?" _The Major barked sternly over the open cyber-comm.

"_The attacker was here to kill us but the Tachikoma blew it out the building, I'll explain the details later but right now Pazu needs to head back to HQ, the attacker ripped his arm off" _Saito continued

"_Understood, send the Tachikoma with him back to base and you meet up with us, I'll read over your report when this is over"_ the Major replied

"_Yes Major, what about Hidaka?"_ Saito asked as he helped to guild the Tachikoma around back to the hole through which it came, the other Tachikoma was waiting patiently on the side of the building outside.

"_We'll worry about him later, for now just get back to the base"_ the Major replied

"_Major, you don't seriously think the other suspects were set up as decoys too? Could Saski have back hacked us somehow?"_ Batou asked in concern

"_I don't see how, I didn't detect anything slip past our network's barrier maze's, Saski read over today's 'greeting operation' plans so he's well aware we're playing the part of anti cyber-infiltration; we won't run the risk if the other's are decoys and there are more traps lying in wait for us...besides, it might be just as well, I just got a warning just come through that the final clearance for that authentication code has just been passed, things are about heat up at the naval base..." _the Major frowned

"_Damn it! I just hope we can get there in time!" _Batou growled in frustration

"_Don't worry mister Batou we've got a little diversion in place! We managed to infiltrate the base's security systems and switch the monitor feeds, if 'you know who' has accessed the base's cameras for designation of their target then they should be receiving the false feeds we set up; but it won't take them long to figure out that the images are reversed so you better hurry up!" _the agent Tachikoma's yelled.

"_Considering how the fight at the first safe house went down I'm not overly worried about the Autobots being beaten...It's the Umibozu I feel sorry for at the moment, they're about seven minutes away from getting the biggest kick in the ass!" _Batou smirked; the Major smirked in reply but kept the gratification for herself.

* * *

: Back at the naval base:

* * *

"B-but how could this have happened? How could no-one have seen this going on? And in our own back yard to boot!" one of the Field Marshals exclaimed in disbelief as Jetfire deactivated his hologram projector; the ancient seeker merely shook his head in sympathy.

"None of us were aware, not even we had any inkling as to what was going on; and for all it was worth I am grateful to Jazz and his team for their help in this affair...granted we played a very dangerous game by letting them act as a main capacity for advice and resources, but if this Decepticon threat proves to be as dangerous as they stated then we can't afford to let our petty difference's get in the way of helping them, for what our experience is worth, I can say that whatever happens, they won't disappoint" The chief smirked as he looked up at Jazz, the Autobot first lieutenant returned the gesture with a smile. The Prime Minister cast her gaze down for a moment as she considered all that she had heard, and then she looked back up at Jazz with an impassive look, stating her clam yet serious manner.

"...If this threat is likely to arise further complications then we need to take action, I'll be willing to let you search for these Decpeticon's in your way, but only on the condition that you report any and all details of your findings and any conflicts that might incur directly to the intelligence department; we don't want to be kept in the dark on this, and if anything happens and we decide the situation constitutes a threat to national security then we will take action, I'm sorry but it's not up for debate" the Prime Minister stated frankly

"I have no objections to that, you have every right to defend your people and your country; but equally, if we run into a situation that's too big for us alone to handle, I want your word that if we ask for back up, you'll provide it, and if you come across something concerning the Decepticon's that you don't fully understand or know how to approach, you contact us immediately and we'll help you any way we can, don't assume you know how they think, 'cause they ain't human in any sense of the word...and this next point is certainly not debatable, if you contact us for the purpose of imposing your military strength on any nation or opponent you ain't on good terms with, we'll have no part in it, if it's your problem you deal with it, don't go lookin' for an easy ride with us just because we got bigger guns, 'cause we don't take kindly to being taken advantage of' ya dig?" Jazz stated

"Very well, you have my word as Prime Minister that we'll offer additional help when needed, as for the concern of getting involved with our foreign policy we have no intention of 'taking you for a ride', we won't ask you to step in to resolve any situations we cannot resolve ourselves" the PM replied

"Then, unless anyone else here has any other questions, I'd say we've reached a consensus, what'd ya say guys?" Jazz grinned and each of the Autobot gang voiced their agreement.

"Very well..." the Prime Minister smiled as she laid the documents down on a nearby table and signed her signature on the protection order.

"I have to say Aramaki if you weren't so shrewd I'd fire you here and now" the home affairs minister grumbled

"If I discovered you thought any less of my abilities I'd have resigned" Aramaki smirked, the home affairs minister merely glanced sideways at him and shook his head in deadpan disbelief.

"Well I thank your help in all this, but what will you do with Saski? If he is involved with these Decepticon's how do you intend to handle him?" Kubota asked Jazz.

"Well he ain't gonna be too much of a problem, considering he's gonna be caught some time in the next few hours" the first lieutenant replied with a smirk, everyone looked up at the silver bot in confusion.

"What?"

"I don't understand?"

"Prime Minister I afraid we have one more little confession to make; over the last couple'o days some intel came to light that this opportunity to talk to you all face to face would tempt those responsible for our 'unexpected disappearance' to come outta their hiding places and try to catch us again, after what happened over the past 48 hours we confirmed one of these was Saski, and after reading his profile and military records we knew section 9 would have a hard time pinning down if they used their own conventional methodology, so we stepped in to help nab him our way. Last night when we contacted you we snuck in some specially designed 'covert' programmes onto several key areas of the military network to start searching for our perps, early this morning we got confirmed hits on the infected levels of the administrative barriers and stealth gates, and again one of them was Saski; using our cybertronian software we constructed a 'drag net' programme to catch the hackers off guard, the programme is enormous and its firewalls cannot be cracked by conventional human hacking skills because the level of random encryption codes changes spontaneously far too quickly for the human brain to keep up with. In other words, no-one can back hack it so if our target has already seen it and analysed it's specs, he'll be either on the run, or starting to get pretty desperate by now" Jazz explained, everyone blinked in surprise.

"But, that's not possible! Our network is so vast that even if you cleared one whole level of the network it would take at least 5 weeks for a wizard class to clear the other levels!" Kubota exclaimed.

"We know, we're autonomous robotic organisms, playing around with this kinda technology is no more difficult for us than you breathing air into your lungs! Besides, for a much more primitive technology it is surprisingly well constructed, which is why we activated the drag net programme at six o' clock this morning, it's been dragging through the whole military network looking for Saski and his accomplices ever since" Jazz replied, Kubota was at a loss for word before he snapped his mind back to reality.

"That's, impressive, but the search could take all day to pinpoint which particular area of the network he's using nedalone his location" Kubota replied, a beeping sound caught everyone's attention as Darren took off his back pack and got out his laptop that was beeping and had a red light flashing on the side, "Um? Would you excuse me a sec? I gotta take this" Darren said as he hopped into Trailbreaker's waiting hand where he opened the laptop up in his lap and started typing away, Jazz turned his attention back to the intelligence officer.

"As I was about to say; yeah it could take all day to search, except the drag net has, at this moment covered over 99.99.9% of the total network..." Jazz continued, everyone but the chief went bug-eyed, "got him!" Darren exclaimed, "What' cha got Darren?" Jazz grinned, "He's on level B in the DF5 sector of the communication's database, he's using a whole bunch of different key codes to throw the barriers off but his ghost key's signature encryption is confirmed and verified" the teen hacker replied. "You found him?" the prime Minister asked in astonishment, "I found his online access point; this guy is so sly, he's accessing the network via a stealth gate that you can only get to through the American satellite network via the northern hemisphere, it didn't show up as one of the administrations access gates so it must be a custom made programme he wrote up himself and installed it while the networks maintenance AI's where cycling down the various system levels during a routine anti-virus sweep, that, and the barriers protecting it are disguised to pass off as standard military attack barriers that can only be disarmed with his ghost key" Darren replied as he looked over the data that was scrolling across the screen, Aramaki and the other kids stepped forward to view the data on the laptop, but the others were reluctant to step near the towering forms of the Autobots.

"Can you pin-point his actual location?" the chief asked

"Hang on hang on, just a few more seconds..."Darren replied as he concentrated on the tracker programme that was closing in on Saski's location, typing away furiously, suddenly, a warning window popped up showing the location, Darren blinked in surprise but his expression seemed to turn into a look of stunned shock; the chief noticed this and frowned in suspicion.

"What's wrong? Where's Saski?" the chief asked

"...He's on the base, in the main garrison on the far western end, near the last dock..." Darren replied, the welcoming committee's face's fell in stunned shock, but before anyone had a chance to say or do anything Deathshot raised his hand and everyone stopped.

"What is it D-man?" Jazz asked

"My omnidirectional sensors just picked up four helicopters over ten miles south east of here moving over the headland, their IVF codes is not the same as the MSDF's choppers that flew overhead earlier and their ID is...Code: Umibozu?" Deathshot replied in slight uncertainty.

"WHAT!"

"What the?"

"WHO THE HELL ORDERED THEM HERE!" the Adiral angrily exclaimed

"It would seem Saski went with the extreme move and called in a few favours, madam Prime Minister may I recommend we 'put a pin' in this little conversation and carry on later? Right now I gotta feelin' you folks better find a safe place, I'm afraid we're gonna be a little busy" Jazz said coolly as he gestured to the other Autobots to stand at attention and prime their weapons.

* * *

This chapter was a real pain! the writers block was a friggin nightmere! I really need your view on whether this chapter is up to my regular standards, because this time I honestly couldn't tell, my head was that messed up! :( I hope it is okay if not serficible, please lend me your view so at least know my mind's still here & not away with the fairys! _ Note: dead man's click is when you pull the trigger of a gun but there's no amunition to be fired, it's more commenly heard in the military (just in case you thought Saito went & died for brief moment! XD) R&R please!

A/N: Oh, & just a quick recap on the differance between the comm frequenceys;

**Cybertronian comm link**

_Section 9 cybercomm_

Regular speech


	45. Chapter 44: True Face

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 44: TRUE FACE

"_MAJOR! We just spotted four Oniyama helicopters ten miles off the coast heading straight for the naval base and their not answering the MSDF's stand down order!"_ one of the agent Tachikoma's yelled in a panic. The Major brought up an image from the base showing the four huge black choppers far off in the distance steadily approaching, though her face remained impassive she watched in silent stunned surprise.

"_Are they insane? Are they really willing to attack the base with the prime minister and chiefs of staff on the ground?" _Batou exclaimed in disbelief

"_The Umibozu may only answer to a few select individuals in the MSDF Special Forces but even they would never dare to attack the prime minister; I don't know what kind of story Saski must have spun to them but if he really is manipulating them then he's even better than I anticipated, the Umibozu are hardly the kind of unit to be taken for a ride like this" _the Major frowned

"_For sure, they're only minutes away so what's the game plan?"_ asked Batou

"_The game plan is that you all get back here on the double! Saski's on the base and has just now put out a jamming barrier to stop the MSDF from contacting the Umibozu's attack force on the encrypted IVF frequency!"_ the chief barked over the comm.

"_So he is manipulating them, albeit by omission to the fact that their orders are not coming from the MSDF directly; alright listen up! Batou your coming with me to help intercept Saski, the rest of you meet up with the Autobots and help them anyway you can, we have to keep those Oniyama's over the water to stop the attack force from landing...Jazz are you there?"_

"_I hear you Major; we'll do what we can to hold them off but you better find Saski quick, the prime minister and rest of the welcoming committee have been taken down to the base's underground bunkers while Darren and Glen have gone to the base's central command building to try and stop him online, or at least keep him occupied long enough; you guys just hurry up and get here" _The Autobot first lieutenant replied

"_We're about two minutes away, don't engage them yet, just stay in the hanger and let the Tachikoma's diversion draw their attention away for as long as possible, let the base's forces handle them first"_ said the Major

"_Alright, see ya when ya get here!"_ Jazz replied as he and the other Autobots watched the four giant Oniyama's approach the base through their scanners; their weapons hummed with the flow of energy as they watched them come into hover over the far end of the longest dock near the gun ship. On the walkway the Rangers stood ready with their weapons at hand while the kids stood beside them in anticipation. Suddenly Ravage jumped up into the walkway and lowered his forequarters down for Ashley to climb up onto his back.

"What've you got in mind?" Ashley asked in a hushed tone.

"We're going after Saski" Ravage growled, Jazz snapped his head round in alarm

"What? No! Leave Saski to the Major and Batou, they'll nab him while we keep these 'Umibozu' dudes at bay!" Jazz sternly ordered; the Rangers looked back and forth between the first lieutenant and the giant robotic panther, wondering what he just said in his native language, 'Why can't he speak in English like the others?' Kagawa thought to himself.

"And how do we know Saski isn't already on the run? By the time the Major gets here it might already be too late, we'll have a better chance of ending this if we go on ahead, at the very least we can try to slow him down" Ravage growled, hunching his back in a defensive posture, Jazz sighed in frustration through his vents as he pondered on what to do, Saski had proven to be quite illusive so what's to say he wasn't trying to get away right now? Jazz reluctantly nodded his head in agreement.

"Alright, but take Frenzy and Morri with you, this ain't the time to be messing around kid, you keep your head in the game and stay focused!" Jazz ordered

"I know, don't worry I got this covered" Ashley replied compliantly as Morri climbed up onto Ravage's back and sat behind him, Frenzy ran and jumped up behind Morri and wrapped his limbs around her shoulder's and waist in such a way that made him look like a spiky miniature backpack as he rode her piggyback style.

"Wait! Where the hell are you going?" Kagawa ordered

"To catch Saski before he tries to slip away" Morri replied

"What? But you can't leave those Oniyama's will open fire if they spot you!" Kagawa replied

"No offence, but I've yet to see any man-made machine that can actually catch this panther off his guard, if they have anything that can catch us then they deserve to catch us, but for now, I'm only concerned with catching Saski" Ashley replied frankly, Kagawa was about to protest further when Jazz held his hand up to stop him.

"Just be careful okay?" Deathshot asked as Ravage's riders held tightly onto the ridges of his shoulder plating as he leaped off the walkway.

"We will" Morri replied as she bid him a farewell nod; Ravage paced over to the back door in the rear of the building and ripped it off its hinges with one swift swipe of his paw and quietly slipped out behind the hanger.

"You would let two kids with no combat experience and no weapons chase after a rouge top flight intelligence operative? What the hell kinda strategy is that!" Kagawa demanded angrily.

"Hey cool your engines! These kids can handle themselves just fine in these situations, don't put'em down just because they ain't soldiers, you guys just stick with your orders and be ready for whatever happens next" Jazz replied coolly as the sound of the helicopters flew overhead; Outside the Oniyama's where about to assume an attack formation when eight light grey standard military helicopters swooped down and flew straight in front, hovering as close as they could to the Oniyama's frontal armoured cockpit in an attempt to keep them at bay. Each Oniyama had two of the smaller choppers trying the bait them away from the nearest dock but the Oniyama's raised their frontal guns and primed their missiles in an attempt to make them stand down, but the eight choppers didn't budge and the next several minutes turned into an intense stand-off as all the personnel in the main complex watched from out the windows in amazement, in the central command building Darren and Glen, along with Kubota and chief Aramaki watched the main monitors as the choppers dangerously danced around in midair like two packs of pit-bulls facing off one another.

"Man, this is intense!" Glen sighed as he typed away on his laptop.

"If they land on that dock it'll get even more intense!" said Kubota as he worked on one of the computer consoles that was directly linked to Darren and Glen's laptops.

"I don't understand why they're not complying with the stand down order? The Admiral's already issued the emergency terminations codes to the Kawari where the Umibozu's based on so why aren't they listening? Surly the troops on those choppers must be thinking something's off if they've been ordered to attack their own base?" Darren said offhand

"I don't doubt some of them must be thinking the same thing, but right now they're storming the base under the assumption that the Autobots are hiding either on or near the base in disguise and are waiting to attack" Aramaki replied

"How do you know that's their order? We haven't even been monitoring their comms" Darren asked

"When you consider their actions thus far despite no actual combat has taken place yet it's the only logical assumption that fits" Kubota replied

"But who are these Umibozu guys? Some kinda special forces outfit?" Glen asked hastily

"Indeed, Special Forces who're above classified and don't officially exist; their pretty notorious in the underworld and are well known for their fast response and use of brute force to get the job done. Their meant to answer directly to the MSDF's Special Force's division but somehow I wouldn't be surprised if they took their orders from Saski directly with those bogus clearance codes he sent them" Kubota sighed in frustration as he kept on typing.

"But why him? I thought he worked in your department? True he might have access to the intel on the unit but I don't see how he'd have a direct link to them?" Glen asked

"He works-did, work in my department but before he requested the transfer he served some time in the GDSA, and before that he was an intelligence officer for the Special Forces reconnaissance unit; he wasn't just an intel collector for the Umibozu, rumour has it he was one of the officials who helped to put the unit together in the first place, if the unit's leading commander still has any loyalty towards Saski from back then than I have no doubt it's the major factor in his plan to neutralize your friends" Kubota explained

"Yeah well all I can say to him is good luck trying!...Ah! got'im!"Darren peeped

"You got a lock on him?" Kobuta asked, Darren tapped the enter button on his laptop, bring up a series of windows on one of the main monitors.

"Yeah, but it looks like he's letting an AI programme take over the bulk of his hacking, his ghost key codes just went offline so either he's up to something else in another sector of the network or he's trying to make it look like he's still online while in reality he's trying to make his escape" Darren pointed to one of the window's that was flashing a warning.

"If that's the case we can leave Saski to the Major, she'll take care of him; in the meantime we can try to disengage that jamming barrier so the MSDF can get through to the Kawari, can you locate the barrier's point of origin? He wouldn't send it directly out from the base's communications hub so he must have set up a tras-reciever somewhere near the base" said the chief

"Your right, my laptop's frequency scanner's is definitely picking up a low-lying signal being transmitted about seven miles north west of the base somewhere on the waterfront; I've got a lock on the general location but I'm not picking up any unusual online activity from the same location, whatever kinda transmitter it is, it must have a stand-alone system designed to avoid being hacked into" Glen said as he brought up the relative info on his laptop.

"In that case the transmitter would have to be intercepted directly..._Major! Send Boma and Saito to intercept that transmitter, on the double!" _the chief barked

"_Rodger that!"_ the Major replied

"How much further?" Morri called over Ashley's shoulder

"The building's right up ahead!" Ravage replied as he galloped at break-neck speed across the base, keeping out of the Oniyama's line of sight by ducking behind every building he passed; they dashed past a long row of buildings that made up the garrison and finally arrived at the far most end of the base with the parameter fence merely a hundred yards away. Ravage approached quietly and lowered his front quarters down to let the two humans and his brother off, as he stood back up his optic flashed as a red beam shot out and scanned the side of the building, sweeping back and forth a few times before stopping and looking up at a window on the top floor near the corner of the roof.

"Is he up there?" Ashley asked.

"It's him, and here he comes!" Ravage growled as a dark figure burst out the window in a high arc and landed on the ground with a loud thud over thirty feet away, cracking the tarmac underfoot; quickly rising to his feet, the figure was a tall well built man with black spiky hair combed back and with silver streaks on the temples, his face was similar to Batou's with a firm square jaw, wide nose and a hard-edged scowl. He was dressed head to toe in a black combat suit similar to section 9's own standard issue attire with a set of wires connected to the ports in the back of his neck running down to a set of devices strapped to the back of his belt; within a split second the four members of the Autobot gang gasped in shock as they recognized his face.

"SASKI!" Ashley exclaimed angrily, within a split second Saski drew his hand gun from the holster strapped to the side of his thigh, but simultaneously both Ashley and Morri activated their BHSB's and threw up a curved force field that shimmered with an electric blue aura, Saski fired his weapon but the bullets were deflected off the force field like raindrops on an umbrella, Ravage's hip guns whirled to life and he fired a grenade round at the tarmac a meter from Saski, the man was thrown several feet into the air as the round exploded but he quickly spun around in midair and landed on his feet like a cat, then he dashed for the perimeter fence at a seemingly impossible speed for a human to run.

"AFTER HIM!" Ravage roared as he bolted after Saski like a cheetah after an antelope with Frenzy riding on his back, Morri and Ashley both flew up into the air as they engaged their BSHB's anti-gravity field and tried to fire their energy blasts down at him, but Saski was too fast and they missed, then, acting on instinct Ashley aimed a few feet in front of Saski but the cyborg took one huge leap and cleared the 45 foot high perimeter fence, landing on the ground and quickly taking off. Ashley blasted a hole in the fence for Ravage run through and together the four of them chased after him through a maze of low-level buildings. The two flying humans weaved between the rooftops as they tried to keep pace with Saski, looking for the right opportunity to strike him with another energy blast, but it proved more difficult than it looked.

"Christ this guy is one slippery bastard! He's deliberately zigzagging to throw our aim off!" Ashley called over to Morri

"And he's not taking to the roofs to get away from Ravage, he knows the buildings are too close for him to gain any distance on him! We've got to-"

"LOOK OUT!" Ravage called up as Saski took a running leap and jumped right up at the kids, catching Morri by the legs and dragging her back down but as they both fell Morri let out a furious yell as sparks flew off her left shoulder and several lightning bolts burst from her aura and struck the cyborg on the arms, instantly forcing him to let go and making him crash back down on the ground. As Saski scrambled back up Ravage tackled him head on with a feral hiss and wrapped his teeth around the cyborg's arm, twisting at the shoulder to make him keel forward; Frenzy then let out a rapid succession of cybertronian curses as he opened fire on him at point black range to the back of the man's shoulder with his miniature arm guns whilst up above the kids let out a series of energy blasts down on Saski's head and legs. Despite the onslaught of blasts and bullets Saski refused to submit and with one hard swipe he struck Ravage on the side of the jaw with such force that the panther was forced to let go, Frenzy nearly fell off as his brother staggered back and as Saski tried to get back up Ashley let out a continual blast of bright blue energy down on Saski's back and shoulders, like a plume of blue fire, pinning the cyborg in place while Morri flew down and removed his hand guns from their holsters, the energy blast hardly affected her as her aura made the energy slide off like oil on water. All the while Saski strained to free himself but before he could try anything else Morri waved her arms around to form a force field around him, trapping him in a huge pale blue energy bubble; she then tensed her hands up and slowly strained them together, making the bubble shrink and forcing Saski into a foetal position, Morri concentrated like hell to keep the force field together as Saski's used his powerful cyborg strength to kick, thrash and wriggle about like an eel in a trap; Ashley backed her up with another force field of his own but Saski was soon so squashed up that he couldn't move at all while Ravage watched with a content toothy grin with Frenzy giggling in glee. Landing on the ground both the kids cautiously approached the bubble force field, Saski shot Morri a bitter scowl, but Morri was quick to pick up on the sour vibes and shot him a furious scowl of her own.

"Excellent work my students, now open the bottom of the shield so I can slip my jaws in and snap his spine!" Ravage growled angrily, Saski quirked an eyebrow at the sound of the strange alien language

"What the fuck did he just say?" the man growled

"He's gonna snap you spine you can't run off, and frankly I think I'll rip something off myself, as payback for everything you've put us and everyone else through!" Ashley replied venomously and he approached, the energy around his hands seem to morph into long glowing blade like claws as he dragged them down the side of the force field threateningly.

"Your gonna pay in full for trying to eliminate us Saski, that, I promise you!" Morri growled angrily, "Oh I don't think so" Saski replied in a scathing voice as he tapped a small button on his belt. Then, everything suddenly turned upside down and every which way but up as the force field exploded in a huge fireball, throwing the kids and drones clean off their feet and into the nearby buildings with an almighty boom. As glass, concrete and rubble fell around them Morri found to her great surprise that she wasn't unconscious nedalone injured or even in pain as the aura encompassing her form made everything bounce off like rubber; scrambling back onto her feet she managed to push a huge chuck of concrete aside with hardly any effort, and quickly ran outside to survey the damage; the ground was black in a star-burst like pattern with a neat circle in the centre of the blast zone, all around the windows of the various buildings had been blown out from the shock wave and little patches of fire were burning away on the ground. Ravage leapt out of a nearby building with a dazed Frenzy on his back and looked around with a less than pleased look in his optic.

"Uh? What the hell just happened?" Morri asked offhand as she looked around.

"An escape attempt, and a slagg' in good one too!" Ravage growled annoyingly.

"Besides the fact Saski isn't mincemeat why are we okay?" Ashley asked as he brushed off the dust and debris from his favourite red hoodie

"The aura's, the concentration of energy they hold makes them very efficient force field 'armour suits', apparently they also keep your equilibrium intact too, I hadn't anticipated that" Ravage replied with one ear quirked to the side.

"What do we do now? I don't see how anyone can survive a blast like that, even if they're a cyborg" Ashley said offhand as he surveyed the damaged buildings

"He survived alright, the blast may have bought him some time to put some distance between us but unfortunately I got his scent; you two follow me and stay in the air to cover us from above, when we next run into him be sure to keep him busy from two opposite directions, I'll take care of him personally..." Ravage growled, Morri and Ashley where about to fly back up into the air when the panther reared up on his hind legs and gently swatted at their legs to stop them, "And one other thing...I want you both to prepare yourselves for whatever might happen, there was something off about his scent, he didn't smell like the other cyborgs we've come across so far" Ravage sternly warned, the kids looked at one another in mild alarm.

"What do mean?" Morri asked

"I don't know, but we'll find out as soon as we catch up to him and I get a chance to peel his flesh off and see what's underneath, LET'S GO!" Ravage ordered and without another word the kids took off upwards into the air; Ravage paced along but stopped as he noticed some small drops of bright blue energon in the centre of the blast zone where the bubble force field had been, he pricked both ears back in alarm and snarled in ire as he suddenly took off at a fast pace, following the strange scent of the half human entity through the buildings and over the roofs.

'This is not going to end well...' Ravage though in the back of his mind as he followed the scent along to the waterfront and into the more built up areas of the city's docklands.

Back at the base however, things were not improving.

"Damn it this is taking too long! There's just too many channels to filter out, how the hell are we gonna find the right one!" Glen growled as he typed away furiously on his laptop, going over the data at it poured in at a fast pace, Darren and Kubota both worked on the nearby computer consoles and laptops.

"Well the good thing is Ravage, Frenzy, Morri and Ashley are going after him, I just picked up their signals on the BSHB bio-tracker and standard Autobot tracking frequency, from the looks of it he's got a head start but Ravage seems to have picked up his scent, they'll probably run into the Major at some time soon and then...hang on, I think I got his channel, listen up!" Darren replied hastily as he watched the data on his laptop and brought it up on the main monitor.

:...Come in unit one this is command, we have conformation that the pilots cyberbrains have been ghost hacked by the alien entities, assume attack formation and storm the base's hangers, assume all base personnel are under enemy control and fire at will; locate enemy targets and eliminate them on sight!:

"WHAT-"

At that moment they watched the main monitor in shock as the Oniyama's opened fire on the smaller choppers, their larger guns ripped them to shreds as they fell down in eight huge fireballs and crashed onto the dock; without wasting time the Oniyama's moved into position as their side doors opened up and six sets of black armed suits abseiled out and down and landed on the ground followed by four ten man teams of soldiers dressed head to toe in black combat suits with ghostly looking white face masks.

"...I don't believe this!..." Kubota breathed in disbelief as he watched several of the base's armed unit's storm out to meet the Umibozu, only to be cut down in a hail of gunfire; their dying cries echoed off the walls of the buildings and reached the hangers, inside the Autobots listened and without hesitation primed their weapons and revved their engines, Jazz turned to the Ranger's and caught Kagawa's gaze with a stern look.

"Now listen, you guys better lock 'an load 'cause this is gonna get kinda rough" he said

"What about us?" Sam asked

"Back'em up, use your force fields to provide cover, and stay behind us...Autobots, roll out! Jazz barked and they burst through the hanger doors and sped towards the advancing force, Deathshot and Jetfire both exploded out of the hanger roof and soared high into the sky whilst the kids activated their BSHB's and took off with the Rangers close behind on the ground, 'this is nuts!' Kagawa thought in annoyance. The thundering sound of jet engines drew several of the Umibozu's attention as the two winged Autobots charged the Oniyama's, the choppers rapidly manoeuvred out of the way and shot their missiles as the flyers thundered by, Jetfire twisted in midair and came into hover as he raised his axe, and with one huge swing an enormous plume of red fire burst from the axe's blade and engulfed the incoming missiles and blasted them away, the intense heat made the humans on the ground flinch away, only to look up in surprise at the rest of the Autobots who were standing in a line at the far end of the entrance to the dock. Suddenly everything seem to stop for a tense moment as the two forces eyed each other up and down, somehow the whole thing seemed to eerily echo the sense from a western where the cowboys and the outlaws were at the point of drawing their guns, somehow, a tumble-weed rolling by between them would have been a little appropriate.

"So how do you guys wanna do this? We could offer the easy way or the hard way, but somehow, you guys don't look to be the easy types to me..." Jazz smirked, without a word the troops raised their weapons and took aim.

"Alright then, Autobots, take'em down!"

Morri looked back over her shoulder as the sound of gunfire and explosions echoed over the tops of the buildings, in the distance she could make out two plumes of think black smoke and several fireballs and energy blasts exploding in midair, each making the air vibrate with sharp cracks and thundering boom's.

"Sounds like the party really kicked off back at the base; can you see what's happening?" Ashley called over through the air as he flew a couple of meters away

"Not much, but don't worry about the guys just concentrate on this!" Morri called back as they dipped down to fly closer to the ground as they chased after Ravage and Frenzy through another series of narrow alleyways and close-knit buildings, being sure to avoid every human they past. As they glided past a large block of flats something up ahead caught Morri's eye on the top of a dilapidated high-rise apartment building, "look, up there!" she gestured to Ashley, as they picking up speed they noticed it was Saski, carrying what looked like some sort of large gun in both hands; Morri gasped in shock as she realized it was a six barrelled Gatling gun and before she even had time to call over to Ashley Saski open fired on them, a hail of bullets exploded off their auras like fireworks, despite the auras keeping them in one piece it was like being in the middle of a hail storm and the heat from the bullets impact was red hot against their skin, quickly diving down behind an empty run-down office block the two kids held onto one another as they stopped to catch their breath whilst they hovered in midair.

"Wh-what the hell did he just shoot us with?" Morri asked offhand in a shaky voice as they both carefully peeked around the corner of the building, Saski let loose another several rounds and the kids rapidly flinched back as the concrete corner was blown half away, exposing the metal structure underneath.

"Looks like it's an anti-aircraft gun, but where did he get it?" Ashley replied

"...A gun that big, he must have stashed it up on that roof in case of an emergency; in which case he must have a hideout of some kind nearby-" Morri frowned, but before she could say anything else the top corner of the building exploded and a shower of concrete, rusted metal and glass rained down on top of the two kids as they yelled in surprise; hovering over and peering around from the other corner Ashley saw Saski standing in the same spot, this time sporting a large shoulder mounted cannon.

"Bloody hell he's got a Bazooka!" the 12 year old exclaimed angrily

"What the hell do we do now?" Morri called over as Ashley hover back over to her

"Do as Ravage said, split up and take him on from opposite directions, I'll take his front you take his back, we'll both drop down as low as we can go to stay out of his line of sight to sneak up on his position, then rush him!" Ashley replied, Morri sighed and nodded in agreement, "Alright, but remember, this bastard already slipped away once, be on your guard for anything!" she said sternly, to which Ashley replied with a discreet nod; together they both dropped down until they were several feet above the ground, and after carefully peering around the corner of the office block, spotted the end of Saski's gun poking just over the edge of the apartment building.

"See him?"

"Yep, he's still there"

"Hold onto me, I'll keep my eyes on him while you lead us to him"

"Right" Ashley replied as he grabbed Morri arm and lead her along to the building whilst she kept her eyes trained on the gun, several times they passed some apartments and other buildings that obscured Morri's view for a brief few seconds but they quickly flew along to regain sight of their target.

"Has he moved? We're right in front of his position" Ashley asked

"His gun moved just now, he must be loading another round into the chamber" replied Morri

"In that case we rush him now while his guard's down! Go!" Ashley yelled and together they both shot up the side of the building like rockets, Morri flew around to the opposite side with her fists crackling with energy in readiness to attack; when they both shot up over the roof they both let loose a blast of energy each down onto the gravel rooftop, throwing up the grit and gravel in a plume of blue fire, but gasped in astonishment when they saw both the Gatling gun and rocket launcher laying discarded near the edge, Saski was gone.

"WHAT! He got the drop on-UAAAAH!" Morri yelled out as an invisible force suddenly grabbed her by the ankle and threw her down onto the roof with a sharp twist, making her land on her front, then something from behind grabbed her arm and twisted it up and behind her back in an attempt to dislocate it from her shoulder; Morri screamed in pain as her aura glowed more intensely and began to flicker like fire as more bolts of energy flew out in an attempt to try and hit whatever was trying to rip off her arm. Simultaneously Ashley let out a blast of blue fire like energy down on Morri, as the blue 'flames' licked across the gravel the clear outline of a person hunched over could be seen, without holding back Ashley let out a furious yell as he tensed his back and arms, letting out one huge blast that knocked the mystery attacker off Morri and sent him flying across the roof, the stranger's outline shimmered as their therm-optic camouflage disengaged and Saski suddenly reappeared.

"Are you okay? Did he break your arm?" Ashley asked in a worried voice as he looked her over for any injuries, Morri winced in pain as she gently brought her arm back around and held her shoulder, "I don't think he dislocated it, I'll be fine just keep him back!" Morri shouted as she gestured to Saski who was now charging at them in a full on rage, reacting on instinct Ashley threw up a force field and knocked the big cyborg backwards and proceeded to lay down a rapid succession of punches, kicks and blasts, not once giving Saski room to get up nedalone breath while several feet away Morri strained to raise her arm as each movement sent waves of pain through her muscles. 'Shit! He's pulled more than one muscle, I can barley lift my arm over my head!' she thought as she hissed through her teeth in pain as she scrambled back onto her feet. As Ashley went in for another blow Saki got the drop on him and with one powerful kick sent the 12 year old flying across the roof, landing on his back on the far edge of the roof, Morri scowled in ire as she tried to throw another energy blast but found the pain in her shoulder threw her off and Saski grabbed her by the throat. She gasped and gagged for breath as the cyborg tightened his grip, crushing down on her windpipe and voice box; black spots and white stars started to dance across her field of vision as her brain started to starve of oxygen and her strength began to quickly wane too whist fear screamed at her to try and fight back but all she could do was weakly wriggle like a fish out of water. Just as she was about to pass out, a huge blue blur hit Saski from the side like a freight train, making him drop Morri in a crumpled up heap on the roof.

"MORRI!" Ashley cried in alarm as he ran over to her side and held her in his arms as she gasped for breath, Suddenly appearing over the side of the roof Frenzy ran up and quickly scanned her up and down with his blue optics and shook his head with worry, "H-h-he n-nearly crushedhervocalprocessor! Sh-sh-sh-sh need's air r-rightnow!" he squeaked in alarm as he took her by the temples and carefully tilted her head back to open up her mouth, the Major suddenly appeared opposite Ashley and scooped her up off the ground and carried her behind one of the roof's ventilation openings with hardly any effort thanks to her superior cyborg strength.

"M-Major? Wh-what are you-*Cough! Cough!*" Morri wheezed as she struggled to breath but the Major rested a finger over her lips to stop her talking. "Don't try to talk, we caught sight of you two as you tried to surprise Saski with that pincer attack, we came in the long round and met up with Ravage and Frenzy on the way up, Ashley you-"noticing the 12 year old was no longer by her side, the Major looked back and saw Ashley going back after Saski with another flurry of energy blasts. But suddenly, a shadow flew overhead and the whole roof shook violently as a huge humanoid shape slammed down on the side of the building with a shuddering boom, the Major threw herself over Morri and as the huge dust cloud blew away she was stunned to Deathshot latched onto the side of the roof with Saski pinned squarely under his clawed hand, and with a look of absolute death in his one optic as he glared down at the cyborg, Ashley picked himself up from where he had been tossed to the side as well as the Major's Tachikoma who tackled Saski in the first place, at that moment Batou and his Tachikoma appeared over the side of the roof and approached both the Major and Saski in equal surprise.

"WOW! Now that's a way to make an entrance!" Batou's Tachikoma peeped as it gazed up at Deathshot; the Autobot sniper acknowledged the blue think tank with a nod and leaned back slightly.

"You two got him covered?" he asked the two tanks

"Sure thing!" both tanks squeaked, they aimed their guns at Saski as Deathshot steadily removed his hand, being sure to let the blade of his index finger linger next to the cyborgs head as he lowered his head down until he was right over Saski's face, the man defiantly glaired up at him with a look of contempt.

"If I find you've injured her in any way, I will personally deal you a fate far worse than death...Tachikoma, if he so much as looks the wrong way, shoot his legs off and let his try to run..." Deathshot growled venomously as he leaned back up and side-climbed along the side of the building to where Morri, the Major and Batou were standing, Ashley scowled at Saski before running off back to Morri who was still on the ground but now sitting upright and breathing more easily. With a look of worry in his optic Deathshot carefully slipped his hand under her back to help her back onto her feet, she held onto his index finger and thumb as she gathered her bearings while he scanned her up and down.

"Are you alright?" the Autobot sniper asked worryingly

"I'm f-fine, just a little dazed, just need to get m-my breath back..." She replied as she took several deep breaths to clear her head and straightened herself up.

"We'll have the medical unit check you over when we get back to HQ, how did you get here so fast?" the Major asked as she gazed up at Deathshot.

"My boosters, I sensed the rapid drop in her oxygen levels through the BSHB and didn't waste any time, I spotted Saski on the rooftop all the way from the base and zeroed in on him" he replied. As Morri waved him off, both she, Ashley, the Major and Batou approached Saski as he looked up at them both with an irritated scowl; Batou simply returned the favour with an equally detested look of his own. As Morri looked him up and down she began to wonder just how he survived that explosion, then her eyebrows flew up in surprise before settling into a confused frown as she realised he hadn't any marks or external giveaways to suggest he had been in any explosion of any kind.

"What do we do with him now? We caught him earlier but he gave us the slip...although, looking at you, I wouldn't have guessed you'd survived a grenade explosion, you've hardly got a single mark on you nedalone any injuries" Morri said offhand as she cautiously approached Saski with one fist clenched fist that was flickering with energy.

"That's a class-A cyborg for ya kid, you could probably throw ten grenades at this guy and he'd still be able to walk away" Batou frowned

"But I seriously doubt He'll be able to walk away from me when I'm done with him" Ravage growled as he silently appeared from behind Batou's Tachikoma and circled around Saski with an irritated snarl.

"For sure, but first we need him alive first so he can tell us just what he's been up to" Morri replied

"Oh I don't think he'll be answering to anyone child..." Ravage snarled as he gazed down at Saski, Batou was about to say something as he stepped forward but Frenzy grabbed his arm to hold him back, "...Why don't you drop the act and let us see who you really are" Ravage growled into Saski's face, the man scowled back at him in defiance whilst the four other humans watched Ravage in bemusement. "Who you really are? Ravage what are you on about?" Ashley asked as the panther stepped around Saski's side and crouched down, "Let me show you..." Ravage replied. In one quick move he clamped his jaws down on Saski's shoulder and ripped a huge chunk of flesh off the man's arm, the kids and Tachikoma's gasped in horror and the Major, Batou and Deathshot raised their weapons at the panther; but the rooftop fell deathly silent as they suddenly noticed what was under Saski's skin. Instead of a cyborg body, the shoulder joint was made up of black spiky armour and ligament cables, and instead of deep red blood bright blue energon slowly glugged out of the wound.

"What the hell?" Batou gasped in astonishment, the Major was equally shocked but maintained her defensive stance as she kept her semi-automatic trained on Saski's forehead; Saski merely looked at the gaping wound and grinned in a rather unnerving way.

"Well, I suppose this means I can stop playing the double agent act, it was starting to get so tedious..." Saski smirked as a trickle of energon began to escape from his mouth, but the smile dropped into a look of ire,

"You know, I've been watching you all for a very long time now, and of all the individuals, I never expected you two to betray your own kind, you should have killed these parasitic weaklings you call your 'friends' and seeked us out the second you heard of us!" Saski continued, his voice slowly morphing into a more electronic basso voice, the kids watched in alarm as his flesh began to writhe and wriggle, as if snakes were slithering about under his skin; Ravage hunched forward in a defensive posture as he stared down at Saski and looked him straight in the eyes as they began to glow vivid blood red.

"In case you haven't figured it out yet, we defected! Cybertron is dead, Megatron is dead! The Allspark is DEAD! The war is over and we decided to cut our losses and join the Autobots; these humans may be painfully backwards but I'll admit they have their moments, and these two are no acceptation; harm them and I'll ensure that you die slowly, painfully, and screaming for mercy, and only when you're spark is utterly shattered and every trace of hope has fled from your mind, will I consider letting you embrace death's tender release..." Ravage growled venomously, his deep voice reverberating through the air like thunder making all but Saski stand in slight nervousness as chills ran down their spines. But Saski quirked an eyebrow at the panther and his scowl deepened into an even more frustrated look of ire.

"I don't know what the fuck you just said, but I wasn't talking to you" Saski snarled as he looked up at the Major and Batou; Ravage snapped his ears back in surprise, Frenzy nearly chocked in shock and Deathshot was equally taken aback, "What?" Morri and Ashley exclaimed in unison.

"Just what the hell are you talking about?" the Major frowned

"...Oh I think you know exactly what I'm talking about, Motoko..." Saski smirked, both the Major and Batou stiffened in mild alarm as they threw up their guard, wondering with a sense of foreboding just where this was going.

"A beautiful and powerful cyborg like yourself; associating with these walking meat sacks? Honestly, you should be wearing their skins and drinking from their skulls, such pathetic and lowly creatures like humans have no right to live nedalone be defended by higher life forms like you and I...And you Batou, I seriously expected better of you too; letting a flesh infested parasite like Togusa be your friend? I laughed so hard I thought I'd burst! The idea of a cyborg being friends with a human? Now that's disgusting..." Saski defiantly spat, everyone stood in a mix of sheer disbelief and anger, Batou's rage began to emanate off in waves but he reluctantly stood his ground.

"You are one seriously sick bustard you know that? I don't know what kind of neo-Nazi shit you signed up for but I can tell you we're ANYTHING but weak! In case you forgot I was kicking your arse all over this roof not two minutes ago!" Ashley growled as he began to brittle in agitation, his aura intensifying into a blue fire that reached several feet into the air.

"And that was supposed to your best?" Saski smirked, Ashley snarled like a feral cat as he stepped forward with his fists clenched hard and energy bolts bristling all over his body, Morri quickly stepped in front and held him by the shoulder.

"Just who are you really? You don't understand Cybertronian so if you're not a Decepticon then what are you supposed to be? What do you want?" Morri asked sternly. Saski merely chuckled under his breath as a ripping sound could be heard coming from his back and his flesh began to writhe more and more with energon beginning to bleed from his eyes, mouth and shoulder wound.

"Want? I don't have the need for such trivial things...especially not when you're already a god!" Suddenly, Saski's flesh ripped apart as his body exploded with flesh, clothing and energon flying in every direction, the humans, drones, Tachikoma's and Autobot sniper flinched back before they beheld the creature standing before them.

In Saski's place was a ten foot insect-dragon like creature with jet black armour plating all over its body with two silver-grey stripes going down it's sides; it's legs were long and catlike with three long claws on each foot, it's arms were long and bulky ending in a set of double clawed hands; its head was a cross between a cat and an insect as its eyes were large glowing red slits set deep into the orbital sockets and its mouth was a set of four mandibles lined with pale silver dagger-like teeth and from the base of its back a long robust tail grew from out from between the plates of back armour and whipped about as a six pointed axe-like blade spouted out of the tip. Everyone stood their ground as they eyed the creature up and down, Morri, Ashley, Deathshot and the drones could tell this was no Cybertronian they had ever seen before; whilst obviously mechanical in nature the armour profile was all wrong, instead of being a consistency of straight lines, tapered edges and external circuitry the body armour was smooth and sculptured with curves and rounded edges, the plating looked more like bones or an insect's exoskeleton, more organic than mechanical and whilst some external circuitry could be seen around the neck and other joints, it looked damaged somehow with warty tumour-like growths throbbing around them. The creature took advantage of everyone's shock and in one rapid move grabbed both the Tachikoma's by their cannons and smashed them together over its head with hardly any effort, and with such force it dislodged both their pods from their bodies. Throwing them over the sides of the roof, the Tachinkoma's cried out in vain as they fell to the ground; everyone instantly snapped back to reality as they went on the offence, the Major and Batou both open fired but the creature was far too quick as it lunged forward and swiped it's clawed hand across Batou's face and shoulder, ripping the top layer of flesh off the ex-ranger's cyborg body and exposing the robotic form underneath while at the same time it stabbed the Major straight through both her legs with the axe blades of its tail, it then grabbed them by their necks and slammed them straight through the roof down to the floor below; Ravage and Frenzy both attacked and clawed, ripped and bite into its back while Morri and Ashley threw up two force fields to push the creature back. Before Deathshot's shoulder guns could unfurl from his shoulder armour plating the creature waved it's arm up at him and a set of it's armour plates opened up and two small black objects shot out and struck the edge of the roof Deathshot was clinging onto, the whole side of the building exploded in a blast of greenish yellow fire, Deathshot lost his footing and couldn't get a grip as he fell down the side of the building.

"DEATHSHOT!" Morri cried out as she saw him disappear down the side of the building in a plume of dust and smoke, the whole building shifted violently as the 30 foot Autobot tried to regain his grip onto the side of the building, the roof began to sink down to the left as the structure underneath began to collapse. The creature grabbed both Ravage and Frenzy off it's back but before he could do anything Ashley let out a furious feral yell as he took a running leap and lunged up at the creature in a cat like manner.

"ASHLEY! DON'T!-" Morri cried out in vain but couldn't move as she kept firing energy blasts, the energy aura around Ashley's hands formed into a set of long claws as he began ripping away at the creature's head, the creature dropped Frenzy and grabbed Ashley by the scruff of the neck but before it could toss him away Ashley grabbed his arm. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as within the span of a few short seconds his forearms were enveloped by white light, like white silhouettes, and his hands seem to, for the briefest moment, morph into a set of cat-like paws that grasped the arm tightly and ripped it off at the elbow, the white light around his hands and arms dissipated and they were back to normal in an instant. As Ashley landed on the ground the creature let out a ear-splitting screech as it grasped it's torn arm in pain and keeled over in agony; Ashley seized the opportunity, concentrating as hard as he could he formed a long sword shaped energy blade around his wrist and with the hardest punch he ever threw he sank the blade into the creature's neck; energon gushed out of the creatures mouth and neck wound as he forced the blade in deeper and deeper with all his strength until he was sure enough enegon had poured out to weaken the creature severely; sure enough, as he leaned back and let the energy sword dissipate like smoke, the creature dropped to its knees and one good hand, to make sure it stayed down Ravage swiped his mace tail into the creature's face and knocked it onto it's back. Morri took that as her cue to ease up and cautiously approached as Ashley paced over to the creature with his aura still burning and flickering and his temper still raw and bristling, whilst he still held onto the creature's severed arm. Frenzy hopped up to his side as Ravage paced around and stood at the 12 year olds back as they stood in the huge puddle of energon that was slowly trickling down the now sloping roof, the creature weakly looked up at them and chocked and grumbled angrily as it tried to turn onto its side.

"So? You still think we're weaklings?" Ashley growled, the creature spat out some energon as it scowled up at the boy.

"You c-can't defeat me...I, I cannot be defeated! Humans are weak! You are weak! I-GACK!" Ashley slammed his foot down into the creatures face and kicked it hard to the side, Ravage grabbed the creatures tail and with one sharp bite snapped the end of its tail off and handed the severed end to Ashley, as he held it he looked at the six pointed star shaped blade in morbid fascination.

"You have done well my student, now, time to 'christen' your first victory and end this..." Ravage growled with an air of pride, Ashley frowned at the panther in mild alarm as he realised what he was implying, "...after everything that's happened, after disowning and mocking the name of your species, he hasn't earned the right to die a quick and clean death, make it a straight strike to the belly, and let him know what the true meaning of agony really is..."

Morri gasped, Ashley looked at Ravage in mild surprise, could he do this? Could he really kill another being? But as he looked back down the creature and saw all the hate and rage in its glowing red eyes, he only felt his anger burn deeper for all it had said, as he grasped the blade and aimed it over the creatures belly Morri felt a small twinge of doubt overtake her fury for a moment and she threw up her hand to stop her cousin.

"Wait!...Do we, really have to do this? I don't know if this is right, I..." She blurted out, unsure of what to say as she only felt spurred by the doubt now creeping into the back of her mind.

"Didn't you hear what he said? He doesn't just hate humans he thinks we're scum! If we let him live he'll only kill innocent people, this is the only way to make sure he can't do any more harm to anyone, don't you think that makes sense?" Ashley frowned; Morri heisted and dropped her gaze down at the creature, after the fight he just put up she couldn't deny the threat he posed, and after hearing all the hatefulness in his opinion of humans it only egged at her to let him die for his evil, it made her anger burn with a sense of righteousness as it reminded her of her grandfather's war stories, about how he fought a similar evil during the second world war, about how the world was spun on its head and made to suffer at the hands of madman with dreams of a racially cleansed world; how she wept for those died and hated the stories of the death camps and how so many were tortured and killed like common vermin. If this creature, this being thought so little of her and her own kind then he had no right to kill anyone simply he thought humans were the scum of the earth; but was it right to take his life in the name of justice? Was it right to become a killer, even if it were for the sake of doing what's best? Could she let her cousin, who was still a child himself, become a murderer and let the burden of a taking a life rest on his conscience for the rest of his young days? As her doubt grew thicker she remembered something her mother once said a long time ago:

"All life matters my dear, no matter what form's it takes, whether it be a kind soul or a hateful one, it's not our place to judge who lives and who dies even if we believe our actions to be righteous; remember what Einstein once quoted?...Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods..."

She sighed, wishing that the choice were really that simple, Morri flinched as the creature turned its head to her and stared straight up at her.

"I...Am y-your god! B-bow down to me and b-beg for my forgiveness you parasite! Or I swear I'll-"

"You'll do what? Your bleeding to death and have no chance of recovery if we leave you like this; if you surrender now we'll let you live" Morri stated firmly, Ashley relaxed a little but Ravage only bristled.

"*Cough! Cough! Choak!* GHA hahaha! A human offering mercy? What a cheap joke! Your pathetic species can't go more than a decade without a war! Hatred's in your blood, you may think your sweet and innocent and think you can save your little whelp friend here from becoming a killer, but when pushed to the extreme even you'll be hungry to taste the flesh of your own kind; you may deny it, but you know I'm right" the creature smirked contently, Ashley growled angrily and aimed the blade again but Morri stopped him, deciding to take the initiative on this on and see if he was really worth sparing, she looked back down at him with a firm yet impassive gaze, remembering what the Major taught her and Mikaela about being cleaver and playing a situation to her advantage.

"Human aren't cannibals by nature, but what I'm interested to know, is why you hate us so much? Did a human hurt you in anyway?" she asked as calmly as possible, the creature merely widened its grin and chuckled weakly, coughing up more energon.

"What? You think one of your pathetic species killed someone close to me and now I'm on a vendetta of revenge?...Oh my, you're even more transparent than you look! The only thing I hate about your kind is that you're weak, you're primitive, and that you exist, I don't hate you for anything you've done, I hate you because you because of what you are" He chucked in a mocking tone

"Really? Because I'm not hearing much conviction" Morri stated as she folded her arms.

"Conviction?...your God is a farce and always has been, an illusion conjured up by the weak in an attempt to seize power by controlling fear through suspicion; you're so weak and easy to scare you'll believe anything anyone tell you without question, you would gladly drink poison if you believed it would save your life, but then, that principle applies to many aspects of your pathetic lives, it really is delightful to watch" he chuckled, keeping up her guard, Morri carried on, deciding not to give him the satisfaction of indulging in his sick sense of humour whilst Ashley couldn't stand to listen the words this creature was spewing out.

"An atheist? I'm not impressed; I want to know is why you want us, why you went to all this trouble to try and get rid of us and our friends" she asked. The creature paused for a moment before bursting out into laughter, Ravage swiped his paw down hard on the creature's neck, forcing him to choke and splutter, before letting him gasp for breath to answer her.

"S-since it's nearly the end, I suppose letting you know your enviable fate is acceptable, it'll m-make it all the more sweeter to see you suffer all the way...I didn't intend on killing your masters, I wanted to offer them the chance to evolve, and take evolution to a whole new level"

"Masters?"

"Yes, is that so difficult for you to understand meat sack? The Major, Batou, Deathshot, Jazz, Bumblebee and all the other cyborgs and 'Autobot's'; you seriously didn't think they consider you their equals did you? Beings of far superior power, intelligence and immortality, why do think anyone in this world would give a weakling species like yours a second glance? You're so naive, simple, backwards and weak that's it's amusing to them; do you seriously think Aramki has any real control over them? He's even weaker than you and yet they humour him with their 'loyalty'...and your so called 'guardian's'? Please, why would the high gods of the stars soil their hands with your filth? To be so 'interested' in your petty and meaningless lives, they only ever pay attention to you because it's amusing for them; you are nothing but pets, and once they grow bored of you they'll simply crush you under their heels and leave you to rot, the fact that you don't see this is really quite amusing, you're so simple it's just unbelievable!..." the creature laughed in a mocking and unnerving tone. As he lied there chocking between intakes of air the two humans and drones looked at one another.

"He's...c-c-c-compleatlyinsane!" Frenzy said offhand

"Not only that, but delusional to the point of psychosis, plus I think he, actually sounded like he believed every word" Morri said as she looked down at the still laughing creature with a sense of fear and disbelief, Ashley couldn't help but feel the same and gently lowered the blade; Ravage looked at him for a moment before sighing and shrugging his shoulders.

"His memory files may be utterly corrupted and he may have a few firewalls short of a full CPU, but it doesn't excuse what he's done...Alright, we'll make this simple and give him a quick death, as mercy for being a victim of his own insanity..." Ravage said as he nudged Ashley's hand over the creature's forehead to aim for right between the eyes, "Remember, be quick and be swift, straight down without hesitation" Ravage continued, Ashley looked up at Morri and nodded discreetly as he raised his hands and tightly grasped the blade Morri was about to stop him when...

"Hang on" Batou said as he gently laid his hand on Ashley's arm to stop him, both the kids gasped in surprise and their face's fell in shock when they saw the torn flesh on the side of his face, exposing his cyborg form underneath; they didn't know whether to be horrified or just plain shocked. Morri in particular didn't know what to say as she gazed at the strange robotic features in morbid surprise, for all its strangeness it just didn't look right for a human.

"Kid, you put up one hell of a fight, but do you really want to have this on your conscience for the rest of your life?" he asked gently, Ashley was at a loss for words, Ravage stepped in between them and stared Batou down.

"_If we let this creature live he'll endanger more human lives, could you live with yourself if we let him live and he kills anyone? Whose conscience would be plagued then?" _he growled, _"We cannot afford to chance this; it's either him or us!"_

"_I know that! But let one of us do it, you seriously can't expect the kid to make that kinda choice!" _Batou argued back

"_The boy defeated him in battle with his own strength, he was the victory and as such he claims the right the kill; it may be beyond your nose but I know a fellow warrior when I smell one, he has all the makings of a fine hunter and sooner or later he will have to kill, whether it be in the name of survival or justice, this is a path he will have to cross sooner or later, better he confront it now than be hesitant and risk losing the next fight because of doubt!" _Ravage growled

"_I don't doubt he a good fighter, but you have no right to force that kind of choice on him" _the Major's stern voice echoed in the panther's helm, he looked over Batou head and noticed her sitting by the hole in the roof, both kids ran over to her sidein concern, they gasped when they saw the huge gaping holes in both her thighs and saw all the metal, wiring, circuitry and muscle exposed.

"Oh my God...are you okay Major?" Morri asked in a shaky voice

"I'll be fine, don't worry about me..._If you were so eager to kill that thing why didn't you do it yourself?" _the Major asked Ravage, Morri noticed her gazing at Ravage and gestured to Batou to ask what was going on, he tapped the side of his head to indicate they were talking via the comms.

"_As I said before, he was the victor in this fight therefore the kill belongs to him; I understand your objection and it's not without human reason, I'm well aware he's still a sparkling and your trying to maintain his innocence as such, but sooner or later he will have to learn in full of death and its ramifications. You forget Major, with the path we are already treading things look set to get worse before they get any better, and if the time comes when neither I nor his guardian are there to defend him, he with have to know how to fight, and ultimately kill to survive; let him know what it means to take his enemy's life and we'll be spared a whole load of grief later, if he doesn't learn how to confront this and move on from it, he will never survive for long; and believe me I've seen many rookies take the alternative and none of them are standing here now" _Ravage replied sternly, the Major huffed in frustration and turned her gaze to Ashley.

"Ashley, do you really want to kill that thing?" she asked him, Ashley hesitated for a moment and looked over at Ravage.

"Don't look at him look at me! Do you seriously believe you have what it takes to kill?" she asked him sternly, her sharp tone made him flinch slightly and for a moment he understood just why she was a force to be reckoned with, as she held his gaze with her crimson red eyes beads of sweat began to run down the sides of his temple as he racked his brain for an answer; to honest he wasn't so sure of himself and as fumbled to try and find the right words Ravage pricked his ears back in concern. Had he been wrong about his student? Did he overestimate him? Was he really not ready to take that one step? With a deep reluctant sigh through his vents, Ravage paced forward and nudged Ashley's shoulder, drawing his attention.

"It's alright, you don't have to if you don't feel you can" growled Ravage

"Huh? But you said-"

"I know what I said...Remember when you first became my student? I asked only for your loyalty, not you obedience; I didn't specifically order you to kill the creature, did I not?" Ravage purred, Ashley was now really confused.

"Uh, no, but then why did you-"

"I didn't; I left the situation open for you all the way to make your choice, I didn't coax you on nor did I tell you to disregard what your cousin said. You could've stepped back anytime but you didn't, I followed your lead youngling and not once did you say otherwise...I merely suggested, not commanded" Ravage stated, Ashley looked up at him mild surprise, feeling as though he failed somehow, Morri too was somewhat taken aback by the panther's true intent; as Ashley dropped his gaze he noticed the blade he was still holding and felt a sense of soberness in the back of his mind, sensing his uneasy, Ravage gently nuzzled the boy's head in reassurance.

"Don't worry, there'll be other fights; for now keep the blade, it is your prize after all..._I know you're not doing this out of sympathy for that thing either"_ Ravage growled at the Major.

"In case you forgot we need him to tell us where the kidnapped children are, dead men, or creatures, tell no tales and he's no use to us dead" The Major replied, "That's a good point" Morri concurred

"_That's a relief, for moment I was worried you had actually grown a heart" _Ravage smirked sarcastically

"As if..." she coolly retorted, at that moment Deathshot appeared over the side of the building and hovered silently near the humans, "D! Are you okay? Where are the Tachikoma's?" Ashley asked in relief, "They'll be fine, their waiting for us on the ground, fortunately that fall wasn't so far but it threw my gyroscopic equalizers for a loop" he replied reassuringly.

"Here to put your pets back on their leashes I see" the creature called out mockingly, everyone frowned as they were suddenly made aware of his presence, "You know Motoko, Batou, sooner or later you'll see just how unreliable these humans really are, what a waste of DNA they really are!...".

"Ah shut it already your giving me a headache! Or do I have to come over there and beat some more sense into ya!" Ashley spat

"Hahahaha! That was nothing; you think you've defeated me? YOU'VE DEAFETED NOTHING! I will be back and next time I will make you suffer! Your miserable species extinction is at hand, and you, my brother and sister, will take your rightful places by our sides on the throne of the world, the age of mankind is over! THE AGE OF THE CYBORG BEGINS!" the creature laughed hysterically as one of its chest armour plates slid back and a pale blue glow emanated out, everyone watched in alarm, wondering what was going to happen next, as Deathshot scanned him over to see just what was in there he gasped sharply in horror and with a blast from his boosters he lunged down on the creature.

"WHAT THE-"

KABABROOOOOOOMMMM!

At the exact same moment back in the Navel bases control room:

"Okay guys I think we're finally-" Darren didn't get to finish as the whole room shook violently and thundering boom seemed to fill the air, Darren, Glen, Kubota and the chief were knocked off their feet as all around computers, shelves and various other things fell over, papers were thrown up, the man monitor and several other screens that lined the walls cracked and shattered and several control panels and keyboards began sparking whilst the four of them tried to cling on to something; but as quickly as it started, it swiftly died down into nothing. Cautiously getting back up, they surveyed the devastation around them and looked at one another in shock.

"What the hell was that?" Glen asked offhand.

* * *

Okay, I know I probably went a tad overboard with Saski's dialoge, but to be honest I was just in a super evil mood, plus, he is ment to be totally insane X) plus, its going to be getting even more insane! but first, find out if our hero's survived in the chapter! Stay tuned & don't forget to R&R on the way out! see ya next time! :D


	46. Chapter 45: That By Which We Learn

A/N: A little mild curseing in this one but hey, we're all grown-up's here right? XD

Things have been kind of slow these past several weeks, my Grandfather passed away recently after 5 years of living with cancer so life's been kind of on hold & my work has kind taken a knock as a result, the last couple of chapters haven't been up to my usual standards because I've been so distracted, but after the funeral the week before last, everything just seemed to come back to me and I could finally carry on (grief works in odd ways huh?). I'm okay now, I'd already done most of my grieving long before & I just caught up in all the little emotions that came with the whole thing (those little moments really creep up on you when you least expect it, & it totally sucks when they bite you where it hurts), I'll miss him but I'll remember the good times even more & that's what's important. :) Alway's tresure the one's you love & don't take your folks for granted, love to you all! TT_TT

Grandad, wherever you are, this one's for you...

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 45: THAT BY WHICH WE LEARN

: Today's top story's again; the investigation into the terrorist attack on New Port City's docklands three days ago took a dramatic turn when the GSDA announced this morning that a double agent working for the defence commission was apprehended and arrested for supplying classified documents to terrorist's, who's current identity's at this point remains classified under the restriction of media information's act. The attack in question, has been revealed to a bomb had been planted somewhere in the north-western dock on the south side of the Omura district, unfortunately the police were unable to intercept the weapon in time and the resulting explosion killed over 46 people, injured over 185 as a result of the blast and destroyed over fifteen buildings and causing millions of Yen's worth of damages; the GSDA are currently taking action in investigating the details of the event and how the attempt to the intercept the bomb went so wrong. The police investigation commission is working closely with GSDA officials and the ministry of home affairs to try and piece together exactly what happened. With the attack taking place not long after the incident on the Niihama-Wan bridge, many on-line anti-terrorism demonstrators are calling for an official investigation into the ministry of home affairs conduct in the handling both incidences and demanding to know whether the possibility of another terrorist attack is imminent, neither the GSDA or ministry of home affairs has any comment at this time, in the meantime the survivors of the blast are being treated at New Port's Nokori general hospital for various injuries...In other news: police are currently investigating the death of Mister Osama Hidaka, a chairman in the lower house and official of the ministry of foreign affairs; Mister Hidaka was found dead in his home two days ago after receiving two gunshot wounds to the back of the head, police have not yet found a motive for the killing and are currently looking into the victim's background for further information, the police have no comments at this point. And now onto the sports news and the- :

Morri clicked the off switch on the TV remote and set it down on the bedside table, turning on her side, she passed a deep sigh as she watched the view from the glass wall of her hospital room; glancing down at the white bandages on her right arm she idly scratched at the tiny scab where the IV drip had once been in her elbow joint, she gently ran her fingers over the stitches in her left forearm where not three days ago three shallow zigzagging cuts had been, and on her neck and right shoulder she could still feel the large, and very sore bruise where that huge piece of rubble landed on her. It sucked being in hospital, but it sucked even more being in a military hospital; she couldn't complain about the treatment though, no waiting times and having your own personal doctor on call was a nice perk, especially after surviving a blast like that; but being given peculiar looks from the other patients and even being given the cold shoulder by some on account she was a civilian was not what she needed right now, for she had other, much more pressing worries to be concerned about.

Everything had turned into a mess

It turned out the creature had a nasty surprise as a last ditch attempt to win the fight, a bomb of some kind had been concealed within its chest compartment and as a result destroyed everything within a mile radius. The only reason the humans and Autobot survived was because Morri threw up a bubble force field around them at the point of the bombs detonation, but while it ensured that they mostly remained intact during the initial blast, the blow back effect nearly proved to be too powerful for the force field to withstand and as the building collapsed and fell to the ground Morri strained to keep the protective bubble shield intact; as they tumbled down with the rubble and debris she lost her concentration and the bubble shield popped a few short seconds after they hit the ground level, from there the Major and Batou both shielded the children from the rest of the falling building with their bodies, once everything settled down the two agents dug them out. Ashley and the drones were okay but Morri had passed out after being knocked on the head by a piece of stray rubble. Soon after they called for help she was flown to the navel base's hospital where is transpired she had only sustained a minor brain concussion, easily remedied with neural drug treatment to help the brain heal itself; after her treatment she had been unconscious for over 48 hours and had finally awoke the day before yesterday with no symptoms of brain damage, much to everyone's relief.

But it wasn't until Deathshot dug himself out from the remains of the building and flew the rest of them back to the naval base that they saw just how far the blast had had an effect.

The bomb's initial blast had devastated the surrounding district and even parts of the naval base had been levelled, although no-one could tell the difference at that point for the fight between the Umibozu and the Autobots had been a messy one. While Jetfire had managed to cut off their air support, the Umibozu had proved to be really hard fighters with some serious attitude to back up their firepower; it might have ended in a stalemate if the bomb hadn't had gone off and knocked everyone to the ground. Immediately both sides realised that something else was going on when they saw a huge mushroom shaped cloud rise into the sky, for a moment everyone thought it was the worst case scenario, until they noticed the cloud was a shade of vivid electric blue with lightning bolts exploding out of the top cloud and striking all the surrounding buildings with thunderous cracks that tore the air apart.

As the rumbling from the blast steadily died down and the mushroom cloud along with the lightning dissipated and slowly blew over the sea, the air steadily began to fill with the sounds of sirens and people screaming for help, echoing up on the wind from the blast site.

From there on time seemed to pick up the pace as everything that followed seemed to happen too quickly to keep up with.

Thanks to Darren and Glen's efforts the stand down order finally got through to the Umibozu's commander and he was forced to recall his unit, after which he was summoned to the base to help straighten things out, as well as receive a stern few words from his superiors as well as the prime minister herself. The MSDF and GSDA troops present on the base were sent out to help the emergency services dig the survivors from out of the blast zone, for all the tenseness between the various parties involved, the prime minister ordered that for the time being at least, ensuring the victims survival was their top priority and no-one was willing to argue otherwise.

That was three days ago.

But despite everything else going on around her, Morri still felt her thoughts being drawn back to that fight on the roof; she could still vividly remember the sound of Saski's skin ripping apart and seeing him exploded into that...thing. In her mind she replayed the fight between Ashley and the creature over and over again, trying to make sense out of what really happened and what the creature had said; never in her life had she heard such words of anger, hatred and spite, though some form on insanity had to be at work she couldn't help but get the impression that he genuinely believed in what he was saying, as if it had been the truth itself, it made her shudder just thinking anyone could believe in such things. Suddenly, a small knock at the door got her attention and Batou quietly stepped in.

"Hey there, how're you feeling today?" he asked as he sat himself down in the chair next to the bed.

"Much better since they took that bloody IV out yesterday, the bruise has been pain though, literally" Morri replied with a weak smile.

"I bet; that was quite a hit you took but the doctor said you should be good to leave this place by this afternoon as soon as he's checked you over one last time" he replied

"It's only eleven forty five; I thought you were picking me up at twelve thirty today?" Morri asked

"Yeah well I heard you were getting some lip from some of the other guys in this place and thought I'd take the time to straighten them out, god know I need a little fun after everything that been going on these last three days" Batou smirked as he leaned back in the chair.

"You lie, but thanks" Morri listlessly smirked in return, but her smile dropped when she looked at Batou's face and noticed the barely visible thin line of scar tissue that ran down from his hair line, down his face and neck and to down under his T-shirt, where his torn skin had been replaced with a new graft of artificially grown skin. She dropped her gaze in a sense of shame as she remembered seeing his cyborg face, his real face, and how...different it was compared to what was supposed to be there; for a moment she said nothing but Batou was quick to pick up the melancholy look in her dark brown eyes and knew the reason why she felt ashamed to look at him.

"...Listen, about what happened when Saski- ...when that, thing, attacked us; I'm sorry if I scared you both..." he cautiously said as softly as he could, Morri glanced sideways at him before turning to him with a mixed of confusion and doubt.

"...I know you told us you were a cyborg, and for all my imagination I tried to imagine just what a blend of an organic and mechanical body really looked like under the skin; but, I had no idea just..." Morri dropped her gaze as she failed to find the right words; Batou sat up and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay, and I really don't mind, it comes with the territory and I've long since gotten use to it, you're not the first person who's gotten a shock from my 'skin deep' good looks and you'll certainly won't be that last, so don't worry yourself over it okay?" he said with a small smile, Morri looked at him before passing a sigh and turning over to face him.

"...To be honest, I don't think it was a case of being totally scared, it's just...I was suddenly reminded just how different my world is compared to this one, how, stark the reality is...and the fact that the idea of being a cyborg is still science fiction" Morri replied, "...You know, my dad's a surgeon...Three years ago he took me and Tom to see the Huntarian Galleries at the Royal College of surgeons in London, it's one of the best collections of preserved medical specimens in the world, for a place that was basically full of pickled organs and vintage medical tools it was surprisingly fascinating. My dad had been a long term member of the college and was chosen to be part of the team that would put together the gallery's new 'surgery at war' exhibition that charted the evolution of plastic surgery and how it was first discovered and used in the first world war, he showed us these old black and white photos of some troops that had be severely injured from shrapnel and bomb explosions, many of them had whole portions of their faces gone, literally blown off, some even had gaping holes right in the middle of their faces; it was, really sobering and yet so incredible to think how anyone could survive something like that. But what was even more amazing were the photos of them after they had their surgery, considering how primitive the techniques were back then, they were surprising efficient, and antibiotics hadn't been invented yet...considering how severe those injuries were, I always figured that it would give me a sense of sturdiness, thinking it would prepare me for a worst case scenario" she explained

"Worst case scenario?"

"Yeah, see, up until I was nineteen I use to be a junior member of the St John's ambulance; I've seen a whole range of different injuries, like this one time, I had to help a paramedic amputate a guy's leg beneath the knee when his leg was crushed under a mill stone, needless to say it was a pretty intense experience, I'm just thankful the guy was topped up with anaesthesia and not screaming pain, otherwise I don't think I would have been able to stomach it otherwise" Morri continued, Batou's eyebrows flew up surprise

"How old were you when you did that?"

"Seventeen, but for all the grossness it served me well, I wasn't really put off by the sight of blood after that...but after what happened up on that roof, seeing your face like; it felt more, surreal...Or at least I think that's what I wanted it to feel like...but ultimately at that moment in time, I couldn't help but think of those old photos, and what was, 'meant' to be there...does that sound weird to you?"

"...If it were anyone else, someone from this world who, at the very least had heard of the word 'cyborg', I'd have laughed and write them off as someone who'd need their head screwing on right; but considering that you're not from this world, and that's not what your used to; in a way it's not so weird, but, at the same time, I can't help but imagine just what an experience these last three weeks have been for all of you..." Batou replied frankly, Morri blinked in surprise, and sighed as she propped her head on her elbow and let her gaze drift off into space as she pondered on Batou's words, as well as her own inner contemplations.

"...An experience is an understatement...my world is one that has survived an alien war that has been raging across the universe since long before our sun even came into existence, and though my world itself isn't aware of the Autobots, the Decepticons or the Allspark, for those of us that were there to see the end of their war and see them for ourselves, we both understood one big thing; we, the human's were organic, and they, the cyberonians were mechanical, we're both alien opposites and so very different in biological term. But, we found each other to be really amazing and found that we both had similar interests, and after a bit of fine tuning we made our coexistence work...but, every now and then there are those moments when something happens and we're both reminded of our differences and that that's where that line between our species is drawn, organic and mechanical are not and the same thing...But here in this world, after everything we've seen and everything we've learnt so far, the line between man and machine is not clear, for us the humans we ultimately don't know if it's good or bad and for the Autobots they ultimately don't know if it's good or bad, and for all our philosophy and 'moral exercising' and trying to turn it every which way to try and see it on fair and equal terms, we still can't be absolutely sure, if..." Morri looked down and sighed as she failed to find the right words for what was playing on her mind.

"...If mankind really is mankind anymore?" Batou finished for her, she snapped her head up in surprise as he past a deep sigh of his own and leaned on the armrest of the chair, "...Sometime I wonder if we really made the right choices in the pursuit of 'moving forward with the times'; you can argue all you want about how advances in technology come with both pros and cons and that that's the price you pay for success. But when it's reached this extent, that a guy can walk into a cyberisation hospital and come out with a whole new identity, you gotta wonder how the pros became the cons and how the cons became the pros, and no matter how many times I see it in my line of work, we still can't pluck up the courage to say 'something went wrong here, this isn't right'...I'm ashamed that, for a very long time even I didn't have an inkling to just how stark the reality of our world really is, and it wasn't until you and your friends came here, and I saw how different both our species were, that I could really see how far away mankind was from itself, and made me appreciate the human in myself...for a guy like me who's been used to being a cyborg for so long now, it's such a different, yet good feeling..." Batou smiled.

"Yeah I know, they'll have that effect on you; and it's incredible just how human you realise you are, it's always surreal when you first realise it, neither a feeling of strangeness or familiarity, as if you realised that your something else but at the same time you're still you; it tends to put a lot of things into perspective and for each of us who has a guardian it's particularly personal thing..." Morri smiled as she sat upright; her head suddenly snapped up in mild alarm "Oh, I nearly forgot, how's Ravage doing? Hailey told me yesterday that he got injured in the explosion when the building collapsed" Morri asked.

"Oh yeah, you'll be glad to know he's doing fine, his vocal processor got badly injured when a support beam fell on him so Mikaela fitted him with a spare retro-fitted one she had in her medical kit, apparently she told me this new one enables him to speak in full English so he won't have to talk to us just over the comms anymore" Batou smiled

"And how long before Scorpy has his new vocalize fitted too?" Morri smirked

"Huh? How did you know?"

"Hehehe! Are you kidding? If Ravage and Frenzy were the only drones talking in full English they'll never let poor Scorpy live it down if he's left out, he may be sweet for a scorpion but he'd never give those two the satisfaction by having one up on him in the linguistics department" Morri chuckled

"Heh, I'll have to remember that; the procedure on Ravage didn't take that long anyway so she was able to replace Scorponok's vocalizor that same evening, but I think he's gonna be disappointed because he was gonna save it as a surprise for you when you got back to the office. She left him in the Tachikoma hanger to recover, that was last night so chance's are he's probably getting cosy with the Tachikoma's...again, as if what happened at the first safe house was awkward enough I swear that scorpion's a hot dog when he's with my unit..." Batou sighed in frustration as Morri keeled forward with laughter, much to Batou chagrin as he shot her an annoyed look, "Ah I'm sorry I'm sorry..." she waved off. "Anyway, one other thing, your doctor-" Batou was cut short as a knocking at the door drew both their attention, the door opened and two nurses in military style medical uniforms stepped in; followed by a grey cube about the size of a large portable freezer box, it walked in on four legs and on its sides it had simple pole like arms with small black three fingered claw like 'hands', on its front there were three tiny red lights arranged in a triangle, in one hand it was grasping a clipboard while on the other arm it had an odd device shaped like a TV remote with a range of coloured buttons and a small lazar pen on the front.

"Well hello there! I'm doctor Hikaru, I'll be performing your final check-up today, I'm afraid doctor Katsu got called away on an emergency this morning but he sends his apologizes; not to worry though! I've checked your notes over and you should be in good shape to be discharged outta here very shortly! Now I'm afraid your friend will have to leave the room for the duration of the exam but I promise not to take up too much of your time, we should only be ten minutes tops" the device said in a cherry male voice as it scuttled over to the side of the bed, Morri tilted her head in curiosity as she watched the strange the strange thing go to the foot of the bed to read her chart, she looked at Batou with a puzzled look, he simply stood up from the chair and leaned over close to her head.

"He's a doctor alright, just go through with the check-up and I'll explain later, see ya then" he whispered in her ear before standing up and leaving the room, Morri tried to stop him but he was quick to get away; she looked back at the odd device and wondered what was in store as she threw back the blankets and shuffled to the side of the bed. The suddenly rush of blood to the head made her a little dizzy, having been lying down for three days straight her equilibrium had been set to read everything horizontally; the nurses were quick to gently grab her arms and let her rest her weight between them as the 'doctor' rose up on its legs and place the TV remote like device gently against her chest

"Whoa there! Don't go rushing yourself; now let's start with a listen to that little 'ol ticker of yours..."

: 20 minutes later on super highway 23, south east of New Port:

"You're kidding me! That thing was a cyborg?" Morri exclaimed in alarm

"A Jameson type cyborg to be exact, and before you say it I'm sorry but I was about explain when the guy walked in, I couldn't just say it aloud it would have been rude; don't forget, cyborgs may be human brains crammed into mechanical bodies but we still have feelings too ya' know" Batou explained

"But you didn't-" Morri was about to argue back when she saw the apologetic look on Batou's face and decided it wasn't worth getting stressed about, but it didn't ease her anxiety either; "...I'm sorry" she sighed, "Ah don't beat yourself up your not the first kid to be surprised by the sight of a Jameson type cyborg, ask Togusa about when his daughter saw her first Jameson type, talk about awkward!"Batou chuckled; Morri offered a small smile and made a mental note to ask the detective about it later, she ran her fingers through her long hair as she leaned back in the passenger seat and watched the city whizz by.

"...I heard about what happened to Hidaka on the news" Morri offered offhand, wanting to change the subject.

"Yeah, it turns out the original assassination order Saski sent out wasn't a bluff after all, we went over to his place to arrest him and found the guy slumped over his desk with a couple of bullet holes in his head, he was still quite warm so we must have missed our perp literally by ten or so minutes; we had the local police immediately set up a drag net around the area and combed the whole neighbourhood, we even checked out the IR systems but whoever bumped him off was long gone, ultimately we're letting the police handle the footwork on this one including the autopsy, not least because we've bigger things on our plate at the moment" Batou replied

"I meant to ask, what has been going on? Since I was unconscious for two days I've only been able to guess from what I saw on the news this morning" Morri asked

"*Sigh*...Well, after that bomb levelled two whole thirds of the Omaru district every troop on the base was ordered out to help the emergency service's rescue teams dig out all the victims, as well as us. At the same time it called an end to the fight between the Umibozu and the Autobots after they finally received the real stand-down order from control, from what I heard things were still pretty dicey as both the Umibozu's unit and field commanders were summoned to the base and from there they both got a real chewing out from the PM herself as well as their own superiors. It wasn't until Darren and Glen came in and explained just what Saski had been doing that everyone seemed to cool their heels a little, but later that same evening some of the crew on the Karawi, the Umibozu's base of operations, discovered several of their AI analysts had been ghost hacked, after isolating them and running a structural analysis on their cyber brains their psymechs discovered that they were being controlled through a viral coded programme with a time delay activator built into it"

"Which means?"

"They could have been walking around with those programmes in their heads for months on end with no-one being the wiser, and because they were all in sync to a time delay activator there's no way we can pinpoint when they were ghost hacked or who hacked them in the first place. So ultimately we found Saski accomplices, albeit they weren't willing ones considering they had no idea of what they were doing" Batou replied, Morri looked at him disbelief

"What? What do you mean you they didn't know what they were doing? If they were helping Saski I'd have thought we'd bring them in for questioning and find out just what else they were up to!" Morri exclaimed, Batou was about to retort back when he stopped and mentally face-palmed himself, passing a deep cleansing sigh, he tried to speak in a simple yet understanding tone, knowing it was his own fault for not explaining in detail just what the mechanics of a ghost hack entailed. "...Do you remember what I explained to you all at the first safe house? About how if you have a cyber brain your susceptible to being ghost hacked?" he said

"Yeah? You said that if someone get's ghost hacked the person hacking them can control them like a puppet on strings; but surly they must have some inclination that something was going on in their heads? It's your mind, your soul, it's the one thing no-one can ever touch" Morri retorted, Batou looked at her and sighed.

"...It's not that simple kid, not in this world it's not...When you take control of someone's ghost your essentially taking over their existence, the hack on the ghost causes a 'ripple' effect on the person's mentality and memory, essentially their stuck in a waking dream experiencing a falsified reality whist in reality something entirely different is going on around them. It may sound weird to you, but for anyone who's been ghost hacked it's like suddenly being woken up without having being asleep in the first place, and it's even worse when you find out that you've done things without knowing about it...When you vaccinate someone's cyberbrain to dispel a ghost hacking programme, that person's external memories are restored to their consciousness, and with it the memory of what they did whilst under the hacker's influence. Can you imagine what it must be like? If someone ghost hacked you in order to carry out a murder; suddenly seeing that victims face as you took their life and it wasn't even you who was doing it, you think to yourself 'there's no way in hell I could have done that because at home with my mom when it happened'...Ultimately, when you deal with a ghost hack your always dealing with a second victim; the first victim is the hacker's true target, the second victim is the person the hacker uses as a means to an end, and their the one that always comes off worse because someone treated their soul and identity as if they were nothing..." Batou explained, as Morri listened she felt her mind begin to spin as her eyes glazed over and she stared off into space; she had heard all that Batou said but somewhere in the furthest recesses of her mind something was telling her 'this couldn't be right, could it?'. For all it was worth, she just couldn't accept the idea that someone could simply take over your ghost...no, your soul, and simply treat it however they wanted. That's not how it's meant to be; your soul is the founding element of what defines you, it's not physical and therefore can never be touched by mere hands, but it can be a powerful thing, and when stirred or inspired it could make you capable of anything within the limits of your imagination. At least, that's what she came to believe, and after everything that had ever happened in her life, everything with the Autobot's, with Deathshot, she believed that with more solid conviction than ever before, and it made her feel strong. But here? In this surreal world of futuristic technology, cyborgs, androids, robots...and the possibility for someone to hack into your soul and control you like a puppet without giving a second thought as to who you are, and what your soul means to you? The surrealness of this world seemed to dissolve and run away like rain drops on a car's windshield, and in her mind's eye Morri began to picture the reality of just what this world really was, and what Batou had to live with a consequence of being born into it.

"...But...does that mean, that no-one in this world really knows what a soul is anymore? And just what it should mean to possess one?" Morri asked cautiously, Batou looked over at her and offered an uncertain look.

"...For those who know the value of their soul it's never taken for granted, but it's also a struggle to keep their individuality safeguarded; and as for those who think otherwise? That's where section 9 steps in, after that, whatever we choose to believe is proof that we still value what we have no matter how insignificant it may seem to others, and for cyborgs like myself and the Major, we have our own little 'reminders' to keep ourselves in check of our ghosts...does that make sense?" Batou offered with small smile, Morri regarded him with a curious look.

"...I suppose; you know I'm a little surprised, I didn't know you could be so philosophical Batou" Morri replied

"Heh, after all these years it kinda comes with the territory...but I want you to understand that even though we got a very different way of doing things here, it's not all as bad as it seems, if I were you, follow your own advice" he said

"My own advice?" Morri echoed

"Don't think about it too hard, you'll just give yourself an aneurism or something" Batou grinned, Morri paused in surprise for a moment before throwing her head back with laughter as she remembered those words from the first day she and the rest of the Autobot gang met section 9; for a moment she let the aghast of her thoughts melt away and let her clarity come back into her minds eyes, feeling better for hearing those words as she passed a deep cleansing sigh before continuing with a change of subject.

"So, what's gonna be going down when we get back to HQ?" she asked

"Well now that the new protection order has been signed off for you and your friends you don't have to worry about creeping around the place anymore; Jazz, Deathshot and Jetfire, Sam, Mikaela and Tom have spent all morning at the prime minister's residence tying up a few loose ends with the prime minister and the cabinet, and the chief's ordered a review of the case and everything that's been going on so far so as to decide what plan of action we take next, considering what went down on that rooftop between us and Saski-or, whatever that thing was, the Autobots are pretty sure that was a cybertronian of some kind on account it was bleeding energon"

"I figured as much, that thing had to a cybertronian but it's no bot or drone I've ever seen before...have any of the guys offered anything?" Morri asked offhand

"For the most part nothing solid, they were all as stunned as we were and have spent the last three days pooling all their know-how together to try and figure it out, Jetfire's said he's got a theory in mind but he said he'd rather share it with us when you were finally discharged" Batou replied

"It must be serious if their only willing to talk with everyone present... considering what happened I got a bad feeling about this"

"You and me both kid" Batou sighed as he put his foot down and sped down the super highway through the city.

Back at Section 9 HQ, the winds whipped high across the tiltroater landing pad, bringing the scent of the distant sea to the sky, as he closed his eyes and leaned into the wind Ashley imagined he was back home on the shores of his home, he imagined the soft golden sands of the beach under his bare feet and the distant roar of crashing waves on the rocks; the familiar ominous presence of a certain robotic panther made his eyes snap open as he sat himself down on the edge of tarmac with his feet dangling just above one of the openings of the buildings ventilation shafts.

"Hi" Ashley quietly said with his gaze cast downwards at the spinning fans of the vents, Ravage knew of the reason why the boy had been quiet for most of the day, he slid up alongside the boy and sat himself down, curling his body close so Ashley could lean back on his side; he scratched the panther behind his ear, which elicited a loud and content purr.

"I take it this means there are no hard feelings?" He purred in his new voice, though he now possessed a vocaloizer that allowed him to speak regularly like the other Autobots, he still retained his low, gravely sinister tone; Ashley acknowledged him with a sideway's glance as he continued to scratch the panther behind his ear.

"...I didn't have any hard feelings to begin with, but what I want to know, is why you set me up like that?...you heard what he said, all that bullshit about how weak we were; you and I both know if he had lived he could've done a hell of a lot more harm, even killed people, I've no doubt he would have done that...why did you let the Major stop me?" Ashley asked impassively, the slight glint in his eyes betraying his inner frustration; Ravage sighed through his vents in thought as his mind cast back to the encounter on the roof with Saski three days ago.

"For starters, I stand by what I said before; you defeated Saski and as such his life was yours alone to decide the fate of, and yes I had hoped, in some small secret measure of my CPU that you were finally be ready to take the ultimate step and claim his life...not for gratification, nor satisfaction, but simply because I felt it was time that you learnt to confront death it it's most direct form, it's never an easy subject for any youngling, so I believed if you could confront it and learn to move past with whatever conviction you hold then at least you wouldn't hesitate in any future confrontations...When the Major confronted you with the realization that you were about to take the life of another sentient being she felt it best to remind you of your 'innocence', of all the people I was never expecting her to be so stubborn about it" Ravage purred offhand

"Aye, but I still don't understand; why did you change your mind like that?" Ashley replied

"...Because, I realised I was half wrong, whilst you were fully capable and could have done the deed on the spur of the moment, I hadn't entirely anticipated just how you would confront the reality of it later; I suppose I should thank the Major for bringing this to light"

"What made you think I wouldn't be capable of confronting it? In case you hadn't noticed Saski might as well have been a Nazi for all the crap he was spouting; he didn't deserve to live if he thought so little of human life" Ashley angrily muttered as Saski's words replayed back in his mind.

"...Did he?...And are you so sure that would have been the right choice?..." Ravage asked, Ashley snapped his head round to face the panther and shot him a disconcerting look, what was he playing at? "Okay, I know you've got some method to all this so just what the hell is it? And why the bloody hell are you stringing me along like this?" Ashley angrily demanded, Ravage tilted his head forward with a satisfied grin.

"Still sharp as always...No dear boy, it was not a case of 'stringing you along', rather, presenting you with the opportunity to apply your morals on the spur of the moment; that point when you almost bled Saski dry, your anger fuelled you on as his words burned you, you were repulsed, you were enraged, disgusted, and you knew he was evil beyond any form of forgiveness" Ravage explained

"Since when did you care?"

"Oh believe me I didn't, if I were still a Decepticon I would most certainly approve and have you become my apprentice full time; but since I'm an Autobot I don't have the full luxury of having my own way most of the time anymore...Do you remember that day you first showed off your abilities to the rest of the us and we wondered what to do with you?" Ravage asked, Ashley nodded in reply, "When Jazz gave me the approval to become your combat tutor he understood that, because of my being a Decepticon at spark I had a particular way of doing things that didn't follow the same rules as everyone else, most even went against the latter of Autobot law, he knew this was 'austere' to say the least, but it was only because of my nature as a hunter drone, and for this it would make me a good tutor, not only because I can discipline with an iron paw, but because we already had a good repore going...the only condition of my being your tutor was that I gave you the choice of deciding what you wanted to do when this time came, of course I argued that it would be a choice that you would have to confront at any extent and that the outcome would not be easy either way, but regardless, Jazz made it clear that you were never to be ordered, persuaded or tricked into killing another, your will was your choice and for the sake of the bargain I didn't argue otherwise. Of course back then none of us had any idea that events would take their course as such and lead us to where we are now..." he continued, the frown on Ashley's face dropped as he pondered for a moment on the panther's words.

"...I can appreciate the fact that back then we didn't know we'd find ourselves here; but even so why didn't you warn me beforehand?" he asked

"Warn you? My dear student, if life were full of warning signs everywhere our lives would be so very different to what they are now, and there wouldn't be a whole lot of fun to be had anyway...You of all people should know how the nature of life is and its many intertwining influences and factors, both predictable and unpredictable...I did say be careful with Saski but I had no idea just what he had in store, moments like those are ones to be learnt from, your still alive and functioning so be thankful that you were able to handle yourself the way you did. For its moments like those that determine our resolve and fortitude and ultimately determine whether it'll be your first victory or whether you'll be defeated for the last time, it depends entirely on wisdom and luck" Ravage purred as he cleaned his paw

"Fair enough, but whether I'd have the guts to be able to kill him or not is beside the point-"

"No its not, I must have come across a million young con's who thought the exact same thing, and each of them soon met their fates at the hands of their enemy's; for all your ferocity, strength and cunning, your still young by your species standards and your cousin made it clear that I keep your training to its basic levels, nothing too 'advanced'...but then, I think she's already aware of just how capable you really are, for a youngling you've advanced quite well over these past couple of weeks, but you've got at least another ten years before your body has fully matured and has reached the peak of its physical strength; and the Major too has made her concern for your wellbeing apparent, I've already spoken to her but I don't think she's convinced of my choice in training philosophy..."

"...I don't think she will be, for all her flexibility as a soldier she's too bloody stubborn to be that open minded for someone as unorthodox as you" Ashley said, Ravage couldn't help but snigger, "...look, I get the fact that everyone thinks I'm too young to have been in that kinda situation, but it still doesn't change the fact that happened anyway, and in a way I don't think I would have lost any sleep over taking Saski's life, but anyone else? That's a different matter; if it were another human fair enough I wouldn't have done it...But look, after everything that's happened, everything we've all been through together, can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me we can't keep putting off the fact that something bad is coming, something, I don't think we're gonna have choice in backing down from" Ashley sternly continued, Ravage tilted one ear to the side in mild surprise, he paused for a moment in contemplation before continuing.

"So, you're not the only who believes nothing good will come of all this?" Ravage cautiously asked

"Well, I'm not the only one, everyone's thinking it in the back of their minds, it's just no-one's willing to say it yet is all; and if that is the case then their all seriously kidding themselves because people have already died. On the Niihama-Wan bridge and the Omaru district? And what about those kids who were taken out of their beds as they slept? What's to say they're not already dead? If the subject of me killing a psychopath is the only concern then it's a bloody waste of time! Considering everything else is several steps away from turning into an even nastier mess than this, I can't believe even Jazz is trying to pretend the situation isn't as bad as it seems" Ashley angrily ranted

"On the contrary, he's taking this very seriously, but for the sake of keeping everyone together he won't make a drama out of this, and before you say it losing your temper over this will not serve anyone any favours...I'm relieved that your aware of the ramifications of all this, but at the same time I have to ask, if you are willing to continue this endeavour it's only going to get more difficult, are you so sure you're up for it?" Ravage asked, Ashley merely shot him a look.

"Do you seriously have to ask me that?...What happened in the last three days? Don't you trust me?" Ashley demanded

"...Of course I trust you youngling, but you are the third youngest of our gang, and if anything happens to you on my watch I'll never forgive myself; but are you really willing to do this? Like I explained before, your will is your choice, but if you insist on being on the frontline of this situation then your choices will be limited to what you can do within your ability, even with your guardian and your family at your side you will only be able to do so much; what chances you get you will only be able to get right only once, and the consequences for failing could prove to be dire...I still intend to adhere to Jazz's bargain and let you make your own choice, and I will stand by your side whatever happens, but I warn you child, it will be a heavy choice to live with the circumstances remain the way they are..." Ravage growled, Ashley merely glanced at him sideways with a defiant look in his eyes, straightened up and stiffened his lower lip.

"...I already made my choice when we were on the rooftop...but then, I think I already made my choice long before that, and you know me I don't like to sit on the sidelines while everyone else gets to have all the fun...Whatever I have to do, whatever I have to deal with I'll take care of it, but all I know is that this...whatever's coming, I feel like it's eyeing me up and I'm beginning to feel restless, I don't want to wait and I don't want to be babied over just because I'm a kid, look I know Morri and D are gonna be worried but really, I'll be fine...it's just everything else we've gotta be worried about" Ashley replied in a serious tone, Ravage discreetly nodded in acknowledgement .

"...Very well, I'll talk to Jazz and Deathshot to see if it'll be alright for you to accompany me on any future missions, like I said I don't have the luxury of having things my own way so whatever they say otherwise I'm afraid we'll have to adhere to, I'm sorry...but either way, I believe you may be right in that things will probably become more unpredictable, and as such each of us will have to ready when the time comes...It's so strange, I can't believe he right" Ravage sighed

"Who was right?" Ashley asked

"Prime; not long after I defected we were talking one day and he said offhand that 'fate rarely call's upon us at a moment of our choosing', I blew it off at the time for I didn't know what he meant...I think I now understand what he was talking about; considering the hardships he's faced over the eons it makes you wonder just how learnt the value of those words in the first place" Ravage replied

"Aye...I think I can relate" Ashley nodded

"Anyway, you better get downstairs, your cousin will be arriving soon and I think she'll like to see you first, I'll see you at the debriefing later" Ravage said as he got up and stretched his hind legs out, "Aye, see ya later, but what are you gonna be up to?..." Ashley asked as he got up and made his way to the roof doors with Ravage in tow, "Oh a few things, none that you need to be concerned about, I'll come down later, I want to stay up here a while longer" the panther replied, Ashley merely shrugged and closed the door behind him as he disappeared down the stairs. As Ravage turned back to face the cityscape he smirked to himself as he flicked his tail in contentment.

"Satisfied?" he purred, seemingly from out of nowhere the Major disengaged her therm-optic camouflage and came up to stand by the panther's side with an impassive look in her eyes.

"In a way; you weren't kidding when you said he pretty much made up his mind about what he wants to do, but is he entirely aware of what could be at stake if things get dicey in the foreseeable future? I know what happened three days ago was a close call and it's one thing to keep his family and friends in mind, but he's still a kid and still has a hell of a lot to learn about just how the world works" the Major replied as she folded her arms

"True, and in time he will learn of life's heavier hardships; but you saw how he fought Saski, if your concern for the state of his moral compass is the only thing on your mind then you really are wasting your time, he doesn't need to be coddled or worried over, he's well aware of the tenuousness of the circumstances and even from here I can sense his restlessness, he's still primed for the fight, and you won't hear the end of it if you insist he stays with his guardian...Besides, why is it only him you're concerned for? The Waineright twins are a full year younger than him and yet between them they were able to bring down that Onimaya and incapacitate three of those armed suits at the base when the Umibozu attacked. Plus, need I remind you of what Annabelle and Togusa's daughter got up to several nights ago? If it wasn't for them we never would've known about Saski's involvement with the Decepticons in the first place, and their barely out of their protoform stage, by all rights they shouldn't have been capable of making that journey, but they still did it regardless of whatever criticism is or has been passed...Age is not a concern when the balance of life and death is at stake, anyone who has resolve and is pushed to their limits can put up a half decent fight regardless of whatever combat experience they have; there is not a single day that goes by on this world when a mother will not be willing sacrifice her life for that of her offspring, just as any child will be willing to go to any lengths to be with the ones they love...what makes you think the boy has any less reason to fight?" Ravage growled, the Major snapped her head round in surprise, and sighed in frustration as she contemplated the panther's reasoning.

"...I'm not questioning his reason or his courage; I just didn't like how you goaded him like that when Saski was down. Believe me I had no sympathy for that thing anymore than you, but you forgot that we had to take him in alive" The Major impassively replied

"Hmm, goading sounds a tad forceful, I simply let the events unfurl as they did and the boy had plenty of opportunity to step back and say otherwise; but as you heard, he already made up his mind about Saski's fate, regardless of whether he still retains his childhood innocence, and you and I both know he's long since past the point of absolute innocence, that child is a warrior born, fierce, strong and relentless, just like his creator" Ravage purred

"His creator?" the Major echoed as she quirked an eyebrow at the panther, Ravage merely grinned in reply, making the Major frown in frustration, she hated how he liked to mess around in his own cryptic way, "...He may be fierce, strong and relentless in all his youthful zealousness but people change over time especially when they're young, how can you be sure he won't be the same in ten years time?" she continued

"Heh, you forget, I've lived a few million years longer than you, I've come across many young warriors in that time and believe me I know real potential when I smell it...if there's one thing I'm sure of is that the boy will go far in life, regardless of whatever assumptions you hold for him" Ravage replied with a toothy grin, the Major looked at him for moment then turned away, she wasn't in the mood to argue today.

"...Whatever assumption I hold is purely out of professional opinion; though I suppose the weight of that doesn't carry much conviction at this point, not with everything that's happened over these past three weeks, all of this is far beyond anything we've ever encountered before; even though the other Autobots could pass for being human in the way they behave I still keep having to remind myself that each of you is from another planet, nedalone another universe" the Major sighed, Ravage tilted his head in thought.

"Hmm, whether your opinion is professional or personal doesn't matter to us either way, so long as you don't forget what's at stake, and as long as you're willing to help us is all that counts as far as I'm concerned...We both know we've not been keen on one another from the start, and it's not been without good reason, I've come across your type many times before Kusanagi and nearly always it's resorted in me having to dispense a traitor or a double agent, of course this isn't the same as a Decepticon glory hog or an Autobot spy, but I'll be willing to bet you've met your fair share of back stabbers over the course of your career" Ravage purred

"You'd be right; and yes for the same reason I don't trust you either, if there's one thing I've learnt it's that you never leave anything to chance when you're in a situation you've never been in before"

"But you've been in THIS situation for over three weeks now, so how much of this have you not decided to take a chance on?" Ravage grinned; the Major regarded him with a particularly stern frown as she realised the hypocrisy of her own statement.

"...Fair enough you make a good point...but you do realise it works both ways, how much of a chance have you taken on us?" the Major said with a small smirked, now it was Ravage's turn to feel caught on the spot as he sneered slightly and pressed his ears back flat against his head.

"Touché..." he growled, he was about to continue when a small ping in his comm link signalled the presence of someone on the section 9 comm frequency, the Major too signalled her awareness of the active comm with a slight jolt of her head.

"_Major? Where are you? Assemble everyone in the debriefing room right away, we're moving up the case review" _Chief Aramaki said, the Major and Ravage exchanged confused glances.

"_What's wrong chief?"_ the Major asked

"_Thirty minutes ago we received a piece of intel from the GSDA's analysis department concerning the ghost hacked crew members that were onboard the Kawari, Darren and Frenzy have spent the last half hour going over it and it's not good news, plus Jazz, Deathshot, Jetfire, Sam Mikaela and Tom have just returned from the Niihama Naval base with equally bad news" _the chief replied. Both the Major and Ravage wasted in no time in hurrying back down into the building, within minutes everyone had gathered together in the main debriefing room and had either taken their seats or were standing by the couches, Darren had set up his laptop on the coffee table in the centre with the Autobot comm links open for the Autobots to talk freely with everyone, once everyone had settled down the chief turned his attention to Darren.

"Well? What did you find?" he asked, the fifteen year old clicked a button on the monitor remote which brought up a series of data windows with various set's of codes and encryption data.

"...For starters, this goes without saying but our worst fears have been officially confirmed..." Darren started, everyone glanced at one another in concern, this didn't bode well; "Originally the GSDA had confirmed the ghost hack on the Kawari's crew members, despite a time delay being written into the programme's overall format there were several key pieces of the ghost infiltration programme that the GSDA analysis team weren't able to decipher; per our agreement with the prime minister and the intelligence department they sent the data over to me for further analysis and after a little more decryption this is what Frenzy and I found..." the young hacker continued as he clicked another button on the remote, this time another data widow popped up displaying a strange looking set of number's highlighted in red, but everyone was quick to notice the cybertronian glyphs hidden among the numbers.

"What the-...It was a cybertronian ghost infiltration?" Batou exclaimed offhand

"Apparently so, that's why we had such trouble trying to cut Saski off when the Umibozu attacked, the sleeper programmes I made up didn't recognise the subtle differences in the format data between a regular infiltration programme and this, it wasn't until I went back over the readings of the drag net programme from that day that I realized this programme had been zipping around the network from those crew member's cyber brains all the while we'd been busy; it's the reason why we thought there were a whole bunch of saboteurs at work when it was only just those guys the whole time Saski was linked to the network, and considering what he was I wouldn't be surprised if the source codes for this ghost infiltration programme were directly linked to his CPU's primary online functions, a typical feature of most cybertronian hackers" Darren replied as Frenzy nodded in agreement

"Not that we hadn't figured it out before but I can safely assume Saski really was a Decepticon?" Morri asked

"Regarding him, we reviewed both Deathshot and Ravage's sensorial memory data and we've come to the conclusion that he must have been a pretender, albeit a very peculiar one if he was a techno-organic, I've come across many types of pretenders and spies over the eons who sported varying body formats and transformation sequences but I've never seen one that incorporated organic skin into their format before, and for a Decepticon that's not right" Jetfire said over the laptop's speakers.

"Too right" Ravage sneered

"How is it not right? A form of camouflage like skin enabling a robotic alien to blend in with the local populous would be a favourable choice in terms of efficiently hiding in plain sight" the Major asked offhand

"You'd think, but don't forget, Decepticons hate organics on every level and in terms of camouflage they despise techno-organics, they see them as an insult to their 'purity' as cybertronians and therefore would never contemplate the idea of actually covering themselves in organic skin, even if it were synthetically grown from scratch, many pretenders usually have an outer layer of armour that consists of thousands and thousands of tiny thin layered synthetically coated plates that are designed to mimic organic tissue, they don't actually use organic components in any capacity" Bumblebee offered

"But what are techno-organics anyway?" Togusa asked

"You know how a cyborg is defined as someone who has non-organic mechanical components grafted to their anatomy? Well with cybertronian's it's the other way around, a techno-organic is a cybertronian that has organic components grafted to their body and systems-functions" Mikaela replied, the section 9 agents eyes flew open in surprise

"Seriously? Man talk about weird parallels" Batou commented offhand

"For sure...Anyway, if the Decepticons hate these 'techno-organics' then what the hell was Saski? That skin that exploded off him was real skin and not artificially grown skin tissue that's typically found on cyborgs, but at the same time he looked different in terms of overall body design, he didn't look like any of you at all" the Major pointed out

"Like I said before we have no idea just what kind of format the con's body was consisted of, I've seen techno organics before and I've studied the various specs on how organic to mechanical systems function, but I've never seen one where the outer organic armour is discarded, that's just wasteful; the principle rule of any cybertronian format is that every single component is put to use, nothing can be seen to go to waste or be idol. But judging from what we saw and what you described of the armour I think that particular con could have had a larger class format of some sort, because that armour looked exceedingly similar to that of a protoform body that was still undergoing its first upgrade sequence, the armour plates were black and looked more like organic bone structure correct? Typical protoform body features" Jetfire replied

"Protoform? You mean Saski was a sparkling?" Miles exclaimed in a panic, Sam and Mikaela both face-palmed with a particularly loud pair of smacks while the other kids simply shook their heads in disbelief, the agents just looked on in bemusement.

"Not THAT kind of protoform you little twit! I meant his basic physical construct! All cybertronians have varying outer format designs according to their combat class and alt mode, but we all ultimately we all share the same basic mechanical physiology in terms of systems functions, the protoform construct is what we call it" Jetfire grumbled in reply, Miles sheepishly smiled with a 'sorry, didn't know that' look.

"So, Saski was basically a regular Decepticon who was naked?" Hailey pondered aloud

"In a manner of speaking, how he was able to squeeze his body mass into that skin is beyond me, but one thing it does shed light on is that fact that the real Gorou Saski is dead" Jazz said, the agents glanced at one another in bemusement.

"He's right, pretender infiltration 101 states: always destroy whoever you're mimicking and always make sure the body is completely destroyed, and considering the fact that no-one noticed anything was 'off' about him it's likely he's been dead for a long while now" Ravage growled as he sat by the couch next to Ashley.

"And ultimately it proves that the Decepticons are the one's responsible for screwing up the military's network, if they managed to infiltrate the military with a pretender then who knows what else they've learnt, or what else their up to for that matter" Glen offered

"You make a good point, but for all the evidence presented and all we've seen, somehow, I just don't agree" Deathshot said, everyone looked at the laptop in surprise

"What? But why?" Sam exclaimed

"Think about it a minute, a Decepticon that masquerades in human flesh? Since when would the Decepticons ever resort to using organic components to hide in plain sight when it goes against their ideology in the most insulting way? The Decepticons were many things but being adaptable to their circumstances was rarely their strong suite, even if it were in extreme circumstances...plus, everything else before then hasn't made sense either; for instance what happened to those humans up on that mountain the night we found those trunks in Hidaka's secret bunker? On the video Mizuki recorded who were those human's that took those children? Who was that other Decepticon the Saski pretender was talking to and just why were those humans working for them in them in the first place? And now this ghost infiltration programme?...When Darren forwarded the specs to me for conformation I could see how it had been able to slip under the drag net programme, for an infiltration programme that was designed to control certain individuals by slipping on and off the various levels of the military network without raising any alarms it has all the right system functions required including a well enforced attack barrier, but it's been very crudely put together and the proxy codes on the programme's software write-up make no sense at all; there's no question at all that it was a Cybertronian who put that ghost infiltration programme together, the way the basic format has been written to serve as an autonomous AI that learns as it works with varying data configurations is practically a 'hallmark' of our species technological abilities, but whoever created it was either was a pro who deliberately tried to 'dumb down' his work in an attempt to disguise his methodology; or, it was made by someone who doesn't possess the necessary CPU software to construct such a programme by themselves and they had to put it together via an additional system's matrix that was able to compensate for their lack of CPU functions...needless to say it doesn't make any sense if that's the case, and as much as I want to say the pro angle sounds more likely, something about this is telling me it's the latter" the Autobot sniper said, the whole room was silent of a short moment as everyone pondered on the sniper's logic, the kids in particular was quite stumped.

"...Someone who doesn't possess the necessary CPU software?...How the hell is that even possible? That's like one of us being born with brain damage and not being able to control one of our limbs, so how can any cybertronian create a infiltration programme with minimal CPU system's functions?" Darren said in bemusement

"I know it sounds weird, but judging from the way the programme hacked into those human's and the way it was constructed, I'm inclined to think someone with a high level of knowledge in cybertronian technology knew how to construct it according to our basic specs, but the way in which they actually put it together suggests they did it in a very human like fashion, crude, basic and straight forward with minimum effort being put into the programme as a whole and simply concentrating on the infiltration elements and protective barrier. No offence to any of you of course...In my experience Decepticon's fall into two main categories, the methodical and calculating, or the enraged and insane, the rest usually are usually somewhere in between; but whoever these Decepticons are they don't fall into either, we've not seen enough evidence to suggest they're a bunch of wreakers looking to just spill human blood, but at the same time we've not exactly seen anything that suggests that their good strategists and have been playing the situation and us to their advantage...These incidence's that we've seen are too random and too few for us to be making any firm assumptions as to what they've been up to in all this time; but, simultaneously when you consider the way in which these incidence's have presented themselves, isn't fair to speculate that somewhere, something could be stirring that we're not aware of?" Deathshot replied, everyone glanced at one another in bemusement, wondering if such a notion could be possible; and why not? Exceptional circumstances aside, everything they were aware of had not retained any form of consistency or structure, but it couldn't just be a spate of random Decepticon activity? No, at this point it had to be something more, and no-one in the room was thinking it could be anything else, bar one;

"You might have a point in regards to something else at work here...but something just occurred to me, if Saski was a Decepticon pretender how could he not understand his own native language?...and his final word before he detonated that device, something about the age of the cyborg? What was up with that?" Morri asked offhand

"It's hard to say, but from what we saw of his insanity I doubt anything his said held any real truth" Hot Rod peeped in

"I wouldn't be so sure, there's always method in the madness and I'm willing to bet that for all the inconsistencies these circumstances have presented there may well be something else at work in all this; circumstantial evidence aside the only solid evidence of the Decepticons we have is on that video footage Togusa's daughter shot; since we don't have any other leads in this case our priority from here on will be to concentrate on finding the kidnapped children as well as their captors" the Chief stated

"But to do that we'd have to find one of the con's and take them in alive" Danny said offhand

"Not necessarily, when we were at the prime minister's residence I asked if I could perform an autopsy on the body of that con who died on the bridge, the unit in charge of guarding him reported that he was still mostly intact, so I figured if his CPU is still in one piece I can try to successfully salvage his memory matrix and run a diagnostic to see what he'd been up to in the time leading up to his death, we might have a lead or two to go on if we find anything" Mikaela interjected

"How long do you think it will take?" the chief asked, Mikaela rubbed her hands together in a rather sheepish manner. "Well, to be honest this'll be my first solo cybertronian autopsy, it could take most of the day if not two days to do his whole body; that's why after we're done here I'm heading back to the safe house to get the medical notes Ratchet gave me and read up on it, Deathshot I'll be needing my tool kits back too, they'll need to be cleaned and prepped for tomorrow" Mikaela replied

"Of course" the Autobot sniper replied, "If anyone wants to lend a hand feel free, but I do recommend you ware overalls; even mechanical autopsies are as icky as the organic ones" she continued, to which most of the group winced slightly.

"Very well, be sure to keep us informed of your progress; in the meantime the rest of us will start with the children, once we have-" the chief was interrupted by a beeping sound, an image of one of the section's operators appeared on the main monitor"

"Chief Aramaki, you have an incoming call from detective Kuro of the prefectural police department concerning the structural analysis of Mister Hidaka's cyber brain, he says it's urgent sir" the operator sated, the Chief and the Major both exchanged puzzled glances.

"Put him through to the main debriefing room" the chief ordered, "Yes sir" she replied and an image of a man with dark brown hair, slate blue eyes and a square jaw appeared in another data window on the main monitor.

"Detective Kuro, I assume you have a good reason for interrupting our meeting?" the chief asked incredulously

"Sorry to disturb you sir, but you did say that if we found anything of importance to inform you right away; we recently uncovered new evidence concerning Hidaka's business transactions as well as his nephew" the detective said

"Go on" the chief replied

"For starters, we discovered one of Hidaka's online back accounts was a disguised dummy account which held a considerable amount of funds, but had been paid into from an outside source, we traced the money trail back to a one Gouru Saski, we're still running a search for the guy but it looks like he's been paying Hidaka vast sums of money that had been laundered from an unknown source over the past eighteen months, we're still checking into that too...we also discovered that his nephew, Riku Hidaka, had his external memories tampered with; our analysis unit found several falsified memories pertaining to a set of four large trunks hidden in some underground bunker somewhere in the Shinseina Oka national park, we checked the IR systems log along the route leading up to that mountain range but we found no such trace of him at any time..." the detective explained, everyone looked at one another in disbelief but the chief frowned in suspicion.

"Is that all?" the old ape asked

"Well, one other thing did turn up, whoever tampered with his external memory also went to great lengths to slip under his ghost barrier and implant a message next to his ghost line, we don't know what the contents of the message is specifically, we think it might be a encryption of some kind but I'll be damned if you manage to figure out what it is" the detective continued

"Very well, don't worry about Saski we're already conducting an investigation into his background, just forward your findings through to our analysis lab and put the message up here, I'll get in touch with the head of your department's investigations unit later today to confirm the data; Thank you for all your help" the chief said

"Thank you sir" the detective replied as he signed off, another data window appeared with an audio buffer and everyone listened up the message played. It started as a lot of grainy, scratchy white noise; as they strained their ears to pick up every detail, the sound of breathing could be vaguely heard...no, it wasn't human breaths being inhaled in and out, it sounded more mechanical in nature, almost like a vent of some kind. Then a small whimper could be heard, and then a series of sobs echoing from a distance, the group frowned in confusion as the noise sounded electronic somehow; then, a sketchy sobbing voice spoke out in the familiar cybertronian language, crying, as if pleading for something, their life maybe? It was hard to tell whether they were male or female and judging from the echoes in the background noise it sounded like they were in a large room of some kind. The kids stiffened in alarm as if they had all just seen a ghost, the message abruptly stopped there and the room fell silent with an unnerving vibe, the agents suddenly got a really bad feeling in the pit of they're stomachs.

"Uh?...I'm, not the only one who just heard that right?" Sideswipe said unnervingly

"No, we heard it too Swipe's" Glen replied in a shaky

"Okay, that was way creepy dude" Miles said offhand

"What? What did they just they just say?" Batou asked eagerly

"...'Please, please, please I'm cold, I'm hungry and I don't want to be here anymore...Find us, find the Incept code...Please...god help me, what am I?...what did they do to me?'..." Darren replied with a mix of worry and confusion written across his face, Saito nearly gasped in surprise.

"What?"

* * *

R&R Please!


	47. Chapter 46: Pandora's Boxes

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 46: PANDORA'S BOXES

"Christ, what a crappy way to start the day" Ashley sighed as he leaned against the huge metal door frame of the safe house's entrance; the sky was as dark and dismal as it could possibly get for the daytime, raindrops the size of thimbles battered and splashed the tarmac and pounded the roof of the storage house above relentlessly, the wind howled and screamed as it blew off the sea and hammered the city's coastline with all the fury of a raging bull; every ship and boat out in the bay was tossed about like bathtub toys on the dark turbulent sea and all over the city every man and beast sought out shelter wherever they could find it. As Ashley took a sip of tea from the polystyrene cup he was holding, Bumblebee and Hot Rod rolled up the ramp and stopped just short of the entrance door, Tom rolled down Bumblebee's rear window and leaned out.

"You're sure you don't want come?" he asked his younger cousin

"Nah I'm good, I'm gonna help with opening those trunks anyway, Batou and the other's should be here soon" Ashley replied

"Okay, just stay out of trouble and try not to get on the Lambo twit's nerves okay?" Tom smirked

"I heard that!" Sunstreaker called out from within the safe house's garage, the two cousins merely rolled their eyes and smirked

"We'll be back tonight, see ya trouble!" Tom waved as the two Autobots continued up the ramp out into the open and disappeared among the various other storage houses, as the 12 year old turned to head back inside a loud honk drew his attention to the large grey van and single Tachikoma approaching down the ramp.

"GUYS! They're here!" Ashley called out as he jogged back inside. The grey van pulled up into the far corner of the hanger and stopped, Batou exited the driver's seat while Togusa and Saito hopped out of the back, as Deathshot, Jetfire Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Trailbreaker and Jazz transformed into their mech modes and stood upright Scorponok zipped by with a pair of white towels in his claws and threw them over the Tachikoma.

"WHA?, what's with the towels?" the Tachikoma squeaked in alarm

"Just thought you'd want to rub yourself dry my sweet-spark, the weather's terrible out there today and I'd hate to see your fuel lines freeze up" Scorponok said in a flattering tone.

"Aww you didn't have to do that! My fuel lines are well insulated anyway, but the sentiment is really appreciated" The Tachikoma replied as it grabbed the towels in its claws and placed them on the nearby work bench. At that moment Morri walked into the room brushing her long and rather damp hair, followed by Darren, Glen and Miles, who's mouth was crammed with a piece of buttered toast. "Ah good, you're here, did you see Bee and Hot Rod on the way in?" Morri asked as she tugged her brush at a particularly annoying knot in her bangs, "Yeah we saw them just as we came in; you haven't been out in this weather have you?" Batou asked, "Hell no! I just got out the shower, Hailey and the twins went back to HQ to keep Anny company, seeing as she's still in protective custody with the other kids and their families, so it's just us here today" the brunette replied, "Oh Joy" Sunstreaker deadpanned, but everyone paid no attention.

"Look on the bright side, at least we don't have to worry about the wicked witch of the west looking over our shoulder's today" Ashley smirked as he finished up the last of his tea,

"I wouldn't be so sure kid, the Major never takes kindly to backtalk" Saito coolly replied, "Then how come Batou's still in one piece?" the 12 year old quipped, "Hahaha! Are you kidding? She knows how to take a joke! Besides, she's cooped up in the dive room today so I don't think she'll be flying over here on her broomstick anytime soon!" Batou laughed, at the same time he watched both his fist's for any unexpected surprises, after several seconds he sighed with relief; 'phew! Dodged that one!' he thought and as if on cue his left hand took on a life of its own and swiftly punched him in the jaw, the other's flinched in surprise as the ex-ranger staggered backwards before regaining his balance. The kids and Autobots looked at him in surprise for a moment before breaking out into laughter while Togusa and Saito both rolled their eyes and folded their arms, glaring at him with a 'you asked for it' look.

"Dammit! How does she keep bypassing my ghost key elements like that?" Batou exclaimed in surprise as he rubbed his jaw, "Seriously big guy, you're a glutton for punishment when it comes to pushing your luck" Togusa smirked; Batou shot him a frown but said nothing and proceeded to the rear of the van. "Weird, but funny...So, your guys in the lab weren't able to open them yesterday huh?" Darren asked in an attempt to try and change the subject as Saito opened up the van's rear doors, where in the back were the four black metal trunks.

"Nope, we pretty much tried everything but nothing worked, so we figured you guys might want to give it a go" Batou replied as he helped Saito unload the first trunk from the van and carried it up to the computer terminal at the side of the hanger's garage area.

"We tried hacking the internal mechanism, we tried taking the access panels off but they wouldn't budge, we even resorted to using low level explosives but they didn't even leave a scratch; whoever made these trunks managed to get their hands on some quality titanium" Saito said as he and Batou lowered the trunk onto the floor, Jazz grabbed the second and third trunks while Deathshot grabbed the forth one and placed them down on the terminal platform by the desks.

"No kidding, that is good titanium" Trailbreaker commented as he scanned the trunks. The Tachikoma waddled up to the platform to inspect the trunks.

"Hmm, So Darren, did you manage to determine who was speaking on that message?" the blue think tank asked as it turned to face him, Darren regarded the tank with an unsure look as he folded his arms, a mixed feeling of uncertainty and slight dread came over everyone as the memory of that pained voice suddenly came to the forefront of their minds. "Well, to be honest I couldn't find anything conclusive; not only was the sound scratchy to begin with but I couldn't find any 'audio markers' to identify who, or what it was" the teen replied as he wandered over to his guardian's side and leaned against his ankle. "What? But I thought that was one of your people on the message?" Togusa asked, "We thought so too on account they spoke fluent cybertronian without an organic accent, but something didn't sound right with their vocalizer it sounded damaged in some way; no matter how many times we ran the audio analysis we couldn't determine just what was wrong with them, that, and we couldn't tell if they were a femme or a mech; plus the source of that message is questionable too, it's been bothering me since yesterday" Jazz replied as he sat himself down next to the terminal platform.

"I know, while you guys were busy analysing the message, the chief had Ishikawa and Boma look into how Riku's memories had been tampered with in the first place, Ishikawa's been rechecking the data over and over wondering just how in the hell he missed it in the first place, as for ghost hacking the kid's ghost barrier the Major looked into that but couldn't find anything to suggest who might have done it; the only thing we can safely say is that those trunks have been hidden in the bunker since god know when, and whoever put those falsified memories in the kids head obviously wanted us, or someone else to find those trunks" said Batou

"You know, I did think it was rather suspicious, when we went into the bunker to get them and there weren't any traps of any kind lying in wait, but why would Hidaka set it up like that? He must have had someone specific in mind who knew of the existence of the trunks long before us" Morri offered

"Yeah, and those payment's Saski was making to him during the last 18 months; why would a Decepticon pretender, who for all intense of purposes was disguised as a high ranking military intelligence operative, be paying that kind of money to a guy who despite his military contacts was basically a civilian? What's the 411 on that?" Miles pondered aloud. "What if it was blackmail?" Ashley offered, "Blackmail?" Togusa echoed, "Yeah, I mean it would make sense, maybe Hidaka found out Saski's secret and was using it to blackmail him, we already knew the guy was crooked and squeezing money out of whatever he could get, maybe he saw this as an opportunity to make some extra cash on the side, as well as keep Saski under his thumb; after all, someone in intelligence could be a very strategic ally, especially if you're doing your 'under the table' dealings through the ministry of foreign affairs" Ashley explained with a satisfied grin, "That's one plausible theory, and if that's the case then maybe whatever Hidaka had in the way of blackmail material may be in one of these trunks" Togusa concurred, "So what'll be in the other's?" Glen asked offhand. "Well we'll soon see, how about taking a peek in lucky number one?" Morri chimed as she stepped up onto the platform and ran her hand over the lid of the trunk with the number one painted on the top. Deathshot opened his left optic patch and scanned the trunk's inner mechanisms; he frowned in bemusement as he folded his wings back and sat down on the floor, gently pulling the truck closer with his fingers for a better look.

"What's up?" Jazz asked

"Strange; these locks are crudely similar to ones in the message beacon we received from Optimus, plus the circuitry in the 'keyholes' is badly wired up with metal elements that have been substituted for human made components, whoever made this was seriously depleted of their resources and had to resort to using human technology to make these" Deathshot replied, everyone looked at one another bemused.

"So a cybertronian put them together? I guess it explains why Boma's explosive charges didn't work" Batou shrugged

"Can you tell if it's one of ours?" Sideswipe asked

"It doesn't appear to have been constructed according to standard Autobot specs, but I've intercepted many Decepticon devices before and this doesn't appear to have been built to their specs either; as such I don't know what coding system has to be used for locks so I'll run a diagnostic first before opening it" Deathshot replied, on his wrists a series of holes opened up and several of the black and silver cables snaked out and grasped onto the access panel of the first trunk, tiny purple glowing fibre-optic wires creped out the tips and squeezed in between the tiny gaps in the metal plating.

"Neither an Autobot nor Decepticon built these? Then who?" Trailbreaker pondered aloud, "A neutral maybe? I know it's incredibly unlikely considering most of the neutrals were wiped out during the early years of the war, but what if by some off chance one of them found their way to this world?" Sideswipe offered, "It's not impossible I guess, but why would they built something so small?...Unless they were designed to store something in particular" Jetfire pondered aloud as he stroked his metal beard, "So, considering the locking mechanisms, if these trunks were designed to only be opened by cybertronians, how did Hidaka acquire them, and why, if he couldn't open them in the first place?" Darren asked offhand, "That's a very good question" Trailbreaker concurred as he watched the Autobot sniper seemingly slip into a trance like state whilst he concentrated his cables on the trunk.

"So what are we going to be looking for in the way of a problem in our 'subject'? I know his driving was all over the place when he chased the kids across the bridge but I still don't see how that qualifies for CPU damage?; remember you guys told us about that time last winter when the roads froze over and Hound took that corner on the forest road too fast and went off-road into the tree's? As I remember it he dislodged several wires in his equilibrium stabilizer and yet he still managed to get back to the base alright" Danny said offhand, "Yeah but this is Hound Danny, he's been through far worse off-road accidents than just colliding with a tree in midair; come to think of it I'd have thought his equalizer's are used to it by now" Bumblebee smirked through his speaker's, "And knowing him I bet he's sulking that he didn't get blasted through that rift with us, he'd have liked the mountain's and forest's around here" Hot Rod peeped in. "Who knows, maybe he might be part of Prime's rescue party when they finally come looking for us? After all he is the best scout around...changing the subject a minute, did Kubota say it was hanger 7 we had to head to?" Tom offered, "I think so, he said they'd cordoned off part of the base for us to have some privacy...speaking of which, we're finally there" Mikaela replied as the base came into view over the ridge of a hill.

About three quarters of an hour's drive out of the city had brought Bumblebee and Hot Rod to the Wakayama air force base in the foot hills of the northern most part of the region, as they approached the base's main entrance the guards flagged them down to stop just short of the black and yellow striped control gate, Mikaela rolled down the window and handed one of the guards a slip of paper, after quickly scanning it over he waved them on as the gate swung up and they drove on into the base. They soon became to object of everyone's notice as the Camero and Dodge Charger navigated their way through the base towards the hangers, "Hey look" Tom pointed to a row of dark grey Jigabatchi helicopters lined up in a row outside a couple of the hangers, their maintenance crews watched with curiosity as the strange vehicles drove by; after winding through the long rows of hangers they finally found hanger 7, its main doors open with Kubota and several heavily armed GSDA soldiers standing inside, "Hope the troops he picked out aren't as trigger happy as those Umibozu guys" Tom said offhand as the doors closed behind them and they pulled up to one side of the hanger interior, half the hanger was obscured from sight by a huge blue tarpaulin curtain held up in place by a metal frame attached to the roof's structure, a series shadows moved back and forth along the curtain as a series of flood lights shone brightly from the other side.

"Your early, where's everyone else?" Kubota asked as the kids got out of Bumblebee, "Everyone else had errands to run so it'll be just us, is everything in place as I asked?" Mikaela replied, "Of course, and if you need any additional help let me know; you know the GSDA wanted to include several of its special weapons division scientists in on this autopsy, it was a real pain getting them to back down" Kubota commented, "Just as well, the last thing we want is anyone to get any idea's and think they can get their hands on our weapons technology, it'll only turn into a mess" Hot Rod replied as he transformed into his mech mode, the troops staggered back in surprise and aimed their weapons up at the orange bot but Kubota was quick to stop them. "Easy guys! He won't hurt you, just give him some space and don't do anything to provoke him" the intelligence officer ordered, the soldiers glanced at one another with a distinctive 'you can't be serious look?' look, but regardless they backed away and lowered their weapons, albeit they stayed on alert as the young Autobot eyed them suspiciously. "Sorry about that" Kubota offered, "Don't worry, it's not the first time" Hot Rod casually shrugged. When the kids finally finished putting on their boiler suits and taking Mikaela's tool kits out the back of Bumblebee's trunk the yellow scout transformed and stood by Hot Rod as Kubota lead the way through to the other side of the blue curtain. Lying on the floor on a huge white tarpaulin in the middle of the wide space, the burnt and charred body of the Deception lied blackened, dented and motionless; "Whoa, he's way bigger that he looked on TV" Danny said offhand as he cautiously approached the metal cadaver. Around the edges of the white tarpaulin were more heavily armed soldiers and several large tables pushed together with a couple of portable computer terminals sitting on the far end of a makeshift desk. The soldiers eyed the kids up and down, curious and somewhat confused as to what four civilian kids were doing here, but as soon as Bumblebee and Hot Rod pushed the curtain aside to walk in they all stiffened in alarm and firmly grasped their weapons.

"Are they gonna be here while we're doing this?" Sam asked in a hushed tone as noticed one particularly stern soldier eyeing him sceptically.

"That was the plan, why? Would it be better for you if they left?" Kubota asked

"I think for their sakes, and before they have a chance to possibly freak out, yes" Mikaela replied as softly as possible, "Alright, I'll be around if you need anything" he said and without further ado Kubota gestured for the soldiers to leave, as they all filed out they gave the two bots a wide birth while being sure to leave the safety triggers on their weapons off, when everyone was gone Mikaela and the others strode around to the other side of the 15 foot tall con and set the tool kits down on the tables.

"So how're we gonna do this?" Sam grinned as he opened one of the tool kits and grabbed a two foot long lazar scalpel, wielding it like a butcher's knife, Mikaela offered flat smile as she shoved a pair of thick leather wielder's gloves into his other hand and turned her attention to the others.

"Okay we're gonna split up into three pairs, you and me will be handling the autopsy directly, i.e. fishing through his guts, Tom and Danny you'll both be on standby to take the component's, put them to one side and give'em a good look over as we go along, Bee and Hot Rod, you'll be doing the heavier tasks, i.e. cutting up particularly tough pieces of metal the scalpels won't cut through, scanning, turning him on his sides, his front, wherever. We'll do this by Ratchet's medical texts and give him a general external exam first, then we'll start with the CPU first since that's our main objective here today, we'll do the rest of him after we have the memory matrix safely removed, that is if it's still intact; sound good?" Mikaela said; everyone sounded their agreements and got to the task at hand; the two bots sat themselves down either side of the dead con, wincing away slightly at the morbid sight of his offline optics whilst the kids got their leather gloves, plastic face shields and padded knee pads on. Mikeala slotted several tools into her tool belt and carefully climbed up the side of the con's torso and standing on his chest plates, just above his spark chamber.

"You know, this kinda reminds me of that dead whale that washed ashore in the harbour back in 2001, remember when the fishermen tried to dissect it?" Tom thought aloud to Danny as he ran his hand over one of the larger armour plates, the red haired teen scrunched his face up at the memory on the event, "Don't remind me, that thing stank to high heaven! At least this one has no odour, and no rotting guts to spill out" he replied, "Well, what better way to spend a romantic day with your girlfriend than over an autopsy" Sam peeped in as he climbed up next to Mikaela, "Well, if you put it like that, we can just pretend this is CSI Vegas?" Mikaela suggested, "Vegas? I'm more for CSI Miami, plus I get to wear the shades" Sam grinned as he grabbed a pair of dark sunglasses out of his pocket and placed them on his face in style of his favourite TV cop, Bumblebee's speakers fired up as the Who's we won't get fooled again played out, much to everyone's great amusement and Sam satisfaction while Mikaela couldn't help but chuckle. "You're incorrigible Witwicky, now let's get to work and leave the fun for tonight, when we're alone" she teased as she took the sunglasses off her boyfriend's face and folded them away in her pocket. She then turned her attention to the con's body as she pulled out a handheld Geiger counter shaped scanner, flipped the 'on' switch and started scanning the body.

Meanwhile, back at the underground safe house:

"Come on! How much longer is it gonna take?" Ashley whined

"Patience is a virtue you have yet to learn youngling, I'm on the last set of encryptions right now" Deathshot replied, his cables clicking and whirring as they continued to unlock the first trunk.

"Hey Mister Jazz? I gotta a question; if these Decepticon's really hate human's then why did they come here to our world? If they had known that there are human's living on this planet then surly they wouldn't have come here in the first place?" Batou's Tachikoma asked innocently as it waddled around the side of the platform.

"Yeah, it'd be true enough with anyone else, but with the con's it ain't a question of hate' in humans it's more likely to be a question of resources, when it comes to fighting a war that takes you across several galaxies you learn to make the most of whatever resources you can find, energon is our life-blood and can be made from a multitude of different energy sources. Earth is certainly no acceptation in terms of being rich in natural resources, but with the addition of human technology it's practically a Vegas style 'all you can eat' buffet. I'd have thought that'd be one of their main objectives, to collect as much fuel as possible, even to the point of bleeding the entire planet dry; if they have the resources and necessary know-how" the first lieutenant replied as he scratched Scorponok's head, the scorpion happily purr-chirped in content as he directed the silver bots finger to the right spot.

"Would they really do that?" Togusa asked worryingly

"Well it wouldn't be the first world they've drained or plundered for its technology; the cons have no concept of sympathy when it comes to other alien species, they have, and always will think themselves superior to others" Jetfire replied from where he stood across the garage.

"You know the way you guys talk about the Decepticon's it sounds like their basically interstellar Nazi's" Batou said offhand

"The Nazi's? Heh, I suppose that is a good a comparison, I've studied the earth archives of the 'second world war' and am well aware of what they did, and just like Hitler and the Nazi party, Megatron and the Decepticon's ability to command fear, power and death where equalled only by their monumental failure in the long run of time, the inevitability of their doom became apparent the more and more the war dragged on, as a consequence of the imperfections they all inherent from their leader...Megatron's influence over his troops was vast and deep, there were seldom few who resisted his will and those who did never lived for long. I think, if Hitler and Megatron ever had the opportunity to meet, they'd certainly have a lot to talk about; that is, if they didn't try to kill each other out of pure malice first" the ancient seeker replied

"That would be something to see...but suffice to say not all of us were under the great lord Megatron's thumb, some of us knew how to stay on his good side, most day's you'd be lucky to get away with not being snapped or shouted at, but us drones were a favourite of his, when he was particularly slagged off he'd try to kick us if he could" Ravage purred as he stepped out from the kitchen and leaped up onto the platform, curling round and sitting down next to his favourite human.

"Hence your knack for stealth? Trying to hide from Megatron's foot?" Sunstreaker smirked, the panther glared up at the golden warrior but said nothing and flicked his tail in disregard, 'hmm...first time he's not snapped; that's a first' Jazz thought to himself with a small secret smile.

"I don't know; I know I wasn't around for the better part of the allspark wars but don't you think you guys sometimes over-rate the cons a little?" Morri said offhand as she brought in a try of coffee from the kitchen and sat it down on the desk, the Autobots head's snapped round as all optic focused on the twenty two year old but Morri was quick to throw up her hands in defence, "Hey! Don't get me wrong I'm not all for conquering the universe! But, what about the cons like Ravage, Frenzy and Scorpy? You know; the ones who wanted out? Don't they get a say or a choice? After all, there were just as many Germans who didn't want to be Nazi's but had to put up with them during those awful years the war lasted, some were even sent to the death camps because although they were German by birth they were born into Jewish families...and what about the soldiers who grew sick and tired of the fighting and the cause and wanted to go AWOL?" she asked, Frenzy poked his head out from his favourite hiding place behind the computer hard-drives and listened, curious as to where the human femme was going with this while the Autobots stared down at her, Jazz and Deathshot glanced at one another with that 'she makes a good point' look.

"I see your point but for all their atrocity's the Nazi's were human, the Decepticons are different, they-" Sideswipe tried to explain but Morri held up her hand to stop him, "No, our war was no different to yours or theirs..." Morri gestured to Ravage and Scorponok before continuing, "I'm not a soldier, but I know that people are not born wanting to kill one another; and I find it hard to believe anyone can go a through a war or any other God awful situation and not come out the other side unaffected. War is no-one's idea of a picnic, it does things to you; and I can't believe that every single Decepticon was a diehard psychopath. Surly there must have been at some point those who had their doubts? Who contemplated their position in life and whether they really made the right choice? At the end of the day they may have been your enemy but they were still Cybertronians, didn't that mean anything?" There was a rather uneasy silence as the Autobots paused and looked back and forth between one another, unsure exactly how to reply, the three section 9 agents watched is silent curiosity as Jazz sighed and knelt down in front her, though his visor covered his optics she could tell his gaze was a sympathetic one.

"It meant something to Optimus, and to those of us that believe in him; but honey, after ten long billion years I think if Megatron got tired of the fighting he'd have given up eons ago" he replied gently as he rested a finger on her shoulder, Morri dropped her gaze in a nonplussed sense of solemness, feeling somewhat dejected by her own reasoning; "It's just...How can anyone hate so much? And for so long? It's just...*sigh*" she replied quietly, "Kid, I guarantee you every Autobot has been haunted by that question at some point in their life, and trust me, in ten billion years I ain't come across a single bot who had the answer. Don't let it get ya down okay? It'll only drive you crazy" Jazz replied as he stood back up; as Morri sat up on the desk she squeaked in surprise when Frenzy skittered out from his hiding place and hugged around the waist, with a small smile she hugged an arm around him and took a cup of coffee from the tray.

"Hey look on the bright side, if any of these cons want to turn tailpipes and defect at least you can talk the talk to offer the perks of defection for them" Trailbreaker offered

"Maybe, but then that's just me, always looking at the glass half full when it comes to people" she replied as she took a sip from her cup.

"Heh! Girl you think everyone's glass is half full, and that's why we love ya!" Jazz chuckled

"Seriously though, you really think there'd be other con's out there willing to just quit? I mean, even after all this time the chances of anyone turning tailpipes are very slim" Sideswipe asked

"Why not? Anyone can be capable of change and if our whole experience with you guys has proved anything it's that anything's possible, don't put it down simply because it sounds outrageous to you; try being a little more open every once in a while, you might be surprised by what you learn" Darren replied as he took a sip of coffee from his mug, the two Lambo twins looked at one another puzzled; then suddenly, a loud THUNK drew everyone's attention back to Deathshot.

"Finally, it's open" he sighed in relief as the cables withdrew back up into his wrist, "Finally!" Ashley sighed in relief, a mutual feeling of anticipation ran through the group as they eagerly gathered around the trunk, even the twins got up from where they sat to get a look as the other bots loomed over the humans.

"Okay, let's see what we got..." Batou said offhand, as he lifted the lid a musty stale smell emanated out, indicating it had not been opened in a very long time; "huh? What's all this?" Miles asked offhand as he scanned his eyes over the trunk's contents, most of the inside was filled with rows of A4 sized cardboard storage boxes neatly packed together and at one end of the trunk was a collection of other smaller boxes of varying sizes, but the first thing everyone noticed right away was a small white envelope sitting on the top of the pile. Ashley took the letter and looked it over; grabbing his Swiss army knife from out his pocket he flicked out the pen knife, carefully tore open the top and removed the letter from inside, "What does it say?" Glean asked offhand as he noticed the letter was written in Japanese, "Don't know, mind translating?" he asked as he handed it to Batou.

"Let's see...' To the ones who bare the crest of the red god'...Huh?" Batou started, everyone looked at one another in slight bemusement; "...To the ones who bare the crest of the red god...If you are reading this then you have successfully opened the trunks that can't be opened by any man, and have reclaimed what is rightfully yours. By the time you read this letter the world will have changed much, I will have long since passed from this life and will have gone to join my ancestors in paradise, but what I want you to know is that it was I who discovered their dark secret, and what it is they plan to do when the world is ready to fall...I have known evil and have seen the wounds it can inflict upon the innocent, but God help me, I never thought anyone could become such a monster, so dark and devoid of any notion of humanity...who would ever wish for such a life? How could he do all this? And how could no-one have noticed anything for so long?..." Batou read aloud, a slight feeling of unease began to grow among the group as they listened to the words, and what they seemed to imply, "With your possessions I leave you the evidence of their atrocity's, and the foundations of the future they intend to bring upon us all, I only hope it will help you to defeat them, in any way possible...I can't even begin to tell you of the horrors I have seen them do, not least to the ones they have taken; I know this goes without saying but I hope you really are the ones we have been waiting for, and I hope that you will finally purge this evil from the world that has threatened us for so very long...Please, don't abandon us when judgement day comes, never forget what is at stake, never sway from your mission, and above all, never let mankind become a memory for no-one to remember; find them and destroy the Incept code...yours faithfully, S.H." Batou continued. Everyone looked back and forth between each other in confusion, replying the words in their minds and trying to make sense of what they meant.

"The crest of the red god?...Wait a sec, he didn't mean-" Darren quickly grabbed the Autobot medal from under his shirt and looked at the Autobot insignia, "-You guys?..." he breathed in disbelief. "What else could it possibly mean? The Autobot insignia is taken after the likeness of Primus himself, and red is his sacred colour" Jetfire replied; "But if he really did meet one of us then why didn't this 'S.H' just say so?" Sideswipe asked offhand, "Who knows...wait a minute look at the date on the top, 1953? That's over 90 years ago!" Togusa exclaimed as he looked over the letter, the other were left speechless for a brief moment "But who's this 'them' he mentioned? Whoever he wrote the letter for it's clear he was writing it to someone he knew, or had at least heard of, but if he knew the Autobot's why wasn't he being straight forward? Why the cryptic punctuation?" Saito pondered aloud, "insurance perhaps? In case it fell into the wrong hands before he had a chance to put it in the trunk?" Miles suggested. "Yeah maybe...but what concerns me is what their referring to, and this is the third time we've heard this Incept code mentioned, and the fact that this letter was written over 90 years ago mean's it's not exclusive to just this case" Deathshot said, that got everyone's attention.

"Batou? I think the chief and the Major are gonna want to hear about this" Darren cautiously said

"I think you're right, they'll want to see this for themselves; I'll call them and in the meantime see what else 'S.H' has left for you guys..." Batou replied as he reached down and took out one of the smaller boxes.

Back at the Wakayama airbase, events were progressing at their own pace.

"Satisfied?" Tom asked as he wiped his hands on an old rag.

"Not entirely, there's nothing on the surface to suggest anything's off, he looks like a regular cybertronian albeit with a few misplaced armour plates along his shoulders and arms, not to mention very poorly maintained external vents; I guess whoever his team-mates are one of them is a real poor doctor" Mikaela replied as she finished prepping her tools in readiness for the next stage of the autopsy, then climbed into Bumblebee's waiting hand and was deposited on the scout's left shoulder.

"Or a scientist passing himself off as one; I've seen this kinda thing before; any young con that isn't able to prove himself is denied any form medical treatment to the point he's at his weakest and is then sent off on a scouting mission in the hopes that he'll die in the field, it was a very common occurrence during the Sevexii campaign, I don't think a cycle went by we didn't come across at least two con's who were dying of energon starvation in the empty trenches of that lonely planet" Hot Rod replied, shaking his head in solemn thoughtfulness.

"Seriously? That's just cold" Danny said offhand in a slightly put off tone

"Well, at least we'll get to see just what killed him, okay Bumblebee open him up..." Mikaela ordered, with an affirmative nod he flexed his wrist a section of his armour slid back and a chainsaw-like blade extended out over his hand, carefully as possible he brought the blade down and began the slice through the metal, cutting up the abdominal armour and chest in the typical Y section; once the incision was thoroughly cut and deep enough Hot Rod came around the other side and together the bots gently pulled the chest armour plating apart. Almost immediately the air was suddenly filled with a heavy pungent stench, it was a vague cross between ozone and rotting meat left out in the sun, the smell hit the human's nose with such potency it nearly made them fall over in dizzy disgust.

"HOLY SHIT! Where the hell's that smell coming from?" Sam called out as he held his nose and leaned on the side of the body in an attempt to stop himself from falling backwards

"Believe it or not it's from this guy!" Mikaela called back as she covered her nose and mouth with the back of her hand.

"It smells like rotten flesh, but that can't be right the guy's made of metal!" Tom called back as he waved his hand back and forth over his face so as to try and dispel the smell away.

"Are you okay?" Bumblebee asked worryingly, afraid his charge would fall from his shoulder, "We'll be fine Bee, now let's see what's inside" Mikaela patted his cheek plates. Together the two bots pulled the chest apart even further, exposing the inner mechanisms inside and finally putting in place a set of huge four meter long chest retractors to keep the sides form collapsing inward. As the two of them peered inside they both realised something was defiantly wrong, Mikaela stared at the con's anatomy in silent shock and confusion, not quite believing what she was seeing; slowly she climbed down off Bumblebee's shoulder and stepped onto the body just short of the lowest end of the incision.

"Damn it how can this guy smell so-" Sam stopped as he climbed up and looked down into the chest cavity, "Whoa...I don't think Ratchet has anything on this in his medical notes..." he breathed in surprise.

Mikaela had been so sure of what would be inside this body, after countless hours in his medical lab studying various cybertronian ailments and injuries with him she had a good idea how the bot's functioned, and yesterday she'd restudied Ratchet's medical text down to the last detail and knew what to look for in the way of a cause of death; in the centre of the chest was meant to be the spark chamber with the body's primary energon pump underneath with it seven main lines going out to all areas of the body, to the sides of the pump were meant to be the primary motor and weaponry functions centre and the transformation cog, as well as all the many other circuits, wires and components too numerous to mention, and all in a varying healthy hues of pewter silver and light grey with vivid blue energon in the more transparent energon lines.

This was not case.

Instead, all the components were an ugly shade of dark charcoal grey and almost jet black in some parts, at first it looked like the components were twisted and warped, as if stretched out on a taffy puller and moulded loosely like clay, but on closer inspection there were none of the typical signs to suggest they'd been warped by intense heat, the metal wasn't even burnt...the metal? As Mikaela looked closer she noticed how the various circuits and smaller mechanisms didn't seemed to 'look' mechanical in nature, they seemed to have more of a vague resemblance to organic tissue, smooth in shape and form with hardly any sharp corners, interconnected by ligament like threads that criss-crossed throughout the whole chest cavity and smelled like (rotting) organic tissue too. The spark chamber barely looked like a spark chamber at all, instead of a pale silver hexagonal chamber with a circular opening in the centre where the spark used to be; instead was a huge black grotesque form that looked like a human heart with multiple ventricles, protruding veins and the surface was covered in large pock marks, in the centre was a gaping hole with frayed edges and damaged circuitry, possibly where the spark resided? The energon pump looked even worse, it had warped so much that it looked like a heap of crooked human intestines lined with a thin lace like tissue and had blisters all over; everything else wasn't much different and what normal circuitry there was looked like broken glass and flint. From out of the incision a dark blue oily substance with black globules began to slowly ooze out and creep down the sides of the body, as it hit the floor some of the globules burst and released a foul smelling dark brown slime.

"Christ! What the hell happened to this guy?" Danny exclaimed in disbelief as he peered into the body while holding his nose. "You mean who put him together? I'm no medic but even I know this isn't any form of specialized systems of any Cybertronian kind!" Bumblebee concurred in equal disbelief. "Where the hell do we even start? With this kind anatomy I'm wondering if we should ask for a doctor to come and help with this" Tom thought aloud. "I don't even know if this qualifies for a doctor, I've seen pictures of basic human anatomy before and this doesn't even come close to resembling anything found in our bodies...this is something entirely different" Mikaela said

"But what?..." Bumblebee asked, Mikaela met his bright blue optics but could offer nothing in the way of an answer. For a long moment no-one spoke as they looked down at the dead con's anatomy, their minds and CPU's spinning in confusion and wondering just how to proceed, and just what this meant for the rest of the gang and section 9 in terms of the case, if indeed it meant there would even be a case after this, for it was clear this changed everything.

"So...what do you want to do? Go ahead with the autopsy despite this?" Danny gestured down to the blackened remains. Mikaela frowned as she considered her options, but then remembered the reason for this autopsy in the first place. "...Since we don't know what this is we'll stick to our original plan and remove his CPU, though at this point I'm wondering what's in his head if the rest of him looks like this" Mikaela sighed "Well, I really can't be sure; I'm scanning these components and I'm not getting a clear reading in terms of just what they're made of, their neither wholly organic or mechanical in structure or design, more like their 'hybridized' with elements of both, but then, my scanners aren't as detailed as Ratchet's or Deathshot's" Bumblebee said as he scanned the open chest cavity. "Both mechanical AND organic?...so, he's a cyborg?" Danny pondered aloud, hardly believing what he just suggested. "I don't know, I don't think any of us can say for certain, and at this point I'm not sure if I want to even guess" Hot Rod replied with slight hesitation in his voice, "...well, regardless, we'll see if there's anything to be salvaged. Bumblebee can you bring your blade down here and cut away the forward and side helm plates? I want to try and get a good clear opening to his CPU's memory matrix and data processing sectors" Mikaela asked and without further ado Bumblebee flexed out his chain-saw blade and began to cut away three parts of the armour plating around the cadavers head, exposing a grungy pewter grey layer of thin metal plating that seemed to be layered like an onion and fussed together in some places the whole surface was covered in intricate swirling patterns; As Bumblebee cut away the third plate and retracted his blade Mikaela moved in and slowly removed the armour, being careful not to disturb the thin metal underneath; as soon as the under-layer of metal was fully exposed Mikaela fetched one of the large lazar scalpels from the table and steadily made two incisions over the top of the helm and around the front and sides until the whole front portion of the helm was loose and gently removed. Nestled inside the reinforced metal was...something just as unexpected; instead of a typical Cybertronian's CPU was something resembling a cross between a disfigured human brain and a collection of warped computer motherboards, instead of pale smooth sides and intricate alien micro-circuitry was an ugly deformed black folded lump with intricate circuitry and tiny vein like wires melded together in a grotesque mess with energon oozing from out of the incisions.

"Think we can get anything out of that?" Sam asked offhand as he stared at the deformed CPU in morbid fascination, Mikaela went back to the table and picked up a large handheld computer with several wires protruding from out the side, after inspecting the CPU up and down she soon found one of the small access ports near the audio centre, she plugged in one of the wires and turned the device on; after clicking several buttons and watching a series of graphs and readings on the monitor, Mikaela shook her head. "No...Whatever's in there it can't be downloaded or rewritten, it's weird but whatever kind of CPU this is it's memory matrix isn't like that of a normal cybertronian's; I don't know what this is nedalone how to extract it out of the helm, I doubt Darren and Glen will be able to extract the memory data banks and even then with these kind of readings there's no guarantee that whatever can be extracted will be in one piece...How the hell this guy was able to live at all with this thing in his head is unbelievable, nedalone the rest of him" she sighed as she turned the device off and pulled the wire from out of the access port.

"...Maybe he was dying? Perhaps that might explain his erratic behaviour on the bridge the night he died?" Sam offered

"I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case" Mikaela replied

"So what now? If the memory matrix and the data banks aren't usable what do we do?" Hot Rod asked, "...I'm not sure, I wasn't expecting any of this" Mikaela sighed as she took her gloves off, "None of us were expecting this, it's not like we had any hints or inklings..." Danny said, then suddenly his head snapped up with an idea in mind, "But now that I think about it, we could find out exactly how this guy was put together via his PBF codes, if anything they should at least tell us what was built into him" he continued, Mikaela quirked an eyebrow; "It's a long shot but if they're intact it might work; okay guys grab the tables and move them over here. Once you've done that grab some spare scalpels and the sample jars and start collecting samples of everything in the chest cavity...What made you think of the PBF codes?" Mikaela asked

"I took a look at your medical notes after you went to bed last night, Ratchet certainly didn't leave anything out, I could barely understand the diagnostic specs at first until I found the simplified footnotes in the back of the pile" Danny shrugged as he helped Sam and Tom to shove the tables next to the body's head "Well, thanks; now let's get back to work..." Mikaela smiled as she picked up one of the larger lazar scalpels and climbed up onto the cadaver's neck and head to work on the front of the CPU. As she got to work the boys each reached for a sample jar and scalpel and climbed back up onto the cadaver's chest and looked down at the remains with disgust, the foul stench was still emanating out and didn't do any favours for their courage; "Alright guys, white meat or dark meat?" Tom grinned, "Please don't, if I can hold on long enough I might be able to hold my breakfast down" Sam replied as he scrunched his face up in disgust, "Let's just get this over with" Danny deadpanned as he carefully sat himself down on the edge of the incision, with the sample jar balanced on his leg he leaned down and reluctantly began to cut away one of the wires leading up into the neck. Tom and Sam followed suite and bit by bit they each cut away small pieces of the hybrid metal/flesh, slowly building a large collection of full jars and the only time they ever talked was to ask one of the scouts "another jar please". Meanwhile Mikaela navigated her way through the dead con's deformed CPU, the outer deformities weren't exclusive to just the outside of the device, the inside was like a Picasso painting, twisted and warped with slimy tissue like metals melded in with the alien micro-circuitry; while cutting away and moving around various parts and sections of the strange device Mikaela found that what circuitry was intact hadn't been in proper healthy condition in the first place, rust, corrosion and even fungal growth had set into the more tinier nooks and crannies of the CPU's mechanisms, she shook her head, both in disbelief and an once of sympathy. Eventually she reached the centre of the CPU and was both relieved and surprised to find the mechanisms here were somewhat intact and in reasonable condition; as she moved another several wires aside she smiled in relief as she laid her eyes on the object of her interest, a small blue and silver cube about the size of a dice, suspended by tiny silver hair like threads in the centre of a pale transparent sphere with hundreds of tiny vivid blue circuitry patterns, leaning closer for a better look she saw no sign of deformity or having been affected by the rust or corrosion.

"YES!" she whispered to herself and swiftly got to work on open the sphere and cutting the tiny threads, removing cube from its place, taking out a larger sample jar from her pocket she placed the cube inside, leaned back up from head and stepped over the neck to the chest; "I got it! And it's the only part that's not deformed" she said as she came up along Sam's side and showed him the jar, "Cool! So we might actually have a chance of knowing just what all this is" Sam replied, "If it works; it looks okay but I'll let Darren analyse the codes, knowing him I'll bet he's got some fancy gizmo in his magic bag of tricks" Mikaela said as she looked at the cube. "I didn't know Darren was into doing magic tricks? Think he does anything like David Blaine? He's pretty awesome!" Bumblebee peeped in, "Not that king of magic Bee, It's a figure of speech" Sam grinned, "Geez, how many 'figure of speeches' do you human's have?" Hot Rod asked; "No idea, a hell of a lot" Tom replied, "I lost count after 38, I think?" Bumblebee offered, "I'm sure I've said it before, but you humans have the strangest expressions" Hot Rod deadpanned, "it comes with the territory, but then it's not like you guys don't have your own share of weird expressions" Sam smirked, "true, but you really think outside the processing core when it comes to originality" Hot Rod replied, "and there, I arrest my case" Sam grinned as the other chuckled and Hot Rod just sat there in confusion with a 'what did I miss?' expression on his face. "Well anyway, after we're done here, what'll we do?" Danny asked, "We'll weld this guy back up and wait to see what turns up in the PBF codes, if we come across anything that'll give us some idea of what we're dealing with we'll come back and do a full autopsy, in the meantime we'll let the military keep this guy on ice" Mikaela replied as she climbed back down onto the ground, "Think Jazz'll approve?" Sam asked. "Well it's not like we've got a giant morgue in the underground safe house, as long as Kubota sticks to his word and doesn't let anyone around here let their curiosity get the better of them the body should be okay...and I say that at the risk of tempting fate considering everything else" she replied, "I know what you mean..." Bumblebee sighed. Mikaela was about to say something went a noise drew her attention to the tarpaulin curtain, on the other side the sound of raised voices could be heard; Kubota's and two other unidentified men, the group stopped and listened as the three men approached while exchanging harsh words.

"How many more samples have you guys gotta get?" she asked, "um? I think we're just about done" Sam replied as looked down at the stacked sample jars balancing on Bumblebee's crossed legs; "Good; Bee, Hot Rod, you guys start welding this guy back up, I'm gonna see what's up" she said as she took off her gloves and face shield and paced over to the curtain, pushing it aside to find Kubota standing with two other men in tan military uniforms; the two strangers regarded her with contempt looks while Kubota held a look of slight embarrassment in his eyes.

"Is there a problem gentlemen?" she asked impassively as she placed her hands on her hips.

Back at the underground safe house:

As Miles flicked through a pile of papers, the sound of a car screeching down the access ramp made his head snap up, just in time to see the Major pulled into the hangar space and screech to a halt just short of Jetfire's foot.

"GHAA! Watch were you're going fleshings!" the old seeker grumbled, the Major and Chief gave him a wide birth as they exited the vehicle and approached the computer terminal platform at the far end of the room. The chief was surprised to see the Lambo twins, Trailbreaker, Darren, Glen and Miles sat on the floor nearby surrounded by stacks of small boxes and piles of papers, each had a bunch in hand (or fingers in the Autobot's case) and were reading their contents in silent concentration while on the platform Morri, Ashley, Frenzy and the Tachikoma were sorting through another pile of papers and rummaging around the contents of the first and second trunks as Deathshot sat off to one side of the platform with an arm extended over the third trunk with a series of his black and silver cables connected to it; Bayou, Togusa and Saito regarded their superiors with discreet nods as they stood by the metal staircase with a mix of worry and concern etched onto their faces, the Major was quick to notice Togusa's face looked drained, as if he'd suffered some awful shock, glancing around she noticed everyone had worried and dismayed looks on their faces as they read through the papers, this didn't bode well.

"So what did you find? You didn't give many details when you called earlier" the chief said, the three agents hesitated slightly, unsure how to answer; Morri leaned down through the railings above and handed the chief a small pile of papers, "Hm? What's this?" he asked, taking the papers and flicking through them he noticed it was police report detailing the disappearance of over thirty children under the age of thirteen from a small village just outside Kyoto, all taken some time after midnight and the only eye witness report stated that they were taken by a group of strangers dressed in black robes; the chief frowned, this sounded awfully familiar.

"So you found a link to the kidnappers?" said the Chief

"Yeah, and it turns out their not new on the scene; look at the date that report was made..." Morri pointed to the first page of the documents, the chief's eyebrows flew up in surprise, "1972?" he breathed in dismay, the Major blinked in surprise. "And that's not the only one, most of these are police reports from up and down the country at various times during the last century as well as the last thirty or so years" Batou replied. "We've gone over a third of all of them by now, the earliest one we found so far was written up back in 1898, but looking at the state of those documents over there I got a feeling this whole thing goes back even further" Morri gestured to a small pile of tatty looking documents with a green sticky note resting on top with the words 'not yet read' scribbled on; "but that's not all, the details vary from case to case but they all follow the same similar pattern; kids being taken in large groups, all at night or early dawn, the few eyewitness reports that saw the kidnappings firsthand state that they were all taken by people dressed in black, and that they disappeared as quickly as they appeared...sound familiar?" Darren said as he gathered up the papers he'd been reading and stood up, as the Major and Chief both looked over all the papers on the floor and desk, a cold feeling began to creep up their spines. "But, this can't be right, if these many kids have been taken over the past hundred years or so why hasn't anyone noticed anything?" the Major exclaimed offhand, not believing this could be possible. "Well, since the guys here are pretty efficient speed-readers with their scanners we were able to compare a lot of case files pretty quickly without missing anything...and, that's when we noticed another, more alarming pattern to these kidnappings" Glen hesitated in nervy voice, "which is?" the chief asked; "the cases were dropped in less than 28 days of the kids being taken, with no follow up procedures or anything to suggest that anyone actively tried to look for them...not even the families..." Togusa said in an equally concerned tone, only the sound of the storm outside could be heard as the hanger fell deathly silent.

"That...can't be possible..." the chief said offhand, his gaze dropped in a confused stupor as he picked up a case file and flicked through it, "we can't believe it either, but each of these documents states that no-one looked for these kids after 28 days of them being taken; as well as that, even though we've not seen anything on paper there's nothing to suggest that the police were pressured into abandoning the cases, if anything a number of these cases included rich kids from prominent families being taken and their parents actually pressuring the authorities to keep looking for them, some even bribing or threatening them; but after 28 days have passed the cases all suddenly drop dead, no follow-up's, no pressuring from the families, no anything. They were all declared cold case files, but this 'S.H', whoever they were they saw this pattern and collected all these, though god know how they did it, they must have had help to get them all together" Morri replied "Too true! Too true!" the Tachikoma peeped worryingly; "it wouldn't just be humans helping them, regardless of whether they were Autobot or Decepticon a cybertronian had to be the one to open and close the trunks, it's the only way all this could've gotten into them in the first place" Jetfire stated, "And it's not just kids that have been goin' missing, take a looky back here..." Jazz thumbed behind him, stepping round the silver bot, the Chief and the Major found several stacked piles of A4 boxes with the words 'top secret' stamped in red on the tops. "They go back a few decades too; take a look at the top one on the far left pile" Sideswipe gestured to one of the piles by his foot, the Major opened the box and took out the documents within; they were very old with the date on the front of the report being 1937, "that details the disappearance of over 46 soldiers who were on an exercise mission on the Shiretoko Peninsula, none of them were ever found or ever seen again. Like the kids these all tell how various military personnel have been disappearing over time too, all at night and all real quick, with no-one looking for them afterwards" Darren gestured to the other boxes on the floor.

"This goes without saying but it's clear that the kidnappings Mizuki filmed several nights ago were only a small fraction of a way bigger operation; the question is what? And if the Decepticons really were involved there's nothing in any of these case file to suggest they may have been present, no mentions of any strange vehicles or anything that's 'off' by human standards" Trailbreaker said offhand

"For something like this to occur for so long just couldn't be humanly possible! And look at the incredibility here; how can you take that many kids and not have anyone notice, not even once? Why did the families and police drop the cases 28 days after they disappeared? And just why, and what for what reason were the kids taken in the first place? In every case file each of the kids comes from every different background and there's nothing to suggest they had any connection to one another, the only thing that ties them together is the method of the kidnapping's themselves" Batou said

"Another problem all the cases have in common is there are no real clues as who's really behind this, some of the reports contemplate the idea of a criminal element on the part of rivalling Yakuza families, but after looking over the details of the parties involved its unlikely any Yakaza was involved in first place; plus, there's also the dilemma of just how many people were involved if these disappearances have been going on for over a century, whatever organization is behind this has a lot of funds, manpower, and some serious connections to cover their asses" Saito commented

"It's one thing to speculate that anyone in the government, both now and last century could be involved in something like this, but what really concerns me not just is why these kids are being taken, but why, in addition to the military personnel, is it only kids?" the Major asked offhand as she put the files back in their box, a loud clack drew everyone's attention back to the trunks up on the platform.

"...The third one's open" Deathshot coolly said as he opened the lid of the third trunk and turned his attention to the fourth and final trunk, the Major and Chief paced up the stairs to get a look at the contents as Morri and Ashley started to remove them and put them on the desk, "Please tell me it's not more case files" Miles whined as he rubbed his tired eyes, "no, it's looks like something different this time..." Morri replied as she took out a particularly large cardboard box, placed it on the desk and proceed to open it, "Hey, we got a photo album" she continued as she took the large album out of the box and opened the cover with the Major watching over her shoulder, each page was filled with old black and white photos, many of them frayed and bent at the edges; but what they portrayed really made her take notice. "Major...what does this look like to you?..." Morri pointed to one photo, the image showed what looked to be the shoreline of a lake flanked by pine trees and a small row boat tied up at a small pontoon, in the background was a blurred mountain range but just to the far right of the image was something large hidden among the trees, the camera's focus couldn't have been to good as there were no clear details, but the thing had a humanoid shape with a head and shoulders profile clearly visible, and two small blurred dots of light were the eyes should be. "One of yours?" the Major asked, "Hard to say, I can't see his insignia, and it doesn't say where the picture was taken either" Morri replied as she flicked through some more photos.

"Hey, look at this!" Ashley exclaimed as he dragged out a particularly long and heavy object rapped in an old grey dust cover and tied on with frayed brown string; cutting the string with his Swiss army knife and unwrapping it, he stared down at the object in amazement."What the heck is that?" Batou asked offhand as he climbed up the metal stairs with Togusa and Saito close behind. The object in question was a three foot long piece of rusted metal with frayed and warped edges, and cybertronian glyphs written all over it. "Don't know, but it say's... 'They've breached the outer hull, and have gotten into the ventilation shafts...we can't get out, they've somehow managed to open the door to the lower control-...' that part's been ripped off, but the rest says, 'they've sealed us in...we can't get out...we're trapped...their coming...' sounds like whoever wrote this didn't live long afterwards" Ashley sympathetically sighed, "no doubt, but who wrote it? A bot or a con?" Sunstreaker peeped in "I'm still amazed you can actually read that alien writing" Batou's Tachikoma said, Ashley merely shrugged. As the Major approached for a closer look, a loud crack made everyone jump and snap their heads to the source of the sound, the fourth trunk; Deathshot sat perfectly still with look of shock on his face plates, his cables frozen in their places around the trunk, no-one moved for fear of something unexpected happening.

"D...what the hell was that noise?" Morri asked softly, afraid to move from where she stood, Ravage and Scorponok ran into the hanger from one of the other rooms but stopped abruptly as Jazz held his hand out in front of them. Deathshot slowly looked down at the trunk, and then at the gathered humans on the platform.

"There's something in here..." he calmly replied

"What? A booby trap?" Batou asked

"No, something entirely different; look..." the Autobot sniper gestured down to the side of the crate; as he cautiously approached Batou noticed two of the cables had pried open a small gap in the trunks metal plating and had snuck into a small opening, through the crack a vague vivid pink light could be seen and the sound of metal softly clicking together like a clockwork device could be heard. "He's right, there's something behind this panel" Batou turned back to the others. Jazz, Trailbreaker and the lambo twin carefully got up from where that sat and cautiously approached the platform. "Is it dangerous?" the Major asked, "No, but it's very fragile, I need help to get it open" Deathshot replied as he slowly and carefully withdrew his cables from the trunk, "No need to worry! I'll have that panel off in no time!" the Tachikoma squeaked happily as it waddled over to the trunk and looked it up and down, Darren and Glen both watched from below as they looked up through the platform's railings, the Tachikoma grasped one claw on the panel and one on the trunk, and with a slow but powerful jolt it ripped the panel off with a loud crack; the two techy's went wide eyed as they saw what was on the underside of the panel. "What the heck is that?" Glen exclaimed; leaning down to see, Jazz gasped in amazement; on the inside of the panel were two large square panels filled with bright pink energon, in between them was a long canister with a set of pipes coming out the top and a small consol on the front in the centre, the bottom consisted of a computer like device with more pipes and wires snaking all around. "What is that?" the chief asked "It's an energon distributer...Damn I ain't seen one of these in a long time, they're the equivalent of an TNP used on humans who're in a coma, it's for when bots are in an emergency stasis lock" Jazz replied. "Stasis lock?" the Major echoed; "our equivalent of a coma, sometimes a bot may be too badly injured or malfunctioning to fixed up in the conventional manner so he'll be put in an emergency stasis lock so he doesn't feel any pain, basically it's an emergency off switch for our CPU's, it can put us into deep recharge without damaging any of our systems...but what's this doing here?" Jazz thought aloud, "That's not all, take off the front panel Tachikoma" Deathshot said, without a word the Tachikoma carefully removed the front panel and turned the trunk around to face the other's, the other Autobots gasped at what they saw.

"No way!"

"That's not I think it is?...is it?"

"A spark monitor, registering 15 EP's per minute; vent pumps cycling at three volume's an hour and a full set of CPU scanners registering all levels of systems functions within normal parameters" Jazz gasped as he scanned the strange alien devices inside the front panel.

"What? What is it?" Batou's Tachikoma asked eagerly

"It's a cybertronian life support machine...and something's being kept alive inside" Jetfire frowned as he stared down at the trunk.

* * *

Cliff-hanger time! XD A little plot bunny bit me after watching CSI Miami, & I think the bunny will be biting again real soon after this! ;) RE&R Please!


	48. Chapter 47 : The Silence Of Love

I had a very squee plot bunny bite me the other day & what with the spirit of Xmas it only felt right to have a bit of fluff! X3 Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! its been a cracker! 8D (excuse the poor pun!) hope your all feeling revved up, cuz we got a new lil femme joining the crew! X3

::CUTE ALERT!:: NAFF SAID!

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 47: THE SILENCE OF LOVE

"Something's being kept alive? In there?...No way!" Miles breathed in amazement

"But how? That's a pretty cramped up space to be kept alive in" Sideswipe concurred

"Uh maybe it's a drone?...a very small drone?" Scorponok peeped in

"Is there any way you can tell exactly what it is from out here?" The chief asked with concern

"Unfortunately no, but if it's in stasis lock then it won't pose any threat...what should we do?" Deathshot asked Jazz, the first lieutenant dipped his head in thought for a moment before meeting the sniper's gaze.

"Well like you said, if it's in stasis lock it won't pose a threat; let's have a look what's in there, and then decide what we're gonna do with it...y' awl better take a step back just in case..." Jazz said as he picked Miles off up the platform and held him protectively in his hand by his side, Trailbreaker followed suite and placed Darren on his shoulder while the two Briggs cousins climbed up into Deathshot's waiting hand; Glen ducked down behind the desk while the four section 9 agents placed their hands on their handguns, ready to draw them from out their holsters, the chief took several steps back and stood behind one of the large computer terminals. As Deathshot carefully placed his other hand over the trunk, his black and silver cables snaked out from his wrists and proceeded to creep into the trunks locking mechanism and unlock it from the inside; as the lock snapped open and the lid popped open by an inch, a bright blue light shone out of the small gap, as the Autobot sniper slowly opened the lid he gasped in awe at what laid before him, the two children in his hand were puzzled as they too laid their eyes on the thing in question. As the other bots slowly gathered around they gasped at the object in the trunk, much to the human's bemusement.

"What is that?" Miles cautiously asked

"By the light of the Allspark and Primus; it cannot be?..." Jet fire breathed in astonishment as he leaned down to get a closer look, not believing what he was seeing

"But it is...Primus, I never thought...there were any that still survived" Trailbreaker said offhand.

"But, what is it?" Saito asked as he withdrew his hand away from his gun.

"It's a protoform pod" Sunstreaker simply replied.

Inside the trunk was a large bulbous gelatinous sac glowing in the most radiant shade of cobalt blue and set into an even larger hexagonal frame shaped device covered with cybertronian glyphs and other strange geometric shapes and patterns, very similar to those that had once covered the sides of the Allspark; two small transparent pipes carrying energon lead out from the right inside panel of the trunk and connected to a small inlet at the bottom of the sac, to the sides of the device were a large set of vents which were gently humming like air in a pipe organ and at the top of the sac was a small green monitor beeping away like a EKG machine with a small signal zigzagging across the small screen. But inside the sac itself; a small humanoid figure curled over in the foetal position could be vaguely made out through the thick semitransparent liquid inside, it was so tightly curled over and it's limbs were so tightly tucked in that it almost looked like a perfectly shaped ball, as some of the humans leaned in closer they could make out a series of small wires and pipes connecting the figure to the device inside and every few seconds the figure twitched ever so slightly. Deathshot gently took the trunk and propped it on side on top of the desk, allowing the sac to hang more naturally and the letting the energon flow more freely into the device.

"Holy crap...that's a protoform pod?...with a real little baby bot inside?" Glen exclaimed in surprise.

"It is, and it's actually alive! HAhaha! A real live sparkling, I don't believe it! I never thought I'd actually see one, not after all this time!" Jetfire exclaimed cheerfully.

"Wait a sec? Didn't you guys say that a sparkling was a-", "A baby cybertronian? That's so wicked!" Ashley interrupted Batou as he looked down at the protoform pod from Deathshot's hand; the Autobot sniper was a loss for words as he retracted his cables.

"Seriously? That's a baby cybertronian?" Togusa asked as he reached out to try and touch the sac, but Jazz was quick to reach down and gently grab his arm, "Careful! Don't touch it, their incredibly fragile" he warned, Togusa quickly withdrew his hand and settled for just watching the strange little thing.

"But, where did it come from? And why was it put in there?" the Major asked, everyone's train of thoughts abruptly screeched to a halt as both questions came upon their thoughts, and both were met with further bemusement and a sense of slight worry.

"Bloody hell, what about the little tyke's mum? Where's she at?" Ashley thought aloud, the bots looked at one another as their happiness gave way to concern, "That's a good question kid" Jazz replied with a dull look of confusion, Batou looked into the first two empty trunks and noticed at the bottom of the insides were a set of holes and smaller jack ports for wires, looking back into the forth trunk he saw the holes were in the same place where the energon pipes were connected.

"Hey, look at this; these trucks have the same pipe and wire outlets as this one..." he pointed out, drawing everyone's attention back to the first two trunks and back to the forth again.

"Your right...blimey this means that all four trunks were meant to hold one of these pods!" Morri exclaimed in astonishment, "But if that's true where's the other three?" Darren asked, an uneasy silence followed before a feeling of solemn pity overcame the group. "Oh..." Darren replied quietly, suddenly feeling ashamed for asking the question, Trailbreaker brought up his hand and gently stroked him on the shoulder with a small reassuring smile.

"...If that's the case then why was this one spared?...Or, was it possible the others hadn't been placed in the trunks yet, and that this 'S.H' acquired them before they had a chance to be used for their real purpose?" Ravage pondered as he paced up onto the platform and sniffed around the trunks.

"It's possible, but then, if we're talking ancient history then anything's possible" Jazz replied as he rubbed the back of his helm.

"Why ancient history?" the chief asked

"Because each of the trunks locking mechanisms had a time-stamp recorder built in, so as to log each time their opened and closed, that last time these trunks were all opened together was over 12 years ago, in March of 2021" Deathshot replied.

"That was about the same time the South American campaign was just kicking off in Colombia; the whole world was occupied with the war back then, despite watching from a distance even Japan got caught up in the whole thing so it probably would have been a good time for your buddies to go about their business undisturbed" Batou thought aloud

"That is if their still alive somewhere, if that protoform pod was placed in there twelve years ago the sparkling's creator's must have been still alive" Sunstreaker replied

"That's dubious; why would she put it in there at all if she had nowhere else on this planet left to hide? No femme would ever willingly give up her sparkling unless she knew that she had no other way of saving them...not unless, she was willing to draw off any unwanted attention, and give them a chance to be concealed?" Jetfire frowned.

"You mean; this little guy's mom's probably put him in there to save his life?" Glen asked worryingly

"...It wouldn't be the first time..." Jetfire replied as he looked down at Ravage with a small frown, the panther flicked his ear as he looked up at the seeker and regarded him with a low brief growl. The Major looked up and down between the two, wondering just what he meant by that statement, she made a mental note to inquire into it later.

"But if she hid him in there to save him, who was she hiding him fro-" Ashley stopped suddenly as a strange muffled gargling could be heard, everyone looked all around, wondering where it had come from; then, as it grew louder they realised it was coming from the trunk. Everyone stared in surprise as the gelatinous sac began to wobble and quiver as the small figure inside began to kick around, the monitor at the top of the sac began beeping wildly and the vents began to pump air in at a fast rate, now sounding like a set of miniature jet turbines.

"What the hell?" Morri exclaimed as she jumped out of Deathshot's hand and approached the trunk cautiously, but quickly began to pace backwards with the others as the sac began to quiver more violently.

"Um? Is it supposed to do that?" Batou's Tachikoma asked anxiously

"FRAG IT! It's about to-"

SLOSH!

Too late; the sac ripped open and the glowing blue liquid, which was more of a thick slime, sloshed over the platform, making the humans jump back in surprise. At the same time the pipes and wire's that were connected to the sparkling snapped off in a series of pops and squeaks and before anyone could say or do anything a large silvery grey sphere about two times the size of a beach ball popped out and fell to the floor, it bounced off the platform and onto the floor below in between the bots and continued to bounce across the concrete the floor of the hanger and right out the entrance, everyone did a double take in stunned wide-eyed shock, not at all believing what just happened.

"Wow! That's pretty cool!" the Tachikoma squeaked happily

"IT'S ESCAPING! QUICK!" Darren shouted in alarm, snapping everyone from out of their shock; Sideswipe was about to chase after it when the little metal ball came rolling back down the entrance ramp and with a wet squelching sound the ball began to wobble as a set of little arms, legs and a head uncurled from the mass and flopped forwards onto the floor. With a loud squeal the pathetic little figure began to flay its limbs around and cried out like a newborn. Jazz threw Mile's onto his shoulder and quickly rushed to scoop up the little one in his arms.

"Aww its okay lil' buddy I got'cha...come on now shh-shh" Jazz cooed as he gently rocked the little sparkling in his arms while the other bots gathered around in complete astonishment, he knelt down so as to let the humans and drones get a good look too, for they were just as amazed. "It'sasparkling!It'sasparkling!It'sasparkling!" Frenzy squeaked in exhilaration as he bounced up and down around his brother and Scorponok. The little sparkling was about four feet long with a roundish head, a small simple human-like mouth, a set of pronged ear-like antennae's (much like Jazz's), and a set of big bright blue optics; it's body was nothing like that of the older bots for its armour was smooth and the plates were closely packed together giving it a more fleshy appearance, except at the joins and neck where some wiring and circuits were visible. Its little chubby arms and hands were long and robust ending with three blunt claw like fingers and thumbs on each hand and its little legs resembled that of a birds with the heels being a second set of backwards facing knees and both the feet had a set of three long toes with blunt little talons. As Jazz carefully manoeuvred the sparkling onto its front to inspect it more closely, a little set of curved jet wings unfurled with an even smaller set of tail fins over the back of the legs. The section 9 team stared at the odd little being in a mix of astonishment, awe and delight (though Batou was the only one taking delight at this point, the other's were still trying to comprehend what just happened, and what was lying before them now).

"HA! It's a flyer!" Jetfire beamed in delight.

"Oh my Goodness he's so adorable!...Wait, it is a he isn't it?" Morri asked eagerly, Jazz carefully slipped two fingers over the little sparkling's chest plates and carefully pulled apart the two armour plates that covered the spark chamber and smiled gleefully, "It's a lil' femme!" he beamed.

"How can you tell?" Glen asked

"The spark chamber's energon dispensers; a femme's is always top of the chamber, a mech's at the bottom" Jazz replied

"Oh...So that's how it works" Miles thought aloud

"Huh?"

"Never mind"

"So? That's a baby cynertronian?...I wouldn't have thought that-" Togusa asked in a bemused stupor, "That what?" Sunstreaker regarded the human detective with narrowed optics, Togusa suddenly felt unnerved under the golden warrior's gaze. "Well, you know, that your bodies came...readymade?" he fumbled, wincing in anticipation of a serious mouthing off from the bots, but Jazz and the others blinked in surprise before breaking out in chuckles.

"Ah Togusa, human's ain't the only species who self-regenerate and grow, believe me we all came outta one' o those sac's the exact same way...every cybertronian look's something like this lil' cutie when they first emerge from their pods" Jazz chuckled, for a second Togusa merely looked back at the little sparkling with a bemused quirk of the head, trying to see how the term 'cute' applied to this odd looking baby robot, but as her crying settled down into a series of adorable squeaks, clicks and whistles, he couldn't help but smile at the resemblance she had to a human baby, and how it brought back memories of the birth's of his own children.

"Even so, she's so sweet! Why didn't you tell me you guys looked so adorable when you were this age?" Morri squeed as he leaned over the railings to tickle the little sparkling under the chin, which elicited a cute sounding set of giggles from her as she waved her hands around in joy, Sunstreaker merely rolled his optics in reply.

"Can she fly with those wings?" Saito asked offhand

"Nah she won't be able to fly until her CPU circuitry have developed completely and she gets her first upgrade, and that won't be for a good while yet; what you see before you is the protoform stage, the first very basic layer of armour all our kind have beneath our external plating, she'll remain this way for the next year, at the end of which she'll undergo her first armour, circuitry and engine upgrades which will enable her to fly safely" Jetfire explained frankly

"Incredible..." The chief breathed

"Totally, but what are we gonna call her?" Glen asked, Jazz blinked in surprise

"That's a good point; we'll have to really think about that won't we?" Jazz cooed to the still giggling sparkling who was now kicking up a fuss in his arms and reaching down to the floor; "you wanna try walking huh? Okay, just take it easy now..." Jazz cooed as he gently held the little femme in his arms and lowered her down to the floor. The section 9 team watched in eager curiosity as the sparkling stretched out her legs and fell to her knee's as she felt the sudden weight of gravity take effect; after a minute or two of wobbling in her squat position, she rose up slowly with rickety legs and with a few wide strides she stepped forward like a duckling, placing one foot in front of the other clumsily while her arms pin-wheeled around in an effort to steady her balance. After another few minutes of wobbling in tight circles and falling on her backside a few times she began to toddle around the other bots giggling and squealing with joy at her newfound freedom. Wanting to join the fun, Batou and Togusa both followed the kids down onto the hanger floor and cautiously approached the excited sparkling as she ran back to Jazz, she nearly jumped out of her protoform armour when Miles jumped off Jazz's shoulder and landed in front of her with one of his goofy grins; carefully stepping forward with an inquisitive chirp, the little femme looked the kids and two agents up and down and then back up at the Autobots, it didn't take her long to figure out these were very different bots compared to the larger bots around her, with a quirky squeak she noticed their optics didn't glow, they had long fluffy stuff on the tops of their heads and their armour wasn't the same as hers, it looked paler, smoother without lines and parted edges, and it looked somewhat flabbier and loose. As she approached Togusa, the detective nervously stood his ground with an unsure grin, at his side Batou couldn't help but smile wildly like a little kid waiting for a fireworks display to go off. She came up and gently prodded a finger into the detective's stomach, to which Togusa did his best not to react to, trying to keep in mind that this was a first for her. Much to her amazement his armour was soft and squishy as it bounced back under her finger; she looked up at Jazz and squeaked something incoherent to the humans.

"That's right honey, that ain't metal he's covered with, it's called flesh; careful you don't poke too hard he's a lot more fragile than us" Jazz cooed to her in amusement. She looked back at Togusa and again prodded him a little harder. Nothing, so she prodded again, this time a bit harder. "Ow" Togusa said blandly, her optic ridges flew up delight as she prodded him again, "Ow!" said Togusa with a bit more annoyance, perking up in excitement, the little femme raised both hands and prodded him all over, giggling in sheer joy as Togusa tried to swat her hands away, but this was too much fun for her, all the while the kids, Batou and Autobot's nearly fell about themselves laughing. Finally Togusa had enough and made a dash for it across the hanger, but the little femme only chased after him as fast as her rickety legs could carry her all the while everyone in the hanger thought this was just too cute, even the Major, Saito and the chief couldn't help chuckle in amusement as their poor friend ran a whole lap around the hangar space before the sparkling stopped just short of where Batou was standing. She trotted around his wide frame and promptly grabbed his ponytail with a thrilled squeak, "HEY! Careful kid that's not a toy!" the ex-ranger exclaimed in surprise as he grabbed the back of his head while she tried to yank it off. At that point Jazz swiftly but gently grabbed her arms and gently eased her fingers off Batou's ponytail, letting the ex-ranger pull away with a sigh of relief, the sparkling had a look of sadness in her big blue optics as she whined after him but a quick tickle on the tummy from the first lieutenant quickly had her smiling again.

"Okay I think poor Togusa and Batou could do with a rest now baby-girl...You guys wanna take her through to your living quarters for a shower? I think she'll like that, though try to be patient with her in case she makes a fuss okay?" Jazz smiled, "Sure thing...Come on sweetheart, this way..." Morri cooed as she and Darren gently took the little femme hand in hand and led her through the door to the living quarters, she however dragged them both forward with a loud squeak of excitement with the others following close behind.

"Well, that was interesting, can't exactly say that's a babysitting jig for the faint of heart" Batou grinned as he pulled out his black hair-band and collected his long ash blond hair back into a neat ponytail again.

"You're telling me!" Togusa deadpanned as he got his breath back

"Well, who'd have thought you guys would turn out to be great with kids" the Major smirked up at the bots with an intrigued glint in her crimson eyes

"Ah it ain't nothing new" Jazz waved off, "Bumblebee and Bluestreak were a real handful when they first came outta their pods, and believe me we all learned firsthand what it takes to look after a pair or sparklings, I think we got this one covered" he grinned. "You raised Bumblebee and Bluestreak? How old are they?" Saito asked, "Well it was a good twenty million years ago, so I guess in human years that only makes them a few years older than Sam" the first lieutenant pondered aloud, "And how old is Sam?" Togusa asked, "Eighteen" Jazz casually replied; the Major blinked in surprise, she hadn't really thought about just how the vast differences in time and longevity differ between the Autobots and humans, sure Bumblebee and Bluestreak sounded and behaved like young post-adolescent boys, but both were twenty million years old? 'Guess you never really grow up huh?' the Major though idly before Trailbreaker interrupted. "Hey, does this mean we'll have to tell Kubota about her? How's he going to react to us finding a protoform pod that's been locked up in a trunk for twelve years?" the black bot asked, his voice laced with concern.

"I'll take care of it, though you might want to prepare yourselves for more unnecessary attention, the idea of a newborn alien is going to get a lot of people very interested" the chief replied in his usual calm and collected manner, the whole drama of what happened in the last ten minutes didn't even show on his face.

"One thing you can make clear to him is that the child will be under our strict guardianship, no exceptions!" Jetfire sternly stated. "Of course...This goes without saying but this somewhat changes things" the chief replied

"Undoubtedly, but don't worry about us we'll work something out with our new lil' addition, if we were able to raise Bee and Blue in the middle of a war I think we can take care of a lil' femme while we're workin' this case with you guys; we're just gonna have to make a few compromises is all, and ask for a few additional resources" Jazz replied. "I'll put a call through to the GSDA's major resources division, after all the trouble that went down during your meeting with the PM the GSDA own you all that much" the chief replied, "They better" Sunstreaker muttered under his breath. The sound of laughter, squeaking and splashing echoed out of the human living quarters as the little sparkling could be heard splashing about in the bathroom; from the sound of it the kids and drones were receiving a good dowsing too; "Better see how their faring..." Ravage said offhand as he trotted into the living quarters.

"Hey, how are we going to break this to everyone else? Should we call them back to the safe house? I know Bee and Blue are going to be totally tires-over-aft at the prospect of seeing a brand new sparkling!" Sideswipe beamed with a particularly wide grin, "Maybe it wouldn't hurt to let the rest of the team meet the new arrival too, eh chief?" Batou said offhand as he regarded the old ape with a wide grin of his own, "Indeed" the chief smirked, the other Autobot's couldn't help but snigger.

"JAZZ! She's turned Blue!" Morri cried out in alarm, Jazz shook his head as he did a double take at the door, thinking he didn't hear that right. "What?" he called back; suddenly without warning the little femme came toddling out of the living quarters dripping wet and covered in soap suds with the kids chasing after her, all of who were just as wet and soapy; the bots optic ridges flew up in surprise at what they saw all across her armour. "We...we were just about to rinse her off when, her armour started to...well look!" Morri pointed to the sparkling in alarm as she awkwardly trotted around Jetfire's legs with a delighted series of squeaks; what had once been completely grey armour not a few minutes ago had now turned into a bold vivid sky blue, black and white patterned colouration all across her body, her front, neck and face were white with black circular patterns and rings, her arms and legs were black with white feet and hands, but her wings and tail in particular looked quite sharp with a blue and black striped pattern with white on her wing and tail fin tips, the few traces of grey that covered her before were slowly fading away down her legs, arms and front.

"Wow! That's quite a paint job, how did that happen?" Togusa asked offhand

"I've no idea, we finally managed to get her in the shower and get the shower gel on her when her armour slowly started to change colour, within seconds she's blue, black and white" Darren replied as he stroked back his wet hair. Deathshot quickly moved his hand in front of the sparkling to make her stop and placed another hand on her back to gently make her twirl around so he could get a better look; "Well well? Pre-programmed armour colouration formatting, that's certainly not a common feature with most protoform pods, whoever created you must have wanted you to be really extra special" the Autobot sniper smirked. "Pre-programmed armour colouration formatting? Man that's some serious tricked out customising" Jazz said offhand. "You mean you don't usually change colour after birth?" Batou asked, "Not really, grey is traditional so that when you receive your first upgrade you can choose whatever colours you want to be; some creators may install a format setting in the pod to change the colour of the protoform armour as a way of making their sparkling really unique...whoever this little one belonged to must have had some serious knowhow in formatting the pod's systems to come up with such an elaborate colouration scheme" Deathshot said as he softly stroked the little femmes head. "So, the colouration's permanent?" Sideswipe asked, "Afraid so, but hey, she looks real good, she's certainly gonna turn heads!" Jazz grinned; "yeah, come to think of it she kinda looks like a blue jay with those colours and pattern arrangement" Darren said offhand as he studied the pattern on her back and wings.

"Ja-ja!" the little femme squeaked in delight.

"Ja-ja?" Darren echoed with a quirk of the head.

"You mean jay-jay?" Morri smiled as she approached the sparkling

"Ja-ja! Ja-ja!" she squeaked again and nodded her head vigorously in agreement

"Jay-jay?...you like that?"

"Ja-ja!"

"Jay-jay?...What do you guys think? Is that a good name?" Morri asked the other bots, most of them scanned the net and found several images of a specimen of Cyanocitta cristata, otherwise known as the blue jay; looking back down at the sparkling they were surprised how her colours resembled the bird's own coloration.

"Your right, she does look like a blue jay" Trailbreaker quipped

"I think it suits her just fine, and as long as she's happy with it, I ain't got no problem...Welcome to the gang Jay-jay!" Jazz smiled as he patted her on the head.

"I'd say that's cause for celebration! call everyone back and tell them the good news! I'll get the energon ready!" Scorponok chirpped as he scuttled out of the living quarters and over to the energon dispenser in the corner of the hanger and lined up several empty cubes under the device, "I'll get the drinks!" the Tachikoma called out from the kitchen, "And we'll get her rinsed off...come on Jay-jay" Morri said as she and the kids led Jay-jay back into the living quarters and back into the bathroom. The Major turned to the chief with a 'should we let them?' look in her crimson eyes, and sighed in resignation of the fact that no-one was going to oppose.

"We'll never hear the end of it if we object will we?" she sighed with a wry smile

"Most likely, a newborn is a cause for celebration in any circumstance, let them have their fun and call Ishikawa, Boma and Pazu; we might as well let them see the Autobot's new arrival firsthand as well as hand them the contents of the trunks for further analysis. We'll continue the case as soon as they've attended to her needs first, I don't think we have to worry about this" the chief smirked, "Much obliged chief...you know this ain't gonna be easy to explain to Prime when he and the rescue party finally come for us; if anything this raises the bar on this case...a sparkling from our universe who's been locked up for twelve years in a trunk? I have no doubt some human or humans knew about this. When you next see Kubota, it might be wise to warn him that we won't be going home in such a hurry, while we help you guys I know Prime's gonna want to get to the bottom of all this" Jazz replied in a hushed tone.

"If it suits you I can ask him to come here directly, no time like the present" the chief smirked, "Man you are one impatient human; alright, seeing as he's overseeing the autopsy of that dead con with Mikaela, ask for her and the others to return here right away...though you might want to ask him to brace himself for a real surprise" Jazz grinned as he got back up and wandered over to where Scorponok was pouring out several cubes of fresh energon while happily wagging his tail, 'that's an understatement' the chief thought to himself as he regarded the Major with a discreet nod.

"_Ishikawa? Are you still doing data analysis with Boma and Pazu?"_ The Major asked over the comms.

"_Of course; why? Is something wrong?"_ the veteran hacker replied

"_The Autobot's managed to open the trunks and, what they found was certainly not what we were expecting, we need you three to come over to the safe house to retrieve the items and take them back to the analysis lab for further study" _she ordered.

"_...Understood, but I get the impression that's not the only reason you want us over there Major, what's really going on?" _Ishikawa asked, 'he never misses a trick' she thought with a satisfied grin.

"_Let's just say one of the trunks had something a little more 'lively' inside, I don't want to say over the comms, just grab Boma and Pazu and come meet us here, and bring Hailey and the girls with you, Jazz wants them here too"_ there was a brief silence over the other end of the comm. As Ishikawa pondered on what the Major meant.

"_Rodger that, we'll be there soon" _Ishikawa replied, after which the comm fell silent.

At the Wakayama base:

"You can argue all you want, for all the good it'll do; but I've already told you the answer is NO!" Mikaela spat back, the captain standing before her regarded the blue eyed teen with a most agitated scowl as he folded his arms in annoyance. With the autopsy being written off as a wrought there hadn't been much else to do initially; that was, until two officials from the GSDA's special weapons division showed up and demanded to have the dead Decepticon handed over for 'proper analyses'; per the terms of the Prime Minister's protection order Mikaela promptly asked Kubota to have the order for the dead alien's remains revoked, at which point Kubota disappeared back to the base's main complex to put the request through to his superiors while the two officials tried to 'reason' with her. Mikaela may have been young but she was no fool, and knew when she was trying to be taken for a ride, she stood her ground in stubborn defiance and thank god she was still a teenager with all the attitude to show for it.

"It's not a question of whose got priority here it's a question of how this is being handled; and I'm sorry but I don't exactly see how a teenager is qualified to handle this. You should step aside and let the experts deal with this in the proper way young lady" one of the officials stated sharply.

"Young lady?" Mikaela echoed through her teeth, a look of pure venom slowly fell upon her fare features; she inhaled, ready to give him a serious mouthing off, when Kubota suddenly reappeared at the hanger entrance, "Sorry gentlemen but your request is denied, the intelligence department has jurisdiction over the matter and by extension the Autobots have the majority say, whatever they say goes and I'm afraid you're not needed here" he stated, the two men looked at one another in disbelief and stormed out of the hanger; "this isn't over..." one hissed through his teeth as he brushed past, Kubota disregarded it and turned his attention to Mikaela, who had just passed a deep sigh of relief.

"Thanks, I was just about to deck him" she said sarcastically

"The feeling's mutual, but don't let him get to you, you're the one's who're calling the shots here and men like him don't like having to dance to anyone else's tune" Kubota reassured, "Really? Well if he's having to follow our lead he's doing it with two left feet; talk about being rude" Mikaela huffed, Kubota couldn't help but chuckle lightly before his call phone rang.

"Hello?..." he answered, his expression turned serious again as he listened what was being told on the other end of the line, Mikaela quietly watched his expression in curiosity, "...yes their-...are you serious? Right now?...well of course but they're still in the middle of the procedure and I don't know...really...all of us? But what's so important that it requires me?...I see, well she's standing right next to me, I'll ask" Kubota removed the phone from his ear and covered the mouth piece with the other hand, "It's Aramaki, Jazz has asked for you and the rest of your team back to your safe house, apparently there's been a development that requires your attention" he continued, "Okay, hang on a sec..." Mikaela replied and stepped over to poke her head through the tarpaulin curtain, "How're you guys doing?" she called over to Bumblebee and Hot Rod. "We're just about done" Bumblebee called back as he put the last chest plate back in place and welded it to the rest of the armour. "Alright...can you put this guy back in the cooler and make sure no-one try's to take a peek at him?" she thumbed over towards the cadaver on the other side of the curtain. "Sure, no-one else but you and your friends has clearance to see him anyway" Kubtota shrugged, "good, then we're done here, we'll be out in ten minutes" she replied and disappeared back behind the tarpaulin curtain.

Two hours later:

"Frankly, I don't see the resemblance..." Pazu said impassively as he took a puff of his cigarette, "What? She totally looks like a little blue jay! She's the right shade of blue that's for sure" Hailey peeped in, unable to contain her excitement, the ex-yakuza watched Jay-jay run around the hanger after Batou's Tachikoma and simply leaned back against the wall, "nope, sorry" he coolly replied, Hailey heaved a sigh of frustration and went back to the kitchen to refill her drink; since everyone returned to the safe house and had been introduced to Jay-jay an unofficial birthday party had kicked off for the new little arrival, with all the new faces around Jay-jay wasted no time in wanting to see everyone and had spent most of her time running around after everyone and poking, tickling and pouncing on them as well as climbing up the bots legs and wrestling with the drones, both the Major and chief had managed to discreetly keep out of Jay-jay's line of sight while Ishikawa had managed to stealthily sneak into one of the safe house's back rooms so as to go over the contents of the trunks in peace. From up on the platform Kubota had been watching all the excitement in a mix of disbelief and amazement as the chief simply stood back with a small smirk across his lips.

"...I still can't believe it, I mean, I know you said that you're a race of sentient robots but I never contemplated the idea of reproduction; guess I got a lot to learn about the mysteries of the universe huh?" he thought aloud.

"Ah it's okay...but at the risk of tempting fate and karma I think this particular incident is a real one-off; it ain't everyday a sparkling is found under these circumstances, nedalone the fact that she's been in stasis lock for over twelve years" the first lieutenant replied.

"If someone knew about her than this is even bigger than even I could imagine; when your friends finally come there's going to be a lot of questions that'll need answering, and vice versa for sure...if she was hidden in that trunk to save her life then where's her mother?"

"Your guess is as good as ours, we'll go over the files and documents that were in the other trunks more thoroughly to see if there's any connection, but from what we've seen so far it looks like this whole situation has been going on for a real long time, and that it's possible there might be something real big going on that no-one knows about...for what it's worth I don't like where it's heading, and with lil' Jay-jay to consider it only begs the question...where's it gonna lead us?" Jazz thought aloud

"Undoubtedly...Are you sure you'll be alright? Bringing up a child is no small feat you know? And with this whole situation are you sure it won't create additional pressure for all of you?" the intelligence agent asked cautiously, "Don't worry dude we'll be fine, oh and thanks for arranging the advanced cash 'donation' for lil' Jay-jay; D and the other's should be back soon with her birthday gifts" Jazz smiled as he watched Jay-jay break off her game of tag and run up the entrance ramp, chased by the Waineright twins and Darren. As she came to the entrance of the warehouse above she stopped just short of the door and watched in confusion at the rain falling down from the sky; "What's up Jay-jay?" Becca asked as she ran up to the little femme's side, "It's okay, it's only rain, it's just water falling from the sky" Becky cooed, Jay-jay just looked at the eleven year old twin puzzled, having not quite understood what she said. Cautiously she walked over to the door and held out her hand and jumped in surprise as the cold water hit her soft metal armour, it felt wet, cool and nice; letting out a string of excited chirps and squeals she sprinted out into the rain, thinking it was one huge shower, but quickly dashed back down the access ramp squealing in alarm as the cold stormy winds blew over her wings and the rain felt freezing cold all over. The kids tried to stifle their laughter as they followed her back down the ramp as she dashed through to the human living quarters and promptly came back out with a white bath towel wrapped around her head.

"What was that all about?" Jazz chuckled, "Jay-jay experienced rain for the first time, and decided she didn't like it" Becca laughed, Morri shook her head with an amused smile as she walked over to the still surprised sparkling, took the towel and gently began rubbing her dry; Jay-jay leaned into her side as she rubbed her wings and head, chirping with contentment. "Yeah, we don't like nasty old rain storms do we?" she cooed as Jay-jay tugged on the towel and tried to wrap it around her antennae. The little femme had really taken a liking to the soft fluffiness of cotton towels and pulled away with the towel still wrapped around her head and started chasing after the Tachikoma again, but quickly changed her mind when she spotted Saito trying to hide behind one of the huge computer terminals by the platform; with a giggle she tried to creep up on him, but the sniper was quick to beat her to it and as she came within a few feet of him, he turned round and surprised her with a sharp "BOO!". Jay-jay fell over on her back and there was a short uneasy silence before she broke into a fit of high pitched giggles, flaying about in delight, up above on the platform the Major couldn't help but chuckle at the little femme's joyous antics. In all her years the Major wasn't one who was prone to being all soft and mushy at the sight of every cute thing in the world, with her military lifestyle being a defining part of her overall image and identity she rarely found anything that gave her the warm fuzzy feeling inside (if at all?); but after watching this sweet little sparkling run around having the time of her (still relatively new) life, she couldn't deny the happiness her ghost was whispering to her in the back of her mind, but for all her amusement at seeing Jay-jay run around, you'd never know with her trademark collected calmness upon her face and a simple smile to lend any suggestion of a positive attitude. Then, a deep thrum echoed throughout the hanger, the air above the floor shimmered as Deathshot disengaged his camouflage field and touched down by the platform. His cockpit opened to reveal a very excited Batou and a rather queasy looking Togusa with Ashley and Danny in the rear seats.

"Wow! That was some ride! You weren't kidding when you said you can hover an inch over everyone's head!" Batou grinned as he and the boys leapt out of the cockpit and was quickly glomped by Jay-jay; a set of metal steps swung out from the side of the canopy to let the poor detective climb down, he staggered for a minute before getting his equilibrium back and straightening up. "That. Was the SCARIEST ride ever! How the hell your friends can stomach your flying I'll never know!" the detective exclaimed in annoyance as he leaned against the railings, "I already said I was sorry, but I had to stay at ground level so as it would make the loading easier, and I was staying as level as possible! It's not my fault your equalizers are unstable!" Deathshot replied as he transformed back into his mech mode and loomed over the detective with a deadpan look in his one optic, the detective merely heaved a heavy sigh and left the argument at that "Well, we're back on the ground now, that's the main thing" he replied, "seriously mate, you need to lighten up" Ashley said offhand. Jay-jay quickly turned her attention to the Autobot sniper as she ran over and threw herself onto his leg squeaking and chirping in joy, as the kids and bots gathered around, the sniper opened up one of his subspaces and took out a large bundle of shopping bags and sat down cross-legged on the concrete floor with a very excited sparkling dancing around his knees.

"Okay Jay-jay, which one would you like first?" Deathshot asked her as he held out his hand, revealing three huge paper bags with the logo of some toy store stamped on the sides; grabbing the nearest, Jay-jay ripped apart the bag and was confronted with a big three foot tall pink bunny rabbit with big round eyes and a big purple bow around its neck. Feeling how soft it was, she chirped and hugged it affectionately before looking back at the other two bags and promptly ripped them open to find a big blue dolphin and a big yellow canary like bird. Trying to cuddle all three at once was a challenge and the kids and bots couldn't stop giggling at the sight of the little femme being overwhelmed by three oversized plushies as she tried to hold them in her arms, even Sunstreaker was smiling (for once, which made it somewhat refreshing).

"How cute, where'd you guys go to get those?" Bluestreak asked offhand, "The mall over west of the downtown Hakone district, it's my daughter's favourite toy store, we go there whenever we got shopping in the city" Togusa replied, "Oh! Don't forget ours!-" Ashley exclaimed as he clambered up the side of Deathshot's armour and crawled into the subspace, emerging with a huge black thing on his back, after throwing it down the floor, the other's saw it was a twelve foot long black and pink floor pillow in the shape of a dragon, complete with wings, horns, and a particularly cute face, cat like paws and yellow eyes with a big pink heart on its belly. As if the three other plushies were enough, the sight of the huge gift seem to send Jay-jay into overdrive as she danced around the floor eliciting the most adorable noises known to man, then gathered up the three plushies under one arm as she struggled to carry the floor pillow under the other but her small size made it hard to gather it up by herself. Amid the chuckles, giggles and laughter, Hot Rod took the floor pillow and held it above the sparkling's head so she could position it on her head and back, she then proceeded to trot across the floor to show off her birthday gifts to the other human's. As the Autobot gangs chatted among themselves and joined in Jay-jay's excitement, the chief glanced over at his team and gestured for them to come up onto the platform.

"I think it's time we left them to their own devices, go find Ishikawa and load the documents into the car; Batou, Togusa, I want you both to remain here, the rest of you will accompany me back to the office" the chief ordered in a hushed tone

"I guess I better be going too, if anything to get a start my report, this won't be easy to explain to the cabinet" Kubota sighed, "Well, all I can say is, good luck" the chief smirked, "Sympathy is most becoming of you Aramaki" Kubota deadpanned as he walked down the stairs off the platform, "I try my best" the old ape replied, "liar, but at least your honesty compensates nicely; see you later" the intelligence officer waved as he made his way over to one of the spare vehicles parked in the hanger's garage space and quietly made his exist.

The rest of the day past by at an easy yet excitable pace. At lunch time the lambo twins volunteered to make energon for everyone (which took some by surprise, but their 'lightened up' attitude with Jay-jay was a welcome change) Sideswipe fiddled about with the energon dispenser and managed to create Jay-jay's first meal; a small cube of the lowest grade energon possible, it's energy level was so low that it actually glowed a strange shade of lilac, while it wasn't the typical special formula created especially for newborn sparklings it had just the right amount of compact energy that it wouldn't overwhelm the little femme's delicate energon pump and circuits (or get her overenergized!); Deathshot rigged one of the cubes with a funnel, essentially making it into a sippy cup so as Jay-jay didn't spin a drop. She took the cube and downed it greedily, enjoying the strange sensation of the energon hitting her pump and the resulting little rush of energy whizz through her systems. After tiring of chasing everyone around the hanger Jay-jay spent the afternoon exploring the safe house and all the different things in it. She explored the bedrooms and found that she really liked the soft springy bunk beds and the lovely soft, warm and fluffy blankets and pillows and being only four feet tall she fit in the one of the beds quite snugly; after that she explored the kitchen and was surprised to find all the strange colourful organic squishy stuff that the squishy bots called 'food' in the cupboards and refrigerator, she put a huge handful of 'spaghetti' in her mouth but was utterly shocked at the gross slimy texture of the long pale yellow strands, but even more alarmed by the warning signals flashing in her vision range, after quickly spitting it out and having her mouth plates gently washed out by Mikaela she promptly ran out of the kitchen, ranting in a string of cute sounding squeaks and whistles. Undaunted, she continued her little exploration with a peep into the back rooms, which consisted of a storage closet, a spare bedroom, a walk-in gun locker, which Batou and Togusa were quick to divert her attention from, least any unfortunate accidents were to occur; and a small dive room complete with a dive terminal, despite its mundane appearance to the others, she was no less excited to see it all, everything had to be explored and everything held the promise of a new exciting discovery.

As the hours slowly flew by in happy abandonment the hanger steadily grew calmer as the little sparkling slowly began to wear down, and her new family were glad for the peace and quiet too as they sat around in exhaustion from having to keep up with her all day; it was now the evening and everyone was ready for a descent night's sleep, though the mention of tomorrow elicited a few groans as most of the gang retired to their bunks/parking spaces; Jay-jay was given her own bunk with her own blankets and pillows and was even allowed to sleep with her plushies, after half a small cup of her special energon to settle her down she flipped into recharge faster than a light going out. Outside the safe house near the entrance to the storage house, Togusa stood against the main door watching the huge cargo ships come and go in and out of the docks, the far off distant sound of fog horns echoed far and wide around the bay and the channel markers rang out like chapel bells announcing the evening mass. The wind had slowed down to a light breeze and from far out in the ocean a thick heavy fog covered the city like a dark gray shroud; all around above and below, the city's lights seemed to be amplified by the tiny water vapours in the air as the grungy green and orange glow of the city were the only colours that seemed to encompass the sky itself, out in the bay the ships moved like ghosts, eerie featureless spectres that were vast silhouettes adorned with their tiny navigation lights that seemed just as spooky in the fog.

"So this is where you snuck off to?" Togusa jumped slightly as Morri joined him at his side, she pulled her favourite shawl over her shoulders as the wind blew through the buildings and seemed to nip at her bare feet.

"Oh hi...Aren't your feet cold?" he asked as she splashed her feet around in a particularly big puddle.

"Nah I've been in way colder weather than this, and besides I figured that storm would blow over by tonight with some fog to follow, weather like this isn't unusual where I come from, it happens at least several times in the summer" Morri replied as she jumped into another puddle

"A little bit old to be splashing about in puddles aren't you?" Togusa smirked

"Are you kidding? You're never too old for splashing in puddles! And after today I feel more like my shoe size than my age!" Morri laughed, Togusa passed a deep heavy sigh as he ran his hand through his hair and looked up at the dreary sky with a listless smile; "Yeah I guess you're right...man what a day..." he sighed in a happily content tone, as he cast his gaze downwards he noticed Morri looking at his with a particularly delighted look in her eyes.

"What?" he smiled

"...You look just my dad when he's having one of his 'proud to be a father' moments, he just stands and watches without a word, as if he wants to say, 'regardless of everything I'm so proud to have had you', but he knows he doesn't have to say it because on a deep level we both know it, and the silence that passes between us is okay...you've had that same look in your eyes all day, and you haven't said that many words either" Morri said softly as she approached him, despite the dim light her eyes seemed to hold a soft twinkle that betrayed a subtle understanding; Togusa was aware the Major had taken a liking to Morri in particular, now he really understood why. He regarded her with an impassive look before taking in a deep breath and letting a subtle look of guilt come over his face as he leaned his full weight against the door frame, his eyes glazed over as his thoughts turned inwards.

"...To be honest, I haven't felt like this since both my children were born...you spend nine months going through the stresses of preparing and worrying and just how the hell you're going to handle it when the time comes; and yet, all the while when Mei was pregnant with Mizuki, I could help but wonder just who this little girl was going to be...the day I saw her little face for the first time, nothing else mattered in that moment, I was so glad it was her. It was the same with Haru too, only that second time around I knew I could handle it, and I knew that whatever else happened in life, whatever terrible things might be lying in wait, I know I can face them because I know my kids are the two best things I've ever done in my life, beside's marrying my best friend; In a way I think it explains why I can do the job I do with section 9, easy never comes into the equation and you need to have a driving force of some kind to give you strength when you're out there and the odds aren't in your favour" Togusa explained

"And, seeing Jay-jay bought that all back?" Morri cautiously asked as she regarded him with a curious gaze, a moment of thoughtful silence past between them before Togusa spoke frankly of his thoughts.

"...Ever since I accepted the fact that there are other beings in the universe besides us, I've been trying to bring myself to accept that there are things in this life that don't work the way we think their supposed to, and that, for all that we've learnt over the course of human history and all the beliefs we come to set in stone, there's just some things that are there regardless of anyone's opinion" he sighed

"Such as?" Morri asked

"That love and friendship aren't exclusive to humans..." he replied quietly, intrigued, Morri let him continue; "...I've never been truly comfortable with the idea of 'going full cyborg', Batou knows this the Major knows this and even my wife knows this, and though I've brushed it off as some qualm that vexes me, none of them know the real reason why...when I was fresh out of college and I had just started my training at the police academy I had a friend, Haruki, he was keen on cyberization and had wanted to go into studying applied cybernetics in criminology; he was a real great friend and we studied and trained together for the first two years, then in our third years he made the decision to go full cyborg, and after seeing some of the stunts he could pull off with that body I seriously considered going full cyborg too, for a while everything was going swell...and then, one day when we were out on the firing range practicing for a firearm's exam; Haruki suddenly froze and his whole body began to shake, when I ran he swung round and started firing in every direction, I ducked down and managed to get behind him and as I tried to wrestle the gun from out of his grip I saw the look in his eyes...He was terrified, and all the while he was shooting he was pledging me to stop him, then, as quickly as it started, he stopped and fell to the ground unconscious...he died in the ambulance, just less than a mile from the hospital". Morri stiffened in silent alarm, but listened as Togusa carried on, "...the post mortem on his cyber-brain revealed that he'd been ghost hacked with a particularly nasty barrier-buster virus; someone had ghost hacked him and made him try to shoot me, he knew this, and throughout it he knew he couldn't stop it. Four months later the police eventually found the culprits, a loan shark to who Haruki's father owed some serious money, but when he didn't pay up the shark hired out an ex-military systems programmer to ghost hack his son and demonstrate just who was in control...he just, flat-lined Haruki's ghost as if it were a bug, as if he were nothing...every time the subject of full body cyberization comes up some part of me still see's that horrified look in his eyes, and I can't help but think I don't ever want to take that risk and be in that situation"

"But... the Major, Batou, Pazu and Boma are cyborgs; they run that risk anyway, what's to say your chances are no better or worse then theirs?" Morri reasoned

"I know, it's stupid and I've gone through all those notions more times than I care to count, but at the end of it all it still doesn't stop that cold feeling from creeping into my stomach..."

"I don't blame you, but, considering how integrated technology is with society in this world didn't you sort of stick out a little?"

"Not in a big way; but since then I've always had this theory that I didn't have to have full body prosthetics to be good at what I do, that I didn't have to prove myself otherwise just because I wanted to stay in the body I was born with...it was quite a surprise when the Major recruited me, of all the places and people I never expected to find myself working for section 9"

"A family man and an honest cop with just a brain augmentation? It is an odd choice for such a selective military type outfit, but when she explained the details of team dynamics and how flexibility prevents over-specializing I could see how you were a good choice" Togusa quirked an eyebrow in bemusement.

"Hey, the Major may be the feminine answer to Vin Diesel but we like to chat like any other girls" Morri shrugged, 'Vin Diesel?' Togusa mouthed in bemusement, but shook it off and continued his train of thought.

"Well, anyway, even though I found myself working for the most elite police unit in Japan it only made me realise just how 'old fashioned' I really was, seeing pros like the Major, Batou, Saito and Ishikawa really put things into perspective; for a long time I doubted myself and it wasn't any secret, but despite my uncertainty I persevered and over time found the my unique standing in the team wasn't a hindrance after all...but when it came to the subject of the Tachikoma's? I was never really comfortable; from day one I couldn't understand those tanks. True their AI's are one of the most advanced in the world and they're good at what they do as far as their abilities are concerned; but I could never understand why something that, by biological standards, isn't even alive try to purse the accumulation of knowledge in the hope that might glen some semblance of absolute sentience, I couldn't even understand how they could be capable of self sacrifice?"

"Huh?"

"Oh, several months ago we worked a pretty big case that got out of control, the Tachikoma's sacrificed themselves to save our lives"

"Seriously?" Morri breathed in amazement

"Yeah...afterwards we thought that was the end of them, but it turned out that their AI's had been stored on a back-up system in the lab where they were created, Batou was overjoyed to say the least and life seemed to get back to normal after that; but at the back of my mind there was still that nagging doubt that told me that despite what their predecessors had done, no matter how much data they'd gather and synchronize with each other and no matter whatever they tried, they'd never be any more than what they were created to be...but then, we met you and the Autobots..."

"Ahh...And then everything really changed..." Morri sighed

"It goes without saying but that was the understatement of the century...it was like a massive pendulum had started to swing in an opposite direction and for a while everything and nothing seemed to make no sense...but then, instinct and curiosity eventually began to get the better of me, and as I watched you and the Autobots together, as I saw each of you kids work and play together with these impossible robotic beings, I began to wonder about the horror and the awe of it"

"The horror and the awe of it?"

"About the implications of having such a friendship...an alien race far from beyond everything we know, and supposedly a species that's been at war with itself forever? That's far beyond anyone's comprehension, and as much as I didn't want to I couldn't help but imagine the horror of it, and how the collateral damage from such a war found its way to our world, both our worlds...but, on the other hand, whenever I speak to one of the Autobots, I always feel like I'm talking to another human being, and the fact that they're sentient robots only confounded my inner doubts...maybe Batou's Tachikoma was right, maybe I am a bigot?..." he trailed off, his voice betraying a sense of shame, Morri looked at him in a mix of confusion and silent disbelief, but at the back of her mind something was hinting that this was something he needed to say, and in all likelihood had wanted to say for a long while now, staying silent and listening with an understanding ear, she watched as he heaved a heavy sigh and stood before her with a vexed look in his eyes.

"Morri...I'm sorry"

"For what?"

"For if I ever gave you the impression that I thought any less of your friends...I'll admit I'm not always as optimistic as I'd like to think, but for all I've learnt and all I've come to accept I know I've still got a lot to learn...seeing all of you so content in each other's company was enlightening in itself, but finding Jay-jay, seeing her be 'born', or 'hatched' I suppose is the proper description...but finally realizing the weight of her being here with all of you, really hit it home...I suppose, for people like me who have always had an unconscious distain for AI's, androids and cyberization, it's not so much a dilemma of personal choice and the consequence's that come with it, that applies in different forms to anyone who fear's being inside an artificial body...I suppose what really vexes me more than anything else, is, there will come a day in the future when, something will come out from the net, something sentient something that's not human, and we'll realize that everything we thought that made us 'us', will not be valid anymore; essentially if androids and robots can feel love, sadness, pain then what's left for us? What makes us human anymore?..." Togusa explained, for a long moment Morri stood in silence as she tried to comprehend everything he just said; the silence that passed between them seemed to last an eternity, all around the darkness of night encompassed the sky in near pitch blackness and all around the hollow rushing of the winds echoed high above the buildings. As Togusa began to break out into a cold sweat, wondering if he'd made himself sound like a complete idiot he suddenly noticed Morri was smiling at him; but it didn't seem to be just any smile, in the grungy orange light he saw her eyes seemed softer and warmer than he had ever seen up until now, as if they held some unfathomable beauty and understanding. Something about it seemed calming, and as he stopped sweating he began to get the odd feeling that somehow it was okay, though he couldn't figure it nor understand why this feeling felt so...forgiving.

"What?...what's with the smile?"

"...It's the same smile your daughter will give you at moments like these, moments when, you realize that despite nothing else, whatever anyone or anything else thinks, it's okay...Togusa, we're both human, there will always things in this life we will never completely understand or understand the reason for their being, yes there will always things we believed to be true but discover are wrong or misplaced, and yes, we will always have our prejudices and misconceptions about what we think can't be possible, but we have to face up to and acknowledge anyway...what we think and what we believe are actually two different things and a lot of the time most people don't comprehend the effect of realising the difference can make, our brains may say one thing but our hearts can be inclined to disagree...and it's not just us...you know why Sunstreaker isn't keen on us? It's not because he just doesn't like human's and we're organic, it because after so many years of war and fighting, coming to terms with the fact that Crybertron is gone forever. has been so hard for him and realizing that things will never be same for him or any of his kind, it's so hard and unbelievable, I wonder if he can ever face it in his lifetime nedalone for his brother's sake...there are big differences between our species and that's a fact of what we both are, but no matter how far apart we are on the scales we still use the same words to describe the same feelings...in a way I don't think you have to worry what's valid to humanity, we'll always be unique in our own humanly ways, and if anything comes along and say's 'your not the only ones who can feel', just smile and say 'that's good, now we finally have someone to have a decent conversation with" she smirked with a satisfied glint in her eyes. After a short moment of realization, Togusa regarded Morri with an understanding smile of his own.

"I don't know, you think?"

"Hey what the hell, when all else fails just wing it, as crazy as it is, it somehow always seems to works for us...and for what it's worth do you feel better?"

"...For once in a long time, I think so...but, you're not the one I should apologize to..." he replied with a sheepish grin.

"And for what it's worth you don't have to" a deep basso voice softly said, nearly jumping out of their skins in surprise the two humans twirled around to find Deathshot standing over them with a soft warm look in his bright blue optic.

"Sheesh! Don't creep up on us like that!" Togusa huffed

"How long have you been standing there?" Morri asked

"Long enough, and so have they..." he gestured down to the door, where Batou and his Tachikoma stepped out, Batou wore a particularly content smile on his face, a rare smile seldom seen and not his usual joker grin. If it wasn't for the grungy orange street light overhead, everyone might have noticed the colour drained out of the now embarrassed detective's face, his poor mind taunting him with the threat of being labelled the sections drama queen or some other poorly humoured joke. But as the big cyborg approached him and patted him on the shoulder, he waited for the onset of the first proverbial poke at his pride.

"You can be a real dummy sometimes, you know that?" he grinned, Togusa merely sighed in embarrassment.

"But you're our dummy!... and for what it's worth mister Togusa, we forgive you, maybe now we can expect to see you in our hanger a little more often huh?" the Tachkoma chimed as it laid both claws on his shoulders in excitement.

"Uh? One thing at a time okay?" he sheepishly replied

"Come on, the old ape's getting inpatient, time to head back to HQ" Batou said as he led the detective back to the entrance ramp.

"You go and get the car started, I'll hop in when you come up" Togusa replied, Batou merely shrugged as he walked back down the ramp, Togusa waved for Deathshot to come down, the Autobot sniper kneeled down and loomed right over head of the two humans and think tank.

"Thanks" he smiled

"I know, and for you this was a big thing, admitting to your own weaknesses gives your strength substance; it'll do you well in the future...and just between us, that smile will be a precious gift when your daughter comes of age and she understands the depth of your love for her, the passing silence of love is deep, but it's the words not spoken in that silence that speak volumes of what we feel for our children, and what they feel for us..." Deathshot whispered, Togusa stared up at him puzzled.

"How?...Do you know that?" he breathed

"Because I was a father myself once..." he smiled, Togusa's eye's flew up and the Tachikoma at his side gasped, "Well, we'll bid you good night, and tell the chief we'll call when we've worked out an itinerary for Jay-jay out; good night" he continued as he transformed and wheeled down into the hanger with Morri under his left wing, "Good night!" Morri called over her shoulder as the think tank and detective both stared at each other.

"He was a father?" the tank whispered

"How?-"

HONK! HONK!

Batou's car came speeding up the ramp and screeched to a halt, Togusa hopped in and the Tachikoma followed close behind as Batou sped off up the road and out onto the highway.

"Say, did I ever tell you I had a thing about white rabbits when I was young?" Batou grinned; Togusa merely froze in his seat and wondered what would come next, 'did I just start something?' he thought, but grimaced with a deadpan glair.

'Well, whatever...'

* * *

A/N: I don't know about you but I need a serious insuline shot after that! X3 R&R please!

I don't


	49. Chapter 48: Strange Dreams

**A/N:** For those of you who like an OC or two, we have a new OC joining the adventure; after weeks of sorting out the details JillTheCrazy1 has kindly lent me her OC Matti; Matti is one of the most original OC's I've come across & will make (in my personal opinion) for a very interesting addition to the cast, I won't give away any spoilers but I can say, she's got a few 'special' tricks up her sleaves! Naff said ) BTW, do check out JillTheCrazy1 here on FanFiction, she's got some really good GitS storys, really original and cute X3.

As far as the story itself goes; I've been procrastinating somewhat ^^', for a long while I've kinda been off my game a little, since my Grandfather passed away last year we're all still kinda feeling the pinch of him not being around anymore, but I can say with a high level of certainly that most of it is behind me at last & I have all kinds of new insperation after a long absence of my muse :). After sorting out the plot bunnies I can say the story is now at the half way point, and that the next three chapters will mark the beginning of the build up to the final stand-off...On the plus side, there will be more Autobot's, more Decepticons, & more fights! WHOOOP!

As for this chapter: I've been wanting to do something of a supernatural nature for a long while now, and this was a good way for Matti to make her intro, & trust me, she's gonna be in for a quite an 'experience' over the next three chapters! ;) don't forget to R&R on your way out!

:BE WARNED!: I rated the story M because originally I wasn't sure how gnarly it might get; well it seems now that I made a good call, because now, it's gonna be downhill for our heros from here on as the enemy reviels itself in full. Brace yourself because there will be strong language, blood, gore, death...and the unbelievible, trust me, it WON'T be pretty :(

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC and the plot.

Additional Disclaimer: Matti belongs to JillTheCrazy1

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 48: STRANGE DREAMS, FEVER DREAMS AND A FAMILIAR PLACE

Darkness

The sound of rain and running water

The smell of the forest and the earth

The endless blue of the sea, and the eternal green of the land; these were not new to her, she had known them since she could remember, they had always been there in every day of her life, and they were there in her dreams.

Can you see it child?

Beneath her feet the grass was soft and green, and seemed to stretch on forever up the hillsides. To her side the sounds of the distant village echoed on the breeze as a thousand voices whispered a thousand joyous things, and to her back the wind carried the spirits of the earth, the sea and the sky; formless wisps of intertwining energies that danced to their own secret songs; songs that had echoed through these ancient lands since the beginning, and would continue to echo through the hearts of those who listened, forever into eternity.

You are home

She looked down and realised the grass was gone, replaced with golden sand and blue water, beneath the sun the sea glistened like silver and sapphire as it stretched unbroken from one end of the horizon to the other, the sky overhead seemed bluer than usual and the seagulls flying overhead looked more like radiant white angels; behind her the granite and serpentine cliffs towered high overhead like the walls of some vast fortress, their ridges and tops were lined with grass and trailing plants creeping down the rocks. She wandered along the sand, watching how it sparkled and looked like gold in the sunlight, as she treaded through the knee-deep water the sand eels swam around her ankles, flitting about like little silver darts.

She knew this place; she'd been here so many times it was like returning to a mother's embrace.

But as she kept walking, something seemed to be different...she felt different, as her skin began to feel tighter around her, growing tighter and tighter, until she looked down and noticed how far away the ground was.

Looking down at herself she noticed her body didn't seem right either, silver shards of white metal were slowly piercing from out her flesh and encasing her within a metal cocoon-like skin; her insides felt hot as a strange 'butterfly's in the stomach' sensation threatened to overwhelm her and her blood felt like thick soup in her veins. She began to walk funny too and as she noticed her legs were like that of a bird's and each of her feet had three long talons; she hunched over as something hard pushed up against the inside of her back, then she heard the skin on her back rip open and two large jet wings and armour plating unfurled like rose blossoms; she rubbed and scratched at her eyes as something irritating tried to dig its way out from underneath her eyeballs, after opening her eyelids she saw everything was tinted bright blue...or was she seeing in blue?

Stopping abruptly, she realized she wasn't herself anymore, looking down at her reflection in the water she saw her face was covered in metal...no, not covered in metal, it was MADE of metal. And the rest of her wasn't any different; she towered high above the ground, her hands were smooth and slender with sharp metal claws on each finger, her legs were powerfully built like an eagle's, she had a long set of wings protruding from out her back with two engine intakes on her sides, and her overall body looked beautiful, her armour plating was white all over with pale blue stripes going down the side; her head was crowned with an elegant tiara-like helm and her face looked fair yet strong with two dazzling blue jewel-like optics set in place of her eyes.

"Am I...a Transformer?"

Up ahead something caught her attention...and took her breath away.

A giant metal cube covered in ancient cybertronian glyphs hovered fifty or so feet above the sand, its engravings seemed to radiate an aura as blue energy sparks seemed to flash across its surfaces. At first she didn't know what it was, until she remembered...

The Allspark

Standing beneath it was Deathshot, smiling that warm caring smile that told her how much he cared about her, breaking into a jog she held out her arms as he scooped her up into his warm embrace, like a father would embrace his daughter.

"You know I'll always love you, right?" he softly spoke

"I know you will; what makes you think I won't?" she replied happily as she looked up into his radiant blue optic, unaware that her voice had an electronic ring to it.

"Because this is not meant to be"

"What do you mean?"

This is not my world child, and I have paid a heavy price for seeking sanctuary here

Suddenly the sky grew grey as storm clouds circled high overhead and the land grew dark and gloomy, the blue aura that encompassed the Allspark slowly grew weaker and dimmer as it seemed to go dead; suddenly she was no longer in his arms, she looked up at him from where she stood below on the ground, her metal form was gone and in its place was her flesh again; she reached out to him as both he and Allspark seemed to drift further and further away, he tried to run after her but couldn't catch her as the storm grew fiercer and more darker.

The darkness was all there was now, nothing but blackness and silence, and the smell of the earth and the rain.

She felt plants and grass all around her, but overhead she could sense something looming above her, something vast and powerful, it's deep breaths felt warm and sweet like a summer breeze and its presence felt all-encompassing, as if it were everywhere at once. Then, from out the gloom of the darkness the Allspark appeared again, its radiant blue light lit up the blackness and she could see she was standing in a forest, but she wasn't alone, standing among the trees were the others, Tom, Danny, Ashley, Sam, Mikaela, Darren and all the other humans she had ever known in her life, her parents, her friends, everyone. They stood and watched in silence as the Allspark began to glow more intensely and the whispers of its countless children filled the air; but as it came closer a powerful force seemed to knock it backwards and its aura began to fade once more, but as each glyph went dead, the alien metal turned to rust and crumbled into dust, bit by bit the Allspark decayed and passed away as it's remains fell to the earth, as the cube grew smaller and smaller, trees grew from out the ground and ensnared the remains with their claw-like branches. As the forest overwhelmed it, a strange beautiful green light began to emanate from the foliage all around; as it grew it seemed to pulsate like a heartbeat; and a strange yet oddly familiar voice echoed from high above in the distance...

"Primus...I will not tolerate any other gods upon my earth...What your children took in life shall be paid back in death...this world is not yours and never will be, as penance for your creation's blasphemy your power shall be forever bound to my service, never to live as you once were and never to reclaim what was lost..."

"Anyone who take's my children from my world is my enemy...and will suffer the consequences for it..."

Morri awoke and bolted upright but abruptly fell back into bed as she hit her head on the buck above.

"SHIT!" she hissed as she rubbed the bump on her forehead, she cursed under her breath for waking everyone up, as her eyes adjusted to the dim light of the bedroom she looked over at Jay-jay who was all tucked up with her three plushies, she was still fast asleep, as was Hailey who was sleeping in the bunk above her; leaning over and looking up, she realized Mikeala hadn't woken up either as she slept in the bunk right above her. Sighing with relief Morri propped herself up on her elbow as she reached across the bedside table for her glass of water and took several large gulps; as she set the glass back down she looked at her hand, flexing her fingers she raked her mind as she tried to make sense of what just happened.

'What a dream...Was it a dream? Did it really happen? Was any of it real?' she thought in a fluster as she tried to get her thoughts straight, feeling more thirsty she was about to get out of bed, but froze in fear she as noticed a huge shadowy form standing at the door, as it silently crept into the room, it's one glowing red optic told her who it was and she sighed in relief.

"What're you doing skulking the hallway at this unholy hour of the night?" she asked

"Your mind was giving off some strange vibes..." Ravage smirked in a low voice, "it would seem your dreams like take to take you to strange places child"

"Yeah, really strange...how did you guess?" she asked as she rubbed her eyes.

"Intuition, and some 'telepathic tricks' my creator parted to me, quite interesting" he smirked

"Interesting? In what way?" she dubiously asked

"Hmm, let's just say you're not the only one with bots on the brain; there's something about this whole human charge/Autobot guardian business that might prove something, fairly interesting in the long run...good night" he smirked as he silently paced back into the corridor and disappear, and left Morri alone to ponder on his cryptic message.

* * *

The city was quite tonight, but there was that strange yet positive vibe in the air

The same kind of vibe that seemed to be around at Christmas, or during a festival, or even when news of great and joyous event had been announced.

It was the silent vibe that raised the strength of people's hearts, and made them stand together to bathe in each other's happiness, to be there for each other, to care for each other, but more importantly, to love each other.

As she walked through the streets by one of the familiar riverside market districts (one of her favourite places in the city), the people all around seemed to be in good spirits tonight, as if the world was at peace with itself and the usual chaos of human intervention had been subdued, like a wolf laying side by side with a lamb in harmony.

Maybe in some strange parallel way the world was echoing her own secret happiness; she couldn't recall any one time in her life when she felt like this, all of her being felt like it was a cloud drifting away to some happy place, her ghost felt like it had wings, and was soaring around her mind whispering cheery little things, but more than anything else, she found it quite hard to stop smiling.

She couldn't stop thinking of Jay-jay

Whilst today's events were something for the Autobot gang to celebrate, she couldn't help but wonder why watching the whole thing had made her feel like this; true the alien nature of the newborn had a sense of difference between the Autobots and all the humans present, and the distinction between the two species was there in terms of how different their reproduction cycles were. Surely there would have been more of a morbid sense of fascination on the human's part? But instead, as they all laid their eyes on Jay-jay's sweet little face and watched as she took her first steps into the world, their world, she and the rest of her team were caught up in the happy vibes of the moment and the whole drama of worrying and doubting didn't matter. Had seeing Jay-jay awakened some long dormant maternal instinct? And that it encouraged this unknown warmth to flutter up from deep inside? Not likely, and if anyone were to say it aloud, they'd probably disappear off the face off the earth. All this she kept only to herself, and though she knew well that this feeling wouldn't last forever, for tonight, on this magical night, she would hold onto it for as long as it would last.

For the first time in her life, the Major felt the warm fuzzy's.

She turned a corner and headed down one of the narrow side streets, one that was lined with grocery stores and market stalls that catered for the locals of this particular end of town, even at this time of night the kids were playing in the street as they always did while the old folks were sitting outside watching the world go.

It wasn't until she was half way down the street that she realised she couldn't hear the children laughing and chattering.

In fact, they weren't there at all...no one was...

The whole street was completely deserted, every shop front was empty, every cafe was vacant and three small child's bikes and a football lay abandoned in the middle of the street;

Flipping her mindset back to reality, the Major was about to draw out her gun when she realized...this was too familiar...after running a quick check on her cybercomm channel, four layers of defence barriers and other cautionary measures, and found they were all in the red and offline...she knew what had happened and had a very good idea what came next...

Straightening her back and scaninning her eyes over everything around her, the Major cautiously walked on until she saw a small alleyway up ahead and saw the familiar little shop tucked away at the end of it.

'What am I doing here again?' she thought as she approached the front door.

For a while after Kuze died the Major had wondered where to find this place again, the little shop that kept people's external memories safe; there had been many hours she spent out of work trying to find it again, if not trigger the hacking programme that caused it to appear before/come to a person. Often she had pondered on how such a place couldn't be found when it wasn't even heard of in the criminal underworld, nedalone hidden in plain sight. As she opened the door and cautiously stepped in, the familiar yet odd sensation of nostalgia washed over her ghost and confirmed to her that this really was the place; the same one she first stepped into that time she, Batou and Togusa were training the potential new rookies.

While the nostalgic essence of this place was as such, and couldn't be denied, something seemed a bit off about the place...something...wrong. As she slowly stepped across the old wooden floor boards, she wondered on just how many external memories were stored in here.

'Strange...the place was cluttered before, but I don't recall seeing this much stuff?' she thought.

While the whole place was like an antiques store full of old and seemingly useless junk, it now resembled something of a junk shop outright; every table, shelf, desk, side-board, cabinet and cupboard was filled to capacity with all kinds of stuff; piles and pile of objects cluttered together in tall rickety towers and every single nook and cranny was practically bursting with yet more old items, even the rafters had all kinds of things hanging from them, so much so that the ceiling and walls were hardly visible at all...Glancing around, she saw that many of the items were toys and all manner of childrens playthings. It was incredibly hard to negotiate around everything, even the Major, who was the most light-footed and nimble cyborg around had to carefully squeeze through what free space there was until she eventually came to the stares; carefully stepping over every pile until she came to the first floor.

As sense eagerness overcame her as she laid her crimson eyes on the green convertible car sitting just before the stairway banisters; but to her dismay, the young prosthetic body of the girl with her little necklace of origami cranes was sitting alone, the boy was gone.

"I was wondering when you'd be back" a older female voice said from the shadows, spinning round, the Major saw the outline of the old woman standing in a small doorway at the far end of the shop floor, offering a small smile the Major stepped up and stood next to one of the pillars.

"Work's been kind of hectic of late, but I've been wondering where you were, and where you've been all this time" the Major smiled

"I'm surprise you didn't find this place sooner; but then, most people don't come across this place purely by accident, you have to know where to look in order to find what you're looking for in this world, and my business is no acceptation, especially when the discretion of my customers is a top priority" the old woman replied as she pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders, her voice sounding more weaker and wry than the last time.

"From the look of things business seems to be going well"

"...In a way, but I'm not so sure. Sorry about the clutter downstairs but recently people have been coming into the shop out of hours when I'm not around and simply leaving their memories and their cash payment without me knowing about it, I've heard of thieves sneaking in to take things but people actually leavening items? It's the strangest thing...but I fear it might also be troubling..." she said in a melancholy tone as she stepped out of the doorway, the Major was taken aback slightly as she saw the face of the old woman. Her skin was pale as marble and withered as a dead rose, the bones and skeletal structure of her face and neck were clearly visible and her eyes were dark and sunken into her head, her whole body trembled as she tried to stay upright, for she was so skinny and malnourished that she looked like she hadn't had a descent meal in over a month whilst her clothes hung from her weakened skeletal frame.

"What happened? You don't look good" the Major gasped as she helped her over to a small seat in the corner, she pulled up another seat and laid a hand on the poor woman's shoulder, the Major was surprised at just how weak she was as she felt the edge of the woman's collar bone and shoulder blade through her practically paper-thin skin.

"...I've not felt good for a long while now, living with the psychic energies of so many people was one thing, but with all these...awful, painful memories, it's like the collective force of all the sadness had become a cancer, sapping the essence of my ghost away" she breathed before heaving a heavy mournful sigh.

"Painful memories?" the Major quirked an eyebrow. The old woman gestured to a large pile of children's toys stacked over by an old dressing table.

"I think the majority of people sneaking into my shop have been parents, ones who've recently lost their children and couldn't bear to live with the memory of them being gone, so they bring the memories of their children here to keep them safe...and to escape the torture of living with such loss" she sighed. The Major snapped her head up and stared at the old woman in disbelief, her interest well and truly piqued.

"Lost children? What do you mean?" the Major asked intently, the old woman regarded her with a pained look and leaned back on the chair as she strained to remain upright; the Major pulled her seat up alongside and let her rest her weight against hers.

"...I...I didn't know why there were so many; at first it was only one or two a week, but then, within weeks more and more memories started to come to my shop, and before long there were so many...even now, I don't why this is happening?"

"These external memories, can you interpret anything specific from them?"

"...Not much; the degree of pain and despair associated with each one is such that I cannot go near them, for fear of being overwhelmed myself...the only thing they all share in common is...night-time and the darkness; and...Strangers, dressed in black, and with glowing red eyes..." she breathed, the Major sat in silent disbelief for a brief moment, before continuing after the old woman got her breath back.

"...How many memories have you currently got stored in this place?" she asked dubiously

"I...I can't remember; I lost count...But, there are too many to be just coincidence; something is happening out there, something, no-one can see..."

"Have you-...when did this start happening?"

"A little over seven months ago, not long after that nuke exploded over Dejima..."

Another uneasy pause

"Did you try to find the parents or even report these disappearances to someone?" the Major asked, the old woman looked up into her crimson eyes and offered a small listless smile before her withered face contorted into a look of hopelessness and misery, almost as if she were going to cry.

"...How could I?...Who would believe that so many children have gone missing?...I sent numerous warnings out on the police net and to certain other people who might be able to take action, but, no-one replied..."

"What other people? Who else knows about this?"

"...I...I can't, remember...too-...too weak..." she breathed as her eyes grew heavy; the Major gave her a gentle nudge to wake her up.

"You're in no shape to stay online like this, give me your address so I can call an ambulance" the Major firmly stated, but the old woman laid her withered and bony hand on the Major's shoulder; her limb was so weak and skinny that it just looked like a collection of bones wrapped in thick cloth, the Major held her hand and squeezed it in gentle reassurance.

"N-No, no I'll be fine...this is a special place with very special meaning to the people who come here, if I'm not here to safeguard what's precious to them anyone can just come along and take possession of those unique experiences, that in itself is as corrupting and violating as rape and murder, and I can't let that happen...A man called Eric Schmidt once quoted: 'the internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn't understand, the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had', many may have had their doubts when he spoke those words, but it's certainly a reality to those who suffer at its advantageous nature...The world we live in is one that is prone to so many levels of evil infiltrating the many layers of the human existence, and with the advent of the net becoming a reality, we now live alongside the most unpredictable anomaly in human history, I fear, we're all now on the verge of paying for our ignorance towards underestimating such a thing..." she said in a weak and shaky voice.

"What makes you believe that?" the Major cautiously asked, the old woman looked up at her with a look of disbelief as she tried to straighten up.

"...M-My dear, if you managed to find this place by accident I can only assume you're a cleverly talented hacker yourself; have you not been to the edge of the net, and felt the change in the continual base-line hub?"

"The continual base-line hub? I've never heard of it" the Major blinked in surprise

"Many haven't, it's the series of base systems and networks upon which the first internet was built on, the first known interconnected networks that are said to be at the very heart of the net itself; but, no-one can say for sure anymore because they're so deeply embedded within the net, to even attempt to dive for them would mean certain death, even the best hacker couldn't survive that deep a dive, even with their ghost barrier at maximum level...They became known as the continual base-line hub, because out of every single network and system upon the net it is the one place that is never in motion...for those of us who've seek it out we've come close knowing it's general area but not its actual location...For a long time now it's served as an online navigation guide, the 'north stars' that were always right above us wherever we were on the net, we knew we were close to them when they appeared on the 'horizon' and they were the only set of systems you could see beyond that...but recently, no-one has been able to see them clearly, and those that have, have claimed they've heard them screaming...like lambs in a slaughterhouse..." she whispered wryly. 'The north stars? The horizon? I've never heard of or come across them before; is it possible she's mistaken?' the Major thought dubiously.

"I've never heard of them before, are you sure you're not thinking of some other system on the net?" the Major asked

"No...I've seen them, I was taken to the horizon not long ago, and heard the screams for myself...I don't know what's happened or why the net is beginning to shift in such a manner, but if anyone could find an answer, he could..."

"Who?"

"...He came back to retrieve his external memory several months ago, saying that despite failure he was still going to try and find a way to make his vision a reality, he was going to the base-line hub to try and find the knowledge he needed; I pleaded with him not to go but he said he truly now had nothing left to lose, so he cast off his ghost barrier and dived down into the heart of the net...I don't know what he hoped to find there, but I doubt if his ghost survived..."

"Who was he?"

"...The one who entrusted me with the care of the boy and the girl..." she pointed to the young girl sitting in the car, The Major nearly gasped in surprise, "...he came back to retrieve his childhood prosthetic body, saying that, he finally found the girl he'd searching for all these years, and that he was pleased to see her even if she had become a woman and no longer remembered him from so long ago, he was happy that she was alive and well; but ultimately the life she had was different from what he envisioned. Whether she'd join him or not? He couldn't be sure, and that's also why he said he wanted to go to the base-line hub, to know if there was any way he could prove to her that he still remembered her, and still cared for her...before he left, he instructed me to give this to the girl, if she ever found her way to my shop..." the old woman smiled as she reached into her skirt pocket and pulled out a little red satin handkerchief, laying it flat in her hand she opened it to reveal a beautifully folded white paper crane with the words 'thank you' scribbled on its left wing in black ink.

"Of course, I have no idea where the girl may be, nedalone who she is...but, maybe, you could find for me? I can't leave the shop and I don't have the resources to conduct such a large search, if you know of any way to find her, could you deliver this for me?" the old woman continued, the Major looked at her in a mix of shock and bemusement.

'Surely he didn't-...he survived?...but, how?...' she thought in a fluster as she delicately took the origami crane in the handkerchief and gentle slipped it into her pocket, the old woman smiled as she closed her heavy eyelids and rested her head against the Major's shoulder once again.

"Thank you...I hope you find him again..." she whispered

Suddenly...there was darkness

The sound of children playing and the sounds of the city filled her ears.

Opening her eyes the Major found herself back in the street where she'd been hacked; looking all around, nothing was out of place, people were coming and going, children were playing in the street and the elders were sitting by the shop fronts watching everyone go by. Reaching into her pocket, her breath cut short as she felt soft satin at her fingertips, pulling out the handkerchief, she opened it and found the paper crane.

Time seemed to ebb away from the world and a numbing silence made the sounds of the city fade away as she stood looking down at the little origami crane; deep down inside she felt her ghost shift, feeling a vague and distant sense of renewed hope, a hope she though had been laid to rest and buried deep within. This hope, in its reawakening made her look up towards the sky in a numb stupor as two words unconsciously escaped her lips.

"He's alive"

* * *

The darkness encased her like a thick shroud, devoid of any form of light.

The thick nauseating scent of blood filled her nose and made her want to vomit, but she held her nerves firmly; for she knew what was coming next.

The darkness was broken by a flash of red lightning; bolts of vivid scarlet shredded through the blackness with a thundering crash; and then it began...Hundreds of screaming voices ripped through the air like a hurricane wind and the pounding of thousands of footsteps approached like the rumble of an earthquake. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, trying to outrun the unseen entity as it chased her forward into the darkness.

The scene shifted violently and she was tossed upwards like a ragdoll before falling down onto a hard concrete-like surface; white light filled her eyes and she threw up her hands to shield her sight from the brightness, as she picked herself up off the ground she realised she was in a different place, the sound of traffic and people bustling about could be heard and as her sight adjusted to the brightness she saw she was in the middle of a city street, everything was tinted white and the people all causally walked by in a surreal way, as if they were shadows passing through a dream. Walking down the street she realised the people weren't acknowledging one another in the typical way people do in the middle of such a crowded environment, no facial expressions, no eye contact or anything, it was as if they were all the only ones here, and no-one else was around; this was too strange.

Suddenly, out the corner of her eye a black shape darted across the street and ducked into an alleyway 'what was that?' she thought, at the other end of the street another dark figure darted across the road, darting in and out between the traffic like a swallow in flight and disappeared into a shop. Then, as she watched from the opposite side of the street one shape stopped abruptly and slowly crept along the sidewalk, watching with a sense of dread she realised it was following a mother and her two children...

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the next several seconds made her gasp in horror; the black humanoid entity shot forward and grabbed the two children by the necks, but the mother kept on walking down the street, completely oblivious to her children's screams as the shape dragged the panic-stricken children off like a predator with its prize, another shape came up to the mother and flicked its hand above her head and promptly vanished as it dashed off to join it's friend, no doubt to get a share of the kill. As she tried to comprehend what just happened she noticed something hovering several inches above the mother's head, it was a bright red flame; its glow looked almost like a halo tinting the woman in a red light. Up and down the street, as far as she could see, more black shapes darted out to snatch more children away, their parents didn't notice them slip from their arms as other shapes came to place more red flame above their heads, before long half the street had was filled with people bathed in scarlet. All her instincts screamed at her do something, anything, but nobody noticed anything, nobody could even see the black shapes, so why could she see them?

Before she could take another step something punched her in the jaw and knocked her to the ground, as she brought her head back up she froze in terror as one of the black shapes stood over her; the entity was even more terrifying up close, it vaguely resembled a human in terms of shape, form, anatomical detail and overall stature, but something about its face was terribly wrong; its eyes glowed red and were as sharp and narrow as sword blades with the glare of a starving wolf; hungry, cold and merciless. Its teeth resembled that of a shark's, two snuggle-toothed jaws filled with sharp pointed teeth that seemed to look more like slivers of silver flint and broken glass and it growled with a low gravely rumble; for a moment she thought this was is, she was next to be taken and no sooner had she drew in breath to scream, the creature hissed loudly and shot off down the street.

Breathing an uneasy sigh of relief she stood back up and looked around, as if in the blink of an eye the scene had changed again; she was back in the darkness again, but this time she could smell earth and rainwater and could feel cold damp rock under her bare feet, it was somewhere deep underground. As she adjusted her bearings to try and find a point of reference for navigation, a small sound could be vaguely heard echoing off the rocky walls, following it she stumbled forward as the ground dropped sharply down; tumbling down she let herself go limp to avoid seriously injuring herself, though the rocks were painful enough as she got bumped and banged, and finally landed awkwardly on her side, she only just managed to avoid screaming out as she rubbed her elbow and shoulder in agony. Picking herself up she saw a grungy greenish light coming through a crack in between the rocks that illuminated part of the cave; the unidentifiable sound could be heard much more clearly now...and it made her spine freeze in horror...

Hundreds of children screaming out...

The sounds of heavy machinery grinding, clanking and whirring...and the worst of them all...

The sounds of bones breaking, and fleshing being ripped apart

Her head grew heavy and dizzy as her body expressed its disgust, hot and cold flushes rushed up and down her spine like ripples on water and the awful taste of bile rose in her mouth and her stomach tossed and twisted inside her abdomen like a ship in a storm; she keeled forward but tightly sealed her throat shut in attempt to stop her stomach's contents from making a reappearance. Forcing herself she managed to hold it in and quickly scrambled back up the rock face to try and get away; overhead she noticed something carved into one of the flat rocks, recalling her knowledge of the Japanese language she mouthed the words:

The lower dome – the birthing chambers

White light filled her eyes yet again but before she had a chance to react a powerful explosion threw her up in the air and after landing on a pile of rubble she quickly scrambled back up, and froze as she at the sight before her...

Was this the apocalypse?

The city of New Port was in ruins, everywhere around her skyscrapers and various other buildings were blacked and half destroyed with huge gaping chunks missing in their external structures and bullet holes riddled in what was left of the walls, road signs and street lights were bent over like dead flowers and everywhere the streets were littered with broken glass, warped metal, concrete and stone rubble, burning debris and huge craters many meters across, some so deep that part of the subway system was exposed; but what really grabbed her attention were the destroyed remains of attack helicopters, tanks, armed suits...and bones...thousands upon thousands of human bones.

As she nervously walked down the street she saw the sky overhead was blacker than ink, the clouds looked like they were on fire as huge waves of red and orange rippled across the clouds like the blast front of a nuke, grey ash slowly rained down like snowflakes, coating the desolate streets in a thin carpet of grey snow; suddenly the sounds of gunfire and explosions could be heard rising on the zephyr winds, running along to find the source she finally stopped at the edge of a huge vertical drop that went down about hundred feet. She nearly lost her footing as someone nearly pushed her hard to one side. "Watch it rookie!" a loud gruff voice shouted at her, looking back she was stunned to see a whole group of soldiers sudden appear from in between the ruins, at first it was only about twenty, which quickly turned into well over a hundred as they charged out from the buildings guns blazing and screaming their war-cries...Within seconds the whole scene exploded in a hail of bullets and fire as each of them was mowed down by heavy gunfire, turning to the source of their death, she froze at the scene before her...

Giant humanoid robots, some over thirty feet tall were fighting off against one another in a battle of epic proportions; every punch, kick and tackle was deafening, and made her wince as they pounded each other in an anger fuelled frenzy. Pieces of their metal armour and platting flew off with every strike as their bodies sported a whole range of dent's, dings, flecked paint and some, even missing limbs. The ground shook with each of their footsteps and the half-demolished buildings vibrated and crumbled with each of their hits. Suddenly, the ground was blown up in another round of heavy gunfire, this time several tanks appeared from around a street corner with over two hundred soldiers flanking their sides, the tanks fired their payloads at the giants as the soldiers moved to the sides to fire a series of rocket launchers; among the chaos, fire and explosions she instantly recognised one soldier who she knew all too well...

"BATOU! BATOU!" she called as loud as she could, but the sounds of the battle drowned her voice out; running as fast as she could behind a partially demolished wall to avoid the chaos, she ran towards him, desperate to be with him; as her heart pounded in her chest he suddenly caught sight of her and amid the explosions and flying bullets she threw her arms out to embrace him, she was within meters of him when...

"Matt-

KABOOOOOM!

Everything turned upside down and intense heat washed over her skin as a mortar round exploded between them, throwing her up above him, whist Batou took the brunt of the explosion in his side; as the dust and smoke cleared she slowly got back up on weakened legs, unaware of the blood trickling down her forehead from the unseen cuts on her crown she stumbled around in a daze stupor, then, as more dust cleared away she saw the limp figure of Batou lying on his back, covered in blood and dirt, his right arm blown off and one huge ugly cut running down the right side of his face, exposing part of his cyborg body's circuitry and artificial muscles. The chaos and sounds of battle seemed to fade away as her mind began to reel; breaking into a fit of tears she rushed to his side and held him close and gently supporting his head.

"Oh god Batou! Please! Don't die, don't die please!" she sobbed

"K-kid?...wh-...what're you doin' here?...You ain't supposed to b-be here..." he weakly replied, his cybernetic eyes locked onto hers, he weakly raised his remaining left arm and gently brushed away her tears.

"What the hell's going on! Why is this happening?" she pleaded as she ducked a piece of flying shrapnel; he strained to speak as he took his final breath and slowly fell unconscious "...I...it-...it wasn't meant to be l-like t-this...you...I love you..Ma-...Matt-...uhhh..."

Realising he wasn't going to wake up she tearfully sobbed into his chest as her mind cried out for this to all stop, she was so caught up in her grief that she barely noticed it...

The silence

Looking up she realised the battle had stopped, the guns were silent, the tanks were still and motionless and all around her the soldiers and giant robots were standing still, all looking up at something in the sky; turning towards where they gazing, she saw something descend down from out the clouds; it looked vaguely like a rocket as a plume of fire propelled it downwards, whatever it was it looked to be huge as it was over several miles away. The object then suddenly disappeared in a blinding white light, and the whole sky was filled with fire as a vast blast front swept over the land towards the city, disintegrating everything in its path; in her numbness all she could do was just watch in silence as the fire swept over her and everyone around...

She felt herself changed, transformed almost as her entire flesh carbonized and turned to black ash that flew off her bones like autumn leaves, all that was left was her blackened skeleton, her bones frozen in place as she felt (what she assumed had to be) her essence rise from this forsaken place and drift off on the pale blue ether winds, to the place she had seen in her dreams many years ago, the place her grandmother spoke of, to where all ghosts wait to ascend to their final resting place...

Or at least...that's what she hoped this was...

Looking around, this time, all she could see were stars, the endless universe stretch out before her; planets, galaxies, nebulas, and countless stars all above, below and around her. From out of the darkness of the void a vast humanoid shape materialized and took form, its bright vivid blue eyes glowed with all the radiance of the sun and shone down upon her, she instinctively flinched away in anticipation of something awful happening, but as she looked the strange entity up and down, she realized it was bathed in an even more radiant blue aura that seemed to sparkle and shimmer. Something about it told her this was something extremely powerful as she could suddenly feel waves of energy flowing of it like heat from a fire, but at the same time it felt...peaceful, somehow.

"Who are you?" she called up, the vast giant shifted and tried to move, but in the darkness she could see (and hear) its wrists were bound in, what looked like shackles and chains.

"A prisoner, trapped by an evil unseen by all, and bound to the earth and her vast form" a great booming voice replied, it's tone was so deep it sounded more like it was speaking in her head, she quivered slightly as it reverberated through her like an echo in a cave.

"What do you mean trapped? Who's holding you prisoner?" she asked, extending one of its arms, she noticed its hand was completely made of metal...no, not made of metal, it was metal plating intricately connected together to form a long slender robotic limb; it extended out it's long index finger and gently touched her on the forehead.

Time had no relevance as one moment stretched into an eternity and her vision was filled with radiant white light, a whole series of images flashed through her mind; countless moments suspended in time played out and performed their dances of circumstance and cause to effect...

A giant cube covered in alien symbols, filled with the endless source of life...falling to the earth

The giant humanoid robots; some good, some evil, fighting a war that lasted since long before the birth of the sun...casing after the cube, following it to where it fell

A teenage boy, young and brave with a strong heart, carrying the (miniaturized?) cube; at his side a young girl, faithful to him, in love with him

The boy presses the cube into the chest of one of the robots, destroying both it and the cube...the war is over, and there is peace...

Faces...happy smiling faces of both the good robots and their human friends, laughing and playing together under a golden sun, content in each other company, their auras pulsating as one, like stars in the night sky...

But then the images changed

A giant alien ship falling to the earth...engulfed in flames...disappearing into the earth...sleeping for eons in the earth

A man dressed in black silken robes, climbing down into a cave...discovering something deep in the earth...something ancient...something, powerful, and evil

A shining orb of light, radiant as the sun and alive as any creature...the spark of a life long since dead, trapped in the earth...touched by the robed stranger, and absorbed into his being...

The man's mind is on fire, warping, transforming, all the while embracing the vast power of the spark...silence...two entities, now one and the same...he returns to his people, but not as a human...

Darkness envelops her once more, but another set of images come forth...

A still blue pond crowded with lotus plants, each white blossom blooms with a delicate golden aura around its petals; but then, the water turns black and the plants and flowers rot and decay into the pond...but, in the centre another lotus plant sprouts up from the blackness with a single blossom, but when the flower opens up it's petals are blacker than the blackest night, and glow in a deep purple aura, with an energy that sickened her to the core...

Poison

Decay

Carnage

Death

The end of all living things...

"Why?" she whimpered softly a single tear ran down her face, her body shuddered with ache and coldness as a pain welled up from deep within, as if she were feeling the pain of many all at once

"Because, dear child; mankind is on the verge of extinction..." the deep voice replied solemnly

"Extinction?"

"...An ancient evil, far older than you can imagine, has finally raised its head and is poised to strike the first hammer blow...war is what they want, but I fear mankind will not survive the first wave of attack; and what will follow will be far far worse, it will be nothing less than the eradication of all life on earth...already I can see the darkness leaching into the shadows of the city's, waiting to move, waiting to spill blood..."

"...But...I haven't seen anything..."

"No-one has; this force has concealed itself well over the years, hiding in the shadows of civilization and waiting for the most opportune moment to move. In these last thirty years mankind's technological achievements have brought him far; maybe too far from himself to realise the true danger when he sees it, this they know, and have realized the potential to gain much from exploiting man's overconfidence..."

"What do you mean?"

Another image flashed through her mind: a man, a cyborg, walking alone in the dark, his movements didn't seem natural and as she looked more closely she noticed he had tiny thin wire-like strings attached to his limbs and body, above him was a huge robotic clawed hand, pulling and manipulating the strings with each finger...

A puppet

Looking back up into the entities glowing blue eyes, her mind spun around in a mix confusion, fear, and a very uneasy sense of realization

"...Child, were there any other way I would have done anything to prevent this; but my circumstance prevents me from taking direct action, and if I were to unveil myself now it would only serve to make matters worse...but not all is lost, there are those, a select small few who are close to realizing the truth, but for all their courage and determination they are working on borrowed time, and there is very little time left...after so many years of waiting the enemy is now at the peak of its power and readying itself for the first strike; already their strength is vast and their number is great...but, there may be one chance to stop them, only one opportunity to undo the source of their strength, if this chance is squandered and the enemy unveils its true face to the world, mankind will be powerless to stop it..."

An uneasy pause

"...Why are you showing me all this?..."

"...Because...it is you, who will serve as the last chance...you, who was born with the gift of the sight to see the living essence in all things, the sight that lets you see those passed from life, and through your spark, give them back their voices once more..."

Her grandmother was standing before her with her mother at her side, and all the members of her bloodline standing side by side; gazing at her with warm eyes and encouraging smiles, their auras shining clearly and with a feeling a satisfaction and strength. She felt comforted, at home even; but then realized where the entity was taking this and her mind took her to a place of fear and shame, a shame born of childhood suffering as she slightly flinched away, not wanting to go any further.

"...N-no...I can't; no-one would believe me, they'd say I'm a freak, that I make it up somehow...I can't do this..." she whispered in an uneasy voice, afraid and doubtful.

"You can child, you are your mother's daughter, your brother's sister; their strength is your strength and through their blood you have a warrior's spark, one that will shine in mankind's darkest hour, and help prove to all that mankind isn't lost to the will of the net..."

"But...what if I can't do this? What if this is too big?..."

"I will not lie to you; the task that lies ahead will test all to their limits, and I'm afraid even you will lose your innocence to the coming chaos and bloodshed; you will see the unbelievable, and the unspeakable; you will see the worst of humanity's follies, coupled with the worst sins of my species past...none will be spared, not unless you step forward to lend your gift to the ones who're going to lead the fight...for it is in them the salvation of your whole species lies, and they need all the help they can get..."

"...Say I do help, what can I possibly do?...I'm no-one special, even if I do use my gift to help out somehow who'll listen and take me seriously? What I have isn't exactly a scientifically proven thing, I even mention what I have and people will call me insane! Outcast! They'll brand me a freak for the rest of my life!" she angrily spat

"I didn't say it would be easy, and you will have to prove your worth in order to survive; but if you don't come to their aid, there is very little chance they will succeed at all, and there will be no hope of stopping the holocaust that lies ahead...only you can provide for them the knowledge that they need, the knowledge that is beyond their reach, and only you can do this child..."

Another uneasy pause as she thought her options through

"Just who is this 'they' you're talking about?" she asked, another set of images filled her mind...

The giant robots and their human friends, her brother, and at his side were seven other individuals she'd never seen before, and behind them were a small group of what looked like blue mini multipeade tanks

"...Seek them out and tell them all that I have shown you, regardless of what criticism they pass on you, it is the truth and you will know that, and in time they will learn this too..."

"But, how will they know it's you? You didn't even tell me your name?"

"I'm sorry, but that is how it must be, for now"

"...I don't know..."

"Have faith child; for while my circumstance cannot permit me to have a direct hand in this for now, I have been able to help in other ways; for what the enemy doesn't know is that I've been able to watch them from this 'other' place, listen to their most guarded secrets and learn of their secret workings...I have already put preparations in place to lead our champions in the right direction, and give them as much time as possible to learn the truth...your task, if you choose to do so, will be to stand at their side; there will be signs, signs only you will be able to interpret and that no other can see, hear, or touch...and there will be others, guided by my hand to join them and give strength to their number"

"Will, I ever see you again?"

"In time you will, but we will not meet like this again, I've already taken a big risk just to reach you, and for what little time it has been, it has been well spent...it is nearly time for me return to my 'prison', I bid you good luck child, for you will need it; I will pray for you and your brother...until we meet again, be strong, and be brave..." the voice boomed as the entity laid it's finger upon her head, this time a blinding white light shone out from her forehead as she felt an immense flow of energy course through her like a vast river, so awesome and powerful was the energy that it overwhelmed her and her eyes grew heavy and her mind became still with sleep as she slowly felt herself become weightless and formless. Whatever was happening, she knew she was going home...the giant's voice was the last thing she heard as two symbols filled her vision; one was looked like a red face, almost shaped like a shield and regal looking, while the other was purple, more triangular and looked almost sinister, as they faded away two names flitted through her head...

Autobot

Decepticon

"...Primus...mankind stands at the crossroads of destiny, whichever way we turn will decide the fate of all...bless all who fight for life, and curse those who would take it away...whatever happens...it is up to them now..."

She sat upright before her eyes even opened, gasping for breath in sheer exhaustion as a cold sweat run down the sides of her head; wiping her forehead, she sat still in silence for a long moment as she let her senses readjust to reality and let her nerves settle down...then, something came to mind; getting out of bed and sitting down at her desk, she switched on the lamp and reached into the pencil pot for a couple of red and purple pens. Working carefully and swiftly she sketched out the symbols before the memory faded deep into her sub-consciousness, when she finally finished she looked them over carefully; most of the lines weren't straight and some of the corners were crooked, but they were accurate and she felt a sense of relief to finally have them out of her head and in front of her eyes; but for what little relief it brought it didn't dispel the sense of dread in the back of her mind as the dream nagged at her like a dog after its favourite bone. She stood up and quietly made her way to the bathroom, after splashing some cold water over her face she carefully tip-toed down the stairs and into the kitchen where she poured herself a glass of water and sat down at the table; the sound of the ticking clock on the wall and the refrigerator whirring were the only sounds to be heard in the house while outside on the windowsill the neighbour's cat sat bolt upright watching her, it's big green eyes virtually glowed in the dark as the moonlight glistened off its fur. With nothing but the silence of the night her mind gently ebbed into a day-dream state as she tried to steady her still-buzzing thoughts; she was so lost in her mental unrest that she didn't hear the soft footsteps gently creep down the stairs and nearly jumped out of her skin in shock when the kitchen light suddenly switched.

"Oh! Sorry dear I didn't see you there!" an older woman breathed in a sigh of relief

"Ah sorry mom, I didn't mean to wake you and dad" she replied

"Oh don't worry about him, you know your father, he could sleep next to a bomb exploding and not even flinch!...I wasn't sleeping too well anyway!" the older woman chuckled as she stroked back her auburn-blond hair from out of her face and took up a seat next to her; for a long while they together in silence, the older woman could see something was vexing her, and she knew it was no use to hide it, she knew her too well.

"It was the dream again, wasn't it?" the older woman sighed with a small smile

"...Yeah" she sighed as she took another sip from her glass

"How many times has it been now?"

"Tonight was the sixth, but this time it was so much more different"

"Different how?"

"...The last five nights it's just been a jumble of different visions; stuff happening, and in no real order...but tonight, everything was so much more real, as if...as if it really did happen, and I was really there, and all the emotions were much more potent too..." she replied dubiously as her memories played back the dream; an uneasy pause passed between them as the older woman watched her face, and could see the unease in her eyes.

"...It's not just that is it? Something else happened too?"

"...The giant; remember? The one with the glowing blue eyes I told you about?" the woman nodded, "...He actually spoke to me this time" she continued

"Really? What did he say?"

She paused before answering, recalling everything the entity spoke of and thought it might be best not to say anything; thinking it might be too complex for her understand, so maybe it was best to keep it secret, for now.

"Quite a lot, but basically he warned me that something's coming, something really bad" she continued, the older woman sighed as she propped her head on her elbow, her grey-green eyes betraying a sense of dubious curiosity.

"Do you think he was a ghost, you know? Like the ones from before?" she suggested

"...No...This was way more than just a ghost, I saw his 'colour' and it was very intense and powerful, as if it were thousands of ghosts crowded all together; whatever it was, I don't think it was human..."

"A non-human ghost? I never knew there was such a thing, but what else could it have been?"

"I don't know; dreams and visions have always been tricky, hard to tell one from the other...but this was beyond any dream or vision I've ever had before, I was in a whole other place, it was..." she stopped and dropped her gaze in doubt, the older woman tilted her head in curiosity.

"It was what?" she asked

"...It was the place mom and Grandma used to take me to in my dreams; when they taught me about-...my 'uniqueness'...I know mom and Grandma said I was always special and that my gift wasn't a bad thing; but after what I saw I don't know what to think...The giant said I would have to use my gift to help some people stop this bad thing from happening, and that only I could do it"

Another uneasy pause

"Well, the question is, what do you believe?" the older woman asked; she regarded her with a clouded look, unsure if she really wanted to say what she was thinking. But as she tried to suppress it the memories of the dream began to nag and tug at her consciousness again, telling her to go for it, that she had nothing to lose, 'yeah right, just my sanity' she thought sarcastically as she tried to push it away, but regardless the memory just wouldn't be subdued and deep down inside a tiny little whisper flitted through the forefront her consciousness...

Go for it

"...I don't know what that thing was or where he even came from; the last five nights have been weird enough as it is, but I've never had the same dream or vision reoccur like this before, and tonight was something completely different...which leads me think maybe there really is something out there that could be dangerous...and I think Batou might really be in danger, this time round I held him in my arms as he died; either way something's coming and I think he's involved somehow...I don't really know what to think of it so I think I'm just gonna have to go with my instincts on this" she replied frankly

"So what do want to do?"

"I'll call him when he's next off work; apparently he's been pulling a lot of double shifts lately, I'll ask him if we can meet up"

"Do you want dad to drive into New Port? He's got some stuff to get from that mall up on the north side of town; maybe he can drop you of somewhere?"

"Thanks, but I'll wait until my car's out of the shop, they said the new parts they ordered should be here somewhere in the next four days, I can wait until then; besides, I need to think about what I'm going to say to him..."

"Matti dear, Batou maybe a big lug at times but he's your brother and you know he always listens to you when these matters crop up; whatever happens, I'm sure he'll be alright, you know how well he can take care of himself...now come on, let's get some sleep" the older woman smiled as they both got up. "Thanks mom" Matti smiled as she made her way up the stairs, her mum turned the kitchen light off and they both made their way back to their bedrooms; the glass of water stood forgotten on the kitchen table and as the house and its occupants fell into the silence of sleep, the world seemed to be at peace once more...

But then, an eerie silence filled the night as a cold wind blew through the street, the neighbourhood cats screeched in alarm and ran off as fast as they could; an owl in the nearby woods flew off, disturbed from its perch, and opposite the family's house, up on a grassy verge some hundred yards away, a tall well-built figure dressed all in black stood silent and still, his eyes glowed vivid scarlet red and his silver fang-like teeth glistened in the moonlight as he passed a low, sinister and hungry growl. His head twitched slightly as a low buzz filed his ears, and a voice entered his head...

: Report, what have you found? : The voice ordered smoothly in a gruff tone

: We have confirmation; the girl has information... it would seem the ancient one has finally found a way out of his prison, and the girl was 'contacted' by him tonight, and most likely forewarned : the stranger replied in a venomous voice

: ...I see...well we knew this would happen sooner or later, it was only a matter of time before the ancient one got desperate and had to gamble his luck with a stranger; it would seem the full extent of his power has presented itself quiet, pathetically...:

: What do you want me to do? Dispose of her and the family? The Collectors are in the next town over, I can have them here in less than ten minutes, maybe we can have a little fun tonight?: The stranger grinned

: As tempting as that sounds, no, we may be strong but there are still some loose ends to tie up, have your team ready to move out in twelve minutes...As compensation you'll be pleased to know we've secured the military deployment at the site where the rift is, all cyberbrains have been ghost-hacked and all online links have been rerouted and decoyed...and just in time too, we had confirmation of unusual activity within the rift itself...it would seem these 'Autobot's' will be having some of their friends come to join them very soon:

: Excellent, we'll finally have prey worthy to hunt: The stranger chuckled

: Indeed, and in addition Saski has fully recovered as has successfully completed his 'transformation', he and the Collectors will be handling the first deployment of the Vanguard; they'll be ready to go in four day's time...he's asked for you and your unit to join him too, that is, as soon as your transformation is complete too...:

: Well you won't have to wait for long, I was hoping to have some fun with the girl and her god-parents, I wanted to see them scream in terror as the process began...but, it would seem I will have to settle for a show without an audience:

: Don't worry; you'll still get to have some fun...how long until the process begins?:

: Three minutes, and counting every second: the stranger replied

: Right, I'll leave you to it, just remember to report back to mobile base unit five when you're complete, you'll need to choose your vehicle mode:

: Of course, over and out:

With a wide sinister grin the stranger took off down the other side of the embankment and dashed into the woods, running at a speed no human or cyborg could ever match; he darted and weaved through the trees until he came to a large clearing. Looking around to make sure no-one was here, his smile grew wider still as he let out a low gravely chuckle. And then, the moment he'd been waiting for began...

It started subtly at first, a small sensation of butterflies in the stomach, which grew and spread to all the inside of his body, and slowly turned into a buzzing sensation, like electricity flowing through his muscles, looking down at his hands, he noticed a red aura of light shimmering over his arms, his red eyes lit up in joy.

"Yes! YES!...GHAAAGH!"

A sharp pain shot through his back and quickly spread to his limbs; his whole body felt like it was on fire as he began to grow larger and larger, his skin growing tighter around him and his clothing ripping and tearing at the seams. His skin then rippled and shivered as sharp black and silver metal shards burst out of his skin and covered his whole body in metal armour, he could feel his insides squirming and jumping about as all the tissues, organs and nervous system were turned into circuitry, wires and tubing's while he felt his bones harden into steel. All the while he held back the screams of pain, as a wave of ecstasy rushed though his new systems; finally the last of his skin, flesh and clothing burst off him as he grew larger still, his fingers and toes melted together and reformed into three long claws on each hand and foot, something huge press up against the inside of his back and burst through his shoulder blades to form two small sets of insect-like wing cases, then, the base of his spine throbbed hard and a long slender tail burst out and grew over six meters long with a scorpion-like stinger formed at the tip. Finally his eyes rolled back into his head and became larger; his jaws became wider as more teeth sprouted and his lower jaw split in two and turned into a set of large powerful mandibles as the armour plating sealed itself in place. Finally, he stood back up and looked himself over in morbid delight; standing over fifteen feet tall, he flexed his clawed hands, and let out a long and terrifying laugh, a cruel laugh that only a madman could let out, and which froze the blood of all who heard it.

* * *

O_O Stay tuned...


	50. Chapter 49: The Longest Day I

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and plot

Additional Disclaimer: Matti belongs to JillTheCrazy1

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 49: THE LONGEST DAY I: 25 SECONDS

: You have one new message: playing message: *beep* "...Hi, Batou? It's Matti, sorry to call outta the blue 'n all but, there's something I really need to talk to you about; it's sort of important and I don't really want to say over the phone so could we meet up? How about that little cafe in the Mamizu mall? You know the one that serves those cute little pastries? My car won't be out of the shop until Saturday so if you're able to spare your lunch hour please come along, see you then, love ya! Oh, and mom and dad say hi" : end of messages : *beep*.

* * *

"This sucks" Sam sighed

"You're telling me? Dude, it's been over a week since that 'altercation' with the Umibozu and that Pretender, four days since we got that load' o stuff out of those trunks, Jay-jay included; we've been reading everything over for the last four days straight and we STILL ain't got anything that gives us any new leads, we're half screwed and half...whatever" Mile's huffed as he folded his arms and leaned back in the chair

"Nobody got anything accomplished with sarcasm kid, and we're not entirely screwed; true there's a lot of stuff in those old case files that make no sense but at least it's better than nothing" Ishikawa replied as he typed away on the computer

"Yeah, but whoever 'S.H' was he certainly had a knack for inconsistencies; of all the stuff we found in those trunks nothing even hints or lends any theories as to who or what could be responsible, not that we need to find that out since we already know the Decepticon's are behind it...judging from the large gaps in between the dates for each of the abductions we know the mass kidnappings occurred roughly once every two to four years, with each of the single abductions occurring every six to nine months, even with a broad pattern like that somebody somewhere had to spot something was serious off, and why, up until 2016 was a there a gap of twenty eight days before the cases were dropped? After that there are no other case files on any missing or abducted kids at all" Glen offered

"Actually, you raise a good point there; all the kids mentioned in the files were the ones who were confirmed to be abducted, what are the chances that other kids were taken who weren't reported? You know like runaways, the homeless, drug users or the abused that fell of the radar? Or even kids that had disappeared and had been declared dead without their bodies ever being found? Things like, going hiking in the woods over the weekend and not coming back because of a possible animal attack, swimming in the sea or a lake and being dragged under by the currents? I know it seems unlikely but what if not all the kidnappings could be done at night? And in such a risky manner? If these abductors were that eager to grab specific kids they'd probably be willing to go to extreme lengths to get the job done" Morri added

"Considering how many kids run away from home every year, plus the number of kids living on the streets and how many fall through the cracks in the system in an average year, the numbers would add up to over a third of the number we got already" Ishikawa replied

"Which would make it roughly over fifty five thousand in total..." Morri replied offhand, an uneasy and sombre silenced passed between them before Darren spoke up, "...Another major issue we need to look at is what this Incept Code is; we first hear about it from Saito, who somehow had his ghost teleported to god knows where by a weird cybertronian hack job, the second time we hear of it is on a scratchy external memory that had been placed under Riku Hidaka's ghost barrier, and four days ago we find it's mentioned in a letter written back in 1953...it's clear someone's trying to reach us"

"Weird choice of words though; in the letter it said to find and destroy it, it must be something of strategic or important value to the Decepticons, but what?" Morri suggested

"Maybe it's a cover name for something or a person? It wouldn't be the first time such a strategy has been put in place to protect something or someone" Glen thought aloud

"...Cover?..."suddenly Darren snapped his head up with a shocked look on his face, he quickly reached across the desk for a spare piece of paper and pen and started scribbling out the words in a flustered hurry, "Hey, what's up dude?" Miles asked as he leaned across to get a closer look, "I'm such an idiot! I can't believe I didn't see it before! It was staring me in the face this whole time!" Darren angrily replied as he put the pen down.

"What? What is it?" Ishikawa asked as he pulled away from the computer

"The name Incept Code, it's an anagram, look!" he held up the piece of paper with the word 'deceptICon' spelled out, everyone leaned forward in complete surprise.

"Holy crap!" How the hell did we miss that?" Miles exclaimed in disbelief

"It must have been what S.H wanted us to find when he wrote that letter, he probably didn't know they were Decepticons, all he knew was the code name" Morri thought aloud

"So now we know this is how their protecting their identity, the next time the Incept Code crops up we'll know it's them for sure" Glen smirked

"Dude! We gotta show this to the chief! Maybe with this we can finally get those military pricks off our backs for a while, come on!" Miles grinned as he snatched up the note and rushed out the room, "Hey wait up!" Darren called out as he rushed after him; Morri quirked an eyebrow as she leaned back in her chair.

"Military pricks? What did I miss yesterday?" she asked

"We got a call through from the GSDA's online analysis unit yesterday demanding to know if we knew anything about Saski being a Decepticon; apparently they're under the impression that we found out about Saski's true identity because we were originally working this case to begin with" Ishikawa replied as he turned back to the computer and started typing again, Morri just stared at him in annoyed disbelief.

"What! They can't be serious? There's no way in hell we knew what he was!" she exclaimed, "That's what I said to them over the phone yesterday; they wanted us to 'disclose any and all material pertaining to the issue that poses a threat to the well-being of the nation'" Sam said, everyone looked at him in mixed confusion. "Disclose any and all material pertaining to the issue that poses a threat to the well-being of the nation? Who said that?" Ishikawa asked, "Don't know, but Darren tracked the call from my cell phone, he traced it to somewhere called the Cabinet Intelligence Service?" Sam replied casually, Ishikawa blinked in surprise, then sighed in frustration and got up to leave the room. 'Why the hell am I not surprised' he thought; "I'll be back in a minute, just carry on with those notes and I'll help you guys out with the reports when I get back" he said as he got up and left the room, Morri was about to say something when he'd already closed the door behind him, she just looked at Sam and Glen in further confusion.

"What just happened?" she asked the boys

"Your guess is as good as mine" Sam shrugged

"To be honest, it wasn't just Saski they wanted to know about, I think they're still pissed about that whole thing with the Umibozu going down the way it did...the fact that their network was compromised so much kinda made them realize how vulnerable they were" Glen sighed

"But they started fixing it didn't they?" Morri asked

"Well sure, and they're trying like hell to get it done quickly, but the problem is that there's so many corrupted files and access terminals on that network that I doubt they'll even get a third of it up and running again properly within a month, nedalone a week; that, and there's the possibility the cons could slip in again and put them back at square one, or worse"

"How much worse could it possibly get?" Sam thought aloud

"Can't say for sure, but if the military network were to go down overnight, we'd have more than just the kidnappings to worry about" Glen sighed

"That reminds me, I was going over the notes on the old case files and I remembered the fact that those trunks hadn't been opened in twelve years, how many other kids were taken between then and now that haven't been reported?...plus, what about the giant trucks we saw up in the Shinseina Oka national park and on the video Mizuki filmed?...if the cons are using those trucks to abduct the kids how're they getting them around without being seen? Those trucks had to be about fifty feet tall and nearly a hundred feet long, something that huge would take up at least two lanes on the highway" said Sam

"I asked Boma about that the other day, he said it's likely they could've hacked into the city's IR systems and switched the video feeds in real time, for a human hacker that would be damn impressive, but for a bunch of alien robots it would be a synch" Glen replied

"Switching a camera feed in real time? How?" Morri asked

"Well, apparently it's been done before; he told about this one case they worked on over a year ago, trying to catch this guy called the laughing man..."

Meanwhile, downstairs in the gym:

"Argh!...Gha!...Aah!"

"Come on kid keep your feet moving! At this rate I'm gonna knock you down faster than the kitty!"

"GRRR! HEY!"

"AUGH! Maybe I'll consider going soft on you if you actually pick the speed!"

"Your -OF!"

THUD!

"Hehehe! Nice shot" Ravage purred with his trademark toothy grin as he prowled over to the edge of the boxing ring, Batou sat back up, rubbing the side of his jaw with a triumphant Ashley looming over him with a smug grin.

"Damn good shot kid" the ex-ranger grunted as he stood back up

"I know, it's the prosthetic build spot" Ashley grinned, Batou stopped and looked at him surprise

"How did you-"

"Ravage scanned your whole body while we were fighting; he pinpointed your cyborg body's weakest point in its bio-circuitry relays and found they could be temporarily shut down with one solid hit, that, and he signalled it to me in code"

"...Heh, when all else fails you cheat? Can't say I wouldn't do the same in a tight spot, not bad at all" Batou grinned as he hopped out of the ring and grabbed the towel that was waiting on the nearby bench and patted off the sweat from his brow, Ashley took his boxing gloves off and took a swig from the water bottle Ravage handed him in his teeth. "I know, I try...hey, after lunch do want to try some Judo?" he replied eagerly

"Ah, any other time I would kid, but I got business to take care of at lunch today" Batou replied

"Oh? What kind of business?" the twelve year old smirked with a raised eyebrow

"Personal business"

"What kind of personal business?"

"None of your business" Batou smirked

"Fine...say, I've been meaning to ask you, is the Major okay?" Ashley asked, Batou stopped what he was doing as a sense of concern went through him; he looked over at Ashley with an impassive look, not wishing to let his real feelings be seen.

"...You noticed it too huh?" he simply replied

"Well, I don't know, you two are pretty close friends I thought maybe-...she's been in the dive room for the last four days straight, Darren said she was in one of the booths nearly all day yesterday, and the day before last she was meant meet Mikaela and Darren to discuss the findings from that autopsy on the dead con, but she didn't show up; for someone who's picky with being punctual that's not like her" Ashley explained, Batou passed a heavy sigh as he sat down on the bench.

"To be honest I don't know what's up with her either; it kinda reminds me of-" he stopped himself; both Ashley and Ravage looked at him, wondering what he didn't want to let out, "...never mind" he sighed and simply looked away out the window, Ashley decided not to press it and sat down next to him.

"...I know it's been hard, trying to juggle Jay-jay and the case at the same time, but we got ourselves sorted out, and we-"

No...no it's not that, the Major's not one for letting a little stress get to her; it's just, we've been partners for over eleven years, long before section 9...I can't help but be...you know..."

"I know...I worry about my family too sometimes, and it's okay...being in the dive room for so long, what do you think she's trying to find on the net anyway?"

"I don't know, whatever it is she wouldn't be looking for it if she didn't think it was relevant, and knowing her, if she's been so preoccupied for the last four days it must be something really important"

"Well, as long as she gets her head back in the game, Jazz said to be careful, with the cons running around out there there's telling what they might get up to next...catch ya later, I'm gonna get a bite to eat" Ashley said as he got up, threw his hoodie back on and walked out of the gym, Batou was about to get back up when he noticed Ravage had gone, then he suddenly heard a low purr behind him.

"That's not the only reason your worried for her is it?" the panther growled smoothly

"...I'll admit she's been, distracted" Batou replied, looking back over his shoulder, up the panthers one red optic.

"That's putting it lightly, something of personal value has been buzzing about in her mind, it's been vexing her these last four days" Ravage purred

"How would you know?" Batou asked curiously

"Oh I wouldn't say I actually know, she's smart, and knows not to be careless around the likes of me; though I would say, when I reach my mind out to hers, I get the impression of whiteness, and the sense of something of a 'nostalgic' nature, whatever it is, it's something quite personal to her" Ravage replied as he silently paced along to the door, "If I were you, it probably wouldn't hurt to be her friend a little more than usual, keep her close and within your optical range" he continued.

Huh? Why?" Batou quirked n eyebrow

"Because, the day after Jay-jay came online she came into the headquarters with an, odd, scent about her, I asked where she had been the night before but she did not answer...I don't know where she had been, but I know the scent of death and decay when I smell it, and she still reeks of it, especially in that paper crane she's been carrying around" Ravage replied before he tapped the doors key pad with his nose and let himself out, Batou just sat there on the bench by the boxing ring, left alone to his thoughts.

"Paper crane?" he thought aloud

* * *

Elsewhere: on Super-highway 3 heading eastward into New Port from beyond the Aoi Miyama Mountains.

"*Sigh* I still can't believe what a stroke of karma it was; the second your car starts up mine goes kaput! And right in front of the garage so talk about good luck! Anyway, thanks for the lift into the city, I've been meaning to go for a while now but you know how bad a procrastinator I can be, and I've needed those new parts for the computer for weeks now, not to mention your mother needs a few odds and ends from that shop at the end of the mall...eh? On that note would you mind-"

"Sure thing dad, but you know there's nothing wrong with a husband going into a shoe shop and picking out a pair of pink fluffy slippers for his wife, you don't need me to accompany you" Matti chuckled

"Yes well, after last time I'm just worried that young lady who was at the till will give me more funny looks again, honestly, do I look like a slipper sniffer to you? he huffed as he propped his elbow on the window

"Slipper sniffer? Aw come on dad! Who would take that seriously?" Matti laughed

"Well, people in this day and age have a strange way of thinking, a man of my age alone in a shop like that raises too many eyebrows in this country; in my day you never knew what kind of pervs prowled the streets, nowadays everyone seems to think there's a pervert for every occasion; it's either 'that weirdo at the back of the shop' or 'that strange man alone in the shoe shop', I'm telling you, they'll haul me off in a handcuffs the second I step in that place alone" he joked

"Oh stop it! You'll be fine...besides, it'll be nice to see Batou again" Matti chuckled

"Aye, it'll be nice to see the big boss man, he's really been putting in the hours and burning the midnight oil this last month, I never knew being a security guard could be so demanding, he must be assigned to a really high ranking client...Hey! You don't think it has anything to do with that military robot going berserk on the Niihama-Wan Bridge do you? Or that terrorist attack near that Navel base?"

"Again with the conspiracy theories? Dad, Batou's a security guard, the company he works for is privet they have nothing to do with the military" Matti playfully retorted

"Ah but that's probably what they want you to think! I bet you it's one great big cover for something way bigger going on behind the scenes; and what about those strange lights that were seen over the Kohoku district last month? People have been speculating that they might have cause that blackout over the whole district...I'm telling you Mat, there's something going on the government doesn't want us to know" he teased

"Say's you; you've been browsing one of those online debate forums again haven't you? I'm telling you dad the people on those sites are just a bunch of unemployed paranoid computer geeks who've hardly got any form of a social life and live in their mom's basements living off nothing but E number-rich junk food and four day old sushi" Matti grinned

"Hey their very informative people! Hikaru is quite an expert in UFOlogy and says it's highly likely the lights could have been from an airborne craft of unknown origins, since no-one heard any helicopter roaters over the area in question it's highly plausible it could have been a UFO" he explained

"Dad, Hikaru lives five doors up from us you don't need a computer to talk to him when you can just go fifty yards up the street, plus, Hikaru is a diehard sci-fi movies fan he probably watched one too many Star Wars again, and you know what he's like when he decides to have a marathon of the 'day of the dark planets' trilogy" Matti replied

"Ah well, I still think you and that boy make a sweet couple" he teased

"Me? Date a guy with teeth like that? Dad the first time I saw him I could have sworn he was a horse in a former life, plus, have you seen how bad his acne is? That kid spends more money on skincare creams than he does on his game consoles, computer, dive terminal and car all combined; besides, Kiko from next door's had her eye on him for sometime so he's already spoken for" Matti smirked

"Ah well...changing the subject, do you want me to stay with you when you, you know, explain your 'circumstance' to him?" he asked, Matti glanced sideways at him briefly as her mind calmed down and turned serious

"Actually, I'd rather I do this one alone this time dad...I got a feeling about this particular one" she replied frankly

"Aye, your mother told me about the dreams, have they gone away yet?" he asked

"In a way, I haven't had anything come to visit me since that dream four nights ago, but it's been more like an 'echo effect' since then, I've been getting 'impressions' of the original dreams; just images and sounds blurred together in a hazy way, but in no real order and without the emotions, which is kind of a relief" Matti replied

"I should think so, waking up in a cold sweat for nearly a week's gotta be hard on anyone...But I don't see how Batou could be in danger, he's the last guy that could come to any harm, you know how strong he is with that cyborg body of his"

"I know, I can't imagine it either, but I gotta go with my instincts on this one dad, and all I'm getting is bad vibes"

"Well, as spooky as it is, you've haven't been wrong so far...I just hope it's not as bad as you say" he replied in a solemn tone

"I hope so too dad..." she replied as she switched on the car's indicator and pulled off the super-highway onto another highway that snaked its way into the city.

* * *

Back at Section 9 HQ:

"For the last time Frenzy give them back!" Danny yelled as Frenzy zipped down the corridor, laughing and giggling incessantly as he waved the teen's trainers around over his head; Saito stood to the side as they rushed by, 'what's with the shoes?' he thought with a quirked eyebrow, shrugging in bemusement he thought nothing more of it and carried on walking down the corridor. In her office the Major paid no attention to the commotion outside as she sat with her back to her desk, gazing down at the city below; her mind deep in thought as she twiddled the little paper crane in one hand, 'where could he be?' she thought idly.

Memories of Dejima, and being trapped under the rubble with him drifted through the forefront of her mind like wisps of smoke, was it at all possible he survived his death? Why not? She managed to do the same after that snipers bullet helped her to fake her death during the laughing man incident...bet then, that was different, she had a new body to swap into shortly after, he didn't; but could his ghost really have survived on the net without any of the usual safeguards in place? If so, where had he been this whole time?...And why didn't he try to find her? At least, that's what she secretly hoped for in the back of her mind. And what of this 'continual base line hub' the old woman spoke of, did it really exist? Was the net really that vast that a set of systems could remain hidden all this time?

'It's the series of base systems and networks upon which the first internet was built on...'

'The first internet? What did she mean by that?...' the Major thought offhand, the sound of Batou's heavy footsteps outside the door snapped her back to reality and she opened the door for him before he even had a chance to knock.

"Yes Batou?"

"I heard you missed Darren and Mikaela the other day, I just wondered what kept you" he replied impassively as he stepped forward towards the desk.

"Sorry, something came up, it couldn't wait" she coolly replied

"Yeah, you said that before; when you were meant to file those data reports to the Intelligence Department, and when you were meant to oversee the approval on that data transfer from the ministry of home affairs"

"Your point being what exactly?...These last four days have been particularly difficult and I don't want to lose track of what's at hand" she replied in sharp yet impassive tone, Batou blinked in surprise, that wasn't like her.

"The kids may have been busy with Jay-jay but workload's practically going at a snail's pace with those old case files we found in the trunks; what's been keeping you so busy that you decide to spend all your time in the dive room?" he asked seriously, the Major turned her chair around and met his gaze with her trademark deathly glair; Batou stood firm and kept his face blank, something had to be off for her give him that look, but she softened her look and passed a small sigh.

"...I'm sorry, there's something I need to get confirmation on, I don't want to say at this point in case it turns out to be a dead-end, but if it's not I'll let you know...I just don't want to distract everyone's attention from the case until I know this is legit, sorry if I gave you any false impressions but I wouldn't have looked into this if I didn't think it was relevant" she explained; for a brief second Batou felt a small pang of uncertainty in the back of his mind, was she okay? He couldn't be absolutely sure but the feeling refused to leave him alone.

"Well, okay; you know a little communication now and then would be nice, just to let us know your okay?" Batou replied as the Major put the paper crane down on the corner of the desk and stood up; Batou frowned curiously at the desk corner as the Major stepped past him to the door.

"I'll try to remember that, you want to grab a drink?" she smiled

"Thanks, but I got business to take care of in town, I'll be back about 1:30..." he replied as he opened the door for her, "Fine, see you later" she stepped out and made her way down the corridor; as she walked out of range Batou looked back at the desk and frowned, he pushed his doubts to one side as he shut the door and made his way to the elevators. As the metal doors opened up and he stepped into the underground parking lot he was greeted with the sight of four Tachikomas arguing and Scorponok with Tom, Hailey, Jay-jay and Annabelle all looking on in confusion; they suddenly all halted when they saw him approach, the Tachikomas began to wring their claws together in embarrassment and Scorponok sheepishly lowered himself as Batou approached.

"Alright, what mischief have you guys been up to now?" he grinned

"Ah well, we've, eh?...we've been kinda, well we've been-"

"Just step aside and let him see!" Hailey reprimanded as she put her hands squarely on her hips, the Tachkoma's sighed in defeat and rolled aside to reveal Batou's car with its front left tire completely flat with a small clean rip on the top.

"Wha- What happened to the tire?" he gasped

"It was an accident! Honest mister Batou! He didn't mean to-"

"I didn't mean to burst it!...I just got a little carried away and my tail blade slipped out, I'm sorry!" Scorponok pleaded as his face shields slid halfway over his face in a sheepish manner.

"This proves my point! The parking lot is no place to play football with the kids!" Tom pointed out as he folded his arms.

"Scorpy didn't mean to make it go bang" Annabelle peeped in, "Wheelie go bang-bang..." Jay-jay squeaked as she innocently pointed to the flat tire while holding a soccer ball under one arm; Batou pasted a deep frustrated sigh and patted her on the head, "Well how am I supposed to get into town now? I've got an appointment to keep and I can't miss it" he said. "Just ask one of the guys, they'll be happy to take you" Hailey replied, "Fine, but whoever's responsible for the flat can change it themselves, and I expect to see it changed when I get back!" Batou reprimanded as he made his way over the access ramp going up to the next level, "Yes sir!" the Tachkoma's called after him. As Batou came up on the top level of the parking lot he saw the line of Autobots parked up in a row.

"Hey guys, I got a flat, anyone want to be my ride?" he called over, Hot Rod nudged out and rolled round to Batou side

"Where do you need to go?" the young scout asked over his loud speakers as he popped his driver's door open; "To the Mamizu mall" Batou replied as he got in and the shut the door, "Right on" Hot Rod replied as he sped off up the ramp and out onto the busy street.

* * *

Elsewhere:

"Attention all personnel: DRD power-up is now complete, all safety checks are locked down and all specs are in the green; portal opening will commence in tee-minus 10 minutes; all soldiers who're not assigned to the mission please vacate the ark now:

"Hey Will! The boys are locked' n loaded, we're ready to move out as soon as Wheeljack confirms the final safety checks!" Epps called out

"I'll be there in a minute!" Will called back as he turned back to the darkened room and peered in.

" Captain, you and your boys ready yet?" he called in, a huge broad shouldered figure rose up from out of the shadows and strode over the door, the stranger looked down at the Major with eyes like a wolf, sharp, hungry, and ready for the fight.

"I've been ready for the last month..." the stranger replied in a deep gruff voice and a broad Yorkshire accent.

"...Look, I have to say this before we go through with this mission...We've both been pretty riled, as all of us have been this past month and no-ones to blame here...None of us really knows what's going to be waiting for us on the other side of that rift, but we all know our families and friends are there waiting for us, and whatever happens, their gonna be counting on us to bring them home...of everything I've ever done in my career and my life, I know that despite whatever happens on this mission, If I do this one thing right, this one mission, whatever else happens when it's over won't matter; death can come and I know I don't have to worry because I know my Anny will be safe" he spoke frankly; the stranger softened his gaze and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"I know, me too, and I'm sorry for what I said earlier...but you should know here and now; whatever happens on this mission I won't be giving a fuck to whatever stands in my way...My son, my nephews and my niece are the mission as far as I'm concerned, anything else after that will come second...if I see an opportunity, any possibility that I can find my son I will take it, and since I'm heading up the special ops unit on this I don't have take orders from you, understand?" the stranger coolly replied, Will regarded him for a moment, he knew he wasn't going to be persuaded otherwise on this; but then, he too knew that sooner or later he was probably going to do the same thing at some point on this mission, and he knew in the pit of his stomach, that the second he knew his daughter would be within his reach, he was going to be unstoppable "I think I'll have to agree with you on that" Will whispered. The sound of heavy metallic footsteps drew their attention upwards to the edge of the wall opposite them and the unmistakable crowned helm of the leader of the Autobots gazed down at them both.

"Everyone's waiting for you both, The DRD will be going active in ten minutes" Optimus said

"Yeah we're coming, com' on lads...let's go get some..." the stranger growled as behind him eleven other figures in the room rose up and sniggered in excited anticipation.

* * *

Back in New Port:

"Aw come on! Not even one little lap around the block?" Hot Rod whined

"Hey come on, we may have motor AI's but even people in this world aren't used to seeing empty cars driving themselves; you'll be fine, if your good I'll buy you an air freshener" Batou teased, "Ha ha very funny...I'll have a lemon scented one if they have it" he trailed off as he rolled into the only free space left in the multi-storey parking lot. Batou hated shopping mall car parks, the tickets were always too pricey and with it being the start of the lunch hour the whole place was packed out, the only free space left was at the far end of the farthest row of the roof level, thirty floors up from the ground, not that that was impressive for the mall itself was even larger.

"At least you got a nice view of the whole street from up here; I should be an hour, maybe more okay? See ya later" the ex-ranger said as he got out, closed the door and wandered over to the elevators.

Downstairs near the main entranceway into the mall, Matti and her Godfather James both sat on a bench next to one of the mall's huge fountains, Matti looked at her watch for the fifth time in as many minutes, "will you relax luv? He said he'll be here, he probably got held up in the lunch hour traffic; you know how bad it gets around here" James reassured her with a pat on the back, "sorry, force of habit" she sighed. Then, through the fountains cascade of water she saw the characteristic ash blonde ponytail, cybernetic eyes and wide shoulders of Batou appear from out the crowd with that unmistakable goofy grin spread wide across his face; with a look of delight sparkling in her eyes she leapt up, ran over to him and threw her arms around his neck as he scooped her up in a bear hug.

"Boss man!" she squeaked

"Hey Matti-patty!" he grinned, to which she promptly let him go and punched him in the shoulder, "how many times have I told you not to call me that!" she huffed, "Hey I'm your big brother and you're the squirt, I get to call you whatever I want!" he chuckled as he watched the older gentleman approach with an equally big grin on his face. "James, good to see you again ol' buddy" he greeted as they shook hands, "Ah it's been too long Batou, we don't get to see enough of you these days, I hear you've been kept busy of late" James smiled, "well you know how it is, you finish one job and there always seems to be another that needs taking care of, and lately there's just been a whole pile of them" Batou replied; "Aye well, you should come up to see us when your vacation time finally comes round, it's been six months since you last came up to stay with us, and Lily's keen to see you again, I know I can certainly use a hand with that ol' heap of junk we call a computer" James chuckled. "Trust me, I'll be ready for a vacation when my latest assignment is through...say why don't we go grab some lunch? You said in your massage that there was something you wanted to talk to me about?" Batou asked Matti, "Ah right, that'll be my cue to bugger off, you two go grab a coffee and I'll be back for lunch in say, forty minutes?" James interrupted "Forty minutes it is, see ya dad" Matti chimed, "See ya later boss man!" James waved as he started walking off towards the nearby power tool store. "What's up? Something you only want to talk to me about?" Batou quirked eyebrow, "Yep, but first, coffee and a pastry, I skipped breakfast this morning so I'm dying for something to eat" she smiled as she led the way to her favourite cafe. The smell of coffee wafted out the door with all the alluring sweetness of a sirens song; after ordering the beverages and finding a table in a little quiet corner by the glass wall window, Matti and Batou both sat down and watched the traffic whizz by while overhead on the buildings opposite the mall a series of giant video and neon displays signs dazzled and flashed their advertisements, despite their garish appearance, there was something about their colours that made them look beautiful in a contemporary urban sort of way. At that moment a waitress came along with their order, Matti had a latte with a big sticky raisin and cinnamon swirl (the whole pastry was about 25 centimetres across, hence why she liked this particular cafe, they always served oversized portions here), while Batou just had a plain black coffee.

"You need a hand with eating that? Wouldn't want to ruin that girly figure of yours" Batou teased

"Oh shut up, you don't even like raisins" she retorted as she cut the pastry in half

"Heh...so anyway, what did you want to talk about?" he asked, Matti regarded him with a mixed look as she sipped her coffee and passed a small sigh, she let her gaze drop for a moment as she articulated what she wanted to say in her head, then met his gaze with a serious look in her eyes.

"...'Something' has happened..." she said, Batou frowned in concern, he knew that particular word was their secret code for when she had one of her 'night visions', he knew how important is was to her and knew it was nothing to sneeze at; straightening up he leaned on the table to listen in closer, "What kind of something?" he asked in a hushed tone.

"...Before I explain, it's important I know; how dangerous is your job?"

"...Why? What that got to do with this?"

"Please Batou, what kind of risks do you take in your line of work as a security guard?"

"...None that pose any greater risk than what the police go up against on a daily basis, why do you ask?" he replied, after so long working in section 9, lying had become second nature for him.

"...Up until four nights ago I'd been having these weird dreams, at least I thought they were dreams at first, but four nights ago someone...or something, came to me; and warned me that something really bad is coming" she explained carefully and slowly.

"Well...it's not like this hasn't happened before, remember when-"

"No, Batou is wasn't anything like the other's before; this was something entirely different...you know how I can 'see' people's 'colours'?...well, this thing that visited me, I don't think was even human, it's colour was unlike anything I'd ever seen before; it was powerful and filled with raw energy, an energy that felt...weird, almost alien..." she continued, Batou frowned in curiosity.

"So what did this visitor have to say?"

"I can't remember everything he said, but...basically he told me that mankind would be in danger, and that it was would be up to me to try and help whoever's going to stop it...it's crazy I know; but regardless of how macabre he made it sound I really believe something bad IS going to happen" she said cautiously, Batou heaved a deep sigh and leaned back in his chair.

"...Well that's certainly a big one, how do you think you fit in?"

"He said I would have to use my gift, that there would be signs only I could see; and that only I could provide the information what was beyond everyone's reach"

"Well, I have to admit, what you have is certainly 'unique'...not many people can boast of doing some of the things you can do; maybe if your meant to help someone somewhere maybe you should go along with this visitors message"

"That's just it though; the guy I'm supposed to help, is you...he showed me a vision of you dying while I held you in my arms...I think, maybe, something's going to happen to you..." she trailed off as her voice quivered slightly, Batou reached across the table and held her hand, she looked up and blinked away the tears that threatened to escape her eyes.

"Hey hey come on nothing's going to happen to me, I'm built from harder stuff, literally; I was a Ranger remember? It'll take a lot more than just bad karma to get rid of me so easily" he reassured her, with a shaky chuckle she wiped her eyes and reached for her bag; she pulled out a little crumpled up piece of paper that was folded over. "In the vision, the visitor also showed me something else, he told me to look for these..." she said as she unfolded the paper and handed it over the table. Batou's train of thoughts came crashing to a halt; he strained like hell to keep himself from gasping, or giving off any other outward sign of his shock as he stared intently at the two drawings on the paper, one was the Autobot insignia, the other, the symbol of the Decepticons.

"...He also mentioned the names 'Autobot' and 'Decepticon', does that mean anything? I looked around on the net but I found nothing to do with those names, I was wondering if you might have any ideas" she continued, slowly he looked up at her, keeping his features as impassive as possible, he soberly realized that the while situation just got a whole lot more complicated.

* * *

At the same time back at section 9:

Giggles and laughter echoed around the room as the Waineright twins, Jay-jay and Annabelle, play-wrestled Ravage on the floor, from the sides Saito, Morri, Ashley Hailey and Tom watched on at their antics as they tried to tag the panther's nose; Jay-jay was about to try and pounce on him again when suddenly he flipped round onto his front and sat upright with both ears pricked and his head held high. The older human's smiles quickly dropped and the kids looked up at him in confusion as he paced over to the glass wall window and looked down at the city. Like a hound trying to locate a rabbit in the bush, his ears pricked back and forth, as if he were trying to locate something down below; then his ears laid flat across his head and he hunched over with a low threatening growl. The little ones retreated to Hailey's side as the others cautiously approached the now provoked panther.

"What is it? What do you sense?" Ashley asked

"...Something is down there, something, far too familiar...call the Major and tell her we need to Mobilize now!" he barked, but before anyone could say or do anything Deathshot's voice came in over the open comm channel.

"**JAZZ! We got a situation in progress! My scanners just picked up multiple signals appearing in the city, and there's a lot of chatter on the emergency service channels too!"**

**

* * *

**

"Boss man? What's wrong?" Matti asked as she noticed her brother's face began to slowly turn into a look of subtle alarm, he looked back at her with a serious frown, she drew in breath and waited as she realized that something about her drawing's had caught him off guard, 'maybe there was something those symbols after all' she thought.

"...Matti...where did you find these?" Batou asked in a deep impassive tone, Matti blinked in surprise.

"I just told you, the visitor who came to me four nights ago showed me those symbols and he-"

"You're absolutely sure? Nobody showed you these? And you didn't see these anywhere else?" he interrupted; now it was Matti's turn to frown.

"No!...What's wrong? Do you recognise them? Do they mean something to you or what?" she asked incredulously, raising her tone in frustration.

Batou heaved a heavy and frustrated sigh as he raked his mind, trying to figure out how to go about this without making the situation more complicated than it already was; but of all the possible choices to make he found himself looking at the one course of action he didn't want to go through with; of all the people to get involved in this why her? Why his little sister? After all they had shared as brother and sister and all they endured together, she was the very last person he wanted getting mixed up in this. In his mind he could see what would inevitably follow after this meeting, he'd have to take her to section 9 for questioning (at this point, anyone outside section 9 and the military who was aware of those symbols was to be considered a suspect), but could she cope? He knew she wasn't comfortable around strangers, and in those circumstances it wouldn't do any favours for her confidence; but even more alarmingly, how would the others react to how she came about the symbols? He knew none of his team-mates would believe her and to introduce her to the Autobots would only complicate things further (not to mention scare her half to death with the sight of a bunch of giant transforming alien robots!), not to mention he knew she wouldn't be willing to say anyway, for fear of ridicule, and heaven forbid if Ishikawa were to find her medical file it would only become more stressful for her if everyone started to question and doubt her sanity. For many years he understood how her 'gift' worked, and understood that it was a huge leap of faith for anyone to believe in something like that; but for people like the Major and the Chief, who were people of principle and worked with solid facts and proven logic, he could see this was just going to be too difficult...but then, who said she had to get involved in the first place? She didn't say she knew who or what the Autobots and Decepticons were, nedalone what the symbols were; if that was all she knew, then maybe it should stay that way? And save everyone a whole load of grief and confusion. Looking at the piece of paper he saw it was all crinkled and tatty at the edges; he could say some weird stranger came up to him and shoved it into his hand...It would be an enormous gamble, the Major was not one to be fooled easily (even with carefully constructed false memories) and keeping something like this from the chief would land him in the wringer for sure, and he could possibly get fired for it...but then his mind went back to that night of the incident on the Niihama-Wan bridge and the Decepticon that Mizuki and the other kids managed to kill (after he killed over 65 people), those kids barely got away with their lives and had no idea just how lucky they had been...then he remembered Saski and what he had turned out to be; seeing that monster's face sent a cold chill down his spine, and he wondered at the horror of it and how he and the Major could've died at his hands too...Was it worth bringing her into this for the sake of knowing that she saw those symbols in a vision? Was it worth trying to convince everyone that what she believes to be true, was the truth? Even to the extent that she could be declared as unreliable? Or even mentally incompetent?...as all this ran through his mind, it led him to the one, and only conclusion:

Batou trusted each of his team-mates and knew he could trust them with his life...but Matti was his sister, there was no comparison, and he would die before he let any harm come to her; folding the paper over, he took the note between his fingers and passed a heavy sigh as he looked into his little sister's eyes with a weak small smile as he prepared himself to make the biggest choice of his career.

"...I'm sorry for getting worked up" he reassured her, "...Listen, I know a few people in the police who owe me some favours, if you let me hold onto this I'll ask them to run a search on the symbols and see what turns up, if they come up with something I'll let you know alright?...But in the meantime I don't want you to worry about it, I'll take of it okay?" Matti regarded him with an impassive look for a brief second before dropping her gaze in defeat, she knew he recognized them, but decided not to press on, it wasn't worth getting in a huff over it.

"Okay, just promise me you'll be careful alright? I'm letting my instincts go with this one and I haven't felt good about it since the vision; if it's not too much trouble could you call me tonight? Just to give me piece of mind?" she asked

"Of course, you know, when we-"

VMMM

"What was that?" Matti looked up and around, a couple of other people noticed the strange noise too.

"I don't know, was it-"

VMMMMM VM VMMM VMMMMMM

Everyone in the cafe stopped and fell silent as they listened to the sound and looked around for its source; it felt more like a vibration of some kind, the atmosphere quickly changed from busy to confuse as people whispered among each other, wondering what it was. Following the sound with each thrum, Batou realised it was the window panes vibrating in their frames, and they seemed to be getting louder.

"It's the windows, what's going on?" Matti thought aloud. Batou was about the reply when something more alarming caught his attention; through the glass he could vaguely hear the sounds of cars honking and sirens screaming as they echoed from a long way off, outside Batou saw something was going on at the far end of the street over six hundred yards away, people were running and screaming, some accidently running into traffic and cars came scratching round the corner and collided with the traffic in all the other lanes. As everyone in the cafe ran to the glass wall to see what was going on, the muffled sounds of explosions and deep thudding booms echoed off the nearby skyscrapers and on the glass wall of one particular building Batou could see the reflection of something huge moving about in the street that was obscured from his line of sight, what started as one seem to become several as the reflection of a huge fireball shone on the glass; Matti turned around to see what was going on, just as two freight trucks went flying through the air and collided with the buildings at the end of the street.

Everyone screamed in horror, but no one had time to draw in breath as the next twenty five seconds unfolded:

Around the corner of the street, a giant black Transformer appeared, raised his arms, and the whole end of the street and everyone on it were ripped to shreds as heavy gunfire burst forth from the weapons on his arms. Another Transformer appeared right in front of the window and aimed his cannon at the now screaming bystanders...

Time slowed to a crawl as Batou reached across and grabbed Matti by the arm

He held her close, keeping one arm around her and one over her head

He aimed for the door, and with all the power of his cyborg legs he found himself flying through the air as a giant blue fireball burst through the window and engulfed the cafe...

"AAAAAAAAUUGH! HOLD ON MATTI!"

* * *

IT IS ON! R&R Please!


	51. Chapter 50: The Longest Day II

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or Ghost in the Shell, just my OC's and the plot.

Additional disclaimer: Matti belongs to JillTheCrazy1

Warning: Battle scenes, cursing, blood & touch of gore in this chapter; you have been warned!

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 50: THE LONGEST DAY II: A TURN FOR THE WORST

"Damn it! Where the hell are these guys goin'?" Glen grunted as he shot through the air, his BHSB's force field keeping him airborne as he tried to keep up with the Lambo twins down below.

"Slag if I know, but I can keep this up all day!" Sideswipe grinned as he skated on his wheels alongside his brother, trying to keep up with the two transformers thirty yards in front, "We still gotta catch'em first!-" Sunstreaker reminded him as he unsheathed his wrist blades and took a flying leap at the nearest target, the unknown robot swerved sharply and avoided the warrior's blade by less than an inch, to which Sunstreaker swiped sideways but the target swerved again, this time knocking Sideswipe on the knee plate and causing him to nearly run off the road.

"Whoa!...HEY! You're the one with the fancy nanite powered upgrade! You're supposed to be providing air cover!" The red warrior shouted up at the nervy techy. "RIGHT!" Glen aimed and punched his fist, sending a burst of energy downwards and struck one of the targets on the roof and hood, making them swerve sideways and drifting across the road, nearly crashing into a nearby building but they managed to keep up with their partner as they corrected themselves. Stepping up his attack Glen then let loose a whole volley of energy bursts; this chase was going so fast he prayed at least one of the blasts would hit them if not confuse them enough to slow them down. Sure enough both targets began to swerve about and the Lambo twins took the opportunity and attacked the enemy, grabbing their bumpers and flipping them sideways with their wrist blades, they forced them both to transform into their mech modes to avoid serious injury; but to their surprise the targets both grabbed them by the blades and threw them off. At that moment Glen swooped down and with a clenched fist formed a force-field shield and rammed both the enemy transformers in their sides; crashing them both into the guard-rail and knocking them off their wheels.

"WHOOP! YEAH BA-GHAA!" Glen's holler was cut short as one of the targets flipped back up and grabbed him by the waist, squeezing him hard the stranger tried to break his ribs and spine but Glen's force field re-enforced itself according to his quickly increasing level of pain, Glen was about to pass out from lack of breath when Sideswipe tackled the robot head on with a blade to the chest plates, forcing him to let go and drop the now gasping human.

"You okay?" the red warrior asked

"I-I'll b-be fine, just get that bastard!" Glen gasped as he got back up in the air and got ready for another round; but to both their surprise, the two black robots transformed back into their altmodes and sped off onto the superhighway.

"WHAT THE FRAG?- GET BACK HERE!"

* * *

Glass flying

Concrete falling

People screaming and running

Fire and intense heat

James barely had time to register what had just happened as his head spun around in dizzy confusion and his body was in pain from being hit against the wall, picking himself up he looked around and gasped at the sight before him; half the store was engulfed in flames and a whole section of the wall and store window were gone, blown clean away by the blast and nearby the burnt and blooded bodies of those who were caught in the blast laid scattered about the floor; the adrenaline hit his system with all its chemical potency and within seconds he found himself on his feet and flying out the door. Outside the mall was in complete chaos; people were running and screaming, heading away from the entrance, James was about to see what was going on when the cause of the panic presented itself.

A HUGE black humanoid robot came storming down the central mall isle, smashing the store fronts with its fists and shooting up the building with its shoulder-mounted guns, like a deer in the headlights he froze, taken completely aback by the incredibility, and the sheer horror of it. He was abruptly shaken from his stupor when a strong muscular hand grabbed him by the arm and practically flung him into a nearby smashed out store front, he barely had time to get back up as something grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and dragged him all the way to the back of the store and pulled him behind a set of half dented metal shelves; he was about to cry out when the thing pulled him to his feet and he laid his eyes on the unmistakable cybernetic eyes of his Godson.

"BATOU! HOLY MARY MOTHER'O GOD WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!" he practically yelled in a flustered shaky voice, he suddenly noticed Matti standing behind him looking equally as shaken with a series of small cuts and grazes on her face, neck and shoulders, he scooped her up in a bear hug, relieved she was alive "MATTI! Oh God Matti what happened?". "I-I-I, We were-they-it just came through the window!" she breathed in a shaky voice, panting for breath in both shock and fear. "Are you both okay? You're not hurt?" Batou asked as he kept his weapon poised and ready to fire, "I-I don't think so...Batou what just happened?" James panted, "It-...I don't know, but right now I need to get you two outta here, come on, we'll try to slip by him..." Batou replied as he cautiously led the way out of the store front, neither Matti nor James were willing to argue as they stayed by his side. The three of them waited until the giant robot had raged on some distance until he was a good hundred yards down the aisle, the cries, screams and explosions echoed all around as they slipped out and made a dash for the blown out entrance, carefully stepping over the broken glass, rubble and twisted metal of the doorway the three humans ran out into the street; none of them were prepared for the sight that now lay before them...

The whole street was in fire and ruins, store fronts and buildings were half blown away and now burning out of control, people were screaming and running for their lives, the traffic was completely gridlocked and backed up and everywhere dead bodies lay scattered on the walkway and in the middle of the street. At the far end of the street six black transformers came racing round the corner at break-neck speed, reacting on instinct the three humans dashed back into the mall and ran down the aisle in an attempt the find some cover.

"_MAJOR! COME IN MAJOR! There's a situation going on here! I need back up immediately!"_ Batou barked down the comm channel

"_I know Batou, we can't come right now but Bluestreak's about three minutes away with Hailey, Mikaela and Frenzy; just try to hold on as long as you can!"_ the Major reassured

"_What the hell's going on?"_ he barked back as he ran towards one of the emergency exit corridors.

"_Your guess is as good as ours! D-man picked up all these cons showing up in the city about thirty seconds ago, but there's so many of them we're having to split up; Sunny, Sides and Glen are go' in after two that showed up on the waterfront, Blue an' the drones are five minutes away from you, Bee, Trailbreaker and myself are goin' after a big one near the superhighway, and D-man, Jets and the kids are gonna cover us from above as best they can; The Major and the rest of the section'll be along soon, they need some heavy firepower if they're to keep up with us. Just hold on as best you can buddy! We're coming!" _Jazz replied as he sped through the city with Bumblebee and Trailbreaker right on his tail.

* * *

Meanwhile, across the city:

"This is sheer madness! At this rate how're we supposed to provide air cover for everyone when all the cons are scattered all over the city?" Jetfire called over to Deathshot as they both transformed into their mech modes in midair while Morri, Tom and Danny each took flank on their wings. Down below the signs of the battles were beginning to show as thick smoke began to rise up from certain hotspots below on the streets, each incident was scattered far between and overhead the sky began to buzz with news helicopters and military choppers trying to keep up with the dangerous pace of things; as Jetfire narrowly swooped up to avoid one particular news chopper, he saw the large gathering of military trucks, armoured assault vehicles and multiped tanks that came filing out of the Niihama naval base; and on the street directly adjacent the base's entrance, some 500 yards away twenty large black humanoid shapes were 'skating' straight towards the convoy, and on the other streets coming in from the east and west about twenty other transformers could be seen racing towards their targets.

"DEATHSHOT! LOOK DOWN THERE!"

"They need to get into the city if they're to help back us up! We'll take care of the cons from up here; you kids get down there and provide some shields for them-"

"Like frag they will! Snipe as many as you can because I'm gonna bring the pain to those you miss!" Jetfire bellowed as he dropped down steeply and made a beeline for the naval base with the three kids on his tail fin; the troops down below could hardly believe their eyes as the giant thirty foot seeker came crashing to the ground with an earth-shattering thud and with an huge axe in one hand, while three kids came gliding down encased in blue fire and their fists crackling with lighting-like energy. But no-one had time to react to them as the angry revving of engines could be heard storming up the street up ahead.

"Their coming; you youngling's help the soldiers get into the city, no matter what happens they must get through to help back up the rest of us; I'll hold them off for as long as I can! Now get to it!" Jetfire barked and with affirmative nods the kids landed near the front of the convoy and pleaded with the troops to fall back into the base; as the seeker primed his axe the hilt extended down to the ground and the blades began to glow a vivid scarlet red with intense heat flickering off in orange flames. As the enemy cons came within view the tanks moved forward and Jetfire took his stance, the cons abruptly screeched to a stop and eyed the seeker with distain, suddenly, as the foremost transformer stepped forward his helm exploded with a blunt crack and a burst of energon as he dropped to the ground dead; 'Heh, that sniper's not going to waste any time today!' Jetfire thought with a wide smirk as the other robots looked around for the origin of the shot.

"WELL? WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? YOU WANT SOME? COME AND GET SOME!" he bellowed out.

* * *

Back at the mall:

"Is he gone yet?" James whispered

"...I think he's still on the other side of the wall, I can hear his engine ticking over" Batou replied as he cautiously peered around the pillar and caught a glimpse of the black transformer with his back to them, as the giant turned back around the three humans ducked down as low as they possibly could and didn't utter a word. After rushing back into the mall Batou managed to find a corridor leading to one of the mall's many emergency exits; but found the exit was blocked by fallen rubble from the building opposite, and had to run back on account the rest of the building started to collapse in on the doorway; now they were back by the corridor entrance and hiding between two fallen pillars and under a large piece of the upper walkway that had been blown up by the transformer that was now stalking the mall aisles, looking around for fresh victims despite the fact most of the people had managed to flee down into the mall's lower levels and subway entrance, their panicked cries and whimpers could be vaguely heard echoing out from the stairways, escalators and elevator shafts at the end of the main aisle. As he paused Matti covered her mouth with both hands in an attempt to silence her shaky breathing, the sight of those glowing blood red eyes sent a fresh wave of fear through her system as she prayed they wouldn't fall on her. After what felt like the longest minute in history, a sound from one of the other aisles grabbed the giant's attention and he paced away; breathing a silent sigh of relief the three humans allowed a moment for their tenseness to slip away, before straightening back up and focusing on the situation at hand.

"So, how're we going get past that thing? Is there any way we can get out?" Matti whispered, slowly peering out from under the demolished walkway, Batou looked down the aisle and back towards the demolished main entrance and was dismayed to see three other black transformers guarding the entrance, "No, there's three of those things standing by the doors, looks like they don't want anyone to get out, I could try to shoot' em in the eyes but that'll give our position away" Batou replied, "Aye...actually, looking from here; those three stores behind us are blown out and they go quite a way back into the building, we could probably sneak into the nearest and creep along the back wall to stay out of the guards line of sight, if we're quiet enough we could make it to the subway entrance around the next corner" James pointed to the storefront on the opposite side of one of the pillars, looking over the layout of the rubble and wreckage around them Batou nodded in agreement; "It's doable, but if that other thing comes stalking back this way we'll be screwed" he replied as he looked over at Matti, "So we're stuck?" she asked anxiously, Batou was about to reply when an idea suddenly came to mind...

'...Hang on...if those are Decepticons then they should be just like the Autobots in terms of their anatomy, and if they have spark chambers then that means-...', "Matti, do you think you can do that 'thing' you do, and find that robot through the walls?" he asked, Matti blinked in surprise, "Wha?-but Batou you know my gift doesn't work on demand like a cell-phone! I can't just flip it on-" she exclaimed, "I know, but right now if we don't try something we'll be stuck here and risk getting caught; please Matti, just try your best that's all I'm asking..." Batou pleaded, Matti regarded him for a moment before passing a small sigh, "...Okay, just don't rush me..." she replied sternly.

Letting her shuffle to the opening of the debris Batou let her get a good look at the aisle ahead as she sat cross-legged on the floor and slowed her breathing down as best she could, as she tried to focus on what she needed to do, she closed her eyes and let her mind 'see' ahead; in the darkness behind her eyelids muted colours began to swirl around like ink droplets dissipating in water, then, like a stiff wind blowing through a forest a colour came forward and swirled around, taking the form of the giant robot, in the most vivid and deepest shade of red she could see the thing stalking along, and in the centre of its chest was a bright red star glowing like strobe light and flickering like a flame. But it was strange, the energy it was giving off was very unnatural, almost alien and it didn't feel right either, but the energy waves seemed to be bouncing off solid surfaces around and below it, like the echoes of a sonar system, she realized this had to be the mall's layout.

"...I see him..." she said

"Where?" James asked

"He's a way off, not in the other aisles...wait a sec..." She turned her head slightly as a another coloured form grabbed her attention, another giant robot was slowly creeping along in the opposite direction, but this one was glowing in an intense electric blue and the star in the middle of his chest glowed more softly and warmly. "...There's another one in the other aisle, but he's colour is different, it's not like the other..." she continued. As Batou moved up alongside to flank her, a noise from behind drew the three human's attention; Matti broke her trance-like state and whipped her head around just in time to see the three 'guards' fall to the ground; one with its head blown off, another with its head and right arm blown off and the other with several small gaping holes in its torso, from around the corner of the blown out doors two humanoid shaped blue fireballs came flying into the mall and soured down the main aisle, zipping around the corner and disappearing. "What the bloody hell were those things?" James exclaimed, looking over at the doors Batou's eyebrows flew in surprise as he saw Bluestreak's head peer slowly around the half demolished wall, the gunner instantly saw him under the debris and shot him a reassuring wink, taking that as a cue to get ready, the ex-ranger held his gun in both hands and moved in front of Matti to act as her shield. As if on cue several explosions echoed out from the down the aisle, an orange blur streaked across the intersection of the aisles and an angry string of cybertronian curses sounded out as the black transformer reappeared from around the corner with Hot Rod wrestling him by the waist, overhead the two blue fiery forms turned out to be Mikaela and Hailey encased in their protective BSHB force fields, shooting energy blasts down at the enemy's head; looking back at the doors Batou noticed Bluestreak was getting ready to line up a shot with his shoulder mounted gun, and then..."NOW!" the gunner called out, Hot Rod dived for cover and the girls flew up to the smashed out roof windows as the gunner fired his weapon with a thunderous blast, instantly decapitating the robot and dropping him to the floor motionlessly. As Hot Rod picked himself up and the girls hovered down to the ground, Bluestreak stepped over the rubble and made his way over where Batou was hiding; Matti and James both went into a panic as the blue giant bent down and effortlessly lifted the fallen walkway to one side.

"'Bout time you guys showed up!" Batou grinned up at the gunner.

"Hey! The traffic's all over the place out there, not to mention I had to fight past five other cons out there!" Bluestreak shrugged, both Matti and James gawked at him in wide eyed disbelief.

"MISTER BATOU!...Mister Batou are you okay?" the familiar blue think tank came bounding over the rubble and stopped just short of Bluestreak's legs, Batou jumped out from his hiding place and stood before the two Autobots as Hailey and Mikaela approached him.

"Are you okay?" Hailey asked anxiously, "I'll be fine; what's the situation?" he asked, "Really bad; there're cons running all over the city and we're stretched as far as we can go; the military's sending in some back up but so far we don't know this'll pan out" Mikaela replied as she wiped her brow with the back of her hand.

"Um, Batou?..." Hot Rod gestured down to the two other wide eye humans huddled together in the debris; Batou cringed as his mind snapped to attention, how was he going to explain this? Turning back around to face them both, Matti stared at him in disbelief.

"Uh? Their government issue?" he winced with an uneasy grin, they didn't buy it, "*sigh*...Okay, I can explain it but right now's not the time-"

"INCOMING!"

Everyone hit the ground as two explosions tore open the walls and glass roof up above the entrance, with a swipe of her hand Hailey threw up a bubble-like shield as rubble and glass showered down over their heads; "This is too dangerous, we have to get outta here!" Hot Rod called over, "NO! There're people trapped down in the mall's lower levels, we have to evacuate them!" Batou called back, looking back down the main aisle the two bots noticed the stairway through the blown out windows of the storefronts. "Alright, we'll secure this place and wait for the military to show up, Batou there's a few things for you in the Tachikoma's pod, we'll fall back to the central intersection back there, and you girls help Ashley outside-", "Ashley? What's he-" at that moment a blue fiery blur smashed through the windows on the second level and slammed into part of the walkway and fell down to the floor with thud, with a groan and string of curses Ashley picked himself up and rubbed his head as the 'flames' of his BHSB force field flickered angrily.

"You okay?" Batou asked worryingly,

"Just about, you need to-" his reply was cut short as another black transformer crashed through the entrance with Ravage hanging off his neck, not wasting any time Batou scooped up Matti into his arms and made a break down the aisle towards the stairway, Mikalea and Hailey grabbed James by both his arms and dragged him along whilst trying to keep up with the ex-ranger; behind them Hot Rod Bluestreak and the Tachikoma fired on the downed con while Ravage tore into his neck; no-one looked back as they dashed down the main aisle and rounded the corner until finally they came to an intersection of four criss-crossing aisles with a giant half demolished fountain in the centre that was spurting water out all over the floor, across the intersection was the mall's entrance to the subway and two other stairways adjacent to the huge glass elevators, the sounds of the other survivors echoed out into the open as they bustled about, trying to huddle and clamber together in an attempt to stay as far away from the stairway.

"You two should be safe down there, that subway entrance is too small for those Decep- I mean giant robots to squeeze down" Batou said as he set Matti down, with an angry grunt she turned around and hit him hard on the arm, "JUST WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON! What the hell just happened back there? Why did you know those two robots and why the fuck are those other girls flying?-" she ranted, "Matti, MATTI LISTEN TO ME!...those other two robots back there are my friends! Their Autobots!" Batou grabbed her by the arms and tried to hold her still, she suddenly stopped and stared up at him in confusion as the last part of his sentence hit her mind.

"Wha...wh-what?" she stammered in disbelief

"They're Autobots! They're here to help us; they won't hurt you or anyone else I promise! I know this is a lot to take in right now but you have to trust me on this!" Batou pleaded, for what felt like the longest few seconds Matti's head spun round in confusion as a cold sense of realisation began to creep into the forefront of her mind. James blinked in surprise, equally stunned by what Batou just said.

"Then, the vision I...it was..."

"I know hon, I know..."

"Uh? Care to let us in on what you two are talking about?" Hailey asked, looking over at her Batou breathed a heavy sigh and let go of Matti, James came over and put a reassuring hand on both their shoulders. "Listen, I don't understand what the hell's going on nedalone what was said just now, but I think you need to listen to your big brother luv, If they had wanted to kill us they would have done so back there; one way or another I think we're just going to have to go along with this" he said in a hushed tone, despite her doubt she nodded and passed a small sigh, not sure if this was the right thing to do. "I love you, and I promise you we'll get through this..." Batou whispered as he placed a small kiss on her forehead, Mikaela and Hailey both glanced at one another in surprise, as they looked the strange girl up and down.

"Mikeala, you said the military's sending in back up, how long until they get anywhere near here?" the ex-ranger asked

"We don't know, just as we turned onto this street Bluestreak got a message from Jetfire saying the convoy from the Niihama naval base came under attack from a whole bunch of cons, it might be a while before they get anywhere near here, but earlier I heard the Major say that there were attack choppers coming in from four other bases outside the city, and I think a couple of helicarriers have been ordered to send their choppers over too" she answered

"How many cons are there?" he asked, the girls hesitated as they looked at one another with unease, "when we left HQ, about 45, give or take; we don't know how they got into the city without tripping Deathshot's long-distance scanners until they were in range, but they've been multiplying in the last twenty minutes alone, as soon as we put down one about three or four show to take their place" Hailey replied, Batou rubbed his cybernetic eyes wearily, trying to wrap his mind around what was just said, behind him the two Autobot scouts and Tachikoma came running up the aisle, each of them sporting a collection of noticeable dents and dings. "We managed to secure the front entrance, but there may be more cons on the way, we just put down four and Ashley and the drones are busy taking care of another three, but I think we'll be fine" Hot Rod said, "Why?" Mikaela asked, "Frenzy found a chainsaw in one of the half-burnt stores" Bluestreak grinned. "The Major said you gotta report back to the section, so I brought along your combat gear and weapons!" the Tachikoma squeaked as it opened up its pod and showed the equipment sitting on the seat, Matti couldn't help but quirk an eyebrow at the strange spider-like tank 'is that an Autobot?' she thought offhand. "Okay, but first you gotta get these two outta here, fly them back to HQ and tell the chief they're with me" Batou said as grabbed his black and dark grey combat suit and semi-automatic rifle and climbed up into the pod, "Huh? Why them?" Hailey asked, "Because they're my sister and godfather" he replied as the pod doors closed up; the two bots blinked in surprise and looked down at the two humans curiously.

"Sister?" Hailey echoed

"Uh okay?...well, how're you with flying?" Mikaela asked them both.

"Huh?"

* * *

"How the hell can so many of them just show up out of nowhere? Deathshot should've detected them as far away as the city outskirts!" Darren thought aloud as he kept his hands on Trailbreaker's steering wheel.

"We'll figure out how they got past him later, but right now you need to activate your BSHB and get your game face on, we're just about th-"

BROOOOM!

The superhighway was engulfed in a massive fireball and the road underfoot cracked and shifted violently, the overpass they were travelling on broke in half and collapsed onto several buildings down below; Jazz, Bumblebee and Trailbreaker drifted in a tight curve and screeched to a halt just short of the halved roadway while all the traffic in front of them fell to their doom below. Before anyone had a chance to say anything, the cause of the explosion reared its ugly head up from out of the geo-front down below; the bots tossed their charges out, transformed and gawked at the stranger in astonishment.

"Demolisher?" Jazz gasped in utter disbelief

"I thought he was dead!" Trailbreaker concurred in equal shock, "...Wow! THAT is one big con!" Bumblebee breathed as he fired up his wrist mounted guns; activating their BSHB's the three human's floated up into the air and hovered by the bot's side's, waiting for the enemy to make his move. The giant behemoth stood on one of his enormous two wheels and simply stared up at the destroyed roadway, his vents 'breathing' heavily and whirring like set of huge jet engines.

"Why's he just standing there?" Mile's said offhand as his protective 'aura' force field began to flicker and whip around him like blue fire; at that moment three excavators down in the geo-front rolled up and transformed into three identical Decepticons, each towering over a hundred feet tall, and looking just as formidable.

"No way, FOUR Demolishers?" Trailbreaker exclaimed in alarm

"...Frag" Jazz breathed as the foremost Demolisher raised his arm and aimed his weapon...

* * *

Meanwhile; back by the waterfront:

'This is getting way too out of hand!' Glen thought offhand as he kept his eyes on the target ahead, indeed the situation was getting out of hand as the two cons had led the three of them practically around the whole waterfront area, across the harbours, through the docks, and now they were approaching one of the several major suspension bridges that spanned the widest width of the Niihama bay; all along the way the twins had been dodging traffic and trying as best they could to avoid running over any pedestrians, but with their enemy now pushing nearly a hundred and sixty miles per hour, this chase was now really dangerous, especially on the corners and tight curves in the more busier areas of the city. As they ran a red light and drifted around the sharp curve of an intersection, the Autobot twins gunned their engines and pushed their altmode's onwards, trying to close some distance between them and the two transformers up ahead as they sped down an access ramp and entered one of the docklands warehouse districts.

"Don't you think this is weird? They've been rolling around half the city and every time we try to pin them down they throw us off and keep rolling!" Sideswipe called out over his loudspeakers, as he contemplated the cons actions thus far, and flew up some distance to survey the layout of the city, an idea suddenly came to mind, "STOP! STOP! STOP!" Glen shouted as he swooped down in front of the twins, the two of them screeched to a halt and transformed back into their mech modes.

"What're you doing? We'll lose them if we stop!" Sunstreaker shouted up at the hovering techy.

"Sides hit the nail on the head! I think these guys have been leading us around and drawing us away from the city, look!..." he pointed back towards the city, the twins realized they had covered a fair bit of mileage and now the city centre, and the sights of the other battles, were a long way off; "this wasn't meant to be a fight! They wanted to lead us away from everyone else so we couldn't help out; I say we drop this fight and head back, the other's might need us!" he pleaded, "FRAG! How'd I miss that?" Sunstreaker grunted in annoyance, "Never mind, let's just go!" Sideswipe replied and without another word the brothers both transformed and backtracked the way them came. They barely got five miles up the highway when Glen glanced back over his shoulder and saw the two black transformers speeding up behind them, knocking other cars aside as they transformed and before either Sunstreaker or Sideswipe could react, the enemy cons unsheathed their weapons and blew several rounds into their rear bumpers; Sideswipe was tossed twenty feet into the air while Sunstreaker crashed into the guardrail, Glen was quick to act on his instinct this time and flipped onto his back and fired a succession of energy blots at the foremost con. The giant instinctively flinched away and tripped over one of the cars in the neighbouring lanes, crashing flat on his front and barrel-rolled across the tarmac while his partner sped up and tried to catch Glen in mid air, but the techy beat him to the punch and with both fists clenched, unleashed one huge energy ball that blew the con right off his feet. Within seconds the Lambo twins had transformed and were skating side by side, "We have to keep going! Their just try 'in to get us to chase' em again!" Glen called down, "Then maybe it's time we turned this around, have them racing to our tune for a change!" Sideswipe grinned as he unsheathed his wrist blades. As the two cons regained their footing and skated up to the Autobots at breakneck speed, Glen shot a wink at Sideswipe and flipped a backward roll, positioning himself behind the con he fired several energy blasts into the con's back, dislodging and shooting off parts of his armour plating; as the con turned around to try and swat him away, Glen shot off upwards just as Sideswipe plunged his blade into the con's chest and off-lining him instantly. At the same time the remaining con lunged for Sunstreaker but the golden warrior flipped around and over, twisting in midair over the cons head and before his wheels even touched the tarmac he sank his blade into the con's shoulder and straight down into his chest cavity, the con fell onto the guardrail and fell of the highway, dead.

"AW HELL YEAH! We're on fire baby! WE. ARE. ON. FIRE! YEEEEAAAH WHOOP!" Glen hollered with a fist pump in the air; with a satisfactory high five the twins transformed back into the altmodes and sped away, in his excitement Glen flew upwards and pulled off four backward flips.

But halfway through the forth flip he spotted seven huge black humanoid figures speeding up the highway...straitening up to get a better look, he gasped in utter horror as seven black cons, each bigger than the previous two, were speeding towards the twins and cocking their weapons. Without hesitation Glen unleashed a huge wave of energy, knocking the cons back but not off their feet, as the Lambo twins speed up to put some distance between them, Glen flew down to cover their afts with a protective shield and braced himself for round two.

"SSHHIIIIIIT!"

* * *

"...AND WHERE THE FRAG DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING!-" Jetfire bellowed as he grabbed one con by his head and swung his axe down into his waist, severing him in half and throwing his top half away to one side. The soldiers nearby watched in horrified awe, terrified to go anywhere near the Autobot seeker, but twice as scared to drop their guard with the enemy as they kept firing on them. This battle had turned into somewhat of a stalemate, what started as a standoff with thirty cons against the military's multiped tanks and Jetfire, had quickly whittled down to a handful of them scattered and disorganized; the enemy's pride had gotten the better of them, thinking an old rusted bot would be too weak to fight they very quickly found out the ancient seeker was far more than a mach for them and thinking that the tanks were too slow for them had been their undoing too as the tanks mowed them down where they stood. But no sooner had the fight seemed to have ended, then about sixty more cons attacked the base, this time staggering their advance and making sure not to group together. That too had proven to be a foolish plan as the now invisible Deathshot picked each advancing con off one by one; in less than five minutes he had reduced the enemy's number down by a third, confused and spooked by the mysterious sniper the enemy retreated back outside the base's perimeter and concentrated their efforts on stopping the convoy from getting out.

"TOM! I don't know how much longer we can keep this up! If any more of them show up we'll lose the highway!" Danny called over to his cousin as they waved another several armoured trucks on; as three large cons aimed their cannons at the highway, a tank fired a round that went straight through them and exploded in a nearby building. As another five transformers fired at the armoured trucks, Tom threw up a force field, stopping the plasma blast from getting through while from up above Morri swooped down and let loose a barrage of her BHSH's energy blasts, knocking the cons back onto their afts and as they tried to scramble back up their heads exploded in a burst of energon and they fell back wards onto the ground.

"Damn it! I know D said he was a good sniper but at this rate he might as well be the grim reaper!" Tom gasped

"You can sing your guardian's praises later! Right now we need to get the last of the convoy out! How many are left captain?" Jetfire called down to the human GSDA Captain who was holding off several other cons with his unit, "Ten tanks and twelve armoured AV trucks!" he replied back, the sheer noise of the gunfire and clanging metal made it hard for anyone to hear nedalone gat a message across, but Jetfires audios compensated alright. "Right, it that case we give it our all, one hard push to keep them away! GO!" the seeker bellowed as he raised his axe and stormed headlong into the enemy's attack formation. In less than several swings he off-lined every con in his path; in a cascade of fire, burnt metal and energon the ancient seeker moved with a smooth yet powerful fluidity that had come from countless centuries of long hard combat, every move was timed to the enemy's movements, every strike hit its target and every time an enemy tried to be clever and get the drop on him, that poor fool soon found out why this old bot was once known as 'the merciless doom bringer'. None of the humans had ever seen anything like it, and from where he was hovering way up in the air, Deathshot couldn't help but smirk to himself; 'I have to hand it to the old timer, he's still got the moves' he thought. While the enemy tried to overpower the seeker, the rest of the convoy took the open opportunity and made a dash for the highway, powering through what was left of the enemy's attack formation and sped along into the city as fast as they could.

Breathing a sigh of relief Morri drifted upwards as she watched them disappear among the various sized buildings of New Port's cityscape, then, on the highway overpass that ran high above the ground level highway; something caught her eye...

"HEEEEEEAAAYY!" Glen cried out as he zipped through the air, firing blast after blast of concentrated force field energy down at the seven cons chasing after him and the Lambo twins, together the whole chase was coming up fast, while twins leapt, flipped and swerved around every vehicle their pursuers simply knocked and tossed aside every car in their path. Before she had a chance to aim and fire, Jetfire beat her to it. "COVER ME!" he yelled at one of the tanks as he fired up his engines and blasted up onto the overpass just as the twins sped past him, with a click of a button on the hilt of his axe, Jetfire swung his main weapon and a wall of scarlet red flames burst forth from the blades and incinerated the seven cons, before they even went near the seeker they veered off the highway, crashed through the guardrail and fell to the ground below in a crumpled up heap of partially melted metal. With a satisfactory nod, Jetfire turned his attention to the trio.

"So, been having much fun?" he smirked

"Eh, I've had better" Sideswipe shrugged

"After seeing that, I guess you're not going to let us live that down?" Sunstreaker grumbled

"Tempting, but that can wait; right now how about helping me to finish off this lot down here?" the seeker gestured down the battle below, "Looks more fun here anyway, we'll be sure to leave some for-" Sideswipe's words were cut short as the loud buzzing of helicopter roaters sounded overhead and several dark grey Jigabachi's appeared from over the taller buildings nearby. In one quick move they swooped down and unleashed a barrage of machinegun-fire on the enemy, mowing them all down in less than a minute. The twins both watched on with sour looks, like a couple of kid who'd just had their favourite toys taken away; "...Well that concludes that then, with the Jigabachi's here now we can go and see who needs some back-up...CAPTAIN! CAN YOU TAKE CARE OF THINGS HERE?" Jetfire called down to the troops, "We'll be fine!" the captain replied, "GOOD! BECAUSE OUR FRIENDS WILL BE NEEDING US ELSEWHERE, FAREWELL AND GOOD LUCK!" the seeker bellowed back as he leapt up in the air and transformed back into his Blackbird form and blasted up into the sky; the twins both transformed and sped off into the city while the four humans followed after them. From up above the familiar four winged silhouette of Deathshot reappeared from out of nowhere and descended down and flew alongside his charges.

"You performed brilliantly back there younglings, very well done" he smiled

"To be honest, I didn't think we'd be able to hold them off...Christ my heart is beating so fast!..." Morri breathed as she held her hand against her chest, feeling the pulsating beat of her heart as it hammered against her ribcage, "Yeah, I'm still feeling kinda on a rush after that!" Danny concurred, "So who do we help now?" Glen asked. "I need to stay up here and do what I can...this battle is too strange, so far we haven't seen any one con who seems to be in command, and neither has there been any sign of a main attack force; these are small scattered groups that are attacking random targets that have no main strategic value besides terrorizing the general human populous" Deathshot said offhand, "Maybe that's the point? To cause panic and throw everything up in the air?" Tom suggested, Deathshot glanced at him with a look of concern and sighed through his vents and he looked back towards the city, "You might have a point there youngling...Call it a hunch but I don't think this will end the way we want it to" he replied, "Perhaps, but right now I think the twins need a hand..." Morri pointed down to the Lambo twins who were now fighting hand to hand against four other black transformers; "you better get them out of the way before they get a bullet through the helm by mistake, Back them up with anyone else you encounter, and I'll see you all later..." Deathshot replied as he activated his camouflage and disappeared from sight. As the four humans shot downwards, something in the distance caught Danny's eye, stopping in midair he watched as four strange objects moved at a fast pace between the many various buildings of the downtown area, with so many buildings obscuring the view it was hard to make out what they were but the far off sounds of traffic crashing and sirens screaming confirmed it couldn't be good; then, as the objects appeared on one of the superhighways above most of the low-level ground buildings Danny watched in horror at what was happening.

"...Bloody hell...MORRI! TOM! GLEN COME UP HERE QUICK!"

* * *

"Well that was fun!" Batou's Tachikoma squeaked happily as it prodded one of the fallen Decepticon's with its claw, "Fast and hard would be better descriptions" Batou replied as he reloaded his gun and dusted off his combat suit, "Hard and fast for sure, thirty nine kills in less than half an hour, a good day's fight in my opinion" Ravage purred as he paced around his dead victims with Ashley at his side "Yeah, and this certainly came in handy, I'll have to thank Frenzy for modifying it..." Ashley held up the six pointed star shaped tail stinger that he got from the Saski pretender, since his their encounter with the con it had been modified into a long spear with an extendable shaft and a smaller mace-like tip at the opposite end to act as a counter balance, Ashley had added his personal touch to it by painting on some tribal tattoo designs coupled with some cybertronian glyphs near the top of the shaft; overhead Hailey and Mikaela came into land by the ex-ranger and the blue think tank.

"Finally your back, is Matti okay?" Batou asked eagerly, "she'll be fine, albeit the flight back to HQ wasn't her idea of travelling, we had to land on four different roofs to let her get her nerves together before we finally set off again, she finally calmed down when I said it was okay for her to close her eyes so she didn't have to look down at the ground; James wasn't so bad, he actually enjoyed the flight...why didn't you say you had a sister?" Hailey asked, "...It's a long story, I'll explain later" Batou sighed, "You think? Anyway, we ran into some help on the way back..." Hailey thumbed over her shoulder as the section 9 tiltroater came into hover over the street, rushing out of the mall entrance and clambering over the dead cons, they came around the back of the huge aircraft as the rear ramp lowered down and five other Tachikomas leapt out and rolled over to them, the craft took off again and the think tanks pods opened up to reveal a very dishevelled looking bunch of section 9 agents, the other Tachikoma's too sported a whole collection of dents, dings and gashes.

"What the hell happened to you guys?" Batou exclaimed in alarm, seeing the Major with one of her purple bangs singed off, her face covered in soot and dust with part of her combat suit torn and tattered was a surprising sight as any. "The Decepticons happened; we arrived at the Etami base to join up with the military forces when we came under attack from five trucks that turned into thirty foot wreaking machines and tore up the base and its airstrip. It got pretty messy but we managed to drive them back, but now the Secret Air Self-Defence Army Unit can't get its jets up in the air and now we've had reports of several other bases and garrisons being attacked simultaneously, its complete madness out there!" Togusa ranted in frustration. "How're the rest of the military forces holding up?" Batou asked in concern, "So far every Jigbachi and Oniyama has been scrabbled and every available ground based unit has been sent out into the city to start evacuating the civilian's out from the danger zones, but that'll take time and so far we've had reports of several other attacks around the city...in the meantime what have you to report?" The Major continued, "It got a little hairy ten minutes ago but we managed to get things back under control, Bluestreak, Hot Rod, Frenzy and Scorpy are back in the mall guarding the stairways and elevators, there's a whole load of people down in the subway and lower levels that won't come out, there've been a few enemy units that tried to take us on over the last hour, but the layout of the mall enabled us to hold the upper hand, but we need an evac for those people as soon as possible" the ex-ranger replied. "Don't worry, I'm relaying the situation to the nearest convoy, with all the chatter on the comm frequencies trying to stay in touch with anyone has been difficult to say the least" the Major said, "I figured as much when I couldn't get a hold of you guys earlier...so what's game plan now?" Batou asked. Looking around the battle torn street, the Major passed a small sigh and looked back at her second in command. "How many Decepticons have you all gone up against so far?" she asked, "From the first attack on the mall, thirty nine, twenty out here and nineteen in the mall, it got pretty gnarly but we man-" Ashley stopped as he slung his spear over his shoulder and took up a defensive stance, at the far end of the street seven strangers dressed head to toe in black with dark sunglasses stood in a line in the middle of the road, following his line of gaze everyone else noticed them too.

"Huh? Where did they come from?...Didn't we check to make sure no civilians were out here?" Batou's Tachikoma asked

"We did, and those aren't civilians..." Ravage growled as he hunched forward with his ears pressed flat against his head, his optic glowing with an intense fury. What happened next caught everyone totally off guard as the seven strangers dashed down the street at an unbelievable speed; before the Major could react one of the strangers grabbed her by the neck and lifted her right from out of the Tachikoma's pod, throwing her through the thick wall of a nearby office block, one stranger tackled Batou with such force that it knocked the wind from right out of his cybernetic lungs while the other five attacked the Tachikoma's, each grabbing one of the legs and throwing them up in the air with an unbelievable strength, with the pods open the other team members fell out and crash-landed in and among the dead transformers several meters away. Ravage was quick with his lightning fast reflexes as he pounced on Batou's attacker, tearing him off with his jaws and with one hard bite decapitated the stranger, but instead of blood and tissue, Batou saw metal, wires and energon spew out of the body and head; another stranger turned his attention to Mikaela as he darted forth and grabbed her, he tried to break her neck but the force field held up and with an angry yell she unleashed a burst of energy bolts, throwing off her attacker and enabling her to go in on the offensive, Ashley was quick also as he dodged one stranger and stabbed him in the arm with his spear, blue energon trickled down the blade and the stranger looked up at him with disgust before Batou let loose several rounds from his semi-automatic into his head while the other Section 9 agents opened fire on the remaining five strangers, but they moved too quickly and easily dodged out of the way of the gunfire.

"Fucking hell! How're they moving so fast?" Batou grunted as he tried to pin one down, but another managed to sneak up behind him and knock him forward before Hailey blasted him with an energy bolt. As another stood over the ex-ranger, he was about to grab him when the Major came storming forward and knocked the stranger clean off his feet with one hard flying kick; in rapid succession she went after each attacker as she unleashed her fury. The kids watched in dumbstruck awe as she weaved in between them like a shark in a feeding-frenzy, she moved as fast as they did as she dodged every blow and struck hard with all her cyborg strength, all the while her deathly cold stare told everyone loud and clear not to get in her way, and for her enemy's to fear her; with everything going on she was in no mood to be messed with, and as swiftly as the attack began, she ended it just as quickly. As she stood over her fallen enemies, holding her handgun to the nearest attacker's forehead, the others cautiously approached from behind, being sure to keep their weapons trained on them in case of anything else happening.

"You assholes really picked the wrong people to mess with" Batou growled with a hardened frown, "So what do we do with you all? God knows I'm not in a forgiving mood today" Mikaela coldly sneered as her protective aura flickered angrily. As Ravage sniffed them over, he bared his teeth and with an angry growl swiped the side of one of their faces, drawing energon and knocking their shades off to reveal a set of vivid red optic set into the orbital sockets; frowning, the Major squatted down and pushed the gun up against the side of his head.

"Why are you attacking the city?" she asked coldly, the very tone of her voice sent chills up the kid's spines.

"We were bored; and wanted to have some fun...humans are such fun when they scream and run around in a panic, it makes for interesting target practice" the stranger smirked in a mocking cybertronian tone, everyone gazed at him in ire, the agents may not have understood his words but the hatred that was spoken was loud and clear.

"I can assure you, you won't be getting any screams out of us" Ashley growled in cybertronian as he pointed his spear at the stranger's neck.

"Oh I think you will...believe me, you will!..." the stranger grinned as he and the other's suddenly went into a series of violent convulsions, the group was even more taken aback when their body's started to glow in a bright scarlet red aura and their skin began to quiver and squirm, "I-Is it just me or are they getting bigger?" Hailey panicked.

Within mere minutes the five strangers yelled out in pain as they started to grow taller and bigger, metal shards erupted out from their skin and began to cover them in a tight fitting armour-like cocoon, as their flesh ripped apart, other parts began to erupt and unfurl into their new places on their still growing bodies; claws and talons replaced their hands and feet, their faces became reptilian and insect-like and the edges of their armour became spiked and serrated, finally the transformation seemed to stop as the red aura died down and the five new transformers got up and stood before the silent dumbstruck onlookers.

"You can scream now if you want to" the stranger grinned, his voice now having an electronic ring to it. "KILL THEM!" Ravage roared as he leapt up and sank his teeth into the nearest transformers neck, causing a huge arc of energon to erupt from out the wound and bringing him to his knees, essentially bleeding him to death, the other humans snapped back to reality and sprung into action as they let loose several rounds of gunfire. The Major took advantage of the situation as she leapt up to meet one of the giants at eye level and shot both his optics out, making him stagger back in pain while Mikaela and Hailey finished him off with two simultaneous hard discharges of energy to the side of his helm, cracking it open and killing him instantly; one of the giants lunged forward and scooped up Boma and Pazu with a crushing grip, "PAZ! BOMA!" Batou cried out as he fired on the attacker but he wouldn't let go, powered by his force field Ashley took one huge leap and brought his spear down on the back of the giant's neck, severing his spinal unit and automatically relaxing his grip on the two section 9 agents. "Hold on guys!" Togusa reassured as he and Saito helped them back up, the other two attackers aimed their newly formed weapons at them and fired, Togusa managed to duck just as one shot struck the tarmac in an explosion of fire and plasma energy but the other giant's weapon backfired and blew his arm right off with shards of metal flying everywhere; Ashley took advantage once again and with an impressive forward leap, delivered a flying kick through which he concentrated a burst of energy, making the giant fall flat on his back, at the same time the twelve year old brought down his spear into the attacker's neck and severed one of his energon lines.

"That was very unexpected! Not to mention somewhat disturbing!" Batou's Tachikoma commented as it poked one of the dead attackers, the others kept their weapons trained on the one attacker left alive, though barely alive now as energon poured from his neck, making his strength sap away.

"N-NO! Th-this wasn't supposed to h-happen! You're not supposed to defeat us!..."he chocked as energon spurted out from his mouth plates.

"Too bad, you attacked us, you brought this on yourselves, that's karma for you" Ashley replied as he stood on the giant's chest plates, looking down at him with a defiant and triumphant look in his eyes

"Y-Your nothing but meat sacks! Worthless parasitic meat sacks! You're not good for anything but dying!" the giant angrily spat

"Ah Shit, another con with delusions of cyber-Nazism...Newsflash genius, I just handed your aft plates to you and now your bleeding to death; before you eventually shove off from this life I suggest you be good and give whatever info you have on this citywide attack, starting with why the hell your attacking the city and just who the hells in charge!" Ashley growled sternly, the giant titled his head to get a better look and sneered at the twelve year old in defiance. "What the hell make you think I'll tell you anything?" he smirked.

"Uh, because you're a Decepticon? And you know that if you lie my friend here will rip your energon pump out in one bite?" Ashley gestured over Ravage, who was now eyeing the fallen transformer with distain

"Huh? What are you talking about? I'm not a Decepticon you stunted mammal! I'm one of the Vanguard!" the giant shouted back, Ravage paced up to him and looked him straight in the optics

"If you don't start being straight with us I'll be satisfying my hunger any minute now!" he growled

"I'm a soldier of the Vanguard and your executioner you whelps! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME? I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!" the fallen attacker lashed out as he struggled to get back up, Ravage swiped the side of his face hard, forcing him back down again while Ashley managed to maintain his balance, the group watched on as he continued.

"Maybe we'd all understand you a little better and actually try speaking English?" Ashley sarcastically remarked, "...What? I am speaking English you little dolt!" the giant spat back, Ashley looked over at Ravage in confusion but the panther was equally surprised, "...I can't believe it but he's not lying" Ravage growled in a hushed tone, Mikaela and Hailey glanced at each other in equal confusion as Ashley leaned in closer with an even harder scowl. "Listen! Quit your bullshitting and tell us what the hell's going on? How the hell could you not know your speaking your own language?" he spat, Ravage opened his mouth and his vocalizor replayed part of their conversation.

"I'm a soldier of the Vanguard and your executioner you whelps! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME? I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!"...The giant's face told them everything, he recognized it was his voice, but the language, it defiantly wasn't English; suddenly his head started to shake and convulse and his optics began to flash uncontrollably as his gaze wandered off into space, the humans and think tanks looked on in confused alarm, wondering just what was happening now.

"I, it-...that can't be me! I'm-...here, I'm me! I'm not-not –not-not-what you think! I'm one of the Vanguard! And I'm-I'm-I'm one of his! I'm here to lead the fight! I'm here to keep them busy and keep them away from the others! I-I-I-I-theinceptcode, the incept code will-"

And with that his helm slumped the ground and his optics began to dim as the last of his life slowly ebbed away. "What the hell just happened?" Batou thought aloud, "I, I don't know, it was like he just, went on the fritz or something?" Ashley shrugged offhand, not having a clue what happened either; "what did he say?" the Major asked, "Uh? I don't know, I mean, I don't understand..." he replied, Ravage looked straight at the Major and her team as he forwarded the translated data of their conversation straight to their cyberbrains, their eyes grew wide in a mix of confusion and surprise.

"Huh?"

"What the?"

"He didn't know he was speaking his own language?"

Everyone stood in silence for a long moment, trying to make sense of what just happened when at the other end of the street a long row of dark green army trucks came rolling up; breathing a sigh of relief the whole group allowed themselves the relax while Ravage made himself scarce behind one of the bodies of the larger cons; as the front vehicle of the convoy screeched to a halt the Sergeant sitting by the driver's side got out and saluted the Major.

"Major Kusanagi, we picked up your emergency comm and are here to get the civilians out...what happened here?" he asked as he gazed around at all the dead transformers, "...A minor altercation, but nothing we couldn't handle; the civilians are in the malls lower levels and subway station, we need to-", the Major stopped as she began to feel the ground rumble, the surrounding buildings and abandoned vehicles began to vibrate and tremble too; the sounds of buildings exploding, tarmac cracking and crumbling, and countless people screaming began to fill the air along with the sounds of helicopter roaters, car engines and machinegun-fire. As Bluestreak, Hot Rod, Scorponok and Frenzy came running out of the mall, the rumbling grew louder and nearer and everyone watched the other end of the street as the source of the sound suddenly appeared. Rolling along the highway at high speed, four giant Transformers, each over a hundred feet tall came storming through the high-street ramming their giant fists into every building they passed and swatting away all the traffic in their path; close behind them Jazz, Bumblebee, Trailbreaker and the Lambo twins sped along to keep up, while in the air Sam, Miles, Darren, Glen, Morri, Tom and Danny were following them from up in the air with three Jigabachi's following behind that were firing down on the four behemoths, with very little effect as they kept rolling on unaffected. The Autobots gasped in surprise when they recognized who the first Transformer was.

"Demolisher? What the frag's he doing here?" Hot Rod exclaimed in alarm

"And since when did he have three other brothers?" Bluestreak concurred

"Never mind! JUST GET AFTER THEM!" Ravage roared as he took off like a cheetah after an antelope with Scorponok following close behind with Frenzy riding on his back, everyone scrambled into action once again as Ashley, Mikeala and Hailey took off into the air, the section 9 agents scrambled back into their Tachikomas and the Autobots transformed and sped off to join the chase.

"_About time you guys showed up! We've been chasing these guys over half the city while they've been wreaking it!" _Trailbreaker called over the section 9 comm frequency, _"What the frag's Demolisher's doing here? I thought he died at the battle of Tyger Pax?"_ Bluestraek asked, _"Apparently not, and don't even ask where the other three came from because your guess is as good as mine! All we know is that we've been trying to stop them for the last hour without any success, the military have been taking pot-shots too but their weapons haven't had any effect on them either! Not that it's mattered since these guys have been swatting down every chopper that's come in front of them!"_ Jazz said,_ "So what the hell do we do? Those things are over a hundred feet tall! How do we even try to slow them down?"_ Batou exclaimed,_ "By any way we can, it's all we can do!"_ Jazz replied, _"Those things are big but they're not as fast as the Tachikoma's, we'll go on ahead and try to think of something; do what you can to buy us some time!"_ the Major said as she and the rest of her team sped off across the rooftops, the Tachikoma's easily out-paced the four Demolishers as their dexterity enabled them to hop, jump, leap and swing via their wires across the vast distances between the skyscrapers and other low-lying buildings.

"So what do we do now? We can't-WHOA!" Tom ducked down out of the way as the Jigabachi's flew down for some more direct shots, but as they fired at the giant behemoths from the sides the third one quickly reached up and swatted all three choppers in one blow, knocking them into the side of a nearby skyscraper and sending the front of the building up in flames, as the fireball exploded outwards it sent glass and rubble flying out and the kids darted about to avoid getting hit. "This is insane! How the hell do we try to slow them down when everything we throw at them just bounces off?" Sam exclaimed, "Have you tried a head on approach?" Ashley asked, "No?" Glen replied, "Right, we'll try this; split up and fire on them from different angles, lads, we'll take the sides of the head, ladies you cover the backs, use scatter-shots and try to get them in the soft spots, GO!" Ashley called as he darted down with his spear in hand and began firing blast after blast of force field energy with the other's following suite. Like a bunch of angry hornets buzzing about the kids darted around the heads of the four Demolishers firing into whatever vulnerable spots they could see while at the same time trying to dodge every obstacle in their way, they seemed to hit their target when Miles took a shot into one of the giant's audio's, making the behemoth clasp his giant heavily built hands over his helm in pain as he swerved off to the side and scrapped alongside one of the buildings, blowing out all the windows and demolishing the front of the building's structure. "HEY GUYS! I GO HIM! I GOT HIM IN THE-" Miles word were cut short as the third Demolisher swatted him away into the opposite building and then got up and carried on rolling , "Damn it! Someone check on him!" Ashley called out, Hailey flew after the blond teen while the others carried on, being sure to stay in the giant's blind spots as they carried on their assault.

"Let's bring this oversized fragger down!" Sideswipe bellowed as he and his brother transformed and leaped up onto the rear giant's wheel struts and fired their weapons at the Demolisher's giant wheel, several spokes went flying and the giant toppled over onto his front, _"Don't worry about us! Just stay on their tailpipes!"_ Jazz ordered as he, Bumblebee and Trailbreaker took the advantage and transformed to attack him on his back, as they opened fire between his armour plating the giant wreathed and struggled to get back up but the sheer size of his two wheels above and below his head prevented him from being able to get up, and Trailbreaker wasn't making it easy as he fired his shoulder-mounted cannon into his face, blasting off his insect-like moth plates. Up above the sound of heavy chopper roaters drew their attention as three Oniyama's came into hover above the street, their side front facing guns lowered down and let loose several grenade rounds into the giant's back, ripping his armour to pieces and offlining him in a matter of seconds, _"One down, three to go"_ Jazz said he and the others transformed and sped off to catch up with the others.

Up ahead the kids still continued their assault when Morri spotted the Tachikoma's on the buildings up ahead, their sticky-wires criss-crossed between the buildings over the street like a spider's web, realizing what it was for she pulled away and called out "GUUUUYS! PULLUP! PULLUP! PULLUP!", noticing the trap up ahead and realizing they were heading straight for it the kids pulled up and away while the Autobots braked hard and screeched across the torn up tarmac. The first Demolisher went headlong into the sticky-wires and got tangled up, abruptly slowing down, but as the other two slammed into the back of him the added weight and force caused the base of the wires on the walls to rip and fray until they broke away altogether, ripping off large chunks of the building and throwing them dangerously up in the air, the kids narrowly avoided getting hit by the flying debris as they dropped back down and kept their distance from the three giants. _"Do we have any idea where they're going anyway?"_ Togusa asked offhand as he and the rest of the team took off after the giants again, following them from behind and matching the kids for speed; scanning the cityscape something caught the Major's sight that made her gasp in realization, _"...Damn, I think they're heading for the Sukaitawa buildings!"_ the Major exclaimed. Several miles away the three Sukaitawa buildings towered over all the other skyscrapers in New Port, at over 1,900 feet with their distinctive interconnecting sky-bridges and glass walls, they were unmistakable; just as the Major put out several warnings to the nearby military forces, the silhouette of the Autobot seeker drew everyone's attention.

"PULL OVER YOU SLAGGER!" Jetfire bellowed as he came blasting out of the sky and swung his axe right into the upper wheel of the third Demolisher, grabbing a hold of the armour above his head he took another swing at the con's head, slicing off part of his face and causing him to veer over to the right and fall off the overpass they were currently rolling on, the two hundred and forty foot fall was some ride down as the two of them crashed through three more overpasses and one superhighway, tossing all the traffic into utter chaos before they crashed onto the street down below, the Demolisher skidded along the tarmac crashing into every vehicle unfortunate enough to be in its way until it went headlong under a railway bridge, as the con tried to wriggle out Jetfire quickly went to work hacking into the con's limbs, making sure his vital components were well and truly damaged until he delivered the deathblow to the back of the helm, slicing his head clean in half. "And that, is how you bring the pain!" the seeker grunted as his axe blades burned bright red and the street began to run bright blue with energon, but as he watched the blue liquid energy run out he noticed black globules starting to appear in the energon, as they popped they emitted a fowl eye-watering stench.

"What the slag?"

Back up above it was all or nothing now as the supposed target was coming up fast, "This is no good! The pot-shop strategy isn't working we're just not creating enough damage! And those other rounds you fired just now didn't seem to work either! Their Armour's just too thick!" Morri called down to Jazz, "It's all a question of landing a blow in the right spot! That thick plating is only so effective!" Jazz called back. "What now?...wait, is that Ishikawa?" Glen pointed to the oncoming tiltroater, standing in the side door Ishikawa stood with a huge bazooka-like gun mounted on his shoulder with a long belt of what looked like pointed grenades; _"Where have you been this whole time?"_ Batou asked,_ "Sorry for the delay, I had to swing by Kenbushi industries"_ Ishikawa said as the tiltroater swung around and dropped down to fly just above the two remaining Demolishers, as Ishikawa fired down on them, the rounds exploded and a thick pale green foam-like substance spread out and hardened into a solid grey granite-like concrete that covered the head's and shoulders of the two giants; _"Good idea, that should stop-WATCH IT!"_ the Major shouted as the second giant flayed his arms and knocked the building the Tachikoma's were rolling across, "SHIT!" Batou shouted in alarm as the whole roof and upper floor of the building was destroyed and the Tachikoma's went fly off in the cascade of rubble and debris; shooting their wires at the nearest building along, the Tachikoma's swung around and landed on the next skyscraper over, _"Boy that was close!" _Togusa exclaimed; "DAMN IT STOP ALREADY!" Ishikawa shouted in frustration as he kept firing on the two behemoths, the sticky substance kept piling up and encrusting the con's joints and wheels, slowing them down until they stopped, "THAT'S IT! KEEP IT UP!" Tom called over as he and Morri flanked the aircraft's sides but the giants refused to give in and in one move the lead con ripped the solid mass of his face and angrily leapt up and grabbed one of the nearby Jigabachi's by its tail.

"Aw shit..." was all Ishikawa could say as the giant flung the chopper straight at the tiltroater, but at the last possible second a huge blast of blue fire engulfed the tiltroater and destroyed the chopper on impact; Ishikawa felt the intense heat of the blast all over his front as he was knocked over backwards into the craft, turning round to see what had happened he saw Morri flash him a reassuring wink as she flew by the side of tiltroater. As the two Demolishers tried to rip the rest of the solidified slime off their limbs the Autobots transformed, climbed up their wheels and started firing at the cons head and shoulders, the twins went up further and started slicing up the armour up on their backs while the kids started firing their energy blasts with much more force than before; the giants tried to swat and shake them off but as their armour plating fell of bit by bit and their energon began to leak out in copious amounts several Oniyama's joined in the butchery and fired down on the giant's sides, practically ripping them apart. The end seemed in sight as the giants began to sag onto their wheels and their struggling became weaker and weaker, then, Jazz spotted Jetfire coming into land the lead giant's deathblow and aptly jumped down to give him some room, with an eager psychotic-like grin Jetfire fired up his boosters and soared downwards at the con's head, his axe burning red with long trailing amber flames, "Aw this is going to be epic!" Ashley grinned as he watched from above, 'This is going to be messy, but at least it's over...' the Major thought as she and her team watched from the building opposite, as the seeker closed in he swung his axe down, cried out his cybertronian war cry and...

"DO YOU SERIOUSLY THINK YOU CAN DEFEAT ME YOU LITTLE PARASITES?"

The lead Demolisher reached up and grabbed the seeker in one hand stopping him dead in the air, the seeker watched in stunned shock as the giant's spark chamber opened up in the top of his head and a bright red light shone out and enveloped him in a vivid scarlet aura; a low thrumming began to resonate all around the two giant's as a massive shockwave shot out from the spark chamber and knocked everyone away, sending them into the sides of the surrounding buildings and knocking the Oniyama's up and away at a dangerous angle. Then, within minutes the whole area seemed to glow with a fait red aura as pieces of metal started to float up in the air and fly towards the Demolisher's, melding and absorbing into their bodies, making their mass grow taller and wider at an alarming speed, all the buildings surrounding them crumbled and were raised to the ground as their metal components and supports were pulled out, even the downed choppers nearby got pulled into the now writhing mass of metal and circuitry, the thrumming became even louder as the two giant's connected and combined together, their forms and systems blending together into a singular entity, finally the aura died down to reveal a supersized four hundred foot tall Demolisher with four arms and four wheels and a collection of tall serrated spikes protruding out from the shoulders, arms and wheel struts, with a twin pair of thirty foot long cannons, it's wrists had four sets of sharpened helicopter roaters spinning round, with twisted and warped parts of the helicopter's cockpits, tail fins and fuselages protruding out from various areas on the con's body like a set of diseased growths, even the cyborg pilots were fused to the external armour, dead and twisted and warped like a couple of corpses that had been through a meat grinder. After throwing Jetfire into the side of a skyscraper, everyone watched in horror as the giant behemoth set off down the street at an even faster pace than before, shaking the ground and buildings all around.

"SHIT! GET AFTER HIM!" Sam cried out as everyone took off at breakneck speed to try and catch up to the con, the kids tried to blast him again, but the shots bounced off and the giant tried to strike at them with his 'wrist roaters', to which the kids quickly dodged. "FUCK! What do we do?" Mikaela called over to her boyfriend as the Oniyama's returned to let loose their grenade rounds, several more showed up to back their comrades up, but were quickly grabbed by all four giant arms and thrown aside into another set of buildings, exploding in ten simultaneous fireballs that didn't even faze the giant as he rolled on through the wall of fire and smoke. Suddenly his head seemed to explode in a giant hail of blue plasma energy, but when the smoke cleared it revealed his head was still intact, at the same time Deathshot suddenly appeared out of the air with his giant sniper rifle mounted on his shoulder and began to fire several rounds of pure plasma energy into the giant's head, trying to get at the spark chamber; everyone watched with baited breath as the Autobot sniper fired and fired again, each shot getting bigger and louder until each plasma shot sent out a shockwave so powerful that it shook the walls of the skyscrapers and blew out their glass walls and windows, all the while the sniper had a pure look of death in his one optic, with all the coldness and mercilessness as any of the worst Decepticons that wished death unto his enemy, no-one was sure at this point whether to be either afraid of the con, or him.

Finally the attack seemed to be having an effect as the metal covering the spark chamber began to glow bright orange as it melted from the intense heat of the shots, and as the Sukaitawa buildings came into range less than a thousand yards away, the next thirty seconds seemed to slow to a crawl...

The twin cannons on the giant's shoulders whirred to life

Deathshot gasped, he increased the rate of fire, shooting more and more as much as he could.

The cannons began to buzz as their energy payload completed its charge-up

Deathshot cursed in cybertronian, firing and firing again until his weapon began to glow red at the end of its barrel

"**DEATHSHOT PULL UP! PULL UP NOW!"** Jazz cried over the comm.

Deathshot's last shot struck the giant straight through the spark chamber; he pulled up and away at the very last second

But the cannons fired two enormous balls of blue and purple plasma energy went souring through the air...

"...No..."

Glass, concrete, metal, vehicles and bodies went flying as the shots struck the bases of the first and second Sukaitawa buildings dead on and a blast-front of white hot fire about a hundred meters high exploded out and engulfed everything in its path. Everyone pulled away and took off in any direction they could go, the Autobot's drifted in a tight curve and took off in the other direction to try and outrun the blast, the kids and Tiltroater banked up sharply as the flames reached up for them, even through their protective force fields they could feel the intense heat trying to burn and incinerate them. Deathshot came up from underneath and let them grab his wings for an extra boost while down below the Tachikoma's and their drivers made a fast U-turn and made a dash for it back the way they came. After covering seven hundred yards in less than a few minutes the blast front began to lose momentum and it dissipated up into the air in thick black clouds. Stopping and getting out of their Tachikoma's the section 9 team looked back to see the lower levels of the Sukaitawa buildings completely in flames, the kids, the Autobot sniper and the Tiltroater came back around to survey the damage.

Stunned, shocked, and in silent disbelief, no-one had any words to offer, and no-one was prepared for what happened next...

It started with a low groaning sound, so low in frequency it was barely audible until it started to grow louder, and more strained like metal under extreme pressure; the sound of glass breaking could be faintly heard amid the sounds of people panicking and screaming for help and the sirens of all the emergency vehicles. Seven hundred yards away, the ground level of the Sukaitawa buildings suddenly erupted in fire and smoke that shot out in another, much bigger blast that engulfed all the streets, superhighways and other buildings nearby; and to their horror, everyone watched as the three buildings began to shrink down into the earth with an unbelievable earth-shuddering rumble that was louder and deeper than any thunder storm. Smoke, dust and fire to began erupt on an horrific scale, engulfing everything in a haze of grey and black that just kept on growing out and up into the sky and into the surrounding cityscape. Before anyone could react, the blast-front of thick dust and smoke washed over them like a tidal wave; blinding their eyes, irritating and chocking their lungs, and turning day into night; in the air hot embers and ash came down like a heavy snow fall, burning exposed skin like cigarettes being pushed into bare flesh. Even the kids were finding it hard to fly as the dust filled their lungs and irritated their eyes like stinging bees, unable to concentrate on their flying their protective force fields began to flicker and grow weaker and as they began to drop one by one Deathshot successfully grabbed each of them and handed them to Ishikawa in the tiltroater, the kids watched the last of the buildings fall as their sight slowly failed them.

Down on the ground the Autobots sped away to avoid the oncoming emergency vehicles, each bot's spark felt like it weighed too much as a mixed sense of shame and failure panged at their conscious minds, no-one said or offered anything.

The drones watched the whole thing from several miles away atop one of the superhighway's, Ravage pressed his ears flat against his head and dropped his gaze, Scorponok passed as sad chirp while Frenzy hopped onto his brother's back and stroked his neck in reassurance and comfort, "Come on, we better make ourselves scarce" the panther growled as he took off, the other's followed close behind and disappeared into the city.

Far way, back at section 9 HQ, Chief Aramaki, along with Togusa's family and the other kids and their families who were still in protective custody, watched from the glass wall of one of the debriefing rooms as the buildings went down and the sky steadily turned black with smoke; in another room a few doors down Becky and Becca stood with Jay-jay in shocked silence, the little femme, for once, just watched silently and chirped in a worrying tone, wondering where all her uncle's and favourite 'squishy's' had gone; upstairs in another room Matti and James watched in equal disbelief, but at the back of her mind Matti had a terrible cold feeling that reached right down into her gut, a feeling that told her, this was just the beginning.

At the Prime Minister's residence, Kubota and his intelligence officers watched the new reports in silence, the offices outside his were buzzing like a poked beehive and military personnel ran about in a near panic. "What do we do now? That whole fight was caught on camera!" one of the officers exclaimed in alarm, Kobuta got up slowly and reached for his cell phone, at this point he panicking would accomplish nothing, and there was very little else that would prove useful at this point, "Get me General Hayato, tell him to send the Autobots a priority code one message, if they need medical attention tell them to head to the designated location specified :code: haven, and tell them to stay put until we get there, the Prime Minister and the cabinet are going to want answers, and the heads of the military are going to be anything but patient nedalone cool-headed...our first priority is to make sure the Autobots are okay, we'll deal with everything else afterwards" he sighed as he looked out the window and up at the now blackening sky, "...I'll call Aramaki too, no doubt he's going to have a hand in whatever happens next..." the intelligence officer said offhand.

* * *

...R&R Please


	52. Chapter 51: The Longest Day III

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 51 THE LONGEST DAY III: DARK REVELATION & COMPLICATED HOPE

"...I haven't seen anything like this since the war; when the Americans carpet bombed Mexico City and left it to burn for over a week before their mechanized forces first moved in...I wasn't there in person, but I did see the sky turn black from all the smoke...compared to that, this is so much more..." Saito sighed offhand as he took a long puff from his cigarette

"...I think you might be right... look how red the sun is; it's almost like the sky is bleeding..." Boma commented offhand as he kept his cybernetic eyes fixed on the horizon

"...One drop of blood is too much as it is, but this?...how the hell did this all happen?..." Batou scowled as he dropped his gaze and folded his arms in ire.

This had not been a good day...it had been anything but a good day...

How did this happen?

The morning had started out so peacefully, without any suggestion or inclination that anything could go wrong, nothing seemed out of place...

But now, after the events of this morning, the world had started to shift in shock and awe...In the streets people stopped in front of every electrical appliance store and every giant digital bulletin board, in the work places they crowed round every computer, many rang their relatives in desperation to know if their distant kin had been one of the lucky lot to survive, and in every home they stayed glued to their TV's in silence.

News reports, online bulletins, online debate forums and public news access sites were buzzing at fever pitch with images and news reels of giant humanoid robots fighting downtown in one of Japan's most illustrious cities. After the Autobots and Section 9 managed to get clear of the city, the military had sent them a message telling them to rendezvous at the Toshima air base, four hours away from the city. There they were given medical treatment for smoke inhalation and had the dust and ash cleaned out from their eyes while the Autobots cleaned out their air intakes and treated their battle wounds; meanwhile the military had been rushing about doing practically a million things at once without rest nor hesitation; everything from providing manpower to the overstretched emergency services, rescuing saviours who were still trapped in the demolished buildings. They helped to provide emergency medical relief for the city's hospitals which were now full to capacity with all the injured coming in, and collect the dead cons and swiftly get them out of sight; all the while having to fend off the barrage of news reporters who clambered for photos and statements like jackals on a carcass. As if the attack on New Port had been horrendous enough, reports had started coming in of other city's being attacked by giant black humanoid robots too; Nagasaki, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Kobe, Okayama, Nagasaki and even the capital Fukuoka had all reported coming under attack from these strange and terrifying giants, and had suffered serious losses...

All eyes were now on Japan, and everyone was asking questions...while at the same time, terrified to know the answer...

No-one was sure if they wanted to know...

It was completely unprecedented and unbelievable, and the death toll in New Port alone was still being counted with each body being pulled out from the ruins. Of all the battle sites being flashed across the news, the remains of the fallen Sukaitawa buildings were by far the most poignant and devastating, practically the outlining tragedy of this whole event.

As far as the eye could see, stretching from the east all the way to the west and right overhead, smoke, ash and dust from the fallen buildings had turned the sky from blue to grungy black and grey; every now and then the wind shifted direction and made some of the larger flake-like clumps of ash fall like snow, everywhere the surrounding buildings and runways of the Toshima base were lightly dusted with a fine layer of pale grey ash that came softly drifting down. Far away, just above the horizon, the vague silhouettes of helicopters circled above the city of New Port like swarming bees and on all the major roads and superhighways, military and emergency vehicles went to and fro in an endless line, never stopping, never faltering. Amid the day's events time had seem to slip from everyone's mind as it was now late afternoon and the sun was starting to reach the horizon; with all the smoke, dust and ash drifting high into the atmosphere, the sun had been turned into a bright blood red orb casting a vivid scarlet light down on the land and tinting everything with a hue of pinkish red; it was beautiful in a strange macabre sort of way, even the distant ocean looked like it had rubies and pomegranate seeds scattered across it's ever shifting surface.

"Hey, so this is where you scarpered off to?" Morri said as she poked her head around the corner of the hanger

"Well it's not like there's anywhere else to go, the nearest bar's over four hours away-" Batou replied sarcastically, but when he glanced over his shoulder and saw the annoyed look in the young brunet's eye's, he heaved a heavy sigh and rubbed the back of his neck in slight shame.

"Ah sorry, I didn't mean like that, it's just-"

"-I know; you're not the only one who's had a crappy day remember?..." Morri replied with equal sarcasm as she diverted her gaze, Batou simply looked at her before passing another heavy sigh; for once, he felt like he didn't have the strength to argue back and promptly dropped the subject; the four of them stood there for a long moment before Morri broke the silence again.

"...It looks like it's snowing..." she said offhand as a gentle breeze blew past the hanger and it began snowing ash once again

"...Kinda...it looks more beautiful when it's white though..." Batou replied quietly

"I think I'd have to agree...Oh, I didn't get a chance to ask; what did the chief say when he called earlier?" she asked

"As much as could be expected of him, considering everything what's happened in the past several hours; since crisis control is his forte he's helping the PM with trying to manage the all chaos at her residence, the intelligence department's been overrun with the reports of the other city's being attacked, and with the military network still in bad shape the information gathering's been much slower than usual, that and, there's a chance there's still a load of bugs on the system, which means the network is running at only three quarters its usual capacity..." Batou replied as he unfolded his arms and put his hips.

"So all in all if anything else happens we'll be at a disadvantage for ready data if another attack takes place" Morri sighed

"That will only be a sideline problem compared to what's already at hand!" Jetfire said as he peered around the side of the hanger

"...What do you mean?" Boma asked, the ancient seeker gestured for them to follow and they quickly jogged back into the hanger where the rest of the Autobot gang and section 9 were hanging around.

"What I mean is, that we've learnt more about our enemy in the course of a few hours than we did over the last week, and what we've seen has thrown our previous knowledge of the Decepticons completely into disarray..." he grumbled as he struck his walking stick on the ground.

"Huh? In what way?" one of the Tachikoma's asked

"You're referring to that con outside the mall who didn't know he was speaking cybertronian? That's a new one on me, ain't seen anything like that before" Jazz sighed offhand as he folded his arms while Miles shuffled about on his shoulder.

"I've seen severe CPU damage make some cybertronians talk funny and even interpret some words differently; but English is such a distinctive and different language to our own that I don't see how you can't know your speaking it, it wasn't even designed for mechanical vocalizers, and yet that con actually thought he was speaking it" Bumblebee pondered aloud

"That was pretty weird" Batou's Tachikoma concurred

"Plus, what was with the fit he had before he died? It's was almost like, when he heard his own voice being played back to him and realized he wasn't speaking English, the shock of it seemed to kill him" Hailey pondered aloud from where she sat on Bluestreak's shoulder

"Well I don't know about that, but from what I saw of the data burst Ravage gave me earlier it definitely looked like he underwent a fatal CPU malfunction...and besides him there were also the 'Demolisher clones' that were able to 'merge'...That. Above all vexes me the most..." Jetfire replied in a brooding tone

"Why? What was it about them, or, 'him', merging that's such a cause for concern? I'd have thought with the kind of technology you guys are made of 'merging' would be a 'somewhat normal' sort of thing?" Batou asked; the hanger fell silent as the Autobots cast their optics down at the ex-ranger with a distinct impassive and somewhat reprimanding look; Batou suddenly began to feel a lot smaller than usual as Jetfire slowly kneeled down before him, keeping his optics locked onto his cybernetic eyes.

"...Batou, It's anything but normal; that particular 'evolutionary brunch' of our people's technology was forbidden eons ago by the Primes...no 'Trasmergence' technology has been seen or heard of since the before the Allspark wars, even Megatron didn't dare to employ it as part of the Decepticon war effort; the fact that we bared witness to that technology in action today changes everything..." Jetfire sternly said as he got back up, "...Like I said before, everything we've seen today has thrown our understanding of the Decepticons into disarray; to start with, at no one point in the battle did we see any form of command or even anyone that stood out as a leader, they acted as if scattered and uncoordinated in their strategy. But all the while, up until the emergence of the Demolishers, the individual battles were scattered over two thirds of the city, and all the while we were fighting, the enemy was baiting us, keeping us separated and away from each other, as Sunstreaker and Sideswipe's encounter showed" he continued

"Hey I was whoop' in some ass too ya know!" Glen piped in

"Indeed; anyway, at first I came to the conclusion that the baiting strategy was keep us busy while the Demolisher clones had a clear path to the Sukaitawa buildings...ultimately, I believed that that was their goal and that they succeeded. But when we got here and the reports of the attacks on the other cities starting circulating the news channels, and very different picture of today's events began to emerge; whilst you were all getting your optics and intakes cleaned out, I called Aramaki and requested the intelligence department's reports on the other attacks, and saw a common pattern they all shared; all of the city's attacked had a major military base or instillation within twenty miles of the cities outer perimeter, and that during the attacks all the bases had to deploy nearly two thirds of their total numbers, whilst the attacks were nowhere near as big as the attacks in New Port, the same basic baiting strategy was evident as the individual units deployed reported being separated and having to spread their forces thin over a large area to keep up with their quarry...Based on past experience, I don't believe this co-ordinated nation-wide attack was the initial first wave of attack from an advancing army, but it did highlight some very important facts; we know that the enemy is vast in number, for each con one of us took down, another three, four or even six were there to take their place and that could be a real problem with our limited number if anything else happens...but the attacks had not been well thought out or planned beforehand, the cons were more like common thugs and punks rather than soldiers, they could fight for sure but they had no real discipline or combat expertise, hence their swifts deaths...which leads me to believe that ultimately the aim of the attacks was to install fear and panic into the general populous; and to distract us..." Jetfire continued, everyone blinked in surprise and glanced at one another in confusion.

"Distract us? From what dude?" Miles exclaimed in alarm

"From what exactly, it may sound incredible to you but it's no less than some of the more extreme missions we used to run during the height of the war, some of us would start a fight in one place while our covert units could slip by undetected; eight times out of ten it was pretty efficient and vice versa with the Autobots, once they eventually caught on" Ravage purred as he licked his paw clean

"That's true, and nine times out of ten they usual sent drones like you to do the job; which makes me think, if anything happened elsewhere in this country, something the cons didn't want us or the military to know about, it must have been something pretty big for such a huge diversion to be deployed, but what?" said Hot Rod

"Hmm...Some covert mission perhaps?...Holy crap! What if they were kidnapping more kids but on a way bigger scale? They'd need a distraction for that if they got wise to us catching on to what they were up to!" Ashley exclaimed

"It's a possibility; but as much as that is a daunting idea, for some reason I don't believe the issue of kidnapping human younglings was a factor in today's event's...for the cons to send out so much cannon fodder to keep us all busy, could only mean that something of a much grander scale was at play at some point earlier today, something that they went to a lot of trouble to keep us from finding out if it warranted those Demolisher clones destroying the Sukaitawa buildings" Jetfire promptly replied

"...Hang on a sec, rewind back to that con who didn't have his head screwed on right; I don't know if it was just me, but didn't anyone notice that he didn't have the Decepticon insignia anywhere on him?...Come to think of it, I don't remember seeing any of the others on the news having the same insignia on them either" Danny said as he scratched his head, the room fell silent as the bots and human's looked at one another, Jazz fired up his holo-projector, and from out of his visor several images of the dead cons flicked past the group in rapid succession; the first lieutenant blinked in surprise as the holographic images distorted and dissipated.

"Your right, none of them had the insignia" he replied

"But what does that prove? Could they have been neutrals?" Batou's Tachikoma asked, the ancient seeker regarded her with a solemn look

"...Highly unlikely; many of the neutral cybertronians were wiped out during the early years of the war, Megatron had a strict policy of wiping out anyone who either fought against him, or ran from him; by the time the Allspark had been jettisoned into space the total civilian population was estimated be somewhere around three thousand" he replied sombrely as the other Autobot's dipped their heads in rueful thought

"...How, many were there before the war?" Togusa asked cautiously

"...Before the war, our empire was spread across over three hundred and sixty solar systems, and over fifty star systems; so just over thirteen billion..." Jetfire replied, both Sam and Ishikawa nearly choked on their coffee while the other humans reeled in utter surprise.

"Thirteen billion!...thirteen billion cybertronians?...Cut down to three thousand?...no way..." Togusa breathed in a stunned stupor, the Autobots didn't reply as their human friends looked up at them ruefully, the Major dropped her gaze as the numbers rattled around in her head; the word 'unbelievable' was the only thing that came to mind whilst the Tachikoma's glanced at one another in equal disbelief

"I know you said Megatron was evil, but...why?" another Tachikoma asked innocently

"Why? For nothing less than total control of all and everything, the balance of life and death itself; he preached of a glorious new world where all would be free and stronger than before, but his ultimate goal was to use the Allspark's power to make our species anew, to give rise to a new breed cybertronian that would have been programmed to serve and obey only him, and kill on his command; there were a few times he came close to succeeding via alternative means, but ultimately only the Allspark would've made it totally possible for him, and many of his plans lead to failure...by wiping out the general populous, namely the femmes and sparkling, he tried to ensure that no-one would be in the way of his 'new world order' for when he came to power...That. Ultimately proved to be a fantasy..." the seeker replied broodingly, a moment of silence passed between the group before the Major spoke up, "So, what do you believe we should do? Regardless of whether they're Decepticon's or not, the fact still remains that we went up against a serious enemy that outnumbers nearly ten to one, and if the attacks were a bluff then we need to find out what else was going that need us to be drawn away" she said as she folded her arms

"Our thought's exactly" Chief Aramaki said as he and Kubota walked into the hanger.

"Chief? When did you arrive?"

"How long had you two been listening?" Jazz asked

"Long enough...you seriously think this was all one big ruse? And that something else had been going on all the while the attacks were underway?" Kubota asked as he craned his head upwards at the bots

"Yes I do, the way in which this all went down was too 'conveniently easy' to just be a spate of bad luck" Jetfire replied

"Alright, if that's the case, what do we do?" the intelligence officer asked, Jazz gestured for him to come closer as Jetfire and some of the other bots kneeled down into a huddle so as to talk discreetly. After climbing off Bluestreak's shoulder Hailey jogged over to the chief as he rejoined his team.

"How're the girls? Only, you didn't say earlier-" she asked eagerly

"Their all fine, they have been asking for you but I told them it would be better if they stayed at HQ where it's safe, the last thing we need is to complicate things with the younger children in tow" he replied with a small reassuring smile

"Yeah, but Becky and Becca will kill me for not letting them in on the action; but even so I don't want them to be in the middle of this...not after what's happened today" Hailey sighed as she hugged herself with worry; Mikaela put a reassuring arm around her shoulder and hugged her as the other kids came forward, as Batou approached the chief regarded him with a stern sideways glance.

"Uh? How's-"

"Miss Walsh and her Godfather? They're both fine and are currently still back at HQ, albeit still shaken from their 'emergency evacuation'...when they arrived Mikeala informed me that she was your sister, care to explain?" the chief asked, the other section 9 agents looked at ex-ranger in complete surprise; Batou had a sister? For once, the Major was stunned; she thought she knew him pretty well, but not once had he mentioned anything about close family nedalone having any siblings; it was true to say that one's personnel life was not a particular subject that featured heavily in the line of duty at section 9, when working high profile cases and facing off against some of the biggest criminals in the country, one kept things like family and personnel matters at home so as to keep the mind focused on the job and not complicate things, this they both understood and respected of each other, but even so, the idea of the ex-ranger having a sister was still a revelation to her and beneath her cool impassive gaze she wondered on how this revelation was going to pan out later. Batou wanted to answer; he knew he couldn't deny a man like Aramaki; and forget lying, the old ape was sharper than any whip to be taken for a fool (not that he'd ever dream of it), but at the same time it wasn't that simple, and the explanation as to Matti's involvement was anything simple. He looked the chief in the eye with an unreadable expression, the chief frowned in slight annoyance, he hated secrets being kept from him by his own men, but he could sense right away that something was vexing the ex-ranger on this matter and diverted his gaze with a frustrated sigh.

"We'll discuss this later, right now, I suggest you focus your attention on the job and afterwards think about how you're going to explain yourself..." the chief reprimanded in a sharp tone like a school headmaster, no-one said anything as the chief turned his attention to the Major.

"So Major, despite the outcome of today's encounter we need to-" the chief stopped as a soldier ran into the hanger, panting and out of breath with a small pile of papers in one hand, he screeched to a halt as the sight of the giant robots had him glued to the spot fear.

"What's wrong?" Kubota called over

"Uh, Um? A-an emergency m-message from the Prime Minister's residence, they said to show this to you right away sir!" he called over with a salute, Kubota strode over and took the half-creased papers and scanned them over, after reading the first few pages he gasped in alarm.

"How long ago did this happen?" he demanded sharply, everyone's attention now fell on the soldier, as he tried to stand firm whilst being under the gaze of the robotic giants who were standing merely twenty feet away

"I-I don't know sir! The call came through only four minutes ago, the intelligence administration is still clearing the confirmation from the CIS but the images haven't been altered in any way; so far this is all that was sent, the data relay system is currently at high capacity so the information took longer to come through!" the soldier replied nervously

"Why didn't the CIS contact me directly? Did you tell them the intelligence department has primary jurisdiction on this?" he demanded

"I did sir, they only said that the images might be of some use to the 'visitors', that's all" the soldier replied, Kubota regarded him with a stern look before passing a heavy frustrated sigh.

"Alright, dismissed" the intelligence officer replied and the soldier promptly dashed out of the hanger as Kubota flicked over the papers in annoyance and strode back towards the Autobots.

"What was that all about?" Jazz asked

"I think, we might have found the reason for the 'bluff'..." Kubota replied as he handed Jazz the papers, after flicking over several sheets of printed text he came across several photographs, surveillance images from a military spy satellite taken many hundreds of feet up above the earth; the first image showed a hilly landscape with a long straight valley in the centre, covered in forest and grass fields all around. At one end of the valley, on the edge of a vast open space, a large complex was situated with two strange looking round white 'buildings', one larger than the other and connected via a tunnel. An eerie feeling of Déjà vu panged at the back of the first lieutenant's processor as he recognized them to be the domes where the rift was being guarded, and the surrounding military vehicles and the warehouse at the opening of the valley were present too. Looking at another image, Jazz frowned with alarm as the image showed the complex again, but over two thirds of the image had a long black mass stretching across, which he realized were thick smoke clouds viewed from above, the complex itself could hardly be seen for all the smoke but several long bright orange streaks indicated the presence of several large fires; but more interestingly, a whole mass of long humanoid shadows were cast across the ground outside the complex indicated something else was there, something too big to be just humans in armed suits. The other images were more or less unreadable as they showed the same figures viewed from overhead, but obscured by the smoke and fire.

"This is what happened?" Jazz asked in a concerned tone as he handed the images to the others, who scanned the images over with equal alarm

"Those images were captured this morning nearly five minutes before the attacks began, the SDA's been trying to get in contact with the site all day but no-one's replied, not even an emergency signal has been detected; by the time the attacks were over, this was how the site was looking..." said as he handed another image, showing both the domes completely destroyed and the whole complex as a blacked landscape covered in craters, fires, and numerous humanoid figures lying around. Instantly a flare of alarm went through the Autobot gang as they began thinking the worst possible case scenarios.

"What the slag happened? How did they all get killed?" Hot Rod asked

"We don't know, all we do know is that something happened there this morning that none of our experts can explain and that the GSDA's ground force units posted there have not replied to our hails, and judging from the surveillance images we can't tell if they actually engaged in a live fire fight or not; for now we've put a priority one alert on the site and have cordoned off the surrounding roads and farmlands over a ten kilometre radius, the special forces are geared to go and investigate, but considering the presence of the 'rift' the top brass want you guys to take the lead on this" Kubota replied

"We'd have been insulted if they hadn't come to us first; in any case, how long will it take for your special forces to mobilize?" Jetfire asked

"They've been ready for the last two hours"

"Alright, Major; you and your guys go and get the tiltroater up an' runnin', and make sure you bring along some heavy firepower, the last thing we need is to be caught off guard again. Kids, I want you all to go with them and provide some shields...who else is tagging along as part of the Special Forces?" Jazz asked

"The Ranger's of Section 4, the Umibozu, three covert units of the Martine Self-Defence Force and several GSDA heavy armoured units"

"Right, in that case, let's roll out!" Jazz barked as he and the other Autobots transformed and sped out the hanger with the kids and Tachikoma's close behind, making a dash for the tiltroater while the section 9 agents strode out at a calm pace.

"Be careful, and watch your backs out there!" the chief called over to his men

"Don't worry, we ain't gonna be caught with our pants down a second time!" Batou called back over his shoulder as they disappeared out the door

"You do realize what the implications will be if they find anything there?" Kubota asked

"Yes, but what concerns me is how the CIS got their hands on these images" the chief replied

"That's not the half of it, look which satellite the images came from, we were lucky to intercept them at all..." Kubota pointed to one page in the pile, the chief frowned as he read over the text, and noticed one piece of information that made a pang of doubt go through the back of his mind.

"...This could put the Autobot's at risk, as well as our own people; you seriously think the American Empire will try something if they went to this much trouble to send out ten of their satellite's, just at the exact hour the attacks were getting underway?" Aramaki thought aloud

"I can't be certain, but I'm willing to bet the American Empire is still feeling sore for what happened over the Dejima incident, if their up to something as a means of settling old scores then I have no doubt their going to try and take advantage of today's tragedy by some underhanded means; it's bad enough their ambassador was served a summons to leave our country five months ago, If they know of the Autobot's true involvement in today's event's it could prove to be our government's Achilles heel, and the last thing we need right now is be at a major disadvantage with the American Empire" Kubota sighed

"After what happened here today everyone everywhere is watching Japan and in the long run each of the worlds governments will be pondering on what exactly went down here, but right now, if the American's have something in mind we need to be careful about how we conduct ourselves; unless the enemy makes another move we'll have to be prudent about the course of action's we take from here on, we're no longer in a position to hold the upper hand, but we're not out of options yet" the chief replied

"...In that case, you better help lend a hand on this" Kubota said as he led the way out of the hanger, just in time to see the tiltroater fly overhead and up into the sky.

An hour or so later the afternoon had slipped into the dusk as the last of the sun's light disappeared below the horizon, but a new light source filled the sky as the burning remains of the Sukaitatwa buildings lit up the distant city skyline with a grungy orange glow as the light of the flames bounced off the plumes of smoke clouds that were still rising up into the night sky. High above the ground four Oniyama's and the tiltroater followed Deatshot as he soared at a swift pace, letting them maintain a safe distance behind his tailfins while high overhead Jetfire sped through the air with a thunderous roar, his dark outline disappearing into the clouds as he banked to the left; down below on the ground a long convoy of armoured trucks and jeeps followed the rest of the Autobots as they sped along the highway at breakneck speed. Looking down at the ground from her guardian's cockpit, Morri sighed as she leaned back in the front seat with a distant look in her eyes.

"What's wrong youngling?" the Autobot sniper cooed through his speakers.

"How the hell did this all happen? And why? What was up with that con Ashley brought down, how could he not know he was speaking cybertronian? How were those Demolisher's able to 'merge'...and how the hell could the military deployment guarding the rift loose contact in the first place?...Call me highly suspicious but I can't help but think something way bigger is going on behind all this" she sighed listlessly as she rubbed her forehead

"I wouldn't be surprised if whatever's happened at the rift could be the reason why the cons attacked; but then, considering how this day has gone I don't want to think what else might have happened in all that time" the sniper sighed heavily"

"What if- the cons took control of the site and are waiting for the others to come and rescue us?" Tom asked from where he sat in the second cockpit seat

"At this point nothing's off limits, but let's not hold our air intakes, let's just get there and survey the situation" Deathshot replied. Across the formation Batou watched the Oniyama's from the side door of the tiltroaters fuselage with a hardened frown, his mind deep in thought, and wondering what they'd find once they get to their destination; looking down at the horizon and the lay of the land, he realized they were following the same basic route they took the day they were due to storm the Black Lotuses base.

He remembered that day well; how it was the day his world had changed, forever

"It feels a little weird to be going back to the place where this all started" Togusa said offhand as he moved up to the big cyborg's side.

"What goes around comes around huh?" he smirked

"Maybe, I can't help but feel something big has gone down at that site, I wouldn't be surprised if there are any more of those cons waiting for us, or them" Togusa gestured to the Autobot drones at the back of the tiltroater. As he sat atop Ravages back, Ashley unsheathed his spear and gently ran a finger over the blade's broad side as his thoughts ruminated in the back of his mind.

"Feels strange doesn't it?...taking your first kill..." Ravage said in a hushed tone, Ashley looked up at him, and back down at the blade.

"...It was a bit easier than I thought...in a way I wish it hadn't..." he sighed thoughtfully, unsure how to really feel about the subject.

"Those cons were hardly warriors at all, they were careless and underestimated us; but their clumsiness served as opportunity for you, don't worry, you'll get your chance to bring down a more worthy opponent, one will come in time; for now, don't dwell on the negativities of today's events, what's happened has happened and there will be a time bury and morn the dead, but right now, we have job to do" the panther purred

"Yeah..."Ashley replied offhand as he looked at his reflection in the six pointed blade.

"Hey look on the bright side! If any more Decepticon's show up at least we know they'll be at a disadvantage if any more of them suffer from the same kinda CPU damage as they other's did!" Batou's Tachikoma squeaked

"Perhaps, but it doesn't guarantee an instant victory; in the past I've seen some types of CPU damage that can cause a con to go utterly insane, making them even more formidable and unpredictable; this revelation could prove to be a double edged blade if we're not careful enough my sweet-spark" Scorponok replied

"E-even s-s-s-so, Whatwaswiththose p-p-pretenders? G-g-growinglikethat, a-a-andoutoffleshtoo! I-I-I'veseenmanymanymanypretenders, b-b-butnothinglikethem! N-n-not techno-organics!" Frenzy stuttered as he sat behind Scorponok's head

"That was pretty freaky, cool, but freaky" Miles sighed

"What worries me is the 'transmergence' technology Jetfire spoke of, I know cybertronian technology in primarily based around quantum mechanics so a lot of pretty incredible shit can be plausible, but I had no idea that there was a technology that made it was possible to merge two physical body's into a singular entity" Darren said offhand

"Eons ago I had heard rumours of it but never thought it actually existed; but if it's real then this changes things, how did a technology that been banned since before the war, find its way across the galaxy to this world? And through a dimensional rift to boot?...I fear we may have to tread careful from here on" Ravage replied, the kids glanced at one another dubiously whilst the agents reserved their doubts to the back of their minds as they tried to focus on the task ahead.

"Hey, what's that?" Togusa pointed out the cockpit window, on the horizon a huge plume of black smoke rose up into the night sky with the underside illuminated by a bright grungy orange glow, the source of which seemed to be blocked from view by the layout of a valley or ridge of some kind, undoubtedly a fire and a big one at that. As the formation flew over the ridge and the rest of the landscape came into view, everyone gasped at the scene far below.

The land below was desolate and wasted, like a scene from a war zone, or even the apocalypse, everything was black, burnt and destroyed; the walls of the valley looked like they had been swept over by flame throwers as the trees were burnt black and devoid of their leaves, the surrounding forest had been violently uprooted and tossed about like matchsticks while the ground and valley walls were covered in craters, spent gun cartridges and mortar shells, burnt and warped metal, half destroyed tanks, armoured trucks and jeeps; the domes were completely destroyed, their smooth white surfaces had been smashed in like eggshells and the solid concrete barricades around their bases had been half blown away by a massive explosion of some kind. The nearby warehouse too was now burning to the ground and around the perimeter of the scene numerous small fires were burning away; but judging from the amount of ash and bright red embers on the ground the fires were more or less in their dying stage, whatever had caused them had long since gone. But what drew everyone's attention the most were the numerous dead cybertronians littering the open ground, some lay strewn about the fallen trees while a number lay motionless up the valley walls; some intact, some mutilated, some blown in half while others were scattered all over the place in parts, their glowing blue energon lit up the blackened earth as it all tricked down in small rivulets towards the open ground where the domes and warehouse were.

"Holy shit! What the bloody hell happened here?" Ashley breathed as he glanced out of the tiltroater's side door

"I think world war three happened man" Miles replied in disbelief as he looked over the twelve year olds shoulder

"Whoa, this must have been one hell of a slam-down!" Batou said offhand

"**Jazz! Can you see this?"** Deathshot asked over the comm.

"**See it? I can smell the energon from here D-man!"** the first lieutenant replied

"_How're we going to do this? I'm not picking up any live signals, human or cybertronian, the whole place is deserted"_ the Autobot sniper continued, a ping over the comm line indicated that Jazz had opened his frequency to the nearby Oniyama's, and the Special Forces units.

"_Alright listen up! We ain't gonna take any chances here people, mah buddy D-man say's everyone's left the party and that no-one's home, but when y' awl set down I want you all to stay together and don't go wandering off, let us take point and provide some cover for ya; set yourselves down in the field across from the tree line near the dirt road, the fires ain't spread there, we're coming into range just now so get yer game faces on and look sharp!..."_ the first lieutenant barked out over the comm, and promptly closed the link before anyone had a chance to argue, _"Major, our main priority will be to secure the rift, make sure everyone stay's within range until we can determine the site safe"_ he continued _"Rodger that!"_ she replied. In the tiltroater Ashley got back up onto Ravages back and unsheathed his spear, clicking a button on the side the hilt extended downwards as he and the other activated their force fields, the section 9 agent's readied their weapons and held them firm as they got into their Tachikoma's and waited by the rear ramp door of the aircraft.

"We'll go out first, we'll cover your flanks" Ashley said, to which Batou's Tachikoma saluted in acknowledgement. As the rear ramp door swung down Ravage leaped out in a smooth arch and disappeared into the smoke, Scorponok disappeared under the earth in a plume of dirt while the kids flew out and formed a wide circle around the immediate area; as the Autobots arrived and transformed the Oniyama's came into hover thirty feet overhead, dropping several ropes out of the choppers the Special Forces units abseiled down, whilst six black armed suits were swiftly winched down and landed with six resounding thuds, the Tachikoma's leapt out of the tiltroater and joined the bots at their sides, after which both the Oniyama's and the Tiltroater took off.

"Okay people, stay close and stay sharp, and watch each other's backs" Jazz ordered as he fired up his weapon, the whole group fell into rank as they made their way across the field to the edge of the burnt out forest, the Autobots took point with Section 9 close behind, the Ranger's and Umibozu followed on with the armed suits taking flank and other units bringing up the rear. The half blown and uprooted trees as well as several dead robots blocked their way and after relying on their cyborg strength to leap over the scattered debris the Special forces soon found themselves standing on the edge of the desolated battle scene while the Autobots effortlessly stepped over everything; looking all around the whole group took a moment to take in everything, whilst everything was destroyed and practically burnt to cinders, there was hardly any sound, aside from the sound of the nearby fires burning and the sound of creaking metal as it warped in the intense heat, there was nothing to suggest anything was left alive. Though the thick smoke Jazz spotted the remains of the domes, and hovering above the larger dome, a purple and blue light was flickering brightly; this didn't escape the notice of the others as the humans watched the strange light.

"...What's that light?" Kagawa asked

"...The dimensional rift, come on" Jazz said as he lead the way, as their feet tread the ground the ash and embers were flicked up in little dust clouds, everyone's weapons were trained on every dead robot they passed; the soldiers scanned their eyes over them in morbid curiosity as they noticed their metallic faces were contorted and frozen in terror, what did they see in their final seconds that made them so horrified in death? They hoped and prayed that they would never have to find out. As the domes came into the range a faint crackle and popping sound could be heard overhead, as another plume of black smoke drifted by, the dimensional rift was revealed; it looked like a circular mass of purple and blue, like the northern lights that glowed softly and vividly, green and pink sparks softly fell away from its outer rim while in the centre a tiny pinpoint of blueish white light shone intensely, the whole thing looked to be about ten to twenty feet in diameter as it hovered over thirty feet above the ground. As the other humans marvelled at the light show in awe the section 9 agents got of their Tachikoma's and slowly approached, Morri, Sam and Miles came into hover as they too watched the anomaly.

"That's the dimensional rift?" Batou thought aloud in wonder

"Yep, that's the way we came here; our universe is on the other side of that rift" Morri replied quietly

"I take it any lingering doubts about its existence are well and truly gone now? I presume?" Sunstreaker asked

"Oh yeah..." Togusa breathed, unable to take his eyes off the rift

"It looks different; it wasn't doing the light show after we first arrived" Miles said offhand

"Hmm, the temporal energy output is almost double compared to when I scanned it the day we came through, and judging from the photon discharge around it I'd guess it was open for a prolonged period of time; something defiantly came through this, something very big" Jetfire said as his optic scanners swept over the anomaly

"So the others did come after all?" Sam exclaimed in alarm

"Who else? No human technology is capable of manipulating space bridges or temporal dimensional rifts; they must have come through, only to confront the military and they must have burst right out of the domes" Bumblebee replied

"But what about all these guys? Where the hell did they all come from? Did they show up to just attack the military or did they pre-empt the rescue party's arrival and came to intercept them instead?" The Major pondered aloud

"Hey guys? I just realized, there're no human body's here, there're dead robots and blown up tanks and trucks, but no human corpses, what up with that?" Miles said as he looked around the scene; sure enough, after carefully scanning the layout of the land, the others all noticed that indeed there were no other human's, dead or alive, not even a single speak of blood or footprint anywhere.

"He's right, there's no-one else here" one of the Umibozu armed suit's said offhand.

"JAZZ!..." Mikaela called out from where she hovered over fifty or so feet away, the first lieutenant and the other Autobots snapped their head round

"YOU NEED TO SEE THIS!" she continued, "Everyone fan out and check to make sure the scene is totally secure!" Jazz ordered as he and the other bots all jogged over to where she was hovering with Section 9 close behind on their heels; as they jogged around a cliff-face that formed part of the steep valley walls, the burning warehouse came into full view, and off to one on the left a series of huge hanger-like doors were open in the cliff-face, further along nearer the warehouse, Mikaela, Hailey and Darren hovered over a huge rectangular hole in the ground with a thick metal frame around it's edges. Déjà vu kicked in for the section 9 team as their minds were cast back to the raid on the Black lotus headquarters, and how they recognized the opening was part of the main elevator shaft that connected all of the base's levels.

"This defiantly feels weird" Batou said offhand

"How so?" Sideswipe asked

"The day you guys showed up, we were meant to raid this place as part of another op; that's the main elevator shaft that leads down to the base's lower levels, but we decided to go in via the back door, aka the ventilation tunnel on the other side of that ridge up there" Batou gestured to the huge cliff-face overhead and the large ridge that jutted out from the ground all the way at the top

"The moment you all showed up and were attacked by those tanks we saw the whole thing from up there" the Major added

"Must have been quite a show from there; seeing as no-one is around and therefore unguarded, you still wanna raid this place? Make up for us interrupting your original raid?" Miles grinned

"We do need to make sure there're no unpleasant surprises hiding down there, and that opening's too narrow for us to squeeze down" Jazz added, the Major and Batou looked at one another shrugged

"Well, if the Black lotus deserted this place, it couldn't hurt to finally answer the questions we weren't able to answer before on the Black Lotus case; the base has five main levels which ran under the warehouse, the third and forth levels were where the Black Lotus housed their hacking equipment, we can start there" the Major said

"_Only one!"_ Scorponok called over the comm.

"Only one?" Batou's Tachikoma asked, at the same time Scorponok erupted from out of the ground and landed next to the group.

"There's only one level, I circled around down there and the whole place is just one level with four large chambers lined up in a 'T' formation; one's got a ventilation shaft leading up to somewhere up on the valley wall, one's where the elevator shaft stops, one's a long chamber with weird looking medical equipment and the forth one is the largest and filled with computer equipment" he replied as he twirled his claws

"Only one level? But that can't be right I intercepted the layout for this place! It must be somewhere else here-" the Major retorted defensively

"Well, I'm sorry but I looked all around down there and apart from the warehouse's foundations, a few water pipes and electrical wiring relays, those four chambers are the only things down there; and my sub-terrestrial ground sonar never lies" Scorponok replied. The section 9 team looked at one another stunned surprise, how was that so? As she approached the opening and looked down into the gloom, the Major began to hear the familiar little whisper of her ghost, and this time, it whispered for her to go down there and find out just what was going on, but on the other hand, it whispered of danger and foreboding; either way, the temptation to know the truth was near overwhelming, and she couldn't ignore it.

"Even if the intel you got on the place was unreliable-" Morri started, the Major snapped her head round with a sharp annoyed look in her crimson eyes, and stared at her incredulously as if to say 'I didn't get the intel wrong!'; Morri simply returned the gesture with a cool impassive look of her own, as if to say 'no need for that now', "...Do you still want to go down?...Scorpy, you didn't see anyone else down there did you?" she continued

"Not initially, but in the main chamber and the one directly connected to it there was something peculiar; several human shaped shadows appeared on my sonar, judging from the thickness of their mass I think they might be cyborgs, but I didn't detect any bio-signatures or anything else to suggest they were alive" the scorpion replied, everyone glanced at one another uneasily before the Major spoke up again.

"...How deep does the shaft go down?" she asked

"Sixty feet" Scorponok replied

"Alright; kid's, take Togusa, Ishikawa and Saito down, the rest of us will go on and secure the first chamber, Scorponok, go back down there and keep an eye on the place, if your sonar picks up anything moving, let us know immediately!" The Major ordered. "Rodger that!" Scorponok chirped, and leapt up into the air and burrowed back down under the ground, Morri, Sam and Darren each took Ishikawa, Togusa and Saito buy the arms and let their BSHB force fields envelop them, allowing them to float as they did whilst the other agents and one of the Tachikoma's stepped to the edge of the opening, "me 'an Bee will cover you guys from up here, the rest of you fan out and join the others" Jazz ordered and without a word the other bots jogged away into the rising smoke. "Here goes nothing-" Batou murmured to himself as he, the Major, Pazu and Boma stepped off and fell straight down the shaft, panicked, Hailey was about to rush down after them when Ishikawa grabbed her by the leg, "Don't worry about them kid, with their cyborg strength it'll take a lot more than a sixty foot drop to smash them up" the veteran hacker reassured, at the same time a loud resounding clang echoed up the shaft, indicating the cyborg members of the team had reached the bottom, "If you say so..." the blonde teen replied nervously as she floated down after the rest of them. The deeper they went the darker it got, until no one could see anything in front of their faces. "Light's anyone?" Sam asked, "Oh! I know just the thing!" Hailey beamed as a ball of bluish light formed in her hand.

"Guys! We gotta problem!" Batou called up

"WHAT KINDDA PROBLEM?" Sam called down; the kids picked up the pace and hurried down to the bottom of the shaft where they found the rest of the team standing on top of the elevator next to a huge gaping hole with black scorch marks around the edges.

"What happened?" Morri thought aloud as she let Togusa drop down onto the metal surface

"I'd say someone had some demo-charges handy to let themselves in" Boma replied

"Scorponok says no-one is inside thus far, we'll take point, the rest of you stagger your moves" the Major said as she leapt down the hole with the others close behind; they entered into a long dark room covered in metal tiles that were riddled in bullet holes, at the far end something was lying on the floor, propped up against the wall next to a huge metal door that was open ajar.

"What's that?...Hailey shine your light over there a sec..." Sam pointed to the thing; and as Hailey directed her orb-light to the far side of the room, everyone froze in horror at the sight before them, aiming their weapons at the thing, the agents slowly approached with caution as they stared at the sight in utter disbelief.

"No way, that's-"

"Me?" Boma piped in

Propped up against the wall, Boma found himself staring at an exact clone of himself dressed in Section 9's standard combat gear; the body was slumped to one side with the chest and abdomen covered with bullet holes and three long metal shards sticking out of the thighs, but instead of blood, a large puddle of energon had pool around him.

"How-...Th-that's you?" Hailey said in a shaky voice

"What is it? Another pretender?" Ishikawa asked offhand

"If it is then we've got a serious problem" Darren gulped

"What?" asked the Major

"Pretenders always revert back to their natural form when they die...he's still in human form..." Darren replied. Within mere seconds, before anyone could say or do anything else, the body suddenly convulsed violently as the Boma lookalike let out an enraged electronic roar and reached out to try and grab Hailey who leapt back with a horrified scream, the lookalikes left arm quickly transformed into a circular saw and raised it up high to take a swing; but the Tachikoma beat it to the punch and fired a blast of machine gun fire from its gun claw, effectively blowing the lookalike's head off. As it slumped back onto to the floor the whole body began to twist and split apart as thousands and thousands of tiny armour platelets disassembled and reformed into a large insect-like humanoid, similar to Frenzy in form and structure, but a lot more 'beefier' and robust with numerous ligament cables covering its frame and numerous sharp serrated armour edges lining it's joints. Everyone watched in horror as the dead creature reverted back to its true form and cautiously stepped around it as the last of its life ebbed away with the energon bleeding from out its neck.

"That thing, was meant to be me? But how-"

"...I think, maybe you guys were meant raid this place for a reason..." Morri said offhand, staring at her in morbid realization, then through the door, the Major aimed her weapon and stepped through, disappearing around a corner. "Major?" Batou called after her as he and the others followed her in, but stopped when they saw her, and gasped in further surprise as they stared at the sight before them. It was the larger of the chambers; stacked full of computers, monitors, dummy barriers and dive terminals, the whole room was a pro hacker's dream. But in the centre of the room, lying on top of a large circular desk, another three lookalikes, each resembling Togusa, Ishikawa and Pazu lied in a pool of their energon, riddled with bullet holes, chunks of their torsos blown away, and the Togusa lookalike had both its legs ripped off; each of the body's were half transformed with a large portion of their torsos and limbs reassembled into their true robotic alien forms, while the rest was still human. The whole room was in disarray with several monitors smashed, several of the dive terminals, hard drives and dummy barriers had been shot up and ripped apart by gunfire; the walls were lined with bullet holes and in the far left hand corner a whole portion of the room had been ripped out by an explosion, most likely a grenade. Something had definitely gone down here, and whoever the victor was, they had long since gone.

"This-...this was the Black Lotus HQ?" Ishikawa breathed in shock and awe

"No...Not their HQ, something else entirely..." Saito replied in equal disbelief

At either side of the room were two other sets of metal doors, one had a set of gas canisters fixed to a set of vents overhead, most likely a gas chamber was on the other side while the other one was open and lead through to a room that seemed to resemble the inside of a cyberization hospital, complete with all kinds of medical equipment, several computerized life support beds and all the specialized equipment used for a complete cyberization procedure. For the Major this was a familiar sight but for the kids it was like stepping into Frankenstein's chamber of horrors as they noticed the various sharp surgical instruments lying on a nearby table and the awful smell of antiseptic. "What the hell is this?-" Morri gasped, she stopped as she saw both a Pazu and Saito lookalike lying dead on the floor, their bodies literally half transformed right down the centre, the Pazu lookalike had a large hunting knife protruding from its forehead, while the Saito lookalike had three gaping gunshot wounds in the side of its torso. As the full realization of the situation finally sank in, the Major, for the first time in her life was at a loss, and horrified, as she realized what would have happened that day they attempted to raid this place, what would have happened to her and her men. As she dropped her gaze and she lowered her weapon, Morri noticed the stunned look in her eyes and was quick to come to her side. "Major?...Are you alright?" she asked softly as she softly placed a hand on her shoulder, the female commander glanced sideways at her and passed a shaky sigh, if she wasn't who she was, she was pretty sure she would've broken into tears at this point.

"This is twice we owe you our lives..." she murmured softly

"Huh?"

"Major, we just took a look at those canisters above the other door and their filled with a micro-machine based nerve gas, I think this-...huh? Are you okay?" Batou asked as he entered the room

"I think she just needs a minute" Morri replied softly

"No no I'll be fine...Batou, you realize what this means?..."

"Yeah...this whole place was a trap set up just for us...if you guys hadn't have shown when you did and we went ahead with the raid, we would've been gassed and replaced by those things...I don't even want to try to imagine what would've happened afterwards, how this last month would've gone without us in the picture ..." Batou replied sombrely as he leaned against the door, though his face didn't betray it, his mind was reeling with horror as his thoughts went in every direction possible; as Saito and Pazu stepped in, both froze where they stood as they noticed their lookalikes lying on the floor.

"We just checked the systems and whole thing is completely wreaked, whoever was down here must have let off a kinda mini EMP charge because everything's fired from the inside out; whoever raided this place didn't want anyone to pick up their trail" Darren said as he stuck his head around the door.

"If the rest of the guys did come through the rift they must have had the rest of NEST in tow, seeing as no bot could fit down that elevator shaft and those holes in the walls were made by typical human guns" Sam concurred

"Uh? One problem Major! We've seen mister Togusa's, mister Saito's, mister Pazu's , mister Ishikawa's and mister Boma's Pretender doubles; so where are yours and mister Batou's?" Batou's Tachikoma squeaked in a mild panic as it rung it's claws with worry, the humans glanced at one another in alarm, indeed, there were no lookalikes of the Major or Batou anywhere in the chambers.

"_MAJOR! Get up here right now!" _Hot Rod barked in a panicky tone

"_What's wrong Hot Rod?"_

"_I...I-I can't explain, you have to come up here and see this!" _

"Everybody out! Now!" the Major barked; everyone scrambled for the elevator shaft and the kids each took an agent in both hands while Hailey levitated the Tachikoma, together they shot out up the shaft and high over the scene, where they spotted Hot Rod, Jetfire, the Lambo twins and several of the Rangers and Umibozu standing around something on the ground and something standing against one of the fallen trees at the base of the valley walls, landing mere metres away on the steep slope they rushed to see what all the commotion was about.

"Look..." Hot Rod gestured, and there, on the ground and pinned to the side of the burnt tree, the Major and Batou came face to face with their lookalikes; the Batou pretender was half transformed from the chest down with both arms ripped off and the head half decapitated, the Major's lookalike however had taken a much worse beating, it had been 'crucified' to the tree with several long metal shards through its clawed hands and feet, and several long javelin-like metal spikes had been rammed into its torso and neck with such force that most of the armour platelets had been smashed out of place like glass, and bunches of snapped and frayed wires and tubing hung out of the torso like the intestines of a disembowelled mutilated animal carcass, the shape of the wounds suggested something had punched right through the outer armour and pulled them right out, it wasn't a pretty to say the least, even if the creature wasn't organic, the sight of it had the other Autobots staring at it in morbid curiously.

"Dude! Someone made a Pez dispenser outta you!" Miles said offhand as he inspected the Batou pretender

"No kidding, someone really took their time with these two, the others were killed quickly with little fuss, but what did these two do that warranted such barbaric treatment?" the Major thought aloud as she gazed at her lookalike with distain

"Who knows? But whoever it was they confronted, had the upper hand in both fighting skills and advantage of the high ground, this pretender has ligament cables that are reinforced with cybertainium-carbon alloy; most likely to help it mimic your own cyborg strength Major, so whoever went up against it basically had to bleed it out to sap it's strength until it was weak enough that it could be killed with one good blow" Jetfire said as he scanned his optical scanners over the Major's lookalike

"Wait, your saying an ordinary all natural human went up against these things?" one of the Rangers exclaimed in bemusement

"Certainly, any Autobot would've simply blown them away in one shot, only a human could bring about this level of force and brutality; they may not have been cyborgs but whatever human did this not only had the strength, endurance and ferocity to fight them both, but purposely left them like this to serve as a warning, in case the enemy sent reinforcements" the old seeker replied

"Whoa...that must be one angry guy..." Togusa thought aloud

"I'll say" Batou concurred. From out the smoke Ravage came bounding over the trees and dead robots with Ashley still on his back, stopping just short of the humans and other bots the twelve year old hopped down and immediately saw the two pretenders nearby. "Whoa!...What the hell happened here? Who're these two?" he asked in amazement and he inspected them both and poked at the Batou pretender with the tip of his spear, Morri moved in to fill him in on the details of the underground base while Ravage glanced up to Jazz.

"Watch'cha found?" the first lieutenant asked

"Scents, and plenty of them; the other's defiantly came through the rift..." the panther started, everyone's attention suddenly perked up as they snapped their head round to face him, "The other's? Who?" Sam asked in excitement; "Prime's scent is nearly everywhere, Ultra Magnas, Ironhide, Hound and Ratchet's too, and quite a few others as well but there's so much smoke, gunpowder and energon plasma around everywhere that it's hard to say exactly who" Ravage continued

"A few others? You mean there are more Autobot's? One's who made planet-fall?" Mile's beamed in excitement

"It sure smells like it, and though I can't put my paw on exactly who it is I'm pretty sure I smelt some femmes had been here" Ravage replied

"Femmes? For real?" Bluestreak beamed eagerly

"Yes yes; but there's something else...it's not just bots, Lennox and his men were defiantly here too, judging from the trail leading northwards through the valley over there, I'd say they followed the bots close behind, and it smells like they were followed by the enemy and quite a large number of them. On the leeward side of that ridge up there there's another set of human scents leading to the east, again followed by more of the enemy, but only about four of them; it looks like Lennox must have brought a small covert unit with him, they must have decoyed the main attack force while the others had a chance to slip away" the panther explained

"You could tell all that just from the scents?" Kagawa asked in amazement

"Please; reading scents and trails is sparkling's play for a hunter drone of my calibre" Ravage growled sarcastically, "...Anyway, whoever Lennox brought with him is a warrior through and through, they have the scent of death and war about them...and, for reason smelt, 'familiar' somehow..." Ravage purred as he paced over to the two dead pretenders and sniffed them over thoroughly.

"Familiar? It's someone you know?" Jazz asked in surprise, the panther suddenly stopped and pricked his ears back in mild alarm and looked back up at the first lieutenant. "...Not directly; but I do know his son..." he purred with a sly grin, everyone stared at him in confusion, but Morri knew right away just who he was referring to.

"You don't mean, it's-"

"You guessed correct child, this is certainly going make things quite interesting" Ravage purred

"Huh? Who're you talking about?" Ashley asked confused

"...Your creator boy...your sire to be exact, has been here, and would appear to be part of the rescue party..." Ravage simply replied, one could've heard a pin drop at that point as a brief moment of silence passed before Ashley realized what the panther just said.

"WHAAAT?" he hollered, his voice echoed through the valley, grabbing the attention of the soldiers at the bottom of the valley in the open field near the rift, "My dad's here? But that can't be right! He's stationed in the Middle East!" he continued in a near panicky tone, "Well, I'm sorry boy but my nose never lies, this is defiantly your creator's scent" Ravage replied, "How do you even know its dad's scent?" Ashley blurted out with a quirked eyebrow, "Heh, I knew when I first smelt you, that you were something quite exceptional for a human, something that told me you were strong and unrelenting; but I certainly had no idea that you hailed from such 'formidable' breeding...you've inherited much of your creator in your own scent, and your creator, is indeed a formidable human if he was able to take on two reinforced pretenders by himself, there's no other human scent around these two, so it can only mean that he took them on, and won" the Panther purred slyly, Ashley stared off into space, his mind reeling as the realization began to sank in, Morri placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder and let him lean his weight against hers, everyone didn't know what to say as they glanced at one another uncomfortably while the Rangers and Umibozu made themselves scarce and quietly slipped away.

"How? If dad's here that means he's with NEST; why didn't he tell us?...Why didn't he tell me?" Ashley thought aloud "Well, uncle Jonny is one of the Royal Marines; they do run a lot of covert missions so maybe his deployment to the Middle East was a cover story?" Tom suggested, "If so then why didn't he trust us to keep it secret? It's not like we don't have any big secrets of our own to keep!" Ashley gestured up to the bots; "It may not have been that simple youngling, secrecy may not have been the issue but rather the nature of that secrecy; slag I've certainly done my fair share dirty warfare that's kept 'classified' for a reason; half the stories I could tell would be enough to make even Sunny's armour shake" Deathshot thumbed over his shoulder to the golden warrior, to which Sunstreaker glared into the back of his helm with a piercing irritated stare. "Even so, if he was joining NEST he should've told us, chances were if we hadn't had come here we would've run into him on the base anyway..." Ashley sighed as he rubbed his forehead, "I'm sure he had his reasons youngling, and I'm sure he certainly meant no disrespect towards you in the matter...but either way, it begs the question, why did Lennox bring a covert special op's unit with the rescue party? Why the need for them if they were only coming here to secure and retrieve us?" Deathshot continued.

"When Prime sent us the holograph message he said that they had known that the rift had been opened by someone from this side, so Wheeljack must have found a way to somehow 'read' what was going on this side of the rift via the DRD and must have found something was going on that warranted for additional force to brought along" Jazz reasoned. "But the question is where are they now? I followed the other bot's scents a little way into the valley and there are more dead cons lying there, killed from the fight; I wouldn't be surprised if the military forces find more dead cons along the valley all the way up to the other opening...the other human's scent lead up the valley wall and most likely go over it, but that's all I could tell from here" said Ravage. Jazz placed both his hands on his hip plates and heaved a heavy sigh through his vents as his racked his processor on what to do next.

"Jazz? We are gonna find my dad, aren't we?" Ashley asked, the first lieutenant regarded the twelve year old with a small listless smile as he squatted down to face the youngster. "Of course we will, if he's as tough as Ravage say's he is then I think he'll be fine for a while yet, as will the other's, I know as long as Prime is leading them they'll be just fine, whether we find them or they find us first, either way we can afford to wait for them" he said

"So...now that we know what this place truly was and the rift is still one piece, what do we-...huh?..." Darren stopped as the sound of distant jet engines drew his attention skyward; as some of the smoke cleared, revealing the night sky, two silhouettes in the shape of fighter jets soared steadily overhead; hearing them too the other looked up and frowned in bemusement.

"Huh? Did the top brass send them?" Togusa asked offhand

"I don't think so, they don't look like ours" Batou replied

"No look, those are F-22 Raptors..." Glen exclaimed as the two jets sailed past the bulbous moon, frowning with concern Jetfire fired up his long range scanners and swept the sky as they disappeared over the top of the valley ridge, "I don't believe it! What the frag are they doing here?" he growled angrily, "What? Who are they?" Bumblebee asked, as the two jets came back around Deathshot scanned them with his left optic and scowled in equal annoyance.

"It's Skywarp and Thundercracker" he replied, the Autobots gasped in shock

"WHAT? For real?" Sunstreaker blurted out

"Of all the cons why are THEY here?" Bluestreak thought aloud

"Who knows, but whatever the reason we can use some answers; you guys go bring 'em down, if they're not a talking mood then you two can take care of them" Jazz frowned over at the Lambo twins who were firing up their weapons with glee

"Oh yeah! I knew there was a reason I got up this morning!" Sideswipe grinned in rather disturbing manner, Jetfire and Deathshot both fired up their thrusters and disappeared into the night sky. "Didn't you say Skywarp and Thundercracker were some of Starscream's lackeys?" Hailey asked, "His right-hand wing mates to be exact, of all the seekers in Megatrons forces those two were the ones Starscream trusted the most" Jazz replied, "Starscream? What kind of a name is that?" the Major quirked an eyebrow, "Our thoughts exactly! With a name like that you know the poor slagger's asking for an aft 'whoopin', courtesy of our jet judo! Hehehehe!" Sideswipe chuckled smirked as he and brother fist bumped, at that moment two loud resounding clangs echoed through the air, followed by the ugly sounds of a mid-air battle as guns could be heard firing and several lines of cybertronian curses were screamed out, though hardly anything could been seen through the thick smoke except for the muzzle flashes of the gunfire; but the resounding sounds of metal crashing and being pounded made everyone wince and before long a long moment of silence pasted before Jetfire called down.

"IIINCOMIIIIIING!"

From out the sky two enormous humanoid figures dropped straight down and hit the scorched earth with a set of thunderous clangs some two hundred yards away on the west side of the valley, the Autobots were quick to spring into action as the ran towards the two downed figures and surrounded them with their weapons aimed; Deathshot and Jetfire both dropped down and landed on the seeker's backs, eliciting a set of painful howls, to which Jetfire swiped his walking stick at the back of their helms, promptly shutting them up. As the humans approached the kids were both amazed and stunned to see the notorious Skywarp and Thundercracker that their guardians had told them so much about; Sam in particular was struck by just how similar they looked to Starscream in terms of form and design, though the two were different in their own way; Skywarp was smaller with a leaner build, narrower optics and had black and purple on key parts of his armour, while Thundercracker was more bulky and wider at the shoulders with a blue and white colouration with a few red parts here and there. Both seekers were as large as Jetfire, but not so big that Deathshot wasn't able to dig his retractable talons into both their wing joints as he stood on top of them like an eagle his prey, the two seekers writhed in pain as they tried to crane their heads up.

"You guys picked a hell of a time to drop in, kinda late for the party ain't you?" Jazz said, grabbing both their attention. "H-h-hardly! W-w-we've been flying around trying to find y-you all day!" Thundercracker groaned in annoyance, his voiced certainly didn't sound like Starscream's as it had a deep basso ring to it. "Well, you found us, and I can promise you your night's about to get a whole lot worse" Sideswipe grinned, the seekers both glanced at one another in surprise.

"Don't tell me that's-"

"Hello Cracker!" Sunstreaker grinned psychotically

"Figured you'd be here, how many eons has it been?" Thundercracker deadpanned as he eyed up the golden warrior

"Too many to wait to whoop your aft again; which is what we'll all do if you two don't co-operate" Jazz said

"Yeah, figured you say that, nice to see you fraggers haven't changed a micro-inch, though I don't believe we've ever met?" Skywarp smirked up at Deathshot; the sniper dug his talons in further, eliciting a sharp hiss of pain from the seekers

"GHAAA! I know he said you'd be fast, but Primus I had no idea you were this hard!" Thundercracker winced as he tried to endure the pain; Deathshot raised an eyebrow.

"You've heard of me?" he asked

"Of course! Prime warned us about you!" Thundercracker spat, that got the Autotbots attention

"Optimus Prime? Warned YOU TWO about me?" Deathshot asked incredulously, not believing what he just heard; climbing off their backs he grabbed them both by the back of their neck plates and flipped them into their backs; almost right away the Autobots went bug-eyed at the sight of the Autobot insignia's on their chest plates above their cockpits.

"What are THOSES doing on your chassis?" Jetfire growled angrily

"We were issued them...we defected..." Thudercracker replied frankly; glancing at one another in stunned surprise, Jazz frowned as he leaned in closer and held the two seeker's gaze with his piercing stare

"You guys have thirty minutes to explain yourselves, and convince us not to kill you here and now" he growled

"You might wanna take a seat, I got a feeling we're gonna be here a while..." Ashley whispered into the Major's ear.

* * *

You didn't think I forgot the Black Lotus did you? ;) the truth becomes that little bit clearer R&R please!


	53. Chapter 52: I Really Don't Need This!

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.

Additional Disclaimer: Matti belongs to JillTheCrazy1

Warning: A bit of hard swearing here and there

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 52: I REALLY DON'T NEED THIS!

"And so, after we circled the mountain range one last time we headed back here after we picked up the helicopters approaching on our long range scanners, then we spotted you all on ground and; well, we didn't exactly know how to approach you, on account of our previous 'relationship' so to speak, we argued over it but then you two came crashing down on our wings and, well, here we all are!..." Skywarp finished in a snarky voice, Jazz and Jetfire both looked at one another sceptically, and then looked to Deathshot, who surprisingly shook his head in response, if anyone could pick out a liar he certainly could, and apparently these two hadn't been lying even once. For the last thirty or so minutes the two seekers had been explaining their circumstances and how it lead them here, the kids and section 9 agents stood off to one side while the rest of the human soldiers had gathered round to see what was up (being sure to give the two strange robots a wide birth) and had listened in on the whole conversation while the Autobots stood around with their weapons still primed, waiting for them to make a wrong move.

"And that's all?" Jazz asked bluntly

"Pretty much; like I said before, we didn't really know what we were doing when we defected...all we knew was that we couldn't go back, and that Starscream no longer trusted us the same way he used to...if anything, by all rights we should have defected long ago" Thundercracker replied in annoyance

"But why? Even if you had defected back then it wasn't like he really trusted anyone anyway; why did you guys stay with the cons for so long if you'd been having your doubts about your wing commander in the first place?" Jazz asked, a short moment passed as the two seekers looked at one another in a mix of reluctance and doubt, they didn't want to say what was really on their minds, but Deathshot's cold deathly glair told them that they didn't have a choice; trust was at a premium here, and being honest was the only way to earn the Autobots trust at this point, something the two seekers were not well acquainted with on account of countless centuries of being enemies. Skywarp passed a heavy sight and dropped his gaze while Thundercracker's scowl turned into a look of hard disappointment.

"...To be honest, we haven't believed in Megatron's cause for many centuries now, after the battle of Tyger Pax the war descended into madness and everyone was stuck fighting, it got so bad to the point that it became war for the sake of war with no purpose or prize to be won anymore; it was just insanity and endless carnage, and Starscream changed too, in the beginning he had wanted to end the war and lead the Decepticon's to victory; Starscream may have been our wing commander but when it came to the future he could never see past the end of his nosecone, and he could never have foreseen just how the war would transpire, regardless of whether he had an influence on it or not. We had hoped to reason with him, maybe even convince him to defect with us" Thundercracker replied reluctantly

"Then why isn't he here?" Hot Rod asked

"...Because, Megatron's insanity had left a greater impression on him than we had originally thought; after he returned from earth without the Allspark he completely lost it, branded most of us traitors and threatened to offline us; we didn't think he was serious, until he off lined Soundwave...most us tried to fight back but it just all went to the pit, he even set the Nemesis to self-destruct!" Skywarp retorted

"Seriously? he blew the Decepticon's flagship? I know Starscream was always unhinged but I find it hard to believe he would destroy a whole battle cruiser?" said Trailbreaker.

"Well regardless of what you think he blew it up anyway! I don't know how many of us managed to get away nedalone survive the initial blast, we barely got away with our spark chambers intact! If the Autobots hadn't had picked us up we'd be scrap metal floating around the Vellexi system!" Skywarp retorted

"Alright, but getting back to here and now, who did Prime bring with him?" asked Jazz

"Uh, Ultra Magnas, Ironhide, Hound and Ratchet of course, then there was Cliffjumper, Springer, Warpath; and the femmes Arcee, Chromia, and Prime's Sparkmate Elita 1, and us" Thundercracker replied

"Elita 1, Chromia and Arcee? They're really here? When did you all make planet-fall?" Bumblebee asked eagerly

"About a month ago, literally the day after you all fell through the rift" Skywarp replied, the Autobots looked at one another in surprise

"And why did Prime think to bring you two along?" Sideswipe asked sceptically

"Well, there was a 'problem'; when Wheeljack managed to determine what caused the DRD to activate; he discovered that duplicate DRD was on this of the rift that was responsible for opening the portal..." Thundercracker started, "I knew it!" Darren murmured under his breath, "When he investigated this further he discovered a Decepticon harmonizing frequency on the other end, that's when our usefulness as former cons came in handy and after a bit of work we discovered that there was defiantly Decepticon activity on this side of the rift, on this version of Earth" the blue seeker continued, "So those bots we faced this morning were cons after all" Bluestreak thought aloud.

"But that was only half problem; we found that the signal itself was actually a specialized sub-sonic harmonizing frequency used for relaying online systems data, A-type 306 module" Skywarp interjected

"A-type 306? But that frequency hasn't been used in over four million years? It was made redundant after the battle of Omniex Pii saw the use of destroyer-class electro- plasma bombs; it rendered the signal's output completely useless" Deathshot frowned

"Either way, that particular frequency could be used between multiple units in real time, its output was so large that it could only be used between no fewer than two hundred troops at any one time, both on and offline; I remember because it was always a fragger to crack!" said Sunstreaker

"That's what we said, and that's why Prime thought it best to bring additional troops with him to sort this out, he brought us along as an 'advisory capacity', as well as have an additional team on standby, ready to provide back-up in case things got dicey, although, when we came through the rift things were already dicey with this little welcoming committee here to greet us" Skywarp gestured to the dead robots all around

"So there are more bots on Earth? Who?" asked Trailbreaker

"Prowl of course, and then there's Brawn, Inferno who were already here; Smokescreen, Beachcomber, Tracks, Blurr, Mirage, Jolt, Kup, and Omega Supreme" Thundercrack replied, the others gasping surprise

"No way...Omega Supreme? He's really here?" Sideswipe gasped

"On the other side of the rift, he's on standby too, and I can tell you, after eons of drifting through the void he's itching for some action; which reminds me, we got a surprise for you!" Thundercracker smirked down at Ravage, who regarded him with a look of bemusement.

"What surprise?" the panther growled, the blue seeker's cockpit swung open with a hiss of air and three metallic objects fell out and tumbled onto the ground, the humans jumped back in alarm as they realized two of the objects were actually giant eagle-like birds, each as big as Ravage with wingspans in excess of over nine metres across, with sharp hooked beaks, long powerful legs with equally powerful talons and long wing feathers that looked more like a set of giant razor blades; one was black and silver with yellow streaks running down it's back, wings and breast plate with an upturned crest on the back of its head while the other one was black and dark grey with red streaks running over its wings and tail with a down turned crest on the top of its head. The third form however was the spitting image of Frenzy, a small insect-like drone with a black colouration all over and four red optics, and unusually large robust forearms, each with a set of three sound whoppers on the elbows and sides. As the humans and Autobots stared in dumbfounded surprise, Ravage and Frenzy both approached the creatures with wide-eyed shock as they instantly recognized the three strangers.

"...Brothers?..." Ravage asked nervously

"Ravage? Frenzzzy?" one of the birds replied in a slight daze as it stood upright on its legs, the five drones stared at one another before they all let out shouts of delight and shock. They embraced each other, cuddling, nuzzling and burying themselves into each other's chest's and necks as they squeaked, cooed and chirped in delight; then, a tiny bat-like creature flew out from the cockpit and landed straight on Ravages face just below his optic, it was a bat alright, a TINY bat drone with dark purple armour plating and a set of ear-audios that seemed to be one size too large for its tiny head, it's wings were long and spindly with a thin black mesh membrane that seemed to glisten with a violet tint. The happy spectacle lasted for a minute or two before the drones calmed down and looked one another over, as if they had seen each over in a long time.

"Aw! How cute!" Batou's Tachikoma squeaked in delight

"Well well, never figured we'd see you guys again...you defected too huh?" Jazz grinned; the six drones abruptly stopped and looked up at the first lieutenant.

"Yessss, we no longer serve that murderous seeker; we want only our brothers, we want only our freedom now that our creator is gone..."one of the birds hissed, the one with the yellow colouration

"Prime told us not to come, sssso we snuck into Sky-wimp's cockpit and snuck away with the rescue party; it's still sooo easy to sneak past him, even as an Autobot"the other bird gleefully hissed

"A-a-a-andyougotnewv-v-v-vocalizers!" Frenzy cheered

"Nice to know you four haven't changed a micro-inch either" Sunstreaker deadpanned

"Uh, this is all very interesting but who're these guys?" Danny called up from where he stood behind Deathshots feet, the two birds eyed the boy sceptically before one of them darted forwards grabbed him in his talons and pinned him to the ground, Deathshot was quick to bend down to try and swat him away but the bird beat him to it and delivered a sharp hard peck, drawing energon from the sniper's fingers and making him back away, the bird turned his attention back to the boy who was now sweating bullets at the prospect of being pecked to death.

"Look brothers! One of their petssss!" he cheerfully squawked, however he made a fuss as Deathshot swiftly bent back down and picked him up, being sure to keep his wings firmly held together. "Lazarbeak, don't do that to the human's, especially not to Deathshot's charges, fun as they are they're not built with armour plating so be careful okay?"Ravage purred as he strode over to Danny, grabbed his T-shirt in his teeth and pulled him up off the ground. "Seriously? I bet their fun to hunt!"Frenzy's lookalike giggled, "Indeed they are, but for now, just behave yourselves alright? I'll explain everything later"the panther coolly replied as Deathshot gently placed the bird back on the ground and with an angry squawk he hopped back to the panther's side.

"Nice to know you guys already know each other, but who are they?" Mikaela asked

"Th-th-theseareourb-b-b-b-brothers! L-l-lazarbeak, B-b-buzzsaw, R-r-r-rumble and R-r-r-r-ratbat!" Frenzy squeaked as he stroked Lazarbeak's neck

"Seriously? But, Ravage thought you guys were dead, we all did" Hot Rod replied bemused

"We thought he was gone too, with our creator off-lined the telepathic bond that binds us together was sssnapped, creator must have sent our brother ahead of us, he must have wanted us to meet up on Earth; but when the Nemesis self-destructed we were caught in blast and thrown off course, by that time brother was ssso far away we couldn't sense him anymore, therefore we thought him dead too" Buzzsaw cawed

"But now, we are together and our bond is whole again!" Ravage happily purred as he sensed his brother's minds reach out and fill his own, bringing that warm reassuring pulse that pushed the loneliness away and filled the forefront of his mind with their presence, like warm sunshine after a long grey rainfall. The six of them closed their optics for a moment as they allowed one another to reaffirm their connection; then, they sensed another in Ravage's mind, another individual, not telepathic or empathic by nature, but one that had meaning to him; through the bond they sensed it was one of the human children, the boy in the red hoodie with slate blue eyes and in the panther's mind they saw he was enveloped by a turbulent red aura that stirred around him like storm clouds. Ravage instantly wrapped his mind around Ashley to keep them from prodding too much, they then saw him standing atop one of the fallen trees with his spear in hand.

"Borther, why is that human part of the bond?" Rumble asked as he swiftly approached the boy, the other's approached too but Ashley was quick to pull off a back flip off the tree so as to keep clear of eagle-drones sharp beaks and talons.

"Ah yes; brothers, met my student, Ashley" Ravage replied with an air of pride in his voice, the other drones snapped their heads round and stared at him as if he had taken leave of his senses, "You? Hisss teacher? Your student? Are you mad brother? He's a flesh bag!-" Buzzsaw retorted angrily. At that, in one smooth leap, Ashley leapt forward and clipped part of Buzzsaw's breast plate with the tip of his spear and pulled away before the surprised bird had a chance to peak him. "A flesh bag that knows how to fight, ya tin turkey!" Ashley retorted as he retreated back onto the tree, the bird stared at him in surprise, he tried to lunge at him but Lazarbeak quickly held out his wing to stop him, "Wait brother..." Lazarbeak cawed as he approached the boy; everyone watched as the bird sniffed him and down and then stared him straight in the eyes. Ashley frowned up at him and was about to say something when suddenly the bird's vivid red optics began to glow and Ashley suddenly felt, what seemed like an ominous presence all around him, the sights and sounds of everything and everyone began to slip away and only Lazarbeak was standing in front of him. But to the bird's amazement, Ashley stared straight back at him with a defiant gaze and everything seemed to come back into the range of his senses once again, the ominous presence had gone too and Lazarbeak and the other drones were left with an intense look of mixed surprise and curiosity upon their face plates.

"It would ssseem your choice of pets is well founded brother; he has the ssscent of death and war about him" Lazarbeak replied in a brooding manner

"I'm no-one's pet!" Ashley retorted, Ravage couldn't help but smirk, through the bond the others sensed his liking for the child's defiant attitude, how he was so much like the panther had been in his younger years, that same unrelenting predatory spirit that made him so formidable; in that moment they backed away from the boy and submissively stood still, allowing him to approach his teacher and stroke him on the neck.

"What was that all about?" he whispered, "I'll explain later, but for now you're in my brother's good graces; that's near impossible for a first meeting with them so consider yourself very lucky" Ravage purred as the boy climbed onto his back.

"Okay, this was all very interesting if not a little heart warming; but what do we do now?" Sam asked; as he surveyed the scene, Jazz sighed and placed his hands on his hip plates, and glanced over at the dead Batou and Major pretenders, still lying where they found them. "What do you want to do Major?" the first lieutenant asked, "I'd like to get those 'pretenders' back to HQ for a structural analysis, as well as the others down in that supposed base; since everything in that place was smashed up we can't download anything but if the hard-drives are still intact we might be able to find something we can work with, at least now we know who the enemy really are..." the Major replied as she and the rest of her team walked around from where they had been standing behind the two seekers, they both noticed the little purple haired female as she came in view, and right away noticed her red eyes, **"Is she an ex-con too?" **Skywarp asked discreetly **"No, but with her attitude she sure could pass for one; be careful, she ain't one you wanna cross" **Jazz replied, the two seekers quirked their eyebrow ridges at one another but said nothing. "What are we gonna do with them?" Batou thumbed up at the two seekers, Jazz regarded them both with an impassive look as they looked at him with concern, wondering and secretly dreading what his decision was going to be.

"How serious are you about helping us? If Prime brought you both along that could only mean he had confidence in you; which suffice to say I find difficult to believe considering our shared history, but never the less I wound never question his judgment unless something else was going on, so that only begs the question; are you serious about this? Or did you just defect to assure your own freedom?" Jazz asked coolly, the two seekers blinked in surprise; apparently the first lieutenant was still as sharp as they remember, and their anxiety hadn't escaped his notice. With an agitated frown, Thundercrack slowly got up on his feet, being sure not to spook Deathshot into hurting him again, and looked down defiantly at the silver bot.

"Let's just get one thing straight; I'm not particularly fond of any you bots, I may not believe in the Decepticon cause anymore but I certainly wasn't singing Prime's praises when I defected either, and the only reason he came along was because he didn't know any better!" Thundercracker thumbed over at Skywarp who just stared at them somewhat dumbly, "Yes we both defected because we know how seriously you take your 'freedom is the right of all sentient beings' policy and that you can't turn away a con who willingly defects; I value my freedom, and I will do what's necessary to ensure I can keep it, even if it means having to take orders from you" he continued in a brooding tone.

"That's fine by me just so long as you can haul your own aft's outta the fire; I ain't asking you to like this, obviously I'm not keen on this myself, but the way things have been going for us of late we need all the help we can get, even if it come in the form of you two airheads; the only thing that's not up for debate, is how you treat about our little friends" Jazz gestured down to the humans standing at his feet, "if you wanna whine about getting organic grease smears on your armour, do it in your own time, and to yourselves; I detect so much as one blip from your comms about how gross or small they are and I will let the twins here haul your aft's to the junk yard and have your wings scarped for sheet metal; are we clear?" he continued in a low commanding tone.

"Transparently" Thundercracker deadpanned

"Wait! One last thing!-" Ashley called up, grabbing the blue seeker's attention. "Earlier, Ravage picked up the scent of some humans heading eastward up the valley wall, did you see where they went?" he asked, "Yes, the human leader Lennox brought them with him, why?" Skywarp replied, "One of them's my dad, did you see where they went?" he asked again, blinking in surprise, Thundercracker bent right down to the human's level and after studying the twelve year old's face, quirked an eyebrow ridge in bemusement.

"Your Brigg's creation?" he thought aloud, that grabbed Ashley's full attention, as well as his other cousin's.

"You've met my dad?" he asked eagerly

"Well of course, he's the leader of the human's covert unit; he and his team went on ahead of the rest of the rescue party to find you all...I know he said you were the 'spitting image' of himself, but Primus the resemblance is just weird" the seeker replied as he got back up.

"What happened and where did they go?" Deathshot asked

"After we emerged from the rift and ran into all these guys everything went to the pit; during the fight we found an underground lair that was meant to serve as some kind of bunker, or medical facility? Either way it was filled with online systems so we figured it would help us find you all faster if we were able to hack into and hijack a navigation guidance satellite from there. But, apparently there was this group of Pretenders hiding down there; come to think of it they were all duplicates of you lot!" Skywarp pointed to the Major and her team, who stared up at the black and purple seeker in dumbfound surprise, "You only now realized that?" the Major asked incredulously, the seeker merely shrugged innocently, the Major rolled her eyes while Thundercracker face-palmed with a loud clang. "Anyway; Brigg's team took on most of them while two of them went after Briggs himself, we thought he'd need help but amazingly he took them both on managed to off-line them; some of his team found the computers were still online, the pretenders had data on their duplicates but much of it was protected by some heavily reinforced security programming" Skywarp continued, "What data did they get? Asked Deathshot, "Hardly any, with all the chaos of the battle they only had time to get hold of a large scale map of this whole area, and with it directions to a city somewhere on the coastal region called 'New Port', apparently there's a place called 'Section 9 HQ' that was on the data files but it didn't show it on the map. Regardless Brigg's saw it as a lead to start with and after conferring with Prime and Lennox he took off with his troops to head for this 'New Port'; but halfway through the fight things got dicey and we got separated from Prime's main force, we tried follow Briggs to provide some air cover but these guys took shots at us, after we finished blasting them away Prime and his troops had already gone and we tried to find the humans again but they were already gone too, about three miles east of the valley we found the remains of some more pretenders who must have tried to stop them, we've been searching for them and Prime all day, but the Autobots have been maintaining comm silence, probably because their still being pursued" said Thundercracker

"So he's okay?" Ashley pressed him

"I didn't find his off-lined remains, so he probably is" the blue seeker shrugged, Ashley frowned up at him in reply

"Oh very encouraging..." Ravage sneered with a deadpan look

"So in other words we don't know where either of them are" Jazz sighed

"Uh?...Pretty much" Skywarp replied with a slight wince of embarrassment

"So what do we do? Try to go after them?" Hailey asked

"As much as I'm tempted, no; trying search for them at this hour would be pointless, their long since gone and if Prime and the others are being pursued by the enemy then their gonna be sure to cover their tracks, as for yer creator kid, if he's coming to New Port that gives us an advantage, even if he doesn't know where Section 9's HQ is we can still sweep the city with a bio-scan, fifty percent of his DNA coding is in you so we've got a good enough sample to go on; let's wrap it up here and get those dead pretenders on the tiltroater" the first lieutenant ordered.

Three quarters of an hour later the Tilroater and Autobots were on their way back to New Port, the special forces stayed behind until the military sent an additional deployment to guard the area, though this time they were sure to keep an eye on the situation, in case anything else of an unforeseen nature were to occur. The fires in the remains of the Sukaitawa buildings were still lighting up the city skyline by the time Section 9 returned to their HQ, although no-one had seen any combat tonight everyone was feeling unusually weary, the discovery of the true nature of the Black Lotus's base had somewhat thrown the section 9 agents for a loop, and a passive sense of mixed relief and dread had fallen over the team; relief for the Autobot's unintentional intervention that day they were set to raid the base, and dread at the prospect of what would have happened to all of them if they had gone ahead with the raid; either way, being back at HQ brought some level of calmness back to the team as they went to change out of their combat gear. Twenty minutes later Batou emerged from the changing rooms to find Ashley and Tom standing by the door.

"Hey, you guys been waiting for me?" he asked

"In a way, your sister's been asking for you; the chief's still out and the Major and Ishikawa are downstairs in the lab helping with the analysis of those dead pretenders and everyone is busy with everything else so we decided to check on them for you, and I can tell you, she ain't in a happy mood" Tom replied, "Damn! I can't believe I forgot Matti and James!...which room are they in?" he huffed in frustration.

"Uh? Upstairs in room 3?" Ashley replied as they followed close behind, a quick trip up the elevator brought them to the floor where the living quarters were situated; glancing through one of the windows as he walked by Batou saw Togusa's family, along with the other kids and their families who were still in protective custody after that incident with Saski pretender; the security personnel from the intelligence department who were guarding the door politely regarded the ex-Ranger with a discreet nod as he pass by. Further down the corridor he saw Jay-jay fast asleep with the Waineright twins and Hailey and Mikaela chatting in the same room. Finally he arrived at room 3, wherein he found a tired looking Matti slumped over the side of a table with five polystyrene cups next to her, and James who was fast asleep and snoring on the couch in the corner; looking up with heavy eyes she got up from her seat and stepped towards him with a listless snarl across her lips.

"Finally, you decided to show up" she impassively grumbled; Batou's face fell flat, he knew that tone didn't bode well for him 'Oh boy...' he thought wirily as he prepared himself for the oncoming 'chewing out'.

"Sorry, I've been busy all day" was all he could think to say

"Oh really? You don't say?" she replied sarcastically, the hint of venom in her voice didn't escape Batou's notice

"...Look, I'm sorry about earlier, but in case you forgot we were kinda in the middle of a crisis this morning, I had to get you guys outta there fast-"

"By having me flown up in the air by some girls with freaky superpowers? WHAT THE FUCK'S UP WITH THAT? Do you have any idea how terrified I was? Being dragged up to over a thousand feet above the ground by a girl covered in blue fire! Not knowing if I'd fall or not? And as if that was bad enough, I get dumped here and am told not to leave! We've been asking what's going on all day but nobody's told us anything! And as for you, what the hell were those robots and how did they know you?" Matti snapped angrily as she stomped nearer to him, over on the coach James abruptly woke up while Batou just stood there, his flat gaze turned into a slight frown as he drew in breath; this was going to be anything but easy.

"Please Matti...if it were any other time and place, anything else, I would tell you; but this...this is way too complicated to explain, and trust me, the less you know the safer you'll be-"

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean? You're a security guard not some secret government agent! How does what happened this morning qualify for not telling me anything! I WAS THERE DAMN IT! I SAW WHAT HAPPENED! Don't try to tell me it didn't happen!" She snapped viciously. A long tense moment passed as Batou stood there, his frown steadily turning into a scowl as his reluctance began to build; slowly, as she reached her mind out to his, Matti suddenly felt a terrible pang of truth ring in the forefront of her mind as she realized the contradiction of her outburst.

"You're...not a security guard?...but, how?..." she said in a slightly shaky voice, James watched in silent anxiousness while Batou passed a heavy sigh as he dropped his gaze for a brief moment, and stepped towards her with the sense of a heavy weight having been lifted from his shoulders.

"Come on Matti I'm your brother, you may be able to glimpse at other people's secrets but you can't get the drop on me, I know you too damn well kid; besides, letting you in on my real job is not a luxury, it's a big liability, and in my line of work, even your own loved ones are not above reproach in the eyes of the government, I wish it wasn't but it's a sad fact the matter...It's nothing personnel kid, it really isn't, it's just part of the job..." Batou replied frankly, but Matti failed to pick up the hint of regret in his voice as her mind started to turn in disbelief.

"Part of the job? You deliberately lied to us? To me? Your own sister! Why the hell couldn't you trust me to keep it a secret? You of all people should know what it means to keep an important secret! Especially a personal one!" She spat

"This has nothing to do with that! And don't even say I don't care! I have done nothing but care for you, James, Molly and everyone else! This is a job I do because I can't stand to see good people suffer at the hands of others, you know that! So don't even think that I do this job just for kicks, cuz believe me I haven't been doing this job for as long as I have and suffered for it!" Batou snapped back, his loader voice made her wince slightly, but her anger was the only thing keeping her rooted to the spot, too annoyed and stubborn to back down, and certainly not in the mood to let him have the last word.

"Oh Really? Well maybe if you had told me sooner I might have actually been there for you like you've been there for me all these years! Fuck the government and whatever regulations you have to follow! After everything we've been through together I can't believe you would not even consider trusting me on this! After all the trust I had in you how the hell can you be such an asshole and go back on your promise? You said we'd have no secrets between us!" She spat, now Batou was getting annoyed

"Didn't you hear what I just told you? I didn't tell you for your own good! Even if you could keep it a secret it's doesn't mean other people might figure it out! You know the world isn't all peaches and cream kid! There are some real sick twisted freaks out there who can read you like a book, and believe me, it's the ones you don't see coming that'll kill you in a heartbeat; and that's not the worst of it, for every good person out there there's at least ten more fucked up evil geniuses that spew out into the world faster than anyone can think them up!...And it works both ways too you know. Until today, no-one, not even my own teammates knew you existed, and I was hoping to take that to my grave, least someone would use you, Molly or James against me; I even arranged things so that if anything happened to me and I died you'd be told it was an accident...I've made a hell of a lot of sacrifices to keep you safe Matti, don't you dare say I couldn't give a rat's ass to the consequences of my decisions and how it would affect you, cuz it's the one think that keeps me awake at night, and haunts me every time I stare down the barrel of a gun!" he growled in irritation, but Matti simply glared at him, angry and unconvinced.

"I don't believe you! Do you seriously expect me to just accept the fact that you've been leading a double life this whole time? I don't care what you say or what you think about your decision! The fact is you lied to me! After what I've been through, after what I've had to go through to gain any semblance of 'normality' for my life, you turn around and become a hypocrite on everything you taught me!" she venomously spat back, folding her arms and turning to the side.

"Don't you dare say I'm a hypocrite! And furthermore don't you dare make this out to be about only you! This situation is way bigger than you kid and the last thing I want is for you to get mixed up in all this!" Batou jabbed his finger at her, she didn't budge.

"Get mixed up in what exactly? The middle of some government conspiracy to hide the fact that some giant humanoid think tanks went berserk and decided to have a major slam down in the middle of the city? Oh yeah you'll really be able to cover that up! Not to mention the fact there are super-powered girls out there who can levitate people and shoot blue fire from out their asses!" she replied sarcastically.

'Giant humanoid think tanks? Yeah, that'll do' Batou thought, 'at least she didn't get the hint that they were aliens' he thought in the back of his mind, being sure to keep his mental defences up in case she sensed anything was off; she didn't, drawing in a deep breath he stepped back and tried to calm his nerves down.

"Look, I really don't need this right now, I've had a long, and frankly very hard day; I'll arrange for you stay here tonight and in the morning I'll arrange for you both to be taken home...just, please, think about what I told you and take the night to cool off, okay?" Batou pleaded in a flat tone, Matti simply glared at him and stomped over to the door at the opposite end of the room and loudly slammed the door behind her. James got up from his seat and approached Batou with a sense of cautiousness; Batou relaxed his stance, indicating he'd dropped his defences.

"I know she doesn't make it easy Batou, but she's still a kid, she's still got a lot learn about why people do what they do, ironic as that sounds considering her past, but even the most seemingly straightforward of circumstances turn out to be not so straight forwards we like to believe...please, don't think she said what she said to spite you, you know she doesn't mean it" James reassured him in a hushed tone, making sure Matti couldn't hear him from the other side of the door; Batou simply regarded him with a mixed impression of frustration and sullenness.

"...I know, but even after all this time she still that little kid who-..." Batou stopped himself, unable to say what was he was thinking as his mind racked back and forth with doubt and regret. "...Well, anyway, she just needs time to cool off; I just wish she'd at least consider things from my point of view every once in a while and stop being such a stubborn teenager; I know she has her 'issues' to contend with, but she's not the only one who has to work hard to protect what she has" Batou huffed in annoyance; a short moment of silence passed before James spoke up again.

"So?...You're, really a government agent?... For how long?"

"...Since I first moved back to Japan, but I've been with this outfit since it was first formed back in 2029"

"As long as that? I guess it explains a few missed family get-togethers huh?"

"That's not even the half of it; but like I said, I never meant anything personal by it; it's just, the nature of this job and what's required of it, it really takes up your time, and the criminal element doesn't care if you've got a dinner date or birthday party to keep"

"No I suppose not, but seriously? Your team doesn't even know about your own sister? I can understand trying to protect her on paper, but not letting anyone know of her existence at all?"

Batou looked James in the eye, a sense of tense unease passed between them as they both realized they had arrived at point neither wanted to say aloud, but didn't have the luxury of hiding, least any misunderstandings arise from this, in the lowest, most softest voice he could muster, Batou stepped closer and bowed his head to bring his mouth closer to James ear.

"James, I didn't tell anyone about Matti for three damn good reasons; firstly, after everything she went through after that incident with dad the last thing I want is anyone thinking she's a nut-job that needs to be put away in some psych hospital, even if the people in this unit are my friends, I don't want a single word of any gossip getting around, nothing is sacred is in this job including your personal values, and you, Matti and Molly are as personal as they get for me. Secondly; right now, I am risking my job by keeping what Matti told me this morning secret, those symbols she showed me are only known by a handful of people outside the government and outside this building and have been kept under lock and key to boot, the fact that she saw them in one of her 'visions' puts her in a very delicate and very dangerous position, if anyone asks her where she saw those symbols and she's forced to tell the truth, not only will nobody take her seriously, once they bring up her personal records her mental state will be called into question and it'll be a repeat of the psych ward and doctors all over again and at the very worst she'll probably be branded a liability of the state and be arrested for either spying or illegal hacking of government networks, that, and I'll be arrested for withholding vital information and possibly even treason...But thirdly, and more importantly, if anyone were to find out what Matti is and what she can do, someone could get ideas and think they could use her to their advantage; far-fetched and crazy at it sounds that anyone in this day and age would believe in the existence of psychics, every once in a while there's that one individual who's willing to believe in anything if he believes it can get him ahead in the game; and the fact that Matti can 'see' things before they happen, or even reach her mind out to read other people's thoughts, even see their ghosts...it maybe wild for many to believe, but if they saw what she can do, it would freak them out to no end, not to mention it would stir up a whole load of questions she'd never be willing to answer; she's not some freak-show to be put on display for the world to gawk at and I went to a lot of trouble to make sure she could have the life we never had as kids...Even if this mean's I go to prison, I'd rather it be my freedom that's sacrificed, not hers. That's why I don't want her looking into those symbols, its bad enough that she found out about them, but if she found out about their true nature then her will be in serious danger"

James stared at Batou in disbelief, a cold sense of dread ran up his spine as Batou's face told him he wasn't kidding; his gaze drifted off into space as his mind tried to wrap around the seriousness of the situation whilst Batou passed a heavy sigh, wondering if he hadn't already made the situation more precarious than it already was. Unfortunately, the ex-ranger hadn't counted on the bare walls of the room acting as a crude acoustic space, amplifying his hushed voice just enough that it could be heard at a short distance; outside the room just behind the door, Tom and Ashley stood staring at one another in amazement, their bodies practically frozen still and their breaths so short and soft that they couldn't even hear their own breathing (when it came to eavesdropping, they had it down to an art).

"Psychic?" Tom mouthed to his cousin, being sure not let a single breath of air pass his lips, for fear of Batou's super sharp cyborg hearing picking it up.

"Don't know, but what symbols was he talking about?" Ashley mouthed back

"It sounded real serious, should we tell someone?" Tom mouthed, but Ashley held up his hand suddenly as something caught his ear, tilting his head, behind him he could hear the characteristic thrum of a therm-optic camo; the two lads nearly jumped out of their skins when something soft brushed past between them and stood in from of the door, the feminine scent it gave off immediately told them who it was, and the two of them braced themselves for whatever was about to happen next.

The door creaked open, Batou and James nearly jumped when they saw Ashley and Tom standing there, but Batou's stomach dropped and the blood drained from his head when the Major disengaged her therm-optic camo and stood there silently with a look of pure death in her eyes; Batou's mind reeled a thousand panicked thoughts a second, but of all of them, he knew this was it, he was done for and there was no point in asking her how long she'd been standing there; he knew she'd been listening long enough to know what she needed to know, and what she knew right now, was that the one person she thought she could count on had been keeping something from her, something, from the sound of it, constituted her stepping in and taking charge of it. Stepping forward she strode across to the room Matti was in, opened the door and found the girl laid out in one of the sleeping capsules, Matti glanced up at the female commander with a quirked eyebrow, her purple hair and crimson eyes being the first things to immediately grab her attention, but the Major's stern gaze sent a cold shiver up her spine.

"Miss Walsh?" the Major asked sternly

"Yeah?" Matti replied

"I want you to come with me, and explain how you came across these..." the Major pulled out of her pocket Matti's little crumpled up note with her scribbles of the Autobot and Decepticon symbols; Matti froze in a mix of panic and confusion, was she in trouble? Did the symbols really mean something? Judging from the strange woman's response it seemed they did, but what? Batou's train of thoughts froze as he saw the note and realized the Major must have slipped it out from his pocket earlier when he wasn't looking.

"How did you get that?" Matti asked in slight alarm

"It doesn't matter, what matters is that effective immediately you are under arrest, and I want you tell me all about your involvement in this" the Major coldly stated as she turned to leave the room.

"Wh-WHAT? Under arrest? What am I supposed to be involved in?" Matti exclaimed as she scrambled out of the sleeping capsule, she froze on the spot as the Major snapped her head round to gaze at her, those crimson eyes had a real look of coldness about them that made her wonder briefly just who this woman really was.

"...I think you know perfectly well what I mean..." the Major replied, as she left the room as she stopped and looked up at Batou, for once he really couldn't read her face, nedalone assume what she was thinking, but the fact she simply glared up at him without a word and walked off out into the corridor told him that she was seriously pissed off, and in a big way that was not typical of his usual weakness of his temperament fraying at the edges in the height of a mission. With his adrenaline beginning to spike and his mind reeling in a mix of panic and dread, Batou, for once, truly feared the Major, but even more so, feared for Matti and what would happen to her next; he turned round to find her glaring at him lividly, her cheeks turning red with anger.

"HOW THE FUCK CAN I BE UNDER ARREST?" she practically screamed

* * *

Oh Dear 8( The Boss-man's in hot water, stay tuned...R&R please!


	54. Chapter 53: What The Heart See's

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

Additional disclaimer: Matti belongs to JillTheCrazy1

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 53: WHAT THE HEART SEES

The morning still felt like night time as dark smoke rose past the windows and blotted out the morning sun, turning its warm rays red and obscuring the view of the cityscape.

"Damn, those fires are still burning?..." Hailey mumbled to herself as she stretched her arms and legs out, the couch had not made for a comfy bed but it was better than the floor, with everyone pulling extra shifts on the analysis work, as well as several other things, the kids had tried to get some sleep where possible; Hailey had opted for the nine to midnight shift, but hadn't been able to sleep well on account of the previous night's activity. Just as she gaped her mouth wide open to yawn, she suddenly stopped as something felt odd; she realized there was something small and metallic sitting in her bra and it began to stir slightly with a high pitched squeak. Quickly sitting up and throwing off her T-shirt, Hailey gawked at the sight of Ratbat nestled snugly in her bra with his head poking out from in between her breasts.

"GHAA! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING THERE!" she practically squealed in a panic, Ratbat instantly flinched his audio/ears backwards to try and shield his sensitive hearing away from her loud high-pitched voice.

"Rrrrr! Quiet your vocalizer femme! You sound as bad as Starscream!" The little drone squeaked in an irritated tone, Hailey paused a minute as she resisted the urge to squee aloud at how cute his voice sounded.

"Sorry, what're you doing there? You know that's a rather personal space for us human femmes!" Hailey hissed in annoyance

"Is it? I wouldn't know, all I know is these are nice and warm and soft!" he grinned contently as he nuzzled her breasts

"Yeah, and that's pretty perverse, so if you'll excuse me-" she deadpanned as she gently grabbed the drone and pulled him from out of her bra, much to his annoyance as he fidgeted about in her soft grip, he managed to wriggle free and fly off up into the corner of the room by the ceiling while Hailey threw her T-shirt back on.

"How did you get in here anyway?" she asked

"I'm the creation of the great Soundwave! There's no place I can't sneak into!" he boasted proudly

"So the vents weren't too small huh?"

"Yep! Besides, things have been occurring whilst you recharged"

"Oh yeah? What kinda things?"

"There's a young femme in one of the interrogation rooms that's been giving off some strange mind vibes; the one called 'the Major' was talking to her last night, apparently she knows of us" Ratbat teased

"A young femme? You mean that girl Matti and her dad Mikaela and I brought here yesterday? Of course she knows of us she saw us during the fight yesterday"

"Ah, but it would seem she knows more than she's letting on, apparently 'the Major' found a note on her that would suggest she knew of all of you before yesterday's events" the bat smirked in a cryptic tone. Staring at him surprise, she flew off the coach and strode out the room; Ratbat flew off and with one smooth dive managed to slip down the front of her T-shirt and into her bra again.

"Oh no! We sit on the bot's shoulders, so it won't kill you to try sitting on mine!" she sternly asserted as she reached up her top and pulled him out of her bra and placed him on her left shoulder, Ratbat simply folded his wings and ears back as he muttered a string of cybertronian curses under his breath while she carried on towards the elevators. After arriving on the floor where the interrogation rooms were situated Hailey looked up and down the various corridors until she finally saw Morri, Tom, Mikaela, Ashley and Togusa standing outside one of the long-stay holding cells, the ones used to hold suspects for more than one day.

"Hey, good morning" Mikaela greeted

"What's up? Batty here say's the Major was talking to Matti last night, what's she done?" Hailey asked as she stopped in front of them, Togusa regarded her with a doubtful look as he drew in breath.

"Yesterday the Major found out she had a note with the Autobot and Decepticon symbols drawn on; although we can't be sure it looks like she might have known about us, and possibly have even known about the attacks before they happened" Togusa sighed as he folded his arms

"For real?" she asked in surprise as she peered through the one way mirror; in the room Matti sat on the end of the bunk with Batou standing before her, the room was completely soundproof but from the way his hands were gesturing it looked like he was giving her quite a lecture, she stood up suddenly and shouted something up in his face, he shouted back and she slapped him across the face, making the onlookers flinch slightly. A moment of tense uneasiness passed between them before Batou stormed out of the room and paced off down the corridor in an angry huff, completely oblivious to his friends standing by the door.

"I better make sure he doesn't bite anyone's head off, see you later...if I'm still in one piece" Togusa gulped as he took after Batou, being sure to give the ex-ranger a wide berth as he disappeared around the corner. Hailey glanced back at the others with a look of surprise, whist the others had somewhat mixed looks on their faces.

"What's been going on?"

"...Last night he and Matti had a fight; from the sounds of it there's something really touchy between them; but personally, she sounded a bit stuck up to me" Ashley shrugged

"I dunno about stuck up; considering what she'd been through yesterday I think it was just her nerves still being on edge...but, there was this moment when Batou was talking to the other guy in the room, and he mentioned something about her having some kinds of 'abilities'?, I don't know specifically what he was on about, but in any case it sound like they had some real issues between them" Tom pondered aloud

"And they weren't the only ones; I found out from Ishikawa earlier that apparently Batou had known that she'd known about us, yesterday when he went to meet her at that mall she told him about the Autobot and Decepticon symbols she had on this, and says she didn't get them from him or anyone else" Mikaela handed Matti's note to Hailey, she glanced down at the crudely scribbled insignias and glanced back at the one way mirror; Ratbat flew of her shoulder and landed on the frame of the window. "In her own way I think the Major blew a fuse with him; she's been really pissed off since she and the chief gave Batou a real chewing out this morning, and they both haven't spoken to each other since. She grilled Matti over it up until one in the morning but she wouldn't budge, and considering she tried to punch me in the face three times while flying her here yesterday she's defiantly got guts...but there's certainly something about those symbols that got her really riled, when the Major asked her about them she practically bit her head off, the Major then decided to call it a night and try it again today; but judging from that little argument she and Batou had just now I don't think they're gonna make any progress" Mikaela continued, her voice betraying her doubt.

"What do you think?" Ashley asked Morri

"...It's hard to say, I'll ask the Major if I can sit in on the interrogation, I think this situation could use a neutral party to help mediate things since neither Batou or the Major are in a fit state to interrogate her without their own nerves getting in the way; at the very least the kid looks like she could use an sympathetic shoulder to lean on" Morri sighed.

"Those symbols are only known by a handful of people in the government including the Prime Minister, and if Matti didn't get them from Batou then where did she get them from?...You don't suppose there's a leak somewhere and that they got out somehow?" Mikaela pondered aloud.

"Well that depends; either Matti's lying and she deliberately came across those symbols by way an interception of some kind...or, considering how defensive she's been about them, something happened and she came across them unintentionally, Batou swore earlier that she didn't know what they were, only their names and what they looked like" said Morri

"That's weird; but equally if she did know about the symbols and us then she could be afraid of the reality of the situation; just because everyone we know is cool with the guys doesn't mean everyone's comfortable with the idea of giant alien robots running about the earth...God knows everyone in the city got pretty freaked out by those attacks yesterday" said Tom

"Well, if the interrogation looks set to be a bust, and Batou's brat sister won't tell us anything; there may be one way we could know for sure if she's lying or not, we could get- Hey, I was just about to call you" Ashley grinned as Ravage came strolling around the corner with Rumble riding on his back, Ratbat flew off the window frame and landed behind his right ear

"Figured you might, it's bad enough the Major's angry vibes are starting to give me a CPU-ache, Batou's is like a plasma bomb between the sensor-nodes" the panther growled with distain as Rumble hopped off his back and bounded over to the window

"This, is the cyborg's fellow creation? But she's so puny and weak! Her creators must have made a serious error in her format design!" Rumble grimaced as he stared at the girl in morbid curiosity; Ravage glanced at her and twitched his ear in curiosity

"So this is the cause of everyone's grief? Simply for knowing the existence of our insignias? What a waste of anger, her temperament is just as bad as her sibling's" the panther snorted

"Granted their just as bad as each other; but, I figured if you could take a peek at her mind and just see if she's lying or not, it'll save us a whole load of time and trouble" Ashley smirked

"Hmm..." the panther purred as he stepped in front of the two-way mirror, his optic glowed intensely as he stared at the girl in a trance-like state, both his brothers seemed to go into a similar trance as their optics began to glow intensely too. As Matti lay on the bed, nothing seemed to happen at first, but then, she sat bolt upright as if alarmed by something, she looked all around the room in a mild panic before staring at the two-way mirror in a look of shock and bemusement. Ravage and his brothers flinched back slightly and stared at the girl in surprise before the panther bowed his head slightly and started to grin.

"Hehehehe! Oh this is going to be rich!" he purred in deep content and unnerving tone

"What?" Morri asked

"It would appear things have just gotten very interesting; you two go and find the Major and tell her to start the interrogation, and bring the rest of the team too, their going to want to see what this girl has in store; plus, find Batou and tell him to come too..." Ravage said to Mikaela and Tom, "What've you got in mind?" Tom asked, to which Ravage smiled cryptically, "This girl has got much more than just a short temper, I know how she found out those symbols, but a 'demonstration' of how she did it will be the only way to really convince everyone of the truth, and this, the Major needs to see, now go" he ordered, cautiously glancing at one another, Mikeala and Tom both left without a word.

"Rumble, go find Frenzy and tell him I need a little 'intel' on the girl, and tell him I need it right away" the panther ordered his brother, who bounded off without a word down and around the corner of the corridor.

"What's going on? What did you see? Or 'sense' I suppose would be more appropriate" Morri folded her arms

"All good things come to those who wait child; and there's something important I need you both to do, now listen carefully, because this requires both an open mind, and the upmost trust and confidence in my abilities..."

Fifteen minutes later:

"_I don't get it? Why are we having to listen in on this?"_ Sideswipe asked in flat tone

"_Because this a very unique development; and it could prove to be quite interesting, now be quiet so I can leave the comm channel open for the others!"_ Ravage retorted

"_I don't know Ravage, I don't know what you think this is going to accomplish; even if this goes down okay bringing the girl in on this might serve to only complicate things, and I doubt Batou will be in a forgiving mood after this"_ Jazz said with a hint of doubt in his voice

"_His loyalty to his little sister is not without commendation; however, we cannot afford to lose sight of the bigger picture here, she's involved in this whether he likes it or not and I'm afraid this 'delicate' situation between them requires a more, 'understanding' approach if it's to be resolved, that, and the Major needs to understand what's at play here"_ Ravage growled

"_What's at play? What're you talking about?" _Trailbreaker asked bemused

"_...It would seem the rules have changed, and a new element has arisen in this case; just be silent and listen...if what I sensed of this child is correct, and we are careful in our handling of this particular matter, we might have a new ally to rely upon...but first, let us see how this transpires..."_ Ravage purred

Meanwhile, outside interrogation room 5:

"You want me to do what?" Batou exclaimed in anger

"Batou please! It's not like we're gonna perform water boarding on her! And it's not like Ravage is gonna use her for a scratching post either! Stop being such a stubborn arse and trust us on this!" Ashley pleaded aggressively

"Trust you? He's gonna fuckin' scare her out of her skin! No way is that cat going anywhere near my sister! And no way is he gonna perform any of his mind tricks on her!" Batou snapped back at the twelve year old, who didn't even so much as batter an eyelid as he stared up at the cyborg.

"Batou, I promise you, if I knew Ravage was gonna do anything that would harm her I would tell him to stay out of this; but she knows the Autobots and Decepticons by name! Don't you think that kinda warrants the Autobot's jurisdiction on this?" Ashley retorted

"And besides, don't you think you're only making the situation worse for her as well as yourself? You're already in hot water for keeping that note a secret! Are seriously willing to be so stubborn that your risk sending yourself and your little sister to jail? Batou if you care about her so much just let us talk to her!" Tom pleaded

"Please big-guy don't make this any worse than it already is! If Matti doesn't say anything she'll be prosecuted for sure, just go in there and tell her we'll be willing to be lenient on her if she co-operates and tells the truth!" Togusa reasoned

"Did I ask for your opinion?" Batou snapped aggressively, promptly shutting the detective up

"Batou, what possible reason could Matti have to be so reluctant to tell us the truth? Is she in trouble? Did she come across those insignias by accident? What?" Morri asked, Batou simply kept his arms folded as his scowl grew deeper and more intimidating, but neither the kids or the detective were put off, and he knew it was pointless to make them back off anyway; as his temper continued to boil, Ishikawa and the Major both walked around the corner and stopped before them; Ishikawa handed Batou a file whilst the Major just stood there with an equal look of ire about her, as Batou glanced at the first page of the file his anger rose to a whole new level as he practically began to radiate waves of heat. Anyone else would've began to slowly backed away, but everyone around the ex-ranger stood their ground, too concerned with the situation at hand to be intimidated by him.

"You looked at her profile?" Batou growled

"Of course; and frankly I'm a little concerned with what's listed in her medical details" The Major stated frankly, in that moment the kids were worried Batou was going to lash out as he glared daggers at the Major, Morri took a deep breath and stood firm, whatever was about to happen next was not going to be pretty.

"That. Is none of your business..." Batou growled venomously, Togusa's and Ishikawa's eyebrows flew up in stunned surprise; they'd never heard Batou talk to the Major like that before, not ever. Though her face didn't show it, her own frustration and ire began to rise too, but on the other hand she knew she'd hit a raw nerve, that was always a sign something else was going on.

"Really? You didn't think your sister being admitted to a mental hospital for attempted suicide and violence would be any cause for concern? If anything it calls the whole interrogation into question if her mental faculties aren't all in one piece, frankly I'm tempted to have the section doctor call in a specialist and see whether this calls for her to be sectioned" the Major continued coldly, Batou's temperament frayed even more as he stepped forward until he was staring the Major straight down in the eye, but before anything else could be said or done a flash blue light emanated out from Morri as she threw up a protective shield between the Major and Batou, the shield split in two and pushed the two cyborgs away from one another, much to their surprise.

"Alight! That's enough!" Morri snapped as her protective aura flickered angrily. "Togusa, Ishikawa, go and wait in the observation room for everyone else, you two are coming with me, right now!" Morri ordered sternly, the Major looked at her in astonishment; did she just give HER an order? But Morri didn't leave any room for objections as she encased both agents in a set of bubble force fields and lead them away to an empty room at the end of the corridor. She strode in with the Major in tow while she left Batou outside the room, the big cyborg folded his arms and huffed as he crossed his legs and sat down (or rather he floated) in the bubble; inside the room Morri waved her arm and the bubble 'popped', allowing the Major to jump down to the floor, but before she had a chance to reprimand the twenty-two year old, Morri simply glared at her in a stern tone.

"What the hell are you playing at? Don't you think its bad enough Batou's stressed out with his kid sister being arrested for a crime she hasn't committed, what does baiting his emotions serve to do except to aggravate him even more? If it were anyone else, this kind of behaviour I'd kinda expect from Batou himself, but not you!" Morri angrily reprimanded, the Major folded her arms and glared Morri down

"Firstly, you're not in a position to talk to me like that-"

"Oh am I? Excuse me for dropping my manners all of a sudden but this is an emergency, you're about to make a big mistake in prosecuting that girl, and calling in a head-shrink to administer tranquilizers and truth-serum won't do her any favours either!" Morri interrupted, the Major was about to reply when she suddenly stopped and blinked in surprise.

"How did you know I-"

"Frenzy intercepted your call to the Niihama mental health facility and cancelled the doctor's visit, said it was a mistake and that the prisoner was actually drunk and just needed to sleep it off. And frankly I did you a favour too, if Batou found out at the last minute that you were about to drug his little sister he would've ripped your head off without hesitation!" Morri snapped back

"...How did you know you she hadn't committed any crime? Theoretically at least" the Major asked

"Because she's no hacker, nor does she have any hand in any underworld dealings; if she had, her email's personal ID coding would've flagged red in the metropolitan police's online tracker net system, the one that, apparently keeps tabs on all the registered criminals who're monitored for hacking and any other dodgy online dealings" Morri replied

"...How?-"

"Frenzy found Matti's official records in double time, ten minutes before Ishikawa did; and got them to us just as fast, and good thing too, because you only went over the stuff that, typically, you'd look for anyway; priors, medical details, and of course the psych profile. But this time you failed to fully pay attention to the foot notes and actually read her full history...didn't it occur to you why she'd lashed out the way she did? It's one thing for a suspect to put on an angry face as a show of defensive bravado to simply toy with you, but what about if they'd been through some kind of trauma in their childhood? One so intense and damaging that it shatters their confidence in the world, and the way they perceive other people to perceive them? What you perceive to be an attitude with the upmost bitchyness might actually be a shield that's used to defend themselves, and that maybe its a case of coming in from the wrong direction?" Morri reasoned, though the Major's facial reaction was barely noticeable, Morri could see she'd gotten her attention.

"You've obviously got a point in here somewhere?" the Major asked

"Ravage knows how Matti found those insignia's, and she didn't find them herself...someone 'told' her about them, about us, about; possibly everything that's been going on...but the problem is, it's not just a question of who showed them to her, but how" Morri replied frankly, the slight uncertainty in her voice didn't escape the Major's notice as she quirked an eyebrow

"...What do you mean by that?"

"...I can't explain it, and frankly I'm still not wholly sure about it myself; but basically, the way in how she was shown those symbols is, something, a little too 'far out of your beliefs' for you to just accept; which is why we, and by we, I mean Ravage, Ashley, Tom, and myself, kinda decided to take things into our own hands and try to see if we can prove to you how she got those insignia's" Morri replied, the Major's expression softened and her temper simmered down as she listened, pausing for a minute to consider what she was telling her.

"Too far out of my beliefs to accept? What's so far out of the scope of my understanding that I couldn't 'just' accept it?..." the Major asked

"If I tell you that your gonna shoot me down and we're gonna be stuck in here all day simply debating the details of it; basically, we know what really happened and your course of action is simply not going to work! All I'm asking is that you that you let us handle this interrogation and see if we can actually get anywhere with Matti" Morri pleaded

"At the risk of sounding naive, why should I trust you on this?" the Major asked incredulously, Morri was somewhat surprised by the cold tone of her voice but, didn't ask, and simply continued.

"Because I think you knew from the start that Matti didn't obtain the insignia's illegally, your way too sharp to not know the difference between a real criminal and a kid with issues. I'm guessing you pushed her in that interrogation last night because you needed to know what you needed to know; she's brash, she's aggressive, she's got guts and is not afraid to back down, even from you, which is really saying something considering everyone I've seen go up against you is either incredibly brave or incredibly suicidal...but more importantly, you needed confirmation"

"Confirmation?" the Major quirked an eyebrow

"Yeah, confirmation that she really is Batou's little sister, and vice versa that Batou really is her big brother; when Frenzy found Matti's records he told Ravage that it took him one point five minutes longer than usual to open them because they were sealed behind a level four barrier, apparently the personnel tag attached to the file read 'administrator unknown' but after quickly perusing section 9's network for old data configurations he found that code the unknown administrator had used matched an ID code Batou had used over six months ago, apparently he'd been changing them regularly to avoid them being noticed; you knew this, and wondered why he'd risk his career like that , there was something in that file he didn't want anyone to see; that, and you found that he'd manipulated his profile of the section 9 network's personnel files so that it would read that he didn't have any next of kin...despite what he did, you figured there was something about her that he was willing to risk everything for, and in that, you realized that she really was his sister because he was willing to go the extra mile and sacrifice everything for her, like any big brother would for his little sister. But equally you had to be sure of the other end of it too, so you pushed Batou to as far as his limit would go, and in defying you and going against your orders, you realized he was doing it to protect her, for fear of the truth being misconceived and having her being locked up in mental hospital...that's harsh, but in any case it proves their both legit right?"

"Right...and you already found out what Batou's hiding that wasn't listed in the file, didn't you?"

"Yep"

"And?..."

"I can't say, and not for fear Batou ripping my head off; some family secrets are meant to stay secret for a reason, but I can assure you it's nothing of an illegal nature" Morri replied frankly

"If it's nothing illegal then why are they both being so defensive? If it was gossip about her mental issues he was worried about then he sure went to a lot of trouble simply to protect his pride" the Major coldly replied

"Simply protect his pride? Batou's ego isn't that big and you damn well know it! Sure he can get high strung at times but that's only because he cares! And he didn't want this for himself he wanted it to protect her! Do you seriously think for one minute that a guy as smart and selfless as Batou would risk his life and career just for sake of showing face to you? You may be his superior officer but she's his sister, there's no comparison when it comes to blood! And he may be loyal to you at any other time but in this case he'd be willing to sell you the river in a heartbeat if it means Matti will okay" Morri angrily argued, the Major simply stood there in mild astonishment and said nothing as the brunette continued. "...You may have come to the conclusion that Matti wasn't a criminal, but the fact that she still knows of those symbols is a liability, I'm sure, if we hadn't had a say in this, you would've put her away somewhere, no doubt for own protection, but at the same time I'm it would've been something conspicuous so she wouldn't be easily noticed, like a mental facility? After all, a kid with violent and suicidal tendencies rambling about alien symbols wouldn't exactly be suspicious in a place like that...and I have no doubt it would've been a nice place, with good doctors and caring nurses and nice grounds to wander around in; a reassurance of sorts to at least ease your consciousness for that fact that you put your best friend's little sister in the one place that terrifies her more than anything else! You know it lists in her files that she has a fear anything medically related, doctors especially; and despite that, you'd be willing to betray your best friend's trust, to break his very heart at seeing his sister locked up, all for the fact that she simply knew of the existence of a couple of symbols?...Didn't the possibility of putting her in protective custody ever cross your mind? Or even coming to us to help keep her safe? Are you so blind to the emotional cost of all this that you'd be willing to forego an innocent girl's freedom, even her mental stability, for sake of keeping face with the job? You've been accommodating with Togusa's family, why should Batou's little sister be any different?"

The Major flinched slightly as she stood there in a mix of confusion and surprise, trying to wrap her mind around what Morri just said, for a moment her temper simmered down and disappeared and her mind turned inward as she tried to think back to last night and what accentually happened; as she reviewed her external memories, to her surprise (and slight shock) she found she did call the hospital and asked for them to take Matti away, but something was off, the memory of the event wasn't 'fresh' in her mind...was she so riled by Matti's attitude that some part of her snapped and she couldn't be bothered to deal with her anymore? Not likely, if she could put up being around Ashley and his ballsy sense of humour then Matti certainly shouldn't have been a problem...but actually going behind Batou's back? As she racked her memories, she realized something was seriously off, her memories of last night were as they happened, but the emotions behind them were...sketchy; feelings of ire and venomousness bubbled up as she remembered conducting the interrogation, but the only thoughts she had towards Batou were...spite?. But how? Why? How could she even regard him like that?...'What happened last night? I know I was pretty riled after finding that Black Lotus hideout, but I couldn't have been that out of shape that I would-'

Her train of thought stopped abruptly when she noticed Morri had a look of concern in her eyes, wondering why the Major looked so spaced out.

"Are you okay?" she asked, the Major didn't know how to reply at first as she tried to get her scattered thoughts back in order; passing a deep sigh she looked the brunette in the eye with a mixed look of uncertainty and honesty.

"Yeah, I fine...Look, I'm really sorry I didn't talk this over with you guys beforehand and I'm even more sorry I went behind Batou's back; your right I shouldn't have gotten so riled when I did, and to be honest, last night is still a bit of a confusing blur...strange as that sounds, maybe I was more taken aback by the Black Lotus's hideout than I originally thought, and maybe Matti's attitude did get the better of me, and that's inexcusable nedalone unprofessional..." the Major admitted in an impassive, and slightly solemn tone.

"Hey, last night was hard for everyone, finding out about these Black Lotus guys was tough enough on you; the Autobots have finally come for us and we have no idea where they are, or even if they were able to shake off their pursuers; Ashley's dad is out there somewhere on his way here and we have no way of knowing if he's okay or not, Ashley was pretty riled too, and after seeing the look on your face last night I told him to get an early night, least you two would wind up biting each other's heads off..." Morri offered with a weak smile, but the Major didn't reply as she let her continue. "...Look, I'm not wholly sure how this is going to go down, Ravage is confident this little 'demonstration' will work, and though his way of thinking is intimidating to say the least, he's not been wrong so far, and I trust him on this. If, at the end, you're not convinced...then we'll reconvene and think of something else; but I'm telling you, the way Matti came across those insignia's is anything but straightforward, it's going to require an open-mind on everyone's part, including yours if your to understand this; but more importantly...Of all the things we've asked of you guys to do; now, we're asking you to have faith in us, and trust us to do what we need to do to get this whole thing sorted out...at the very least you can afford to put Matti into protective custody, and make amends to Batou by apologizing to him for nearly making a big mistake" she continued, the Major frowned slightly as she pondered on her reasoning, and was reluctant to reply, at first.

"...If this demonstration turns out the way Ravage is expecting to be; what'll it mean for the investigation?..."

"...I don't know; initially...but if Ravage is right, it could change everything, and maybe, just maybe; we might have an advantage over the Decepticons...but first, we've got to convince Matti we're not her enemies. She's been cooling off in room number five for the last fifteen minutes and as a courtesy to you I'm asking if I can talk to her"

"Courtesy? You drag me in here like a five year old, reprimand me for my actions and yet you still have the decency to ask for my permission to interrogate a subject?" the Major quirked with a small smile

"Well, you do work here, I don't; it just wouldn't feel right not asking you" Morri shrugged offhand

"Hm, and there's me thinking you'd finally learnt to take charge, heaven knows you've certainly got the balls to stand up to me and point out I was wrong" The Major grinned, a flash of surprise passed over Morri's face for a second before turning her gaze away

"...It's not a question of taking charge, you made a judgment call that, I'm surprised to say, I believed wasn't the best way to go; and the thing about having balls, it's not a question of not being scared, but knowing that there's something much more important than being scared...that's how I reason it at least" Morri replied honestly as she brought her eyes back up; the Major couldn't help but smile.

"You're too modest"

"Yeah, I get that all the time back home...so, shall we stand here chatting all day or shall we do this?" Morri stepped towards the door and offered to let the Major got first, but the Major hesitated before stepping out.

"What's wrong?" Morri asked

"What do I say to Batou? It wasn't like me to act the way I did, how do I say sorry?"

"Hey, Batou maybe a big lug, but he's your big lug, he doesn't strike me as one to hold a grudge; but he has got a big heart, and people whose hearts encompass the sum of the people they care about always feel that little more strained and hurt when confronted with aggression...I'm sure he'll forgive you if you just explain the truth, after all, he is your best friend" Morri reassured as she placed a friendly hand on her shoulder, with a small listless smile the Major opened the door and stuck her head around the corner; to her surprise Bayou was still in the force field bubble, but his temper had gone as he glanced over at her with an impassive gaze.

"Oh, one last thing I forgot to mention, I didn't know if it would help but Ravage kept Batou's comm channel open on yours so he could listen in on our little discussion...I trust your time out gave you a chance to cool off?" Morri grinned as she stepped out and mentally commanded the bubble to dissipate, allowing the ex-ranger stand on the ground again. The Major looked at her in astonishment before joining her at her side with a less than pleased look in her eyes.

"Pretty much, but if you let me listen in why didn't you let me in there?" Batou asked in much more placid and calmer tone

"Because you were too wound up to listen willing, that and you would've bitten our heads off at the first word so that would've been a waste of time; also considering how last night's events went down neither of you have been able to see eye to eye without both your high strung temperaments getting in the way; you had your sister to worry about and the Major here, simply had a really bad day and in the height of all the angst's simply made a mistake, it happens to best of us, okay?" Morri replied with a mother hen look about her, much to both the agent's surprise.

"...You said in there that Ravage knows out how Matti found the insignia's; did he really mean that?" Batou asked, the hint of worry in his voice didn't escape the girls notice.

"Yes he did, and frankly I'm quite amazed by it myself; it's certainly unique, not something you come across everyday..." Morri smiled, Batou felt a lump rise at the back of his throat "...But the important thing is that she was shown those insignia's for a reason, someone wanted her find us, and if Ravage if right she's meant to help us somehow, and don't ask why cuz I don't fully understand it myself; but right now, we have to convince her that she has nothing to fear from us, we're not here to ridicule or make fun of her, we're simply here to help." she continued, the two agent's glanced at one another slightly puzzled.

"...Fair enough...but even if you talk to her yourself she won't open up just like that" Batou replied

"I'm aware of that, and as such I've got a few tricks up my sleeves to grab her attention, that and a few other things that'll convince her she's not the only one in the world with secrets; I'm sorry I couldn't tell you before; but I needed you to hear what needed to be heard" Morri assured, confounding both the agents even further

"...You know, I don't think I'm ever going to get used to your unorthodox methods" the Major sighed

"You only just noticed? Eh, can't say the routine way agrees with me, you miss all the interesting stuff" Morri grinned as she walked off back down the corridor, Batou and the Major simply glanced sideways at one another as they followed after her. Outside the appointed interrogation room the chief and the rest of the section were waiting with most of the other kids along with Frenzy, Rumble and Ravage.

"Finally your here, are you ready to proceed now?" the chief asked

"Yes, but Morri will handle this one" the Major replied, the chief raised an eyebrow, "Oh? This wouldn't have something to do with Frenzy hacking into certain files pertaining to the section's personnel? Or the fact that Ravage won't let anyone past the door to interview the girl?" the chief asked, Ravage shot him a grin but said nothing, "Something like that, but it's for a good reason I swear, it'll should help clear up this whole thing with her" Morri was quick to assure him, the chief regarded her with bemusement for brief second before discreetly nodding in approval, "Very well, you may proceed" the chief replied as he entered the observation room (the room with a two way mirror looking into the interrogation room) followed by the other section members, "Oh, chief! Wait a sec!" Morri called, grabbing his attention as he craned his head out the door, "No matter what happens, don't let anyone in the room okay?" she asked in a hushed tone, the chief quirked an eyebrow but didn't ask why and simply nodded in acknowledgement. As soon as the door closed, Tom and Ashley came jogging around the corner, Tom was dressed in his holoform suit and collar while Ashley had his six-pointed star shaped tail-stinger spear in one hand.

"Finally! Everyone's waiting!" Ravage reprimanded

"Sorry! I had trouble attaching the collar to the suit! The wires are all fiddly" Tom replied

"Never mind, the Major's given the go ahead so we're good to go" said Morri

"I know, are you ready? Do you remember what to do?"

"Pretty much, the whole 'thought channelling' thing should be no problem, but I'm just a little concerned how YOU'RE going to do your bit" Morri replied in an incredulous

"Don't worry, it's not like this is an interrogation, just a 'friendly chat' remember? Although, if she kicks up the attitude again I will see fit to put her in her place" the panther growled

"As long as that doesn't involve any biting, swatting of the paw, or even tail-tapping her with the mace!" Morri glared at him

"Oh please, a meek little thing like her would be knocked over from even a single tap of my paw nedalone a swat!" Ravage rolled his optic

"Just don't do anything to piss Batou off!"

"Fair enough, now open your mind to me, and get to it..." Ravage ordered, as Morri stood at the door she closed her eyes and concentrated on what she needed to do, in that moment a strange sensation began to swirl in the back of her mind, like a stranger letting themselves in unannounced, she felt it move to the front of her mind and settle next to her present thoughts; when she opened her eyes she still felt like her usual self, except for her senses felt sharper, more in tune to everything around her and she felt the sensation of purring in her throat and the swaying of a tail at the base of her spine, she turned around and found nothing there, "It's merely a side effect, don't worry about it" Ravage said; Morri nodded and quietly entered the room. It was a large and fairly long room with bare walls, save for the two way mirror on the left wall and a table and two sets of chairs at the opposite end of the room. Sitting in the seat facing the wall, Matti turned around in her chair and acknowledged Morri with less than friendly look.

"Miss Walsh I presume?" Morri asked, Matti didn't reply and turned back around and slumped forward on the table.

"You here to take more pot-shots? Or just annoy the hell outta me?" she asked in a slightly venomous tone

"Not at all, if anything, try to think of this not so much as an interrogation, but rather an informal girl to girl chat" Morri replied, feeling slightly embarrassed for not making it sound more professional, bur regardless, she carried on undaunted.

"Oh Really? What, that ruby-eyed bitch send you to pick up where she left off?" Matti sneered

'So that's how she wants to play it huh?' Morri thought, "If by 'ruby-eyed bitch' you mean the Major, I'm afraid she's got other things to attend to at the moment; I'm simply filling in for this little session" Morri replied fluidly as she took a step forward, from behind the mirror everyone watched, wondering where this was going.

"Yeah right, she's right on the other side of that mirror! I know how this works you come in here, try to get me pissed off and then she'll come in here and you both do the old good cop bad cop routine, trying to wind me down until you think you can pry something out of me, the bitch already tried that and it didn't work, so you can piss off too!" she sneered; Morri spotted the can of cola sitting on the table and suddenly got an idea, she grinned and winked at the mirror, that caught the Major's attention.

"Hmm, interesting..." Morri said, deliberately sounding idle

"What?"

"Well, you got me thinking; are you absolutely sure the Major's on the other side of that mirror? Cuz, I haven't seen her all morning, and I was meant to have this little chat with you in private, so how can either of us be sure that anyone's back there?" Morri asked in a smooth calm tone, Matti turned back around in bemusement

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" she asked incredulously

"Well I'm simply pointing out it's a philosophical conundrum; it's a little bold to assume the actions of another human being without knowing beforehand with what limited information one's privy to, I know the Major hasn't had a chance to re-interview you today because she's been gone since last night and hasn't been back since, and I only just found out ten minutes ago that I was supposed to have this little chat to determine whether or not you're ready to start co-operating yet, and suffice to say the good cop bad cop routine has been somewhat redundant for a number of years on account it's easier to simply slip under one's protective barriers and take a peek at whether their telling the truth or not; but apparently since you don't have a cyberbrain that's not the case here...so that leaves us both at this uncertain little twist, since the truth cannot be taken, it can only be given willingly, and since you're not in a 'willing' mood, it looks like the usual means of questioning would be somewhat redundant" Morri explained coolly, Matti stared at her in complete bafflement, in the observation room Batou couldn't help but smirk.

"What?" Matti replied bemused

"Okay, to put it simply, are you absolutely sure of my intentions towards you?" Morri asked, in that one moment as she locked eyes with the ash blond/black haired girl, Morri concentrated her inner voice, channelling it so it rang out in the front of her mind and directed towards Matti.

'Christ this little freak is thick, can't even figure out what I'm saying, and talk about weak, I bet she can't even hurl that can of cola and hit me between the eyes if she tried' Morri s said inwardly. From across the room the girl suddenly froze, like a rabbit listening for a fox in the woods, she seemed to be concentrating on something distant, something Morri couldn't hear as she looked her dead in the eye; then a look of hurt flashed briefly across her face before she scowled in anger.

"I'M NOT A FREAK YOU BITCH!" Matti shouted in a fit of rage as she pushed the chair away, grabbed the can of cola off the table and hurled it at Morri; as if on cue the brunette snapped her arm up like a martial arts master deflecting and blow and the can bounced off the blue force field that suddenly rippled around her and spilled its fluid content all over her blue hoodie. Matti stopped and stared at her in alarm and inside the observation room everyone blinked in equal surprise. Morri casually looked down at the stain on her hoodie, and as fluidly as her breaths came and went, she let loose the rest of the force-field, letting it engulf her entire body and the surrounding floor in a radiant blue fire which made her hair dance around like seaweed drifting back and forth on the currents. Matti stood and watched in awe-struck shock and amazement as the fire lit up the room and gave off waves of energy that synchronized to her breathing, the cola stain on her hoodie began to glow vivid white, and then it began to flake off the cotton fabric like wall paint under a heat gun until it was all gone; Morri then recalled the fire, letting it die down until it completely dissipated. Needless to say Matti was left speechless, and Morri stood her ground as she anticipated the girl's rising level of uncertainty; uncertainty that could easily tip over into a panic if she wasn't careful.

"You...you're..."

"...I don't think you're a freak Matti...but how did you know that's what I was thinking? You don't have a cyberbrain so you couldn't have hacked me...so how else could you have known what was on my mind?" Morri asked softly.

One could have heard a pin drop as the room fell deathly silent, in the back of her mind Matti began to panic as she realized she was now at the point where two and two could be put together and she would be found out; as anxious worry began to creep in she began to break out into a cold sweat, her hands began to feel damp and clammy and her mind began to race with every conceivable lie to explain what just happened, but the look in Morri's eyes told her right away that it wouldn't work; inside the observation room the atmosphere had suddenly turned tense, Batou was beginning to inwardly panic just as much as Matti while everyone else was trying to figure out just what was going on, Morri had obviously hit the nail on the head, but on what exactly? As Batou watched on in uncertain apprehension, the scene unfolded further as Morri began to slow step forward.

"...I guess it must be quite a knack, being able to what you can do, and needless to say, I can't say I'm not impressed...but if you are what I believe you are, then you know I'm no threat to you, and you can see it for yourself, literally..." Morri said calmly; Matti instinctively stepped back, throwing up her defences as her anxiety began to spike. But something about Morri's eyes told her she wasn't what she seemed to be. As she calmed her breathing down, Matti reached out her mind to Morri, focusing on what she wanted to see; as she concentrated, she saw Morri's aura come into view, a faint blur at first that clarified into a clear vision of a radiant pale gold swirling cloud with tints of aqua-green, pink and blue, it was calming, warm and strong, and yet it seemed to radiate a loving vibe. But around the aura was a secondary mass of colour, a huge vivid blue radiance that sparkled and glistened with tiny white lights the size of pin heads, its vibes were strange and alien compared to the first aura and much more potent as it seemed radiate tsunami-like waves of powerful energy, she instantly recognized it from her dream and realized something was defiantly going on as the voice of the strange entity echoed in the back of her mind.

...Seek them out and tell them all that I have shown you...

Cautiously relaxing her guard, Matti allowed Morri to approach closer, her aura faded from her sight as she let her concentration go, in the observation room everyone was silent as they watched the strange scene unfold and Batou's fears had given way to a sense of realization, 'I don't believe it' he thought in amazement.

"Wh-Who are you?" Matti stammered fearfully

"Someone with certain secrets that have to stay secret, for fear of someone assuming the wrong idea...we all have secrets to keep Matti, all for our own reasons, personal or otherwise; and we're both individuals who're wary of the consequences of letting such sensitive information get out...But I've no doubt yours, compared to mine, is a most heavy one to bare. Being able to see what others cannot see and the truth of things that otherwise go unknown? I've no doubt people have seen this of you, and some have ridiculed you for being 'different'; that's why you lash out and push away anyone who comes too close for comfort, you know how badly prejudice can hurt, so your careful to guard your 'uniqueness' so no-one's none the wiser...but it would seem in this case, someone already knew of you..." Morri offered with a small smile; as she listened, Matti's anxiousness slowly turned into a sense of dubious curiosity, her more relaxed stance indicated she had dropped her guard and was feeling a little more at ease.

"...Why are you telling me this?" Matti cautiously asked

"Because I believe someone told you about us, and sent you to find us for a reason..." Morri replied as she unzipped her hoodie and Matti immediately saw the Autobot medallion hanging around her neck; a sense of realization swept through her mind as she looked at brunette. Whilst inside the observation room everyone watched in tense disbelief, "...What the hell's going on? What're they talking about?" Togusa thought aloud, "No idea, but Morri's obviously got this covered" Mikaela replied

"...If your one of them; the Autobots, why didn't you just say from the start?" Matti asked

"For the same reason you didn't open up either; just because you have, shall we say certain 'abilities', didn't automatically mean we can trust you just like that, the fact that you know our name and who we are was somewhat of a problem, only a handful of people know who we truly are, and fact that you found out about us was a reason to be concerned. For all we knew you could've been a serious risk; a terrorist with some ideological view to protest to the world, a hacker trying to gain information, or worse; we didn't know at first, but after a little 'probing' we soon figured out who you really are, and what you can really do...it's nothing personal, it's just being cautious" Morri explained; Batou was surprised by Matti's calm response, she didn't retort or snap back, she simply stood there and listened as Morri held her gaze with a soft and understanding look.

"But how did you figure out 'what' I was?"

"I'll explain later; but first, I need to be certain of what you can do, what your 'abilities' allow you to do in particular, nothing hard or strenuous, just some harmless little parlour tricks okay?"

"...Okay?" Matti quirked an eyebrow as a pang of anxiousness flared up in the back of her mind again.

"Just three little things...first off-" as if on cue the door opened and in stepped a tall athletic looking man with blackish-indigo hair and sky blue eyes, at his side was a younger boy with unkempt brunette hair and slate blue eyes holding a long spear with a weird looking six-pointed star shaped blade and covered in strange symbols and markings up and down the shaft. The boy stepped forward and handed the spear to Morri.

"Matti, this is my cousin Ashley; he's training to be a warrior hunter, and as such all good warriors have their chosen weapon...only two other people besides Ashley and myself know how he obtained the blade to this spear; I want you tell me how he got it and where it came from..." Morri asked, Matti looked at the spear for a moment, a little uncertain at first, but took the weapon in both hands and closed her eyes as she began to concentrate on the spear; channelling her mind on the object, reaching out for the energies that entwined it and tried to see the history that brought it into being. At first there was a dull blur of colour as she focused her mind's eye on the energies contained within the spear, then a fuzzy and scattered vision began to play out like a damaged video tape, bits and pieces of the past flashed through her mind...

A ten foot robotic monster, intent on killing

Ashley grasped in the creature's grip, but brought down as Ashley attacked the creature with...claws?

Ashley stood over the creature, triumphant and bristling with blue fire as a giant robotic panther snapped the end of the creature's tail off, and handed it to the boy...his prize...his victory

As swiftly as the images came, they faded from her sight just as quickly until only darkness existed behind her eyelids.

"You...you took down a dragon?" Matti said offhand as she opened her eyes and her mind returned to the here and now.

"I guess you could say that, so how did I get the blade?" Ashley smirked

"...You fought a...I don't know what the hell it was, but it looked like something off one of those old X-file rerun's" Matti grimaced, to which Ashley couldn't help but smirk, "...anyway, you somehow fought that thing singlehandedly and the blade came from its tail" Matti continued, there was a pause before both Morri and Ashley grinned and nodded in improvement; on the other side of the two way mirror everyone watched in a mix of confusion and morbid curiosity; the Major in particular was astounded, "How did she know about Saski?" she thought aloud, "She didn't! Dude I think I know what's going on here!" Miles exclaimed in excitement; "What?" Ishikawa asked, "Shh! Watch!" Hailey pointed out as the tall dark haired stranger stepped forward.

"Crude, but spot on" Morri smirked and Matti breathed a soft sigh of relief; "...So, for test number two, I want you take a close look at this fine stranger here, and tell his true form" Morri continued, to which Matti looked at her bemused

"His true form?" she asked

"His true form; he's not what he appears to be, and I want you tell me what he really looks like" Morri gestured to him. Matti locked eyes with him as she called upon her mind to reach out and see beyond what the physical boundaries kept hidden; the room seemed to fade away and only he and her were standing before one another. As his aura materialized around his form, Matti saw, much to her surprise, that indeed the stranger wasn't who he appeared to be. Instead of a tall mature stranger, there stood a shorter, younger teenage male with unkempt black hair, hazel brown eyes and a goofy grin plastered across his face, the form of the taller adult male was encased around him like a glass statue, transparent and with a blue tinge rippling up and down; but as she looked closer, she noticed his aura seemed to reach out to Morri's, that's when she noticed their faces were similar in terms of their jaw lines and cheek bones...were they related?

"Whoa, it's not him, I mean, he's defiantly different" Matti exclaimed in surprise

"Different how?" Morri asked

"...He's, younger, shorter and slimmer, has messy black hair, hazelnut coloured eyes, and, looks a little like you in a way" she replied, again Morri smiled and the stranger reach his arm up and seemed to tap something on the back of his neck; Matti flinched in shock as the stranger shimmered and disappeared, in his place stood the boy she'd just described, wearing a dark indigo body suit with orange stripes running up and down the length of his whole body and around his neck was a large collar.

"How?...what the hell-"

"Don't worry, I'll explain later; your two for three, and your last task is the simplest..."

"What?"

"...Tell me how many people are standing behind that two way mirror, what they look like, and which one looks familiar to you" Morri replied, Matti dropped her jaw in shock but Morri was quick to hold up her hand to stop her before she had a chance to lose her temper, "I know, but I never actually said anyone was standing back there; but that doesn't mean in any way that you're in trouble or that you've been taken for a ride, and if anyone does have any issues over this they will have to take it up with me, not you" Morri glared at the mirror, "...They've been watching all this because they needed to see the truth for themselves, if I had told them outright what you can do, chances are they would've shot me down and your situation would've stayed unresolved; they didn't know what they were going to see here when we asked them to sit in and watch this, and as such they watched this whole thing with more curiosity than speculation or doubt, I hope...I don't know what their opinions are right now, but I am hoping this last test will give some form of 'confirmation' for their own peace of minds, if they hold any personal views of you then they will stay strictly personal and if they openly speculate otherwise well then they'll have to deal with both me and your big brother, and at the rate he's been stressing over you I don't think anyone will want to argue with him" she continued, to which Batou smirked, Matti looked at her in confusion, on the one hand she didn't wanted to do this, but on the other, something about Morri and what she was saying didn't make her feel uncomfortable as she usually would, and that felt strange, being at ease like this in the face of uncertainty was something new for her, and suffice to say it felt both odd, and okay; as she wrestled with her thoughts, she found she couldn't reply and looked at her in uneasy doubt. Morri placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and gazed at her like a mother would her daughter.

"...Look, Matti, regardless of what anyone thinks of you and your abilities; the fact remains that you found us, and our karma is as such that, unfortunately anyone who gets mixed up with us becomes unintentionally caught up in our 'issues', and no matter how far you may try to distant yourself, one way or another, something will happen that'll lead us to meet each other again, and possibly not under good circumstances...Batou, and his friends found us, thinking we were something else altogether, but when they learned the truth they knew they couldn't back out; and for all that it's worth we've been trying to protect them as much we've tried to protect everyone else in this city; for all their expertise, their prowess, they're combat savvy and their true grit, they're still only human like myself, and like all humans they were scared at what was going on and what they got themselves into. But regardless, they, we, all of us did what we had to do to try and make things right; no-one should have to suffer at the expense of simply knowing what we are...I don't know who or what sent you to find us, but the fact that you were compelled to find us tells me that maybe you were meant to be a part of this...was it deliberate? Accidental? Who can say, not me, and certainly no-one else on the other side of that mirror, but either way, your here now, and as far as choices go, only you can decide what you want to do after you step out of this room, Batou will most likely want you go home and stay there, and probably ask one of us to guard your family's house; but in the long run I don't think it'll make a difference whether you're staying here in this tower or staying at home...one way or another something will happen that'll be beyond our control, and heaven forbid something happens to you, Batou will never forgive us, especially if it's something we could've had a hand in preventing...I'm not saying your life is necessarily in danger, I'm simply saying, life has an unfair way of making you realize that not everything is within your control, and that, something or someone else always has other ideas..." Morri explained; Matti dropped her gaze as she tried to wrap her head around everything that was just said, fear tried to push itself to the front of her mind; but for the first time in...she couldn't remember how long, she was more uncertain than anything else, uncertain of the choice that lay before her, and uncertain of what lay ahead. Batou continued to watch her in disbelief, never had he seen his sister so...placid, here she was facing with, possibly the biggest decision of her life, and she wasn't running away or lashing out, she was actually calm, albeit nervous as she began to wring her hangs. The others too were equally both fascinated and a little alarmed at how she correctly passed Morri's tests, however this was going to turn out, it was apparent Morri had brought out her true colours, and that she wasn't who they initially thought she was.

"...If I choose to help you guys, what'll happen?" Matti asked

"Who can say? Things will happen as they happen, nothing is set in stone and nothing is ever over until the fat lady's singing; but I can assure you you'll be in good company, if anything I think you might be a favourite among the more 'open-minded' of us, and don't worry about the Major, she may be a little 'strict' but I think you might actually impress her"

"You're serious?" Matti deadpanned

"Certainly not, one thing I've observed from running Batou and his friends is that you're not really worth paying attention to unless you can really make an impact, and within the course of the last several hours you managed to give the Major an ulcer, Batou a headache and the chief of this section has already got a ton of paperwork on you lined up; that pretty much ticks all the boxes so I'd say your off to a good start already" Morri grinned, to which Matti smiled; in the observation room the kids and some of the agents, including the chief couldn't help but snigger and chuckle. "...Look, whatever you choose to do, it's your choice, Batou can say whatever he wants but at the end of the day it's your choice" Morri reassured her.

"But...I don't think I totally understand it" Matti replied dubiously

"Honey, no-one ever totally understands what they get themselves into when they take a leap a faith; whatever happens, you've got a good heart and that's a good start as any...But I won't lie to you Matti, things could get quite dicey, and whatever happens, whether it's by our own hands or by something that's beyond our control, you'll have to learn to work with us as a team; you must be responsible for whatever actions you take, and you must be accountable for any choices you make, even the bad ones. And, you have to learn to be brave, you must be willing to stand up and face whatever comes at you, no matter how terrible or painful it may be; but don't fret, if you're worried about it we can teach you how to fight, how to think your way out of a problem, and anything else that you'll need to know...But you'll have to make the effort if you want to keep up, life presents only so many chances to prove one's worth, and things are as such that you'll have to learn on the go...and when things look down, don't think for one minute that you'll be the only one who's having it bad, because we've all been having it bad, and we've be there for each other, so we'll be there for you...But more than anything, the one thing that defines us all together is that each of us has a talent to bring to the table, something that makes each of us a pro in our field's and makes us formidable in our own right; and what you can do certain puts you in a class of your own; and if anything you could think of it as a way to render all the bigots and small minded idiots of the world invalid. Rather than strike out at anyone who say's you're a freak, go one better and prove them wrong; that your more than what you appear to be, you've got something that allows you to see past all the bigotry, prejudice and ignorance of the world, and see the truth in everything and everyone for what it really is, that's a power very few have, and it's something you could put to very good use..." Morri said; Matti looked at her speechlessly, no-one had ever said anything like that to her; it felt...empowering, and in the back of her mind it actually felt good.

"You...you seriously believe I can do this?..."

"Would I be standing here giving you the pep talk of your life if I didn't think you could?...You may have to convince everyone else that you're up to the task, but I know a good bet when I see one, and I believe you've got a good innings" Morri smiled, for a long moment Matti stood there in silence, pondering her thoughts and weighing her options, but uncertainty gave way to confidence and she then looked up at the two way mirror and looked back at Morri with a look of clarity in her eyes.

"...Two for three so far?..." she smiled

"Two for three, so who's standing back there?" Morri asked with a satisfied smile, stepping towards the mirror, Matti concentrated to see past her reflection and through the glass; everything at the range of her vision blurred away as the mirror faded from sight and inside she could see her 'audience' watching her with mixed looks of amazement and mild alarm, their forms and features highlighted by the essence of their auras.

"...There's fifteen altogether...From left to right; there's a bald guy with prosthetic eyes, looks like he's a cyborg. Next to him there's a tall slim guy with narrow eyes and slicked back hair, looks like a cyborg too...standing in front of them is a kid with shoulder-length blonde hair, a kid with red hair and a green bandana, and a tall girl with long blond hair...Further along there's a guy in a turtle-neck jumper with a mullet, a kid with dark brown hair, another kid, shorter, and has a prosthetic left leg, and a girl with long black hair and bright blue eyes...then there's a black guy in a football jersey; an older guy with a beard, the one standing next him has a buzz cut and an eye patch...and at the end there's a much older guy in a suit, next to him is the Major, and behind her is Batou..." Matti said. On the other side of the mirror, everyone was dumbstruck; aside from Miles who was grinning wildly in titillation, but Batou merely looked at her with a proud smile, and grinned in satisfaction when he saw looks on his friends faces. The Major was at a loss what to say nedalone think, this kid didn't have any form of cyberization so she couldn't have accessed the building's IR system, and there was very little chance anyone told her about all this before hand, what good would putting on such an elaborate farce serve except to waste time and entertain everyone? She had a very good idea what Morri tried to prove this girl had, but her straightforward line of thinking prevented her from saying it outright.

"Dude! She's totally psychic!" Miles exclaimed

"I was totally thinking the same thing! There's no way she saw us come in here and she certainly didn't know anything about the holoform collars or Ashley's spear...she's defiantly got the sixth sense!" Hailey concurred

"Wait a sec; are we seriously considering the idea that this kid has some kind of psychic ability?" Saito pointed out. 'Don't consider it, believe it!' her voice echoed through his mind, Saito froze in shock as he looked back at Matti; through the window she folded her arms and scowled at him in distain, the sniper suddenly felt a cold shiver run up his spine and said nothing more.

"So how'd I do?" Matti asked in slight eagerness

"Three for three, and, I don't know what happened between you and Saito just now, but I think that little trick was the cherry on the cake" Morri winked

"Saito? That's his name? So you can see them too?"

"Ah, technically, I don't have what you have, I was channelling for someone else, and they've been watching this whole thing through my eyes, it was he that discovered what you really are and how you found those symbols; like you he has certain abilities but unlike you his is much more powerful and can do a lot more" Morri replied, Matti's eyes flew up surprise

"There's someone else with my 'gift'? And he's more powerful?" she asked

"Oh yeah, and you've certainly piqued his interest, he's keen to meet you and I've no doubt there's a lot you two share in common; you'll get to meet him soon enough, but first, I think you better meet everyone else.." Morri replied as she stepped over to the window and gestured to everyone that they were coming out. She dipped her head as she felt the strange presence in mind began to creep away to the back of her mind.

'Well done child; now let her be introduced to the others, my introduction can come later...' Ravage's voice echoed in her mind before his presence disappeared like a fog back across the sea; Morri felt odd, the sensation of the purring and swaying tail had gone and she felt like her old self again, but still, it felt weird having the presence of another in her mind, but she shrugged it off and put it down to it simply the first time she'd ever allowed the panther to expand his telepathy into her mind.

"Are you okay?" Matti asked

"Yeah I'm fine, just relieved we managed to get this all sorted out" Morri sighed

"...Me too, but why me?"

"Huh?"

"Why so, understanding?...I don't think I've ever met anyone outside my family who'd seen me for who I really am and not what I am...how can you see me even though you don't have the same 'abilities' as I do?" Matti asked, Morri paused for a moment, then smiled at her with that understanding look in her eyes.

"Because what we are and who we are can be one and the same thing, their different and there are certain things that highlight those differences, but ultimately, who we are determines what we are and vice versa depending on the individual; it's one thing to look at someone at make up your mind what they are based on how they look and how they interact with you, but to really see them, you have to be willing to step back, be patient and try to work out what's really going on, and more often than not what you think a person is and what they really are underneath isn't necessarily true; but to really understand someone, I find you got to be willing to listen to your heart and not necessarily your head"

"Is that why you're always so good to me?" Ashley peeped in

"Don't push it..." Morri smirked, "Anyway, let's not keep everyone waiting; oh, one last thing before I forget-"

"What?"

"Talk to your brother and make amends okay? He's been worried about you since this whole thing with you kicked off, and I know doesn't mean half the stuff he says"

"Eh, that's Batou for ya, he maybe a jerk at times, but in the end he's my jerk brother, and the only one I have; you know, I kinda do feel bad for what I said earlier, maybe I should say something...and maybe the Major..."

"I think that would be a very wise thing to do" Morri smiled as she lead the way out of the room and to the waiting group.

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, if you think the Major was being somewhat out of characture; DON'T FREAK! there's a reason why she's behaving like this and it will be revealed in the next few chapters, it's an important plot twister so put a pin in it for later, plus, another famililar face will be joining the crew in due course so keep reading and stay tuned! Oh & don't forget to R&R on the way! :)


	55. Chapter 54: Gratitude & Vexed Minds

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

Additional disclaimer: Matti belongs to JillTheCrazy1

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 54: GRATITUDE AND VEXED MINDS

"Uh, are you okay? You're not gonna faint are you?" Trailbreaker asked nervously as Matti stared up at him in shock and awe, behind him Bluestreak and Bumblebee both watched on in equal apprehension, not moving a single inch, for fear of unintentionally spooking her.

"...Uh...I don't think so...you three were cars ten seconds ago, now you're giant robots?" Matti replied in a partially dazed stupor

"Well, yes, that's why we're called transformers?" He replied with a nervous grin, Matti inwardly face-palmed herself, 'DUH! 'Transformer'? What else would he be called?' she reprimanded herself.

"Uh, okay?" she replied, wondering just what she'd gotten herself into; seeing the look on her face, Batou was quick to put an arm around her shoulder and lend her his big brotherly reassurance, to which she felt at ease.

"Don't worry about it, Trailbreaker wouldn't hurt a fly, if anything he'd offer it a drink and a rest before sending it on its merry way; that's why he, Blue and Bee are the best guys for you to meet first" Darren smiled from where he sat on Trailbreaker's knee; steadily, Matti approached and ran her hand over the intricate metal on the black bot's leg, swallowing hard and letting go of her nervousness, she looked up into his face and sensed his alien aura pulsating beneath his being, it certainly didn't feel human, but it's wasn't a bad aura either.

"So, you guys really are from outer space?" she asked

"Pretty much, but then, earth is a pretty cool place to live; nice roads, beautiful scenery, and fine vintage fossil fuels, can't complain really" Bluestreak joked, Matti couldn't help but grin.

"I can see why you love them, they are pretty awesome" Matti looked up at Batou

"See? I'm not a complete duffus when I asked you to trust me on this" he replied

"And wait 'till you see the rest of the guys! Your gonna love' em!" Miles grinned from where he was perched on Bumblebee's shoulder

"Um? We don't want any unnecessary panic here Miles, let's just stick with the 'yes their giant alien robots so there's no need to freak out' step first okay?" Batou suggested, to which Matti looked at him incredulously.

"What? I'm not gonna freak out! Do I look like I'm about to have a spaz attack to you? No, I can handle this and I'd like to meet the rest of the Autobots, if their as cool as you three I can defiantly handle this!" Matti exclaimed confidently

"You're sure?" Morri asked

"Yes? Wasn't it you who convinced me to take a chance on myself? How do I know I can handle it unless you let me find out for myself?" Matti grinned, to which Morri smirked.

"Touché, okay then, let's go and meet the rest of the gang..." Morri replied as she lead the way down the access ramp down to the lowest level of the building's underground parking lot, to where the section's motor maintenance garage was located and where the section's Tachikoma hangers were situated. Batou looked over at Morri with a slight look of uncertainty on his face, but Morri simply shot him one of her 'don't worry, I got this covered' looks and carried on as the three bots transformed and wheeled on down with Mile's and Darren in tow.

The morning had certainly been interesting, after the 'demonstration' in the interrogation room, everyone been both bewildered and amazed by Matti's abilities. Though few words had been said when they first met her, their mixed looks spoke for themselves. The fact that she had no cyberbrain and that no-one told her about all this left them with very few if any conclusions (logical ones at least) as to how she knew they were there in the observation room; the existence of other intelligent life in the universe was one major fact that had been complicated to accept, but contemplating the idea of clairvoyance was something new entirely, but was it totally beyond everyone's belief? Not likely, Miles, Hailey, Sam and Danny were in awe at Matti's performance; Mikaela, Glen and Darren were a little more reason minded but were never the less impressed, the section 9 team on the other hand were somewhat on the fence; had it been any other time and place chances were they probably would've been more sceptical if not dismissive, but when the fact that they were friends with giant alien robots reminded them that this was NOT any other time and place and this was for real, the idea of clairvoyance suddenly held a level of possibility. Maybe not a high level of probability, but if the existence of aliens was possible, why not this girl and her abilities? In the back of his mind the Chief couldn't help but wonder how many other things that simple fact would apply to, it certainly had had an effect on the team, and not just on the surface. And the one thing that made them keep their scepticism to themselves was the way Morri had held the whole conversation with Matti, all the way throughout she'd held Matti's attention with confidence, honesty and fluid calmness; she'd been tactful, quick to read the situation, and had managed to sway the situation in her favour. The Major had been quite impressed, and realized Morri had subtly hinted that debating over Matti's abilities was not open for discussion, this, the other agents had noticed too, so the impression of impassive frustration was evident in their stance's and the way they greeted the girl with unreadable faces, compared to the kids who were just simply impressed. But regardless, the feeling of overall uncertainty had been dispelled and everyone was for the most part, alright with the conclusion that Matti was clairvoyant, but even though no one was lending any form of doubt or criticism, the feeling of some form of complication was lying just beneath the surface, and no doubt it would make itself present in time; that, both Matti and Morri knew, would have to be careful of. Right after the team met Matti outside the interrogation room and discussed the details of the test with Morri, Jazz called for her to come down and meet the Autobots right away; but just to be sure that she wouldn't be too overwhelmed, Batou recommended a 'tester' to see if she could cope okay in the presence of the giant robotic beings (much to Matti's chagrin), to which only the 'friendliest and most approachable bots' (as Batou's described them) would do, so Trailbreaker, Bluestreak and Bumblebee were called up to meet Matti.

Which was what had lead up to now.

"Hey, where did the Major go? I didn't see her when we came out of the interrogation room" Matti asked

"Nah I didn't either, she's like that though; here one minute and gone the next, but that's just how she is...although this time I was hoping she'd stick around for this" Morri sighed

"Maybe something came up and she had to see to it, you know how she never likes to leave things unchecked" Batou offered impassively, Morri simply looked at him as if to say 'you and I both know that's not the case'; the privet conversation between Morri and the Major had seriously vexed him, letting him listen in on their conversation without letting him make any form of interjection was one thing, but the Major's reactions had raised a red flag in the back of his mind. No doubt he would confront her about it later, not least for what nearly happened to his sister, but for now he wanted to see this thing with Matti through, once he knew she would be okay, and then he could worry about the Major. As they reached the bottom level of the parking lot and approached the huge twenty metre high hanger doors at the far of the level, Matti straightened up and inhaled deeply, in readiness for whatever was about to happen next, any form of apprehension was immediately squashed down by her eagerness to see the giant's, curiosity was now more powerful than fear, something she was not use to...and it felt good.

"Brace yourself" Miles grinned

"Okay, nothing to worry about" she mumbled under her breath, the internal locks on the doors clanged and clunked as they unlocked out of place and the doors slid open like a pair of elevator doors.

Inside the hanger bay the Tachikoma's were sharing their hanger space with Jazz, Jay-jay, Hot Rod, the Lambo twins and all the drones bar Ravage while the seekers and Deathshot were up on the roof hiding under the sniper's hologram projector; since yesterday's downtown battle left most of the city in a panic, the Autobots now had to be cautious in how they went about hiding themselves in plain sight, not that it was a problem, but with the news networks working the general populous into a panic over the prospect of more giant rouge robots running around unchecked, it was better to be over cautious than blasé about it; no one was taking any chances, not when the situation had reached this level of fever-pitch. From the hanger's observation window, the chief watched as Matti was blown away by the other Autobots, he couldn't help but smile when Jay-jay came running up and glomped Matti by the waist in a fit of jiggling squeaks and chirps, to which everyone laughed and cooed the little femme to let her go, but Jay-jay wouldn't have any of it, she loved hugging 'squishy bots' and Matti certainly felt nicely warm and soft; behind him the elevator went ding and Tom stepped out.

"Hey, how's Matti doing?" he greeted as he joined Aramaki at his side

"It would seem miss Walsh is getting along with everyone quite nicely..." the chief directed his gaze down to hanger floor, where Matti was running circles around the other bots with Darren and Miles as they played 'tag' with Jay-jay and the drones. "Wow, she's taken to them better than I thought" Tom smiled offhand

"Indeed...that was quite a gamble your cousin took, having us bear witness to that 'demonstration' without prior knowledge was certainly taking the initiutive" the chief continued

"Well, she figured she didn't want to leave any room for doubt, it goes without saying that she's the understanding type but when she really wants to put a particular point across she will back you into a corner so you can only see one way; heck I can't even remember how many times she's use similar tactics to corner me into doing odd jobs around the house; she's smart like that" Tom replied

"...Tell me, beside's Miss Walsh's clairvoyance, what was it about the girl that made her take such an interest in her welfare?" the chief asked, Tom looked at him for a moment, contemplating his thoughts and turned back to watch the scene below.

"...I don't think it's a case of Matti being personally special to her, Morri's one of those people who can smell a rat from a mile away, and I think there was something the Major was gonna do that she didn't agree with, that would've resulted in Matti being in a wholly different right now" he replied frankly, the chief quirked an eyebrow

"What was the Major was going to do?"

"I'm not sure, but I think the Major was gonna call someone in; we didn't exactly have time to talk about it before the demonstration we only had ten minutes to get everything together, but I think Frenzy hacked the phone lines to divert a call to the Niihama mental health facility, I don't know what went on but whatever was originally gonna go down the Major didn't follow through. Whatever Morri said beforehand managed to make her change her mind" Tom shrugged; he didn't notice the look of suspicion in the chiefs eyes as the old ape simply gazed down into the hanger, his thoughts beginning to turn in the direction of suspicion.

The day passed by uneventfully, but the atmosphere was muted; in the section's dive room Glen, Frenzy, Darren and anyone else who cared to see, watched the news updates of the ongoing rescue operation to find survivors in the ruins of the fallen Sukaitawa buildings, of the fifty five thousand people that were in the three buildings at the time they fell, barely a fraction of that were pulled out alive, and over three times as many were found dead so far, and the body count was rising by the hour. All across the city the military and emergency services were stretched to their limits as they continued help those who were still trapped in the subways, the basements of their office blocks and the rubble of the other fallen buildings around town. All day long the fires of yesterday's battle continued to burn and darken the city skyline with smoke and ash, emergency vehicles darted back and forth between the various hospitals around town, even the more able-bodied civilians were contributing to the less fortunate survivors by helping out any way they can. Everywhere across New Port and the other city's that were attacked, stories of survival, courage, fortitude, sorrow and humanity filled the online news forums and sites as countless individuals relayed their stories of where they were the day Japan was attacked by the unidentified rouge robots. Although no one said anything, everyone couldn't help but feel dreadfully guilty over not being able to go out and help with the rescue efforts, with their superior strength the Autobots could easily shift the heavier rumble and debris, and with their sharper sense's the drones could easily sniff out any buried survivors; Deathshot even put forward the possibility of specially formatting some of his carbon based nanites to interface with human tissue to help heal the more severely incapacitated victims. As they peeked out from the entrance of the section's parking lot, and over the top of the helipad, the Autobots felt their sparks weigh heavy within their spark chambers; they felt so useless, and helpless; and the humans weren't feeling much different. They hated having to hide away from their fellow man in his hour of need, deep down within their being, the ancient voice of instinct panged at them to go out and help, to be there for each other and be there to simply to let the lonely know that they weren't alone.

But elsewhere within section 9 HQ, someone had more troubling concerns.

Breathing a sigh of frustration as she removed the dive terminal from her neck ports, the Major slumped back in her chair and turned to look out the window; since Morri's demonstration this morning her thoughts had been vexed with doubt and uncertainty over last night's events. It was odd in as much what happened did happen in real time, but looking back on it now, the memories of what went on didn't seem...right, at least, right for what was at hand and the emotions behind them. As she scanned the section's IR camera footage and her external memories in detail, she was shocked to find that she had been aggressive, angry, frustrated and hard on poor Matti, and she was even more alarmed to find that she did indeed call the Niihama mental health facility, asking them to pick her up and section her after she refused to cooperate. A terrible feeling of guilt began to bite at the back of her mind, how could she do that? Why would she do that? It made no sense, but at the same time confusion also made her ask herself why she couldn't see things clearly, why had she been so aggressive? It wasn't like her to lose her temper in such a way, especially not towards a kid acting bratty, attitude like that she could take on any day of the week, but what made her falter like that? Did the stress of last night really get to her that badly? And if so why take it out on anyone nedalone a kid?

None of this made any sense; suspecting the possibility of an 'outside influence' she'd used her external memory device and custom made virus-sweeper programmes to check for any form of a ghost-hack or hidden viruses (a month ago she would've dismissed the idea of anyone being able to hack into her mind; but with the knowledge of giant alien robots with far superior technology being a present factor, it was best not to take any chances), but when the programmes flashed green and gave the all-clear, it only confounded her even more; she even checked the section's network functions and security protocols, even the Tachikoma's online agent functions were not left to chance, all of which came up clean (for the most part, Frenzy's little hacking viruses were easy enough to get rid of; much to the drone's annoyance), nothing was there to suggest anything out of the ordinary. Maybe it really was all in her head and she was just trying to grasp at shadows that weren't really there, but even so, she knew her behaviour was out of line and her actions were inexcusable (she was so thankful she didn't see the chief when they got back from the mission, heaven knows what might have happened). As her thoughts went round in circles and she twiddled the white paper crane in one hand, a gentle tap at the door snapped her mind back to the here and now as the door opened and the heavy footsteps approaching from behind told her who it was; she sighed and waited for the immanent reprimand from Batou, it was no less than what she deserved for nearly locking his little sister away in a mental hospital, but as the seconds ticked by and nothing happened, she cautiously turned around and was surprised to see Batou standing calmly with an impassive frown; this was certainly different.

"I know why your here Batou, and to be honest, I don't know where to begin..." she ruefully sighed in shame

"I figured as much, you know you can be pretty heartless when you want to be; but I couldn't believe you'd be so cold as to lock my sister away just because you lost your temper with her" Batou replied impassively, the level of complete non-emotion in his voice really grabbed her attention; was he so pissed off at her that he'd shut off his emotions completely? Either way, she knew she'd done wrong by him, and there was no way of disputing it otherwise, to do so would be just making sorry excuses for herself and that was not who she was. For a moment she didn't know what to say, but then, apologizes are never easy for anyone, especially when your prone to being proud.

"...I, don't know what happened, last night was-...didn't make any sense" was all she could say, Batou's frown softened as concern replaced his hard edginess; now he was really concerned, he hadn't seen her like this since that time she dived Hideo Kuze's ghost line during the individual eleven case, or more so now as she looked utterly spent, this wasn't good. Pulling up a seat by the desk, Batou sat himself down and looked her in the eye.

"...There were a hundred things I wanted to say to you, after I found out that you really did call the mental hospital I had this whole rant planned...but after this morning I don't think that's really important anymore; what worries me now, is what's up with you? You've been in here all day and have spoken to no one, Matti's been wanting to apologize to you and everyone else is concerned, even the chief's not sure what to think, and that goes without saying after he saw the bodies of our doppelgangers" he said calmly, she didn't reply, and simply glanced down at the little origami crane in her hand.

"Look; I know this whole thing has really taken a turn, what happened yesterday-...I still can't believe we actually survived it, and the Black Lotus...hell even I still can't believe the truth, the fact that they weren't even human to begin with, and that we didn't even have an inkling? I don't even want to try and imagine what would've happened if the Autobot's hadn't shown up when they did...for what it's worth we own them for saving our lives that day, even if it was accidental and they didn't even know we were there, the fact that we survived is something to be grateful for...and if you think you're the only one trying to confront the reality of all this your dead wrong. We've all been taking it hard in our stride Major, even the kids have trying their best to play soldier just to keep up with us; last night Becky and Becca went back to the safe house in tears when they saw the news of the Sukaitawa buildings fall, Darren was so exhausted from the fight he crashed in the dive room and fell asleep, and Glen's so worried for the Autobot's rescue party he nearly had a panic attack...don't think for one minute you've got it worse than the rest of us, because you weren't only one there when the towers fell, or when we were down in the underground bunker..." Batou said; she gazed up at him before passing another deep rueful sigh.

"...Thanks Batou...but, I don't even know where this is coming from; why, I was what I was last night, that wasn't me last night, I-"

"No, don't beat yourself for getting over stressed about the job; we may be the most elite police unit in Japan but at the end of the day we're only human -" the Major's face turned impassive as she hid away her dubiousness, she always hated it when that figure of speech was applied to cyborgs like herself, not least because of the irony of it, not being a human in the truest sense of the word, she felt it was an inaccurate metaphorical analogy in philosophical terms. "...there's only so much we can do within the limits of what's plausible, but it would be fair to say that this last month had been a real test of what we can really do when push comes to shove" he continued, the Major leaned back in her chair and stared off into empty space, her crimson eyes glazed over slightly as she seemed to drift off to somewhere else.

"Undoubtedly...But even so, we've been pushing ourselves to keep up with them too; accepting the reality of non-human life has been a burden on everyone, not least because of what we've had to confront within ourselves, our own humanity has been a mixed blessing for them, on the one hand we can offer so much more than what a normal human can achieve; but at the same time we've presented ourselves as somewhat of a paradox; cyborgs, humans dressed up as machines while still trying to retain the essence of our humanity. I can't help but wonder, if, to the Autobots, that seems strange, or just...sad..." she said in a day dream-like manner; Batou quirked an eyebrow and sat there in bemusement. 'Where did that come from?' he thought in the back of his mind, for a long moment neither of them said word, then Batou got up and turn to leave, stopping at the door and looking back at her.

"You know...sometimes, I wish you'd trust me..." he softly spoke with a slight frown

"Trust you? ...On what?"

"...To just-...never mind..." he sighed, and quietly left the room, leaving her alone with her thoughts; as he walked down the corridor his thoughts of her became twisted with guilt and concern, he knew she wasn't the type to just lay it all out, but something about what she said raised more than just a few red flags. Was it possible something had happen to her and that it affected her on a deep seated level? If that was the case, how was he going to be able to help her this time around? But then, his mind began to taunt him with memories of the times she'd strained if not tainted his trust in her...

His mind cast him back to the day when, during the Laughing man case they were 'escaping' the Umibozu and that sniper bullet blasted her head clean off; the bitterness of that memory bit him like a snake, why didn't she warn him? Or at least hint that something was going to happen, even if she had warned beforehand that it had to go down the way it did he would've played the part of the grieving teammate without question (it wouldn't have been the first time he'd have to feign his emotions for the sake of a mission): but to let him believe that she had died in such a manner was...hurtful; and even worse, she never apologized for it. Even when the dust of the Laughing man case had settled and Section 9 was back in place carrying on its usual duties, once or twice she had glanced at him with that 'I'm sorry, but you know why I had to do it' look; but it still wasn't the same as apologizing in person, and the simple act of saying I'm sorry can mean a lot to one who's trust is a valuable commodity. His thought's even turned back to that day on Dejima Island, and how, when he heard her say that she was going to follow Kuze onto the net with the refugees, he ran like hell for leather across the Dejima docks to find her, he wasn't going to let her go, not without him, he couldn't imagine her abandoning him and the rest of the team to the fate of that damn nuke...but then, would she have really gone without him? Had Kuze affected her mind so much that she wasn't thinking how she should? And that, in some way she had fallen under his spell?

That's when it hit him

Was something happening to her now? Again? Had something happened at some point over this past month that had subtly and stealthily managed to slip past her conscious notice and take root behind the perimeter of her ghost line? If Kuze could do it (albeit unintentionally on his part...if at all, it really was unintentional?) why not someone else? But who, if any could be brave, smart or stupid enough to try and get past her defences? No one came to mind...no one human at least. But even if someone had tried something on her, the external 'symptoms' of a ghost hack would be present, and being the pro cyber-warfare specialists both he and the rest of section 9 would've noticed something was off; but then, that was under usual circumstances, having non-human sentient beings thrown into the mix didn't do much for the definition of 'usual circumstances', and as such, it made for trying to figure it out even harder with more obstacles thrown in the way.

But wait a minute...what if...ghost hacking wasn't part of the equation?

What if...this was it? ...what if this was the case that would finally show the cracks in the Major's armour?

Batou stopped as he felt his heart skip a beat and a cold flush rushed down his spine all the way to his ghost...No...It couldn't be that! It just couldn't be! She wasn't the type to falter, to self-doubt or to second guess her own methodology. Her attitude, demeanour and sheer grit were what made her the backbone of this section, everyone was drawn to her because of her unique talent and the fact that she was one of only a handful of people on the planet who were super Class-A hackers made her all the more formidable and fearsome...for all those reasons he admired her as a soldier, and cared about her as a friend...for all those reasons, did it make him fail to see the hidden dangers? That even she had a breaking point just like everyone else? ...

'Cyborgs, humans dressed up as machines while still trying to retain the essence of their humanity. I can't help but wonder, if to the Autobots, that seems strange or just...sad...'

He carried on walking back towards his office, regardless of whatever the cause for her sudden change in character, the fact remained that something was wrong with her; he entered his office, sat down behind his desk and switched on his computer; as soon as the desktop appeared he pulled up the case file for the Black Lotus, his face hardened with concentration as he read over the details of the case.

Elsewhere in the building:

"So, I take you've enjoyed today?" Morri grinned as she walked along the corridor

"Are you kidding? This has been awesome! Meeting you guys has been a total blast!" Matti grinned; Matti's introduction had been interesting to say the least, after being charmed by Jazz and his prize winning smile she felt so much more at ease and in practically no time at all she and the Autobot gang were friends. For most of the day they mainly talked, the kids and bots told the story of their lives back in their own universe; how they came to be stuck in this universe via a rift in time and space caused by the DRD, how they first met section 9 and how they offered to help, how they were betrayed by someone in the government and then had to run, and from there the whole other crazy and complex (and in some parts tragic) set of circumstances that had lead them to here and now. When she agreed to join the Autobots and section 9, she had a rough idea that the situation she was in was deep, but nothing had prepared her for anything THIS deep; at certain times she couldn't help but feel like she was in a movie, being in the presence of these giant alien beings was so surreal yet exciting, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up when she realized that this was for real; it was scary, but when the kids reassured her that it was okay to be scared, she unusually felt okay with it, and decided secretly not to delve too deeply into it, for fear of unnecessarily winding herself with worry and fear.

"Heh, well, I'm just glad your okay with it all" Morri sighed with relief, her expression turning mildly serious for a moment "I was kinda worried that you'd freak out, you know not everyone can cope with being around the guys, and not just for fear of getting accidently stepped on...some people just aren't able to get their heads around the fact that giant transforming alien robots exist, and I don't mean to make that sound blasé"

"That's understandable, but seriously? If Batou thinks I was gonna freak out then he was way wrong! And what made you think I couldn't handle it?" Matti quirked an eyebrow

"Well, the Major wasn't the only one who read your file..." Morri frankly replied, Matti snapped her head round and looked at her incredulously as her shoulder's tensed up.

"And?"

"It said you had issues when you were a kid and that you were hospitalized for violent behaviour and attempted suicide; that was years ago when you were still a teen, you've obviously changed a lot between now and then, and I personally don't like to make my mind up about someone's character based on something that's typed on a piece of paper, it's bland and it's not the same as meeting them in the flesh and getting a feel for their personality firsthand. When it comes to knowing about someone, I'd rather make my mind up about them the old fashion way, or not at all" Morri replied plainly and frankly, Matti blinked in surprise and eased up in relief.

"Sorry, it's just...my past isn't particularly something I like to touch upon; and please don't take it the wrong way but, I have an issue about people knowing that I was in a mental hospital when I was a kid" Matti replied quietly as she looked away and folded her arms

"Hey, we all have secrets-"

"-Yeah you, kinda said that before" Matti interrupted with a small sheepish smile, Morri couldn't help but let out a light chuckle "yeah, I did didn't I?" she replied

"It's just...some secrets; are too painful to share, and some, can give people the wrong idea about who you are...let's just say; I've had to work hard to get my life in shape, and to, have the courage to go out into the world knowing that not everyone is out to get you..." Matti explained uncomfortably as she pulled her arms in a little bit tighter

"Hey don't worry about it, I understand... I won't say anything okay?"

"Okay...uh, didn't you say there was one more guy I had to meet?" Matti asked, trying to change the subject

"Ah yes, he's been waiting for you all day, he wanted to wait until you were more comfortable with the guys before you met him...I should warn you though, he's not like the others, he's a little more, shall we say, 'austere'?" Morri explained as she stopped in front of the entrance to the firing range and typed in the right entry code for the door. From the tone of her voice Matti figured this was serious, and steeled herself for whatever was behind that door. "He can be quite sly and has a particular 'Hannibal Lecter' kinda feel to his personality; but don't let his demeanour intimidate you, he's really an okay guy, just make sure you don't say anything to piss him off, he may be sentient but he's not tame...but more importantly, listen to what he has to say" Morri continued

"Huh? Why?"

"Because he's the guy who discovered your clairvoyance, and found out how you discovered the insignias..." Morri replied, Matti's eyes widen in amazement; the door opened to reveal a dark, almost pitch black room with barely the faintest of light emanating from the furthest end of the room, Matti leaned in cautiously but found she could hardly make out anything, Morri stood by the side of the door and gestured for her to step in.

"You're not coming in?"

"Sorry, but he wants to see you alone; said there were things he needed to discuss with only you"

"If he's as powerful as you said, why didn't he try to 'reach out' to me earlier?"

"Don't know, for all I know he could've sneaked into your mind and has been watching through your eyes this whole time"

"Seriously? He's that powerful?" Matti's eyes grew wider in astonishment

"I don't know, why don't you find out? ...I'll be back when you're both done okay? ..." Morri replied and turned to walk back they way they came; looking into the gloom and taking a deep breath, Matti tentatively stepped in through the door and was only a few paces in when the door suddenly shut behind her. Swallowing her fear and looking around, the shapes and forms of the mock-up outdoor enclosure were silhouettes against the gloom and the shooting stalls were dark with no light within them at all; the only light that prevented the whole room from being in total darkness were the lights above the door that lead through to the room where the gun cages and armoury were situated. Ordinarily Matti didn't mind the dark, it was a typical fear she'd overcome during childhood like any other kid; but the thought of this particular Autobot had her concerned.

'He may be sentient but he's not tame'

What did Morri mean by that? Taking a deep breath, Matti concentrated on what she wanted to see and looked all around the room for any sign of any auras that would denote the presence of another; there were other ambient energies present, this room was certainly used regularly by the other section 9 agents, but there was nothing alive in here. Suddenly, a rush of air from behind made her snap around, but nothing was there; she was half way through a sigh of relief when a deep rumbling growl made her freeze like a rabbit in the headlights; warm breaths of air breathed down the back of her neck and a strange red light illuminated the back of her shoulders, neck and head, swallowing hard, she slowly turned around and was confronted with a mouth full of silver teeth.

"Boo!"

Matti gasped, jumping so sharply that she fell over backwards and landed on her backside, standing over her was a giant robotic panther about the size of a large horse; it's armour was sliver and dark grey with sleek sharp lines and edges, it's shoulder's and neck were lined with sharp spikes, all four of its paws had a set of large claws and it's long tail was topped with a particularly large mace with four huge blades, and set square in the middle of its head was a singular red optic glowing brightly light luminous blood. It was both impressive and terrifying and with a deep growling chuckle the creature stepped around her and flicked its tail contently.

"I have to say, as the sibling of your brother, your format was certainly not graced with his stout design" Ravage purred with a grin

"Uh, I-I'm more like my mom, short and skinny; B-Batou get's his size from dad's side of the family" Matti replied nervously, she squeaked in alarm as the panther bent it's head down, grasped the back of her hoodie in its teeth and pulled her back up onto her feet; immediately she stepped back, being sure to give his tail a wide birth.

"Obviously...So? You were the cause of everyone's grief this morning?" he purred as he came up alongside her.

"U-uh, apparently?" she replied, trying like hell to quash her nervousness and stop herself from wanting to run to the door.

"Don't be so modest, your little 'talent' really got the Major riled, and seeing her pull her hair out over little old you was certainly a treat" Ravage purred gleefully

"Y-you don't like her?"

"Well, that depends; there's hatred, and then there's finding that certain someone who confounds you to no end. Oh don't get me wrong, she's more than capable of taking on the likes of me; but her particular 'austereness' just tempts me to no end" he grinned, Matti simply passed a nervy chuckle and dropped the subject, she wasn't sure she wanted to know what he meant by that.

"You uh, wanted to talk to me about something? ..." Matti asked, Ravage tilted his head to the side and curled his body around hers, she stood still with her shoulders hunched up, trying not to snag her hoodie on his sharp shoulder spikes; as his one optic looked into her eyes, a sense of dread began to creep up her spine and in the pit of her stomach her instincts screamed at her to run; she couldn't deny the impression of absolute fear this creature gave off, by his size and strength alone he could easily bite her head off in one go, but regardless, she had to know how he 'discovered' her, she wanted to know whether he really shared the same clairvoyant abilities as her, and whether he could teach her anything; swallowing hard again and breathing several deep breaths, she stood firm and met his gaze with nervousness and curiosity.

"...Tell me child, do you fear me? ..." he purred, looking into his optic, Matti knew she couldn't lie; she didn't want to imagine the consequences for screwing around with something as terrifying as him.

"...Yes..." she whispered

"Good, I don't tolerate liars very well, their vocalizers can be so easy to rip out; but then, you already know that don't you?" he smirked as his optic began to pulsate, Matti suddenly felt as stiff as a statue as her vision was filled with luminous colour; she gasped as she realized she was looking straight at his aura as it blazed and flickered in vivid blood red, swirls of white, blue and gold circulated the red 'fire' like embers rising off a bonfire and pulsated like a heart, every beat sent out a wave of intoxicating energy rich in power, wild restlessness, and the taste of blood. Matti strained hard not to fall over and faint as the aura threatened to overwhelm her, but what really shocked her was that her 'second sight' had been activated without her mental command.

"...H-how? ...how did you do that?" she stammered as the aura faded from her sight and the energy subsided like water running downstream

"It's easy enough; a mind as tense and fragile as yours is as easy to slip through like a gust of air through the trees; as simple as scanning through a few data streams...and it's a good enough incentive for you not try anything with me, small and meek as you are, I don't like to leave anything to chance" he smiled

"What do you mean my mind is...tense and fragile?"

"Your memories cast a long dark shadow upon the present tense of your mind; you have endured much within the time of your infinitely short lifespan, and have gained half as much in your latter years to make life 'normal' for yourself...you've sacrificed much to keep your gifts secret, as has your brother, who risked his own life for you...your anger, your stubbornness and your willingness not to yield has kept other's prejudice ay bay; and even now, you're scared to let your guard totally down, for fear of disappointment in this new set of circumstances" Ravage purred , Matti wanted to retort back but nervously thought better of it when it struck her that he read her mind, in that case there wasn't much point in trying to bluff either.

"...Yes, but what are you getting at?" she asked, trying to get the upper hand

"Your fears are not without reason, but how do you intend to serve as part of our gang if you're going to let your nerves get the better of you in the face of danger? You and your brother may share the same genetic format, but whether you were graced with the same grit and strength of will remains to be seen" he replied, Matti quirked an eyebrow

"Remains to be seen?...you really think I can help you guys?" she asked, to which Ravage swatted his paw over the back of her head.

"Did you not pay attention to a single word Morri said this morning?" he reprimanded as she rubbed her head, "She knows you can do this! And if there's one thing I know for sure about that girl it's that she never lie's nor does she tell the truth without conviction...Yes she only knew of your gift because of me, but when she first saw you she knew there had to be more to you than just a scared little femme trying to push everyone away!...don't insult her judgment by thinking that she'll think less of you if you falter!...When I channelled my mind through hers so as to see you for myself, I sensed her heart going out to you, her caring and understanding allowing you to be at ease, her open-mindedness allowed you to see her for what she truly was; the thing about auras is that their like fingerprints, they never truly change, what you saw in her is true, and there is no reason for you to think anything otherwise of her, or any of the others, understand?", Matti reluctantly dropped her gaze and nodded in acknowledgement.

"But...what happened yesterday, the battle downtown? How the hell am I supposed to go up against something like that?" she asked

"You won't, your brother would never allow it, and frankly your design is not really cut out for front line warfare anyway. No, each and every one of us is good at something and every talent combined together makes for a strong unit, your gift is no acceptation and you will serve your part in your own way"

"How?"

"When the time comes, you'll know; but for now, you need to know how to safeguard your mind and how to best apply your gift in the right way for the right circumstances...the one who showed you the insignias had to be very powerful to reach you from your dreams, if one as powerful as myself is really out there, you have to be prepared, just because he sent you to us does not necessarily mean he may have the best of intentions"

"You know how I found the insignias?" Matti asked, Ravage's optic flashed bright red and in an instant the room faded into total darkness and overhead were countless stars, galaxies, nebulas and planets, the whole universe stretched above, below and all around her, and high overhead the glowing blue eyes of the strange alien entity shone down on her; she flinched away but instantly found herself back in the firing range with Ravage staring intently into her eyes.

"The one you saw that night was certainly of our race, his essence is so powerful that it's embedded into your own being; I don't know who it was that you saw, but whoever it was, was very powerful. Their aura was so vast and encompassing that even the impression of it is enough to make my servos ache...but what concerns me about him is the circumstances you met him in"

"In what way?"

"Whoever it was, I sensed through you that indeed their power is vast, but somehow, it wasn't their total power; he said that he was imprisoned and I believe he may have been telling the truth, I sensed something was keeping him from fully expanding his power out. Indeed if he was totally free he could've taken over your whole body there and then and left your conscious mind drifting in that 'limbo' existence; but something about him told me he wasn't that kind of bot, his aura, as powerful as it was, was gentle and warm, a kind spark with intentions of a plan most great...but to what it is? That's where you come in child"

"...But, if I'm to serve a greater purpose in all this then aren't I already too late? In that dream I saw the downtown battle, I saw people die and...I saw Batou die..." she softly whimpered

"Clearly what you saw was not what went down yesterday; yes many innocents died, but your brother still lives...what you saw has not yet come to pass, but the question we face now is how do we stop that future from unfolding" Ravage nuzzled her cheek

"You don't know? ...But I thought you had the same abilities as me?"

"In a sense yes, you possess the same telepathic traits as I, and the ability to see the ambient energies in all things, both living, dead and inanimate; but for some unfathomable reason you also possess the ability to see past the chronological passing of time, space and reality, and see the energies that have yet to animate and bring forth the present. The future is not set in stone child; there are infinite futures that exist beyond the present tense of the time-space continuum, all of which, in accordance to the present set of circumstances and cause to effect, have a certain level of probability of becoming reality...and yet, of all the likeliest of futures, you see the correct one...and this certain ability of yours hasn't failed you yet, has it?" Ravage purred ominously

"N-No, it hasn't; but, how come I have this gift in the first place?"

"Who can say? Telepathy was certainly not unheard of on Cybertron, every once in a while a sparkling would be onlined that possessed the ability to see into the minds of others, though they were few and far between, only about a handful of clairvoyant individuals existed on Cybertron at any one time; but you are the first clairvoyant organic I've ever come across...and that in itself is most peculiar since telepathy cannot be defined by carbon based genetic formatting"

"Why should it be peculiar? My mom was clairvoyant; she obviously passed her gift onto me"

"Passed on? ...or merely have been influenced by the same force that gave your creator her gift? Telepathy and other such empathic abilities are often the result of one-off super-stellar phenomenons...there are infinite energies that flow throughout the universe, many of which cannot be created nor be destroyed, they simply 'have always been'... They take on countless forms in both mass, matter and anti-matter; always moving and always constantly shifting up and down onto various planes of reality, many of them are constantly moving in motion in response to cause and effect's and many are responsible for influencing pretty much everything, from the alignment of the planets all the way down to the molecular alignment of the protein structure of your very DNA..."

"...So? I'm clairvoyant because some cosmic energy found its way to Earth and somehow screwed around with my mom's DNA?" Matti blinked in bemusement

"Well, anything's possible, and I wouldn't put it past Primus to try...but either way, such profound understanding's of the secret workings of the universe are best left as mysteries, and not without good reason; many simply waste away or are driven beyond the boundaries of insanity just trying to figure out how the simplest of things come to be so...It doesn't do well to dwell on what could be and why the world is as such; but what I do know, is that you are here, and you have a purpose to fulfil child"

"In that case, are you, going to teach me how to be a better seer?"

"Seer? That's a good one; fortunately you already know how to use your gift quite aptly, but I will pass one important little piece of knowledge what will serve you well"

"What's that?" Matti asked, but before she could take another breath the blood red light of Ravage's optic encompassed her whole vision and her whole body felt like it was suspended in warm water; all around her mind felt like it was gently being sharpened like a sword on a file, her focus felt longer and much sharper than before, as if she could see the ambient energies around her with more clarity and range. But, in the back of her mind she envisioned barbed wire popping up like brambles and slowly creeping around the perimeter of her consciousness, but not actually touching her, slowly she felt encompassed but not trapped until she felt her mind completely surrounded and protected by a garden of barbed wire rose bushes, every rose looked like it had been sculpted from chrome steel as every petal shone and gleamed with the silver radiance of moonlight; as quickly as the experience began, the panther's red aura began to fade and the barbed wire rose-bush garden disappeared from her sight, when it was finally over her knees gave out from under her and Ravage nudged her to the side so she could lean against him.

"Wh-...what did you do just now?" She stammered as her head stopped spinning and her equilibrium balanced out

"Just a little something to keep any would-be 'mind-jacker's' out, rather than waste precious time on countless hours of deep meditation, I simply implanted a little defensive measure into your sub-conscious so as to keep the more vital aspects of your mind intact, should anything, Primus forbid, were to happen...time is a commodity that we cannot afford to waste, and I'm afraid you'll have to 'learn the ropes' whilst on the go with us" Ravage replied, Matti simply nodded and sighed.

"Then, I guess, all that's left for me to say is; thank you"

"For what?"

"For saving me from being thrown into a mental hospital, and a whole load of other things that would've gone down if no one had believed me...when it comes to trying to prove myself and what I can do, people...either think I'm a skilled magician, or, just freak out...To be honest, I don't really know how to prove myself, I've spent so long trying to hide what I am that I'm just afraid to even approach them...I don't like coming off as a coward" she softly replied, dropping her gaze in a sense of shame

"Well, maybe that's something we can help rectify; you know, maybe your brother-" Ravage abruptly stopped and snapped his head up, his ears twitched and moved around as if listening to something, then his optic pulsated rapidly as if responding to something

"What's up?" Matti asked

"Something is going on in the main debriefing room; come, get on and hold on tight!" Ravage replied as he lowered his forequarters down, Matti nervously climbed up, being sure to sit well behind the shoulder spikes and yelped in fear as the panther sprinted off out the door, down the corridor, to the nearest emergency fire escape staircase and up to the section's main levels; Matti held on for dear life as her knuckles turned white from gripping the armour plating that formed the scruff of his neck and she braced herself, trying hard not to scream as the panther galloped at break-neck speed; finally he screeched to a halt outside the main debriefing room and allowed Matti to slip off. She staggered into the debriefing room with Ravage at her side; there they found all the kids and agents looking up at the giant monitor in shock and disbelief.

"What's going on?" Ravage demanded

"Shush!" Ishikawa hissed as he turned up the volume, on the monitor the news anchor man appeared and looked straight ahead before speaking:

"-We interrupt the usual viewing schedule for this emergency broadcast: in the wake of yesterday's nation-wide attacks by the unidentified rouge military AI's, the American Empire has released an official request to the Japanese government demanding the immediate hand-over of the AI's; officials in the Pentagon have released a statement claiming that the AI's are part of a new line of combat exo-suits that were property of the American Empire but were produced by one of Japan's leading weapon's manufacturers under contract from one of America's top AI developers. Although the reasons for the apprehension remain unclear at this time; the Pentagon has stated that the seizer of the exo-suits is an unlawful act of international treason under article 16 of the security treaty. American forces are currently poised to pull out of all of Japan's American military bases within the next week and the American Navy has mobilized its preliminary forces; which consist of the aircraft carriers, the Abraham Lincoln, the Enterprise, the George Washington, the Nimitz, the Ronald Ragan, the Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Harry S. Truman, along with several destroyers, amphibious assault ships and missile cruisers, all of which are set to enter Japanese waters within the few days. Within the last few hours the Prime Minister has put through a request to the American Empire for an emergency meeting to discuss settling the situation and hopefully attempt to defuse the situation; the American Empire's Secretary of Defence has not given a reply at this time but if the AI's are not located and turned over to the American Imperial forces, then under article 46 of the security treaty the American Empire will enter Japan and seize control of the GSDA, SDA and MSDA until the AI's can be found and apprehended; at this time all Japanese citizens are asked to remain-"

"...holy shit..."


	56. Chapter 55: Too Many Facts

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 55: TOO MANY FACTS, NOT ENOUGH TRUTH

"Hello? ...Is anybody here?" one of the Tachikoma's called out as it entered the hanger, all around the walls echoed to the sound of its heavy multi-ped feet; the maintenance bay was empty and no one seemed to be around...at first.

"Huh? What are you doing here?" another Tachikoma answered as it stepped out from its recharge bay

"I've been helping Hailey, Becca and Becky babysit Jay-jay, and boy can that little robot run around! We finally managed to get her to take her afternoon nap so I decided to come down and get an oil refill. I take it everyone is still at the Prime Minister's residence?"

"Not everyone; the Major, mister Batou, mister Togusa, mister Saito, mister Paz, Morri, Tom, Ashley, Sam, Mikaela and mister Aramaki went to the Prime Minister's residence; Darren, Glen and Frenzy are with mister Ishikawa and mister Boma in the lab analysing the remains of the section 9 pretenders and Deathshot, Jetfire, Jazz, Thundercracker and Ravage have gone to the Etami air base to analyse the dead Decepticons that were killed in the downtown battle; the rest of the Autobots are hiding in the building's parking lot and auxiliary hanger, I tell ya it was a sheer miracle Skywarp managed to squeeze into the hanger at all with those huge wings of his! He didn't seem happy about it though, said it was too small for a seeker of his size"

"And talk about being grouchy! I'm just thankful we don't have to share our hanger space with him!" another Tachikoma concurred as it stepped from around the corner of the maintenance bay

"Eh, personally I'd prefer a nice soft sand dune to burrow down in; much more comfy!" Scorponok chirped as he scuttled from out of one of the empty recharge bays

"Huh? How did you get in here?"

"I've been in here since yesterday; Aramaki let us recuperate after the day before last and yesterday" he replied

"Us?" the three Tachikoma's quirked

"Yesss, us" Lazerbeak chirped as he leaned around the corner, the Tachikoma's waddled around the corner to find the further most recharge bay occupied by Ravage's brother's, all huddled together on the floor, curled up and relaxing in blissful content of each other's company.

"Uh? Are you guys supposed to be down here?" the second Tachikoma's asked dubiously

"Heh! Better than being upstairs and surrounded by the scent of those flesh bags! You lot are somewhat of an improvement despite being AI's" Buzzsaw squawked

"Hey! That's both insulting and derogatory! If your just gonna make yourselves at home in hanger and think you can talk to us like that then you better get up and leave right now!" the first Tachikoma's angrily reprimanded as it wagged one of its claws at the giant raptor; Buzzsaw frowned and hopped up towards the think tank and stared it down venomously.

"Oh really? And just what are you-" Buzzsaw stopped and froze on the spot, his optics glowing intensely as the familiar presence of his feline brother entered the forefront of his mind, exerting a powerful sense of submission upon the wayward raptor.

'Leave them be brother, they may be AI's but that does not mean you can take advantage of them; they're not weak and their not naive...be considerate and leave them alone' Ravage whispered across the bond, the other drones bar Scorponok bowed submissively and simply curled up together, muttering Cybertronian curses under their breathes, Buzzsaw sat back down and went about preening his metal wing feathers.

"Huh? What just happened?" the third Tachikoma asked, Scorponok gestured for them to follow him back around the corner and out of audio-shot.

"You'll have to forgive him; getting used to life as an Autobot is tough, getting over old rivalries and seeing past old prejudices will take time, like it did with Ravage and I" the scorpion replied in a hushed tone

"But what happened to Buzzsaw just now? He kinda looked like he went into a trance" the second Tachikoma asked

"I think Ravage just gave him a time out" Scorponok smirked

"Huh? But I didn't detect any incoming transmissions" the third Tachikoma replied bemused, to which Scorponok chuckled lightly

"Not by transmission, through their bond...as spark brothers they all possess a telepathic connection to one another, judging from that display of submission it would seem that Ravage's telepathy is back to its full strength" he replied

"Augh! Again with the telepathy? First mister Batou's little sister and now Ravage? I swear I'm never gonna be able to comprehend it! How in the heck can you communicate with someone on just 'brain power' alone? The human brain isn't even capable of sending out any transmission of any kind! I seriously don't get it!" the first Tachikoma ranted, flaying its arms around in distraught.

"Eh, I never quite got it either, telepathy's one of those strange obscure cosmic anomalies nobody quite understands the mechanisms of, and even when you attempt to try and understand it you only end up with a sore CPU and a queasy processor; to put it simply, it's manipulation of both 'brain power' and cosmic energy that's gifted to the very rare few, and Ravage's calibre is as rare as they come" Scorponok explained

"Manipulation of cosmic and brain power energies? How does that work?" the second Tachikoma asked incredulously

"Search me if I know, I'm no scientist, I'm just happy to shoot anything that shoots at me first" Scorponok chirped; at that moment the sound of the hanger doors sliding open drew the Ai's attention, waddling/scuttling around the corner to see, the three AI's and drone saw the rest of the think tanks roll in, their arms nearly dragging along the floor as their chassis's sank on their legs; although they had no faces to speak of, they had a somewhat sullen look about them.

"Hey you're all back! Why didn't you let us contact you on our server? We've been bored outta our wits here all day! Surely you all could 'a spared five minutes for a little stimulating conversation!" the first Tachikoma demanded, none of the other think tanks replied immediately.

"What's wrong? Surely the meeting with the PM didn't go that badly?" Scorponok asked

"Augh! Don't even get me started! Half the city's gone to pot thanks to that damn news broadcast! Over a third of the city's evacuating out to the suburbs for fear of another attack, not to mention all the looters and emergency vehicles clogging up the streets...its utter madness out there!" Batou's Tachikoma wined

"So it's really that bad out there? I guess the news reports really haven't done the whole situation any real justice" replied the second Tachikoma

"And then some, the whole city's flipped on its head, we had to travel across the rooftops just to avoid the traffic; with the Autobot's pictures splashed across the news just about every parked car in the city has been vandalized and smashed up, the bots managed to swap their altmode modals to avoid being seen but we still had trouble getting past the barricades on the superhighway's, and the protesters were even worse; Sunstreaker's still ticked off about being pelted with eggs when we drove to the PM's residence" another of the Tachikoma's explained

"Eh, he'll get over it, just don't do or say anything to slag him off; so how did the emergency meeting go? Everyone left in such a hurry this morning" Scorponok asked

"*Sigh*...it's much worse than we thought; the American Secretary of Defence hasn't replied to the Prime Minister's request for an emergency meeting, the UN is stepping to try and help mediate things but the American's aren't interested in the diplomatic approach; everybody knows that statement they put out last night was bogus, their only now making their interest in the Autobots known because it's the most convenient time for them to step in and try to take control, they've known about you guys since you first arrived here!" Batou's Tachikoma sighed sullenly

"What? Someone outside the government knew about us this whole time?" Scorponok exclaimed in alarm

"Specifically the CIA and the American Imperial Pentagon, the intelligence department spent all night tracing back the leak; apparently, on the day he died, Osama Hidaka had put an encrypted call through to the CIA headquarters in Washington DC, they searched his office and ran a structural analysis of his computer systems and it turns out the information he had on you guys was stored on a custom-made transference programme with a built-in time delay activation setting that was primed to transfer the data to another online location if he didn't update its delay codes every 24 hours; everything he had on the Autobot's in his secret ledgers was forwarded straight to the CIA the day after his assassination...even before then they've known about you all this whole time through their global satellite intercept net, and with the nation-wide attacks the day before yesterday this was the perfect opportunity to step in while we're at our weakest point; of all the underhanded tactics this is well below the belt!" another Tachikoma huffed in annoyance

"GHAAA! Why didn't we come across that before? We searched Hidaka's ledgers in and out, if there was any sign of such a programme it should've been there!" the third Tachikoma exclaimed in shock, hopping a flaying around in a panic.

"We know, the ledger pertaining to the Autobots was apparently stored on a separate desktop file that was stand-alone from his regular network files and programmes; it was housed on a memory server in the ministry of foreign affairs, which is why the ledger was able to be transferred from his computer to the CIA's online access network without anyone being the wiser, it was disguised as a run-of-the-mill email!" Batou's Tachikoma replied in annoyance

"But why the CIA? We didn't come across any mention of them in the ledgers" Scorponok pondered aloud

"No they were in the ledgers alright; apparently they put in the highest bid on Hidaka's black market auction using a non-traceable online barrier array so no one could trace the bid back to them; that's why their one of the unidentified ID codes in the ledgers rather than one of the initials" one of the other Tachikoma's replied

"So what happens now? If that statement they put out was meant to be a cover to account for the sudden appearance of their naval forces showing up then it's a pretty lousy way to go about it; plus, what they said about article 46 of the security treaty being implemented to subdue our main military forces, what's up with that? When the security treaty was first drafted both the American's and Japan both agreed that would only reinforce article 9 of the Japanese constitution, it never made mention of an additional disarmament article, why would the Japanese government agree to included that in the treaty?" the second Tachikoma thought aloud

"I agree it is very unusual that such an article would be included as part of the security treaty, but you gotta understand that when it was first proposed, the American economy was all but collapsed during the years following the end of the third and fourth world wars, they needed both political and financial help in order to get back on their feet as a superpower nation; for all political intents and purposes the treaty was a way for them to gain a monopoly on the Japanese miracle, but we weren't complaining at the time because it was a way to give the Japanese economy a serious boost as the price of the Japanese miracle could be sold for premium rates to the countries that were targeted during the nuclear bombings. However that was over thirty years ago, both the American and Japanese administrations that were in power at the time both agreed to the treaty out of a need to protect each other's weak spots; while Japan's military forces can't serve outside the country in any official capacity, the Americans agreed to hold up their end of the deal by serving our military interests overseas; for a long time the treaty worked well, but over time things changed; both countries, both the governments and their leading administrations, the global economy and inevitably the world as a whole. Things became complicated after the article 9 issue was raised and ultimately things came to a head with the Dejima incident. Talk about being stabbed in the back!" Batou's Tachikoma explained

"Indeed, after Prime Minister Kayabuki initiated her independent self-reliance policy the Americans tried to like crazy to try and reconcile the situation, but after firing a nuke at us what were they thinking? That we'd just say 'oh well, no real harm done right?' honestly, the whole thing made me wanna hurl!" the third Tachikoma replied sarcastically

"Hurl? But you don't even have a stomach!" one of the other Tachikoma's pointed out

"Ah you know what I mean!"

"But even if the administration that was in charge back when the treaty was first drafted did agree to this article 46 being included; surely Kayabuki would've tried to push through a request to have that article revoked? With the independent self-reliance policy making Japan a stand-alone nation, she originally tried to resolve the article 9 issue all together by revoking it from the Japanese constitution, since the American empire was essentially no longer a trusted ally the treaty should've been rendered null and void with a concessional vote by the members of the cabinet" the second Tachikoma explained

"But that fact in itself only raises further questions; the Prime Minister's independent self-reliance policy has been in effect for over eight months now, if she was eager for Japan to completely sever all ties with the American Empire why didn't she push through for the treaty to be scrapped sooner? Why leave it this long?" Batou's Tachikoma pointed out.

"Maybe all the action of the last month has really distracted her? You gotta admit, having to deal with a bunch of interdimentional intergalactic alien robots isn't exactly part of the job description for a Prime Minister" Scorponok answered

"Even so, while you guys were in hiding she had to deal with her usual duties; the aftermath of the nuclear explosion over Dejima really got a large majority of the population speculating as to what was really going on that day, trying to address that issue was hard enough. First the explosion on the Niihama suspension bridge, then the explosion that levelled half the Omura district, all of which were not your fault, but with the nation-wide attacks and destruction of Sukaitawa towers people are now more riled than before, if not completely outraged; and even though it was the only plausible cover story at the time, spinning the story that you guys were a set of new exo-suits and AI's is now really starting to backfire on the military. The truth no longer has any worth and it's getting to the point where deploying a cover story won't be viable anymore" Batou's Tachikoma explained

"Hang on a minute! You don't suppose it's possible that the Decepticons somehow slipped past the military's defences and infiltrated the government itself? If Gorou Saski was killed and replaced by that pretender what's to say that there aren't other pretenders running around the Prime Minister's residence masquerading as government and military officials? Our own section 9 was nearly replaced by those things remember?" one other Tachikoma squeaked in a panic

"It's always a possibility, but then worrying over that works to the enemy's advantage; I remember this one time a couple of eons back when Megatron needed to find the coordinates to several energon deposits in Galfrixx system; several Decepticon double agents disguised as Autobot's infiltrated Fortress Maximus, we then 'accidently' put out a bluff that there was a spy in the Autobot ranks and no sooner had we sent the bluff out, the Autobot's spent weeks trying to locate the 'traitors' while the double agents were able to obtain the coordinates to the deposits in less than 24 hours...as terrifying as the prospect of an infiltrator is, we can't spend all our time trying to search out each and every one, it'll waste valuable time" Scorponok reasoned

"Hey, why not ask Ravage to simply 'sense' them out with that fancy telepathy of his?" the third Tachikoma joked

"It's a good idea, but what's to say that we'd be granted access to the more highly classified area of the government just for the sake of a body search? Besides, Ravage's 'second sight' can only see so far through thick walls, his mind may be powerful but even he has his limits...don't tell him I said that okay?" the scorpion clicked in a hushed tone

"The threat of more pretenders is a real problem, but what really worries me is the prospect of what the Decepticons might be doing with all those kidnapped children; according to Shiro, those kidnappers had been taking kids for over seven months. Don't you think it's kinda odd that as soon as the Dejima incident was over they suddenly show up and started taking children from all over the city?" Batou's Tachikoma pointed out

"Huh? You think the kidnappings and the individual eleven case might be related?" another Tachikoma asked

"Well we didn't find any evidence that connects the two incidences so I don't see how they could be related, but considering the unusual nature of this whole situation anything could be possible, the question would be if it was plausible" the first Tachikoma pointed out, to which the other Tachikoma's all sounded their agreement

"Yeah but to what end would it be plausible? And why did they need so many children over such a long period of time? From what we saw in those old case files hidden in those old trunks, the earliest recorded kidnapping was way back in 1891!" Batou's Tachikoma replied

"That is troubling, as far as the Decepticons are concerned organics like humans are only good for three things; killing for fun, torturing for fun, and scientific experiments" Scorponok interjected

"Seriously? That's just awful!" one Tachikoma squeaked in alarm

"That's what several eons of war does to an army of cons with psychotic tendencies and delusions of grandeur; I heard stories of when, back in the height of the war, back in the so called 'glory' days of the Decepticon army, Megatron laid waste to over a thousand inhabited worlds, rendering thousands of sentient species extinct, most were killed simply for sport, and whatever technology they possessed was either destroyed entirely or plundered and incorporated into our own technology ...But these kidnapping make me think it could be for something else; it's not sport that's for sure, why hunt human sparklings while they're in recharge mode? The cons defiantly need them for something, when you look at the video feed Togusa's youngling shot, you'll see that the sparklings are alive and intact, the kidnappers are quiet and clean in their handling of the whole thing. They didn't want to draw attention to themselves" Scorponok explained

"Then that must mean that it could be for a scientific endeavour of some kind, but what? And why only children and not adults?"

"That, I don't know, but whatever it is, it certainly can't be good; in all the time that the kidnappings had been going on down the last and present century, not one of those youngling as been seen or heard of since, dead or alive" Scorponok ominously replied, the Tachikoma's shuddered at the prospect of finding out just what happened to the children; for a moment none of the tanks spoke as a sense of dreadful unease passed between them and the drone, before one of the other Tachikoma's spoke up again. "Hey, if the Black Lotus really were the Decepticons all this time, and they really did infiltrate the military network, and possibly the government...could it be possible that they somehow changed security treaty to include that article 46?"

"WHA?"

"No wait! Think about it for a minute: regardless of the political complications attached to when it was first drafted, why would the Japanese government agree in the first place to a security treaty that included a disarmament article when our military can't operate outside the country under article 9 of the Japanese constitution anyway? It's a pretty unfair deal, so why did this article 46 appear now? Why did nobody really raise the issue of it before? If Kayabuki was pushing to have article 9 rendered null and void from the constitution, surely this would've been in her line of sights too?" the Tachikoma explained, the other think tanks and drone all glanced at one another in alarm

"That's a good point, if no one noticed this article before and the American's are threatening to put it into effect, it could mean-"

"The Decepticons are behind it!" Scorponok interrupted "...if they intercepted this security treaty then their reach is greater than we thought; remember what else Shiro said? When his friends disappeared and he asked their creators where they'd gone, they told him that they'd never heard of them nedalone giving birth to them; if those creators were brainwashed into forgetting their sparklings what's to say that certain key individuals in the both the Japanese and American governments aren't under the same influence?"

"But if that's the case, then the American fleet that's arriving is-"

"-Is here because of the Decepticons! They may be coming here to obtain the Autobots for their own agenda but ultimately their being played!" another Tachikoma squeaked in alarm

"But if the Decepticons really are manipulating the American Imperial Naval fleet, to what extent are they being manipulated and why are they allowing the American's to simply apprehend us rather than wipe us out? They could fire a nuke at New Port and be done with it, instead their allowing the American's to come and take us in one piece...We don't know what the cons true motives are and as such we can't make a move of any kind without proof to back the theory up!" Scorponok replied

Hang on a second! Aren't we all jumping to conclusions here? Regardless of the uniqueness of these circumstances, don't you think this is getting a little too farfetched? What's to say that the Decepticons have infiltrated the American government at all? The Japanese government being compromised is one thing, but the idea of the Decepticons infiltrating two superpower nations? ...I don't know, it just seems like our worries are starting to get the best of us is all" the third Tachikoma said, the others were about to object when Scorponok raised one claw and flicked his tail stinger, instantly grabbing their attention; the scorpion turned to face the Tachikoma and sighed ruefully through his vents.

"...If it were any other time, any other place, any other situation, I'd agree with you; but these are the Decepticons we're talking about, the nature of what they do and what they are is all in their name, Deception is the ethos by which they live...When you go up against a con, you're going up against an enemy that will do anything to win, even do worse than fight dirty, they'll do the stuff that make's dirty look humane, and even then that won't be enough; they ensure that you don't just loose, they make sure you fail miserably and utterly until your within an inch of the last of your existence and you have no spark, no drive and no willingness to live anymore. That's how hard they fight, that's how much they want to win, but more importantly, that's how much they hate everything that's not them...Look at the facts that exist already, from what we saw in the battle the day before yesterday we know that the cons have large numbers and are well organised, that attack was planned and co-ordinated well in advance, and if the cons have been here for the last hundred and fifty or so years then it's fair to say that they've got a good idea about how this world functions and what makes it tick. They've been hiding in the shadows of human civilization all this time, gathering information and learning all that's needed to be known...I've seen this happen too many times on other worlds that were caught up in our war, and I've seen what happened to all the sentient race that were wiped out as a result..." he pleaded

"You said you used to be a Decepticon...were you- ...really a part of that? As one of them?" Batou's Tachikoma asked worryingly. Dropping his gaze, Scorponok didn't know how to reply as a cold feeling began to creep into his spark chamber; for the first time in a long time the heavy and gut-wrenching feeling of guilt began to tug at his mind and spark like a wolf trying to rip meat of a bone. Since he defected Scorponok hadn't really looked back on his past as a whole, all he knew when he defected was that he'd be granted his freedom; the freedom to live his life as his own, by his own choices and by what he wanted more than anything else, peace. After the battle in the Iraqi dessert against Lennox and his team, the scorpion had really taken the time to contemplate his defeat, and ponder on what the worth of the Allspark really had been; throughout the long centuries he'd been fighting, killing and trying to survive, the prospect of Cybertron ever recovering diminished little by little over the years, and in the end even the Decepticons barely had any semblance of hope left for the future of their species. For those who had endured the war since the beginning, fading into the darkness of obscurity had been both a shameful and disgraceful way for the Decepticon warriors of old to pass away, but after so many millennia of endless carnage and empty glory in the killing of innocents, shame was nothing less than what they believed they deserved. For those who had been sparked in the height of the war, they were just as alive as the dead; being raised on hatred, prejudice and ignorance produced many of the more dangerous and psychotic cons that proved to be the worst of worst; the ones who would take the extra time to torture a captured prisoner and then deliver their remains to their comrades behind enemy lines, the ones who would run headlong into the fray of battle, laughing in delirious madness as they cut their enemy's to ribbons and take the spark chamber's for trophies, the ones who would take great delight in hunting down neutrals, and having their fun by torturing them...often it was the sparklings that got the most 'particular' attention; finding their mangled remains always made his spark feel cold and sick, and looking at sweet little Jay-jay only brought that coldness back.

For drones and bots like Scorponok who were born in the latter years of the war, hope had all but been eradicated from existence, nothing but death and the endless black abyss of space existed, his creator died not long after he was sparked and no sooner had he been given his first weapons upgrade he'd been partnered with Blackout and his life went downhill from there. The Allspark had not been seen for eons since the battle of Tyger pax, and with it Megatron and the idea of a glorious victory over the Autobot's was gone forever. Even when the discovery of earth had been made and the prospect of the Allspark's whereabouts being hidden somewhere upon its rocky surface brought the few faithful cons from out of hiding; the idea that victory was in sight was a reason to fight, but was it a reason to hope? Within barely one whole cycle, the Allspark had been destroyed, and Megatron killed along with it...so that was it? That was the end of the great and powerful Megatron's reign? Being brought down at the hands of a human fleshling?

And what of this planet earth and its strange organic inhabitants? At first glance they were no more different from the many other inhabited worlds that (had) existed in the galaxy, and the universe as a whole; the humans were smaller, simpler, and too easy to kill...but no sooner had he gotten to work on his mission to help locate the Allspark, Scorponok regretted ever scoffing at them, for they had proven to be anything but weak. Lennox and his men had managed to hold their own against him, they shot and blew him up, all the while not giving him an opportunity to really go on the offence, after the air-strike weakened him and blew his tail off he retreated into the safety of the dessert sand, exhausted, injured...and shocked. How could these little organic spinal cord based organisms go up against the Decepticons the way they did and come out as the victors? It took just one of them to bring down Megatron; that had come as a real shock...Megatron, the harbinger of death, destruction, and the one bot who handed Cybertron its death sentence, had been brought down by one human teenager; a pitiful and embarrassing death to Cybertron's would-be ruler.

As he travelled across the dessert, his mind had turned inward as the past and all its dark facts and stark reality began to turn around in realization, and what had once been arrogance had began to shift to curiosity, ignorance slowly turned to doubt, and in the deepest recesses of his mind, Scorponok felt the haunting pangs of guilt shift around like restless ghosts; wondering about the paths not taken, the 'would-be's' and 'could-be's' that never happened, and all the 'what if's' that never had a chance to play out, all for the want of one, who promised a new age for Cybertron and with it all the hopes and dreams of a glorious empire, now forever gone, and the Cybertronian race, forever doomed to extinction...all thanks to Megatron.

He cursed that name, cursed it a thousand times over and regretted ever believing in those empty promises; as he sat there in the seemingly endless sea of sand and fiery heat, his ponderings finally brought him back to reality, and to earth. Looking around, he was surprised at just how many life forms could survive in the unbearable heat of the middle eastern dessert, not just survive but actually thrive, where as he had to hide during the day so as his damaged systems wouldn't overheat and burn out. Maybe this planet wasn't all as hapless as the cons said would be; that's when he realized that everything he had ever learnt in his life had been through word of mouth from a con in one form or another, he'd always been told that organics were not worth anything or worth paying attention to, but not once had he considered the idea of actually finding out about them for himself. With Blackout dead he was free to wander around...but he wasn't totally free, and there was only one way that would guarantee absolute freedom from the Decepticons.

Defection

The idea was both daunting and practically suicidal; his reputation was well known to many Autobot scouts, having killed so many by the blade of his tail-stinger, his speciality had been to pick off any scouts that were ordered to run surprise attacks behind enemy lines, and he'd proven to be very proficient at. He knew in the past that the Autobots had accepted defectors who turned themselves over willingly; but whether they actually survived once in their custody was always a question of speculation; did the great and noble Optimus Prime really guarantee the right of freedom to you as an Autobot? Or did they try to kill you at the first opportunity? It was scary, but his other options weren't much better either; Blackout was dead so he didn't have a ride off the planet, Starscream had fled and Barricade was nowhere to be seen nedalone heard on the comm frequencies. It was a risky choice, but it was the only one he had.

It wasn't long before he was found and when the Autobots showed up he made no attempt to fight or escape; he demanded that he talk to only Optimus and after a long talk with the Autobot leader, he was brought back to America, patched up by Ratchet and given a place at the newly formed NEST's new base; from there on life got a little easier, he found, much to his surprise, that indeed the Autobot's 'freedom is the right of all sentient beings' policy was held in high regard; he could do anything and go anywhere (within reason and the rules of the base) he pleased in his spare time, he was allowed to dig his own burrows out in the dessert and he was given plenty of energon to scoff down. But this new life was also a double edged sword, in the six months following his defection none of the other bots bar Optimus would give him the time of day, most would either avoid him, watch him cautiously, or simply work extra hours in the more sensitive areas of the base, for fear that his loyalties still remained with the Decepticons and that he might try something; whenever there was anything to be said, it wasn't kind or encouraging...but then, it wasn't any less than what he deserved, after so many years of being enemies the bitter feelings between them weren't just going to go away overnight, and he knew that seeking their forgiveness was out of the question...who would forgive him for killing so many Autobot rookies over the centuries? So for a long time he didn't attempt to do anything that would unnecessarily rub the other bots off the wrong way; he kept himself to himself unless he had to carry out an order, and he gave the human's a wide berth; as the Autobot's new allies and good friends he knew even trying to approach them wouldn't be looked upon kindly, so for most of the time he either concentrated on his orders, or hid away in his burrows.

Until one day, when Mikaela came to give him a cube of energon.

"Hey Scorpy, you hungry?" she smiled, it was the first time anyone had ever smiled at him, it was surreal, yet it felt nice; when he noticed no one was with her, and this wasn't a bluff of some kind, he gently took the cube in one claw and replayed her kindness with a purring chirr and nuzzle, to which she stroked him across his head plates; that was the first time he'd ever felt human flesh, it was warm, soft, and ever so gentle. From that day on Mikaela swung by his burrow every day after with training with Ratchet; sometimes she'd bring a cube of energon, other times she'd just talk to him on how her day went, even when she talked about the most mundane of things, the kindness and softness in her voice was always there. Over the following months he came out more and more to see her and the other humans; Sam soon grew to like him, Miles thought he was totally cool, and even the new additions, Darren, Hailey, Becca and Becky thought he was both amazing and adorable (he particularly like getting spoiled by the Waineright twins); in time even Will Lennox approached him and forgave him for what went down in the dessert between them (much to Ironhide's disbelief), he told the scorpion that it was what it was; he did what he had to do, and Will and his team had to do what they had to do, it was karma; and it didn't do well to dwell on old rivalries as far as he was concerned.

This sudden accepting approach towards the scorpion had dismayed a lot of the Autobots to no end, all but Prime were dubious if not worried as to what was going on, why were the humans treating this merciless killer like a friend? Why did they risk their lives to befriend him? It made no sense.

But looking back now; Scorponok realized what Prime had known all along.

The humans were not Cybertronians, they hadn't known the countless centuries of war, death and destruction, what it meant to watch everything around you fall apart, and to not know the meaning of hope; their existence had been so very different from that of his own kind, though they could be aggressive and merciless when provoked, they could also be capable of compassion and understanding. The Allspark coming here was like a poisoned stone being dropped into a pure pristine pool, and the ripples it had sent out had had a dangerous effect on everyone; the innocent were made to suffer for a war that by right was not theirs in the first place, and it made him lament on all the other sentient races that were unintentionally involved in a war that they wanted no part of...how they must have cried out in vain, to someone, anyone, anything...and were rendered into extinction like shadows passing into the twilight. Even here, in this universe, this parallel Earth, the humanity of this world had not been exempt from Megatron's legacy; even now somewhere in the shadows of this world a Deception force was gearing up to carry out the unthinkable.

Looking back up at the Tachikoma, Scorponok didn't reply for a long moment as he contemplated his words, finally sighing through his vents and lowering his tail in a rueful manner, he wrung his claws in doubt as he felt his spark began to grow heavier in his spark chamber.

"...Yes I did-...I...I was, one of them...but what you have to understand is that was centuries ago, and I'm not the same drone that I was back then; I know it's no excuse, but the only reason I kept fighting and doing what I did, was because I...we, all believed that there was no other choice...hope, had no meaning and no worth, the war was so far gone that everyone knew it was the end for all of us, and in the end I don't think even the Allspark would've been able to put everything back to the way it was before...I didn't think there was any other way to exist, I never knew that there was such a thing as choice, and that you could decide what you wanted to do with your life...I could say sorry for all the lives I've taken down the centuries and I would, but what would be the point? The limit of forgiveness was past long long ago, too long ago for me, or any of us for that matter. I would forgive the Autobots for taking the lives of my teammates and fellow drones; but they would never forgive me for taking the lives of their own...but then, that's the sad irony isn't it? An Autobot can always be forgiven for his transgressions no matter how terrible they may be, but never would a former con be forgiven for anything...even with the Allspark gone the war isn't truly over, not in the sparks of those who are still haunted by its influence...Sometimes I still can't help but feel angry at the Autobots for their hypocrisy, they say that freedom is the right of all sentient beings, and yet if they really believed and took that belief to spark like Prime does then they would be more accepting of us, I may have been a con but I wasn't without feelings or emotions, I am sentient too; I wept when my creator was killed, I grieved for my fellow drones who fell in battle and I felt betrayed by all the lies and decide Megatron spewed out...I'm not innocent, and I may not be worth of forgiveness; but the humans of this world should not have to suffer for our mistakes, for our war. I may not wholly care for the Autobots and their beliefs, but Prime is the only bot who I would serve without question; he has earned my respect, he took a chance on me and allowed me to prove myself, I may not have gotten much for it as far as the others are concerned, but he was the only one who believed in me; and more than anything I care for his human friends; I care for Mikaela, Morri, Hailey and her sister's and for all the kindness and understanding they've shown me, I care for Sam, Miles, Darren, Glen, Tom, Danny and Ashley for letting me be there to back them up and for seeing me as something not to be feared...regardless of whatever else happens, I'm here for them, and whatever the other bots have to say about it I couldn't care less; whatever happens, I may be an Autobot in title only, but I'm no Decepticon, and never will be...ever again..." Scorponok said confidently, the Tachikoma's looked at one another before Batou's Tachikoma came to his side and 'wrapped' its arm over his neck plates in a reassuring gesture.

"For confiding in us, we are most humbly grateful; but don't you think you should tell it to the other Autobots?" the Tachikoma asked, Scorponok couldn't help but pass as small chuckle as he patted the Tachikoma on the other claw

"If only it were that easy my sweetspark; but like forgiveness, the truth can't always be accepted just like that, and considering my history with the bots even if I were to say what needed to be said with honestly and good intentions; they'd never trust me completely, not in the way they trust Prime or the humans" he replied

"What? But you've already proven yourself to be very trustworthy! You were there for your friends every time things got dicey, and every time you could have chosen to turn away but you didn't; you're as trustworthy as they come!" Batou's Tachikoma squeaked in disbelief

"Am I? Because as far as the bots are concerned I'm still a con, and always will be; to them I'll always be that dreaded creature that lurks beneath the sands, waiting for any unsuspecting bots to walk along so I can slice their energon lines...even if I tried and gave it my all, that image will never be purged from their processors because that's what I was, for far too long that's what I was, being an Autobot for two years, ten years or even a thousand years will never exempt me of my crimes...but not that it really bothers me, the humans didn't know me from way back in the war, so they don't know what I was like; I'm thankful that their able to see me as I am now, and that I've really tried to make up for my wrongdoings...I may not get any respect from the Autobots, but I'd settle for the human's respect any time. Because in some ways, I think their respect is more worthy, because unlike many of the Autobots, bar Prime, they can look you in the optic, see you for what you are, and be willing to forgive you for what's happened in the past and let you move on with your life into the future" Scorponok replied, to which the other Tachikoma's all gasped in awe.

"Wow, that's pretty deep...but if the other bots don't trust you then how have you been able to get by this last month? If all you guys are a team, how come they just leave you out? Even when things got dangerous you were there to back them up! I'd say the time to forgive and forget is well overdue for all of you! And don't tell me it's not worth it because from what I've seen, the Autobots are an understanding bunch, especially Jazz...Maybe you were so worried about how they'd react to your apology that you didn't consider how things are for them? If this war was so terrible then there's no doubt they've got their own issues to contend with. Psychologically adjusting from one drastic situation to another can put a real strain on some individuals, sometimes it can be hard to come to terms with what's past and what lies ahead, the idea that someone or something can change from one extreme to another can be rather difficult if not near impossible to comprehend; but it can happen...I mean, look at all of us, if there's one person above all others that deserves our forgiveness, it's the Major" one other Tachikoma replied

"The Major?" Scorponok quirked

"Yeah...did you know that our AI is third generation? The first generation of Tachikoma's were not much different to us now, except they didn't have any advanced agent functions; anyway, when we were first put into service for section 9, for a long time we were just a basic high-functioning AI, but we were one of a handful of AI systems on the whole planet that possesses a high level memory matrix that's capable of sustaining linier thought processes; that meant we can learn a lot of information, synchronize it with each other and yet still retain our individuality. Over time we acquired so much data that our AI evolved to the point where individuality began to define our 'self' and ultimately we became individuals in every way except for possessing ghosts. From what I understand, the Major had us sent back to the lab to be dismantled because it was deemed our advanced AI made us a liability to the section and ultimately she didn't trust us to be reliable when out in the field...We were sent back to lab, some of us were disarmed and sold off to privet buyers, some of us ended up as test subjects for AI data analysis, and the rest of us got to experience death by being completely dismantled" Batou's Tachikoma explained, "You actually look forward to death?...hmm, I suppose that make sense, being AI's you're not fully aware of the real ramifications of death to one's self in the instinctive sense" Scorponok said offhand.

"Yeah there's that, but anyway; it's a long story but something happened and section 9 had to be disbanded, the three of us that still remembered mister Batou went to help him, and sure enough he was in trouble alright! We managed to save him, but, we 'died' in the process; the only reason we remember it is from the remains of the AI chip that was in one of the Tachikoma's that 'died', its data had been included into the second Tachikoma unit and ultimately into our own...Despite what happened, even though the Major didn't trust us to be reliable we still trusted her and section 9, especially mister Batou, and we cared enough to want to go and save him; maybe because we're AI's without ghosts we may not be sentient in the truest sense of the word, but we're not without feelings either; we could've been angry at the Major for sending us away like that, we could've refused to help or carry out our missions, but we didn't because we care for mister Batou, that means we care about her too, and ultimately that means we forgive her...human's aren't perfect Scorponok, but they always keep trying and trying until they get it right, the Major is many things but even she's not absolutely perfect...although, as far as mister Batou's concerned she's absolutly perfect. I suppose inherent flaws are the 'karma' that defines humanity's good points, after all, how do you know what 'good' is if there's no evil or general 'badness' to define it or give it purpose? From what I've learnt, wrestling with such dilemmas is something that's plagued the human condition for centuries, but just because you've done bad things in the past doesn't mean you're bad now, knowing it for yourself is one thing, but trying to prove it to others is something else; and equally, just because you prove to be more that what someone else originally expected of you, it doesn't mean you're liable to become unreliable...What I'm trying to say is...maybe, before you seek the Autobots forgiveness, try to forgive yourself first...you're not a bad guy Scorponok and you've obviously really tried to make up for what you've done, but you mustn't put yourself down like this, don't punish yourself for something that happened so long ago...because ultimately, to everyone here on earth, its ancient history, and it's not relevant to what's happening now" Batou's Tachikoma replied; Scorponok stared at the think tank in humbled disbelief, he knew they were smart but he hadn't expected them to be so...understanding. Dropping his gaze in thought, he pondered on whether self-forgiveness really was the key to the root of his vexed thoughts, was it possible he was being too hard on himself? Trying to seek other's respect when he should have more self-respect in himself? After all, grief can have strange effects on an individual; did being caught up in his own emotions blind him to the bigger picture? He realized that, indeed he hadn't considered what the after affects the war had had on the Autobots; no doubt they must have their fair share of demons that came to haunt them at the best and worst of times, maybe he wasn't as damned as he thought?

"I...I suppose it doesn't, no" the scorpion replied dubiously

"Listen, I'm not saying just forget everything that ever happened in your life, because that's just impossible, your memories and experiences are a part of what make you up as an individual and to deny them would be like denying your own existence; just think about it okay?" the think tank continued

"I...I'll try..." he replied in uncertainty

"Thank you...and now, getting back on track; what're we gonna do about the Americans? Is there any way we can back-hack the fleet's network systems and find out what their gonna do? If we can drop our satellite into the path of a nuke we can certainly try to do something about that fleet!" one Tachikoma piped in

"It would be possible to access the fleet's weapons systems, unlike the submarines they're not completely stand-alone when on active duty; but their attack barriers would be a real problem to get through without proper back-up...what do you think?" another Tachikoma asked the scorpion

"...I don't think the fleet is our main concern; with the Decepticons somewhere out there we've got much bigger problems than a fleet of jumped-up pretentious humans and their waterborne war toys...what worries me is how those cons got into the city without tripping Deathshot's sensors; that bot's got some of the most sophisticated long-range scanners in existence, he should've been able to pick them up from as far away as the city's outer boundaries" Scorponok replied

"Maybe they were cloaked by a jamming frequency of some kind?"

"That wouldn't have escaped the sniper's notice either, his scanners are tuned to pick up every level of frequency conceivable, even a jamming field won't conceal you from him, I could hide under thirty feet of dirt and rock and he'd still be able to pick my comm signal out, and teleporting's out of the question too, Jetfire can instantly pick out a fellow teleporter's signal anywhere and he would've been on them faster than the rest of us if they had teleported here. No, call me strange but something about the way they just 'appeared outta nowhere' makes no sense; I've run many concealed surprise attacks in the past and I still know a lot of old Decepticon communication frequencies, even the encrypted ones; but I didn't pick up anything before the attacks, even Ravage didn't pick up a single blip and there's hardly anything that gets by his sharp senses...Plus, something else Skywarp said last night..." Scorponok pondered aloud, the think tanks leaned in to listen "...He said that they picked up an A-type 306 frequency through the rift...it's a known fact among many bots and cons that that type of harmonizing frequency hasn't been used in over four million years; at the battle of Omniex Pii the Autobots used prototype destroyer-class electro-plasma bombs which fried the main housing unit for the frequency's transmitters as well as the system stabilizers that enforced their output. Every Decepticon had to have his comm transmitters overhauled because of it, ergo the Autobots had to retune a lot of their frequency transmitters too, even completely change most of their own encryption codes...if the Decepticons we're after are using the A-type 306, that must mean that they didn't know about Omniex Pii and the changes in the comm systems...therefore, that must mean that they arrived in this universe before then"

"So? The Decepticons have been hiding here for four million years?" Batou's Tachikoma squeaked in alarm, the other Tachikoma's all panicking in equal shock

"Butbutbut-how would they even survive that long?"

"There're many ways in which a Cybertronian can survive four million years, not least going into stasis lock to save vital reserves of energon; and with the A-type 306 present it makes sense...come to think of it; remember after that confrontation with the Umibozu at the Naval base we found that strange ghost infiltration programme? It was crudely put together and the proxy codes for the software write-up made no sense; now in the past, some Decepticon double agents used to use proxy code-based encryption programmes to bypass Autobot security systems when infiltrating certain secure facilities; it would distract the security systems while the agents could sneak in a virus into one of the primary systems functions of that particular facility. If these cons applied the same basic technique in creating the infiltration programme, they must have been helping Saski at the time he was controlling those humans on that hellicarrier, uploading the infiltration programme directly to his CPU from another online location using a proxy-based programme!" Scorponok reasoned

"But if that's the case, what was the data element that served as the proxy for the programme? A programme of that size being able to zip around the military network undetected for a certain length of time had to have had some sort of 'access data' already in place for the programme to gain control over the crew members" Batou's Tachikoma replied

"That I don't know; Darren, Glen, Frenzy or Ishikawa might know, they're the hackers, if they go back over the data of Darren's drag-net programme they might find something?" the scorpion reasoned

"Interesting, but getting back to the Americans for a minute, I just had a thought; if indeed the Decepticons have deployed pretenders to manipulate the workings of both the American and Japanese governments, wouldn't it be plausible that they would want to keep some of their operatives as close to the action as possible in order to best guess how to handle the situation?" one Tachikoma asked

"It's most likely, why? What are you getting at?" Scorponok asked

"Well, in the meeting this morning, the Prime Minister mentioned that some agents from the CIA are arriving into the country tonight to try and contest the Alien Autobot Protection Order; is it at all possible that one of them could be a pretender?" the think tank asked cautiously, all the other tanks were silent for a brief moment as Scorponok looked at the tank in equal cautiousness.

"...It's possible, but it's a big accusation, and one in which we'd need solid proof of in order to substantiate; but if there are pretenders in the American's ranks then they're in as much equal danger as the Japanese...we could stake out the CIA's arrival, but we'd have to be in close enough range in order to scan them"

"Then we'll tell the Major! She can-"

"No! Not the Major; tell Aramaki first...I don't know about you but the Major just hasn't been, well, 'herself' since last night?"

"Hmm...Now that you mention it, the Major hasn't seemed to be herself at all in the last twenty four hours; looking at her behavioural profile, she does seem a little more...'out of it'; mister Batou has certainly noticed it, and so has the chief and Morri, and when we were in the meeting this morning she didn't seemed to be totally focused on the job...What should we do? If what we've surmised here is true then we can't just leave it to chance!" Batou's Tachikoma said

"Listen, I'll talk to Jazz, see what he says, in the meantime go tell Batou what we discussed, he'll listen to you" Scorponok replied as he scuttled off towards the back of the hanger, and to the door that lead to the Tachikoma's auxiliary hanger.

"We'll be in our server looking up any other additional data!" one of the other Tachikoma's called out as the sound of their systems powering down echoed around the hanger and their bodies slumped to the floor motionless, before he disappeared out the down, Batou's Tachikoma rushed forward and grabbed him by the claw.

"Wait! ...Not that I doubt your hypothosis, but what if we're wrong about the pretenders? I mean-...with all the facts and evidence we got, how do we know what's really going on? It's almost as if the truth is being buried under a mound of convenient circumstances and we're being swayed from what's really important!" the Tachikoma squeaked

"...I know what you mean, with everything that's happened this last month I still find it a wonder that we've all made it this far; I-, we've never been in a situation like this before, and I think in we're still trying to feel things out; look, if I'm wrong about the pretenders then we'll start over from a different angle, all we'd have to do is check out the CIA agents and we'll know for sure" Scorponok replied

"Yeah okay"

"Listen, about what I said before: there are many things I may regret in life, but I don't regret being caught in that rift and being blasted here" he said thoughtfully as he gently clasped the think tank's claws in his own

"Huh? Why not? After everything you and the others have been through I'd have thought you'd be glad to go home!"

"Yeah, but then I wouldn't have you...say, when this all finally over, why don't you come back with us? Everyone would love you, and you'd be great at putting any stray cons in their place!"

"That does sound cool...but..."

"But what?"

"...But who would look after mister Batou? ...I couldn't just leave him; out of all of us he use's me to serve as his personal unit, and out of all of us, he can spot me right away...I don't know why, but it feels kinda ...touching, that he does that, and he genuinely cares about us when everyone else regards us as simply machines... even though nobody really knows, that's something we really care about, we've sacrificed ourselves twice to save his own life...I suppose, in a way, we're waiting for the day when he can have the chance to repay the favour...do you understand? ..." the Tachikoma replied, the air of emotion in its voice didn't escape the scorpion's notice; for a long moment Scorponok looked into the tank's front orbital dome and sighed in defeat, deep down he could feel a piece of his spark breaking at the prospect of having to say goodbye to the AI when he and the others would finally have to go home, in a way he wanted to object, but somehow, some part of him was saying it was okay, this is what the AI's wanted, and if looking out for their favourite human was want they wanted, then he was okay with it...so long as it-she was happy.

"Okay, if that's you want my sweetspark..." he leaned in a 'kissed' her on the side of her chassis, the Tachikoma patted its claws on the side of its 'face' in a bashful manner, "now let's go and tell the others" he continued, and together they both went on through to the auxiliary hanger. But unbeknown to both of them, Ratbat flew from out of the corner he'd been eavesdropping in, and flew into the air vent; after skilfully navigating the building's air ventilation system, the tiny drone flew out and into the darkened indoor firing range; in the far corner of the room where the shadows were at their darkest, the single red glowing optic was the only sign of Ravage's presence. The bat drone dived down and landed on the side of his head next to his left audio.

"You're old habits serve you well little brother, nice to know you haven't lost your touch" the panther purred in satisfaction

"Indeed brother, and have I got news for you!" the bat squeaked in glee

"Oh really? What about?"

"Call me a fragger's glitch, but apparently Scorponok is quite the thinker when he wants to be"

"Oh? How so?"

"Well, when the AI's got back earlier..."

* * *

You seriously didn't think I'd leave out everyone's favourite blue think tanks? ^^ R&R PLease!


	57. Chapter 56: Wolf Among The Sheep

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 56: WOLF AMONG THE SHEEP

The evening winds whipped across the open ground with a mild burst of summer warmth, the various sounds of traffic, people and the scent of smoke and ash carried along as in the distance the glow of the burning remains of the Sukaitawa towers lit up the cityscape with a orangey-golden glow, complimenting the reddish glow of the setting sun as it lit up the cloudy sky with shades of pastel reds and peaches. The time was 9:13 pm and the Niihama international airport was bustling with flights coming and going in a continual line of super-jumbos and various smaller craft catering for national flights. Across the tarmac of the privet runway (the one that was designated for flights carrying political VIP's) an American Imperial military jet had landed and had come to a halt in the privet terminal, waiting on the tarmac were several officers from the Intelligence department. After the gangway had been pulled up and the doors to the jet opened, five men in suits stepped out and made their way down to the ground, the waiting officers were less than pleased to meet them as they regarded the gentlemen with distained looks.

"Agents Watanabi and Sato I presume?" one of the agents asked in a less than polite manner

"That's right; I take it you guys are the welcoming committee?" one of the gentleman replied; he wore a blue suit, red tie, had black combed back hair and had a particularly overbearing smugness about him, his partner wasn't much different either as he extended his hand to shake, the officer didn't return the favour.

"Hardly, thanks to that announcement your bosses put out last night half the damn country's in a panic! We know what you're here for, and I'm here to tell you you're out of luck; the Prime Minister has already gone over your terms for the unconditional surrender of the 'visitors' and she's in no mood to hand anyone over to you" the intelligence officer sneered

"Well we'll see about that won't we? For now, I think the Prime Minister will be very interested in seeing our new terms and conditions, in the meantime, you guys can show us to the embassy" Watanabi replied smugly, the officers scowled and gnashed their teeth in disgruntled annoyance; as the CIA agents made their way across the tarmac to the waiting car, the fifth agent turned to look back over the tarmac, towards the perimeter fence.

"Hm? What's up?" the third agent asked

"...It's nothing; just the wind" he replied impassively and turned back to face front.

As the various sounds of the airport and city filled the coming night air, no one noticed the ominous dark shape streak across the open ground seven hundred yards away, jump the perimeter fence, and disappear into the city...a shape that looked suspiciously like a large panther.

* * *

Back at Section 9 HQ:

"...So what if the Americans know we're aliens? We got bigger problems to worry about than them! The Decepticons are still at large and to abandon this city to their mercy would be in violation of the prime directive, that's not something's we're gonna give up for the sake of politically saving face for your government! We made it clear when we signed the protection order that we wouldn't get involved with anything that didn't concern us!" Jetfire sternly spoke down at the young human intelligence officer who was glairing up at him from in between his feet.

"I know! I made a point of that when we meet with the generals! But the Americans are threatening to take overt action if you don't give yourselves up! What does your 'prime directive' say about leaving innocent civilians to get punished for the sake of a bunch of aliens who didn't want to be here in the first place!" the officer spat back

"Alright Kenji that's enough!..." Kobuta sternly reprimanded as he approached from the side, the younger officer stepped back with a discreet nod of acknowledgment as the ancient seeker heaved a heavy frustrated sigh through his vents.

"Look, if they know we're aliens then what's the point in trying to cover it up? If we come clean with them about our origins then everyone's on the level and no-one's in a position to gain the upper hand, we tell them that their in just as much danger as everyone else with the Decepticon threat present and they'll putting everyone's life if they remove us; and furthermore, our leader and the rest of our friends are out there somewhere looking for us, we can't leave now!" Jazz argued, to which Kobuta sighed and wiped his brow with a white handkerchief

"...I had a feeling you were going to say something like that..." he said listlessly

"Look buddy, I ain't taking any pleasure in this, but we can't afford to go creep 'in around and make it look like we've got somethin' else goin' on; I may not be in the business of politics but I've read enough on human politics to know that none of this is as straight forward as we'd both like it to be, whether the American's like it or not they are not the ones calling the shots on this whole thing, and neither are you! With the cons out there none of us are in a position to say what'll happen for sure next; we don't know where their base of operations is, we don't know just how many of them are there and we don't know what their pack 'in in the way of weapons, and if the American's have been compromised like Scorpy hypothesized, then those dudes are in even bigger trouble than they think!" Jazz continued

"...I can't deny the thought of that Saski pretender is still on my mind and the idea of the American secret services being infiltrated by those things scares me to no end; the Pentagon has made it clear they're in no mood to dispute the decision on moving in and apprehending you all, to that end the CIA will barge in and try to overturn the protection order. Fortunately the Prime Minister has no intention of letting them gain the upper hand, it's likely that she might have them deported as soon as possible, but that's going to take time...if you insist on unveiling yourselves to the CIA it'll only make things more complicated" Kobuta reasoned

"For sure, but there are very few other options open to all of us right now; tell your Prime Minister that we'll take care of the CIA, if they think they can stroll in and just take us as if we're their property then their dead wrong! Your services in concealing us have been well executed, but now is the time for us to step from the shadows and take the initiative. We've got work to do, and it doesn't involve being caught in the centre of this political affair!" said Jetfire as he turned and walked away, leaning hard on his cane; a brief moment of silence followed before Jazz spoke up again.

"He's right; this whole thing became our concern when the Decepticons became part of the equation, I'm sorry that you and the American's ain't on good terms, but with all due respect, I'd say addressing the possibility of every human on the planet being wiped out takes precedence over a political stand-off between two rival governments. Because that's what we'll be facing if the cons numbers are as great as we believe them to be" Jazz offered, Kobuta looked up in the first lieutenant in disbelief, and sighed in resignation of the fact that the Autobot could be right, and it wasn't a risk that could be left to chance if it turned out to be true.

"...Okay...what do you guys need?" he sighed

"If the CIA agents try to force their way any further than they already have, call us and we'll be there, but for now, let the PM do what she has to do; if the American's are serious about taking action and it puts innocent civilians in harm's way we ain't gonna let that happen either, we'll think of something to stop them so don't worry" Jazz offered

"Alright; in the meantime we're concentrating on the riots and getting a press blackout in place, we've got to do something about the publicity of all this before it boils over completely"

"Ah I wish I could help you out there, but getting involved as far as the public is concerned? I'd say we've overextended our welcome"

"...You might be right there, but in the long run, you being here has been a good thing in a few more ways than one..." Kubota smiled as he walked out of the hanger with his young partner in tow; as soon as they were gone Deathshot suddenly appeared in the centre of the hanger as he deactivated his invisibility camouflage.

"I take it the situation with the CIA is still unresolved?" the sniper asked

"They're not making it easy on the PM, and she's stick 'in to her guns and not willing budge; either way, I ain't so sure about it...So, what did you find?" the first lieutenant asked

"...It's bad, look" Deathshot said as he sent a data burst through to Jazz, the silver bot flinched slightly in response and looked up at the sniper in surprise.

"Nanites?"

"Type three matter-interface nanites to be exact, not from my nanite processing unit but one that must have been built to the same or similar specs; it explains how those Demolisher 'clones' were able to merge together into a singular entity, that particular variety of nanite is very rare; when used correctly it can be used to merge separate objects into a singular item on the molecular scale; it saved on welding and could be used to create a variety of instruments and weapons...but, the nanites that fused the Demolisher 'clones' were modified to the point of near systems failure, instead of being programmed to merge a singular matter-base item, they were forced to merge everything that the Demolisher clones were comprised of; metal, silicon, wire, circuitry, tubing, everything , including everything within their immediate facility, which explains why the metal in those buildings, the choppers and even the cyborg pilots got sucked into the fusing process too...Jazz, that type of nanite was never meant to be used on living beings, the fact that the cons are in possession of that kind of technology worries me greatly" Deathshot replied in a grave tone, the memory of those poor humans being fused into that monster didn't bare thinking about.

"It worries me too D-man, but at least it gives us an idea of what they've got in the way of resources; if they've got nanite technology that can create new weapons, devices, and even fuse individuals together then their gonna be pack 'in some heavy heat the next time we face off against them" Jazz frowned beneath his visor

"In that case might it not be prudent to send out a signal and try to get Optimus's attention? If our enemy outnumbers us then we're all going to be at a serious disadvantage" Jetfire suggested

"I can't deny I'm tempted by that idea, but with the CIA stepping in I don't want to put Prime and the other's lives in unnecessary danger, and with the city already in a panic I don't want to scare the humans further by having more of our kind show up; beside, all the main roadways leading into the city are full to capacity, they'd never get in" Jazz sighed in frustration

"So we just wait? And see what happens next?" the ancient seeker quirked an optic ridge

"I'm afraid so..." Jazz replied

"Hmm...By the way, where did our little friends get off to?"

"The kids are back at the safe house, with the CIA showing up I thought it best to keep our head down for a while, at least until we know the PM's got this under control; or at least, keep them out of this...plus, with all the hours they've been putting in with section 9 they could use some serious recharge time, the others are with them, if you want to go D?"

"You know I can never say no to them Jazz, you coming?" the sniper asked

"Yeah, I think we better-...finally, where the slag have you been this whole time?" Jazz asked as he saw Ravage emerge from the darkness outside the hanger.

"Niihama airport...Before we return to the safe-house there's something we have to talk about; it would appear Scorponok's hypothesis was right on the mark" the panther growled, curious, the bots crouched down to listen in.

* * *

The underground safe house, 10:07pm:

For a place that was nearly a full house with Autobots, the hangar space was surprisingly quiet, the two huge ex-Decepticon seekers sat motionless in their alt modes with all the other Autobots parked around in a tight confined area, leaving room for when Jazz, Deathshot and Jetfire would return. The stillness of the air felt eerie, as the Autobots recharged in silent peacefulness Darren strolled into the hanger, bare footed and in his pyjamas, a simple white cotton T-shirt and boxers with a blanket around his shoulders; with tired dreary eyes he instantly picked out Trailbreaker sitting near the computer terminal on the raise platform, walking over the cold concrete floor, the pit-pat of his feet echoed off the walls of the hanger like a whisper, barely making a sound as Trailbreaker softly popped open his door and let the tired fifteen year old sit in his driver's seat.

"Hey, can't sleep?" Trailbreaker whispered through his speaker as he gently closed the door, Darren slumped to one side and sighed listlessly as he tried to keep his eyes open.

"...It was the dream again" he simply replied in a soft voice

"Again? That's the fourth time in as many nights you've had this nightmare now" Trailbreaker replied in mild concern

"I don't think it's a nightmare, rather, it's just really vivid, and it always feels so real...when I wake up it's like I've been reincarnated back into this life, and that I've left the other one behind..." Darren thought aloud

"Strange...tell me about your dream..."

"...It's weird, but always happy in a way; I'm walking down my street, and the sun, moon and stars are all in the same sky overhead; as I walk down the street, I'm, slowly 'changing', when I reach my house, I look down and I see I've become a transformer, as tall as you with green and black armour; then you show up, we laugh and we joke around, then we both transform together, and we just keep driving on and on forever...I'm happy, and I don't mind not being human; but then, something tells me that this isn't meant to be...I look up, and then back down, and I realize I'm human again...I look up again, and I see the Allspark"

"The Allspark?"

"Yeah, it's floating in the air, but then it begins to die, and it slowly turns to rust, and finally to dust, and as it falls apart a whole forest grows in its place...at first I'm all confused, but then, a voice tells me that the Allspark paid a heavy price for coming here..."

"Hmm...That is peculiar, you humans really see some strange things when you go into recharge mode...but then I suppose we're not much different either in that respect"

"Huh? But didn't you say your people don't have dreams when they sleep?"

"Not usually, but all rules have their acceptations; usually seeing images flash through your mind during recharge mode is a common sign of a glitch in your CPU"

"Then does that mean Red Alert dreams every night?" Darren smirked

"I suppose, Primus knows that bot can really get wound up at the best of times, I dread to see what goes on in his CPU at night!" Trailbreaker giggled, for a moment the two friends chuckled together before Trailbreaker continued "...Anyway, during the war, I heard stories of where some bots would wake up screaming and clawing at their recharge births, and despite being given a thorough scan by the medics, nothing was physically wrong with them...it confounded many medics and doctors and many bots dismissed it as lunacy; but for bots like Bluestreak, we knew what it really was..."

"The war"

"Yeah...it doesn't matter how many centuries you fight, the faces of your dead friends never really fade away, they always come back to haunt you in one form or another; Primus knows poor Blue had it real bad when he was a sparkling, it was years before he stopped waking up crying in the night..."

"War is the lousiest thing ever, I don't understand how you can hate a complete stranger so badly that you'd want to kill them, even though you've never met them before and they haven't done anything to you...it makes no sense"

"War never makes sense Darren; and it something I hope you never have to see...but your dream, maybe it's meant to serve as a metaphor of some kind? Technically the Allspark was destroyed on earth, maybe the trees are a symbol of new life in place of its death? ...It certainly feels like we've been able to start our lives anew since we came here to earth, and don't tell the others, but sometimes I can't help but feel the Allspark being gone is a good thing. It stopped the war which was the reason why we were fighting in the first place, it took Megatron down with it, and we've all been able to move on with life...the Allspark in itself was life, maybe it's watching over us from somewhere, happy that we've finally found peace in our lives...at least, that's what I like to believe..." Trailbreaker said thoughtfully

"...I think you might be right...when I was little, my dad once told me that our ancestors used to watch us from the stars, and whenever a new star appeared in the sky, that was a great soul taking its place with its brothers and sisters...I think, if there is a God, and he really cares for us, maybe all this craziness we've been dragged into is meant to serve some kind of higher purpose, hell knows trying to make sense out of chaos is something we've been doing since we first looked up at the sky and saw something more than just a huge cluster of glowing atomic gas balls burning away into nothingness...either way, I have to believe that this is all leading to somewhere; I have to believe that my actions are counting for something or else what is there left to believe in?" Darren pondered aloud

"But your actions are counting for something youngling, you've been so busy this last month and you're fighting spirit in taking down that monster was admirable beyond all measure...Prime would be proud of you...your creators would be proud of you, all your friends are proud of you, and I'm proud of you; and don't let anyone tell you differently"

"...Thanks Trailbreaker" Darren smiled as he gently stroked the steering wheel, "...You know, if given the choice, I don't think I'd mind being a Transformer..."

"Heh, I always thought you'd look good as a Lamborghini Estoque..." Trailbreaker smirked as he brought up a holographic image of the sleek stylish car modal on his flip-out laptop

"Wow, you got taste buddy, that would be one sweet altmode" Darren smiled as he leaned back in the chair

"Indeed; now, why don't you go back to your birth and get some recharge hm? We may be in hiding again but we've still got work to do okay?" Trailbreaker smirked; the slight mother hen tone didn't escape Darren's attention as he got out of the car and chuckled, "Yes dad" he joked, and made his way back to his room.

* * *

10:18am the next morning:

"You sure you don't want the last pancake?" Miles asked

"Nah I'm good, you and Ashley fight over it" Sam waved him off

"Eh, it's your loss dude...ASHLEY! Step away from the pancake!" Miles shouted as he raced back into the kitchen, the sounds of bickering and struggling could be heard as the two lads fought it out for the last of the breakfast.

"Why so down?" Bumblebee asked through his loudspeaker

"Mmm...Just thinking how weird it is that America is the bad guy here, and how weird it is that I'm referring to our own country in third person...I can't help but wonder how Will, Epps and the rest of the NEST team are gonna react when they find out; they'll probably think they've fallen down the rabbit hole into some sort of upside-down technological wonderland with too many mad hatters" Sam lazily replied as he sipped his morning coffee

"Well, that might be the case, I just hope Will's not too stressed out about Anny" Mikaela sighed as she rested her head against his chest.

"Mmm, still, I can't wait to see the look on Prime's face when he sees Jay-jay" Sam smiled

"Aw that would be so awesome, and utterly cute! No doubt we'll have to throw a party of some kind when we get home" Mikaela smiled, she was about to say something else when the sound of the boys fighting in the kitchen drew her attention

"GHA! Why the hell did you hit me woman?" Ashley barked as he rubbed the back of his head

"Because that's what you get for letting your table manners slip! ...honestly Ravage why the hell do you encourage him like that?" Morri glared at the panther, who was busy cleaning his paws.

"A bit of healthy competition is good for a youngling his age: it helps build a sense of domination and is good for establishing the ranks with the others" he replied proudly

"Oh yeah? Well what am I gonna tell his father when he finally finds us and his son is into the habit of fighting people for their breakfasts?" Morri reprimanded

"That's your problem" he smirked, to which his brothers sniggered, Morri was about to rip the panther a new one when her cell phone suddenly went off, everyone in the hanger fell silent and stopped what they were doing as Morri flipped the little device open and pressed it to her ear.

"Hello? Chief, what are you...What! When?...But why this soon? I thought they were meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss that very issue today?...Seriously?...Okay, well I'll tell them, we'll see you later"

"What was that all about?"

"Uh? We might have a slight problem..."

* * *

30 minutes later:

The morning winds blew strong and stiff across the Etami base's runways as the sun shone bright and warm, the Major and Batou stood silently as they waited; Batou's scowl and ridged posture denoted his frustration while the Major stood with her usual calm and collectedness, her own concerns hidden beneath her usual exterior. Soon enough the thundering roar of jet engines ripped through the morning sky with a particularly angry boom, the sound of a transformation sequence could be heard overhead as Jetfire landed with a deafening thud, cracking the tarmac under his feet and knocking the agents off their feet and onto their backsides, he eyed them ominously for a brief moment before straightening up.

"Alright, what happened?" he gruffly asked in an annoyed tone

"Someone in the cabinet went behind Kayabuki's back and leaked secret information to the Pentagon; they know about the Decepticons back-hacks into the military's network and since early this morning the Intelligence Department's online security systems co-ordination unit have encountered six back-hacks from the CIA's online defence sector and they haven't let up since" the Major replied, Jetfire rubbed his forehead with one hand as he grumbled a Cybertronian curse under his breath.

"So essentially you mean we're compromised!" he huffed

"That, and the American Imperial fleet arrived at 2 am this morning, look" the Major pointed, turning around and gazing at the horizon, the silhouetted outlines of seven imposing aircraft carriers stood motionless on the glistening sea, accompanied by several Destroyers, Missile Cruisers and Amphibious assault ships, all poised at the mouth of Niihama bay.

"Hm! They made good time; where is the Japanese Navy? Surely the government isn't just going to roll over and let them stroll in?" the seeker asked incredulously

"Let the GSDA and MSDF worry about them, they can take care of the fleet if things get dicey; in the meantime you guys need to stay alert, right now the CIA agents are with the Prime Minister and the top brass, but that's no guarantee something might not happen" Batou replied

"Oh we know, because it's already happened" Jetfire coolly replied, both agents eyes flew open in surprise

"...What do you mean by that?" the Major asked

"The CIA is already compromised; Ravage snuck away the Niihama international airport last night to see the arrival of the CIA agents, and it turns out both the Tachikoma's and Scorponok were right...the Decepticons reach extends further than we originally thought..." the seeker replied cryptically, the agents looked at one another in disbelief

"You mean they-"

"I'm afraid so...but fortunately this has presented a unique opportunity to put the American's in their place, and hopefully...possibly even get them to help us"

"Help us? ...But how?"

"By showing them how vulnerable they are, and that no one is beyond our enemy's reach, the agents may be presumptuous but they can't be completely dense; listen, we have got a basic idea about how we're going to resolve this, but I need your word that you won't make your move before we've had a chance to put something in place"

"...Alright, what do you need?" the Major asked

"First, when will the Prime Minister's meeting with the CIA agents be over?"

"Uh, they're due to finish up before lunch"

"Right, in that case it doesn't give us a lot of time; go back to your HQ and tell everyone to mobilize; tell Aramaki to call Kobuta and tell him to have some reinforcements on standby, we're going to the Prime Minister's residence, be sure your ready!" Jetfire replied and without another word he jumped up in the air, transformed and flew off up into the sky.

"What the heck have they got in mind?" Batou thought aloud

"Let's go and find out, _Chief, are you there?" _the Major called over the cybercomm

"_Yes Major?"_

"_Tell everyone to suit up and move out, we're going to the Prime Minister's residence, and call Kobuta; we'll need additional back-up"_

"_Understood, but what's going on?"_

"_Your guess is as good as mine, but we'll find out soon enough" _she replied and then cut off the link

"You thinking this is going to get dicey?" Batou asked

"Without a doubt"

* * *

The Prime Minister's residence, 1 hour later:

"...With all due respects madam Prime Minister you're not making this easy on yourself; our government is not going to take no for an answer on this and stalling for time while waiting for a reply from the UN isn't going to help, just give us what we came for and we'll be on our way without a fuss" Agent Watanabi said as he leaned back in his chair; across the table Prime Minister Kayabuki sat with the respective heads of the military, each glaring at the five Americans with looks of irritation and annoyance, but what really got their goat was the fact that the agents were under the impression that they were the ones in charge; it ticked them off to no end. As the Prime Minister continued to calmly and fluidly argue the agent's ultimatum, a couple of the generals and field marshals couldn't help but notice the fifth agent sitting at the very far end of the table; he was average height with a slim build, fairly pale skin with almost white ash blond hair, pale hazel eyes and a black suit. Most of them figured he was a cyborg with a high percentage of prosthetics (most cyborgs with high prosthetics percentages typically had a stolid air about their overall appearance) but something about the way he sat there and continuously stared at them didn't seem right, it wasn't unnerving for hardened military men like them, but even so, something else seemed to be going on here. Meanwhile, outside the room, something else was going on as section's 9 and 4 silently moved towards the door with Morri, Sam, Tom and Mikaela bringing up the rear with chief Aramaki and Kobuta.

"You didn't give many details over the phone; why are the Autobots surrounding the building and just what is this about?" the intelligence officer asked in concern

"I'll explain when this is over, you guys keep your guns trained on the door, and whatever happens, don't blink...did you give the PM our message?" Sam asked

"Yes and she's ready, but what's going to happen once you go in there?" Kubota asked

"Just let the Major and her guys do their thing, I volunteered to do the talking but make sure you're out of the way; this might get pretty dangerous and I need to be fast in order to pull this off right" Morri reassured as she looked to the Major and Batou with a small smile

"Alright, but I hope whatever it is you got in mind, you know what you're doing" Kobuta replied as he gently tapped on the door and quietly entered the room; grabbing the Prime Minister's attention with a discreet look, he bent down and whispered something in her ear, to which she responded with a relaxed look of relief, she turned her attention back to the agents as she got up and closed the file in front of her on the table.

"Gentlemen, our business here is concluded...Mister Watanabi, I will only say this once so you and your colleagues had better listen up; I have no intention of handing the 'visitors' over to the custody of the CIA and the American Imperial navy, nor will I permit you to further bully us into submission; if you think you can just stroll in here and expect us to cater for your country's whims as we were your servants then your even more ignorant than I imagined. After what happened last year, did you seriously expect us to treat that nuclear attack so lightly? Just because we have the Japanese miracle at our disposal does not mean we will just stand by and let our own civilians die needlessly for the sake of what goes on behind closed doors...I sorry gentlemen but I've got much bigger problems to worry about right now, and they don't concern you; I've already signed off on your deportation papers, you'll receive your copies when you return to the embassy" Kayabuki said in a particularly cold tone, Watanabi and Sato both sat there in bemusement before they both frowned in ire, behind their poker faces the top brass smiled to themselves in satisfaction, but the atmosphere rapidly changed as section's 9 and 4 stormed the room and flanked the Prime Minister and the military leaders, the agents stood up but froze as the section 9 agents trained their guns on them while at the same time the Rangers flanked the edges of the room and covered the window.

"What the hell is going on here?" Sato demanded

"What's going on Mister Sato is that we're here to try and convince you to reconsider your course of action towards the 'visitors'; despite your overbearing presumptuousness regarding this matter I'm afraid we cannot let you take any further action; the 'visitors' have proven to be a vital asset in our country's national defence and to let them be apprehended in this present time would prove to be a disaster" the chief replied as he entered the room with Togusa covering him with his revolver.

"...Chief Aramaki...Suffice to say I'm not surprised you and your section are involved in this; we've been keeping an eye on you for quite a while now and we know you're not in a position to threaten us like this; nice bluff old man but I'm afraid we have a plane to catch, let's go" Sato scoffed

"You guys are not going anywhere" Mikaela said as she and the other kids entered the room, the agents recognized them right away and watched in surprised bemusement as they stepped forward.

"And if the CIA has been keeping tabs on section 9 this whole time, you guys are well of what we've been up to with them" Sam finished as he folded his arms

"Well...we weren't expecting this; what're you kids doing here?" Watanabi asked

"Believe it or not, we're here to do you guys a favour; you may not believe us but you two and the rest of the CIA have been taken for a bunch of patsies, the whole reason that Naval fleet is out there is for someone else's agenda, not yours" Morri replied firmly

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sato smirked

"Oh come on! You two maybe a pair of smug little prats but I can't believe you're so dense that you can't see a real threat when's its staring you in the face; if you've really been keeping tabs on us since we first arrived here, I'll be willing to wager that you have transcripts of our conversations...conversations that probably mentioned a certain enemy fraction beginning with the letter 'D'?...What the hell gives you guys the impression that you and your country are totally immune to what's been going on here? What're your real reasons for coming here to apprehend the Autobots?" Morri asked in annoyance, the agent's eye's narrowed as they glared at her.

"...Say we have been keeping tabs on you; why the hell should your problems concern us? The only thing we know is that you brats and your fancy robots have caused nothing but trouble for everyone, and being left in the hands of this less than capable bunch of saps only proves our point further-" Sato sneered, in that instant everyone bristled in ire, all the combatants in the room began to tighten their grip on their weapons, "Buddy you better be real careful what you say here" Batou growled as he aimed his semi-automatic, "I agree, don't forget your in the presence of the Prime Minister here" Aramaki reminded them as his own gaze sharpened into a scowl.

"Oh please, you seriously think we're supposed to be intimidated? If you kill us here and now you know that'll only make things much worse...As for your robots? They represent a major investment for our country's national defence, and after all the trouble they've caused we think we can put them to much better use, besides, you kids are American anyway so why don't you come on home already?"

"Uh, FYI, me and my cousin are British; Sam and Mikaela are the American's here" Tom pointed out

"Yeah, and even if we did go to America, it wouldn't be OUR America, and believe me it's a very different country compared to the one you know; for one thing we're not an Empire, we're a democracy with all fifty states!" Sam concurred proudly; the agents blinked in puzzlement but shrugged it off.

"We're not going anywhere, and whatever opinions you hold of us, we don't give a damn; we're here because of an accident, and through that accident we've got much bigger problems than you right now...so either, you can get back on your jet, fly home and leave us be, or, you can do the right thing and stop allowing yourselves to be lead around by the nose"

"And just what's that supposed to mean?" Watanabi asked incredulously

"It means, you're not the ones in charge here, and I'm guessing the CIA has been compromised for a long time now...one of the world's most sophisticated spy and reconnaissance networks has been at the mercy of an enemy so ancient and so powerful you can't even begin to imagine just how such an evil can exist" Morri stated

"I seriously doubt that, but if you have any proof I'd like to see it" Sato sneered, to which Morri smirked as her protective force-field aura began to flicker to life and energy bolts began to crackle around her clenched fist; seeing this, the Rangers quickly moved to one side and away from the walls.

"...I was hoping you'd say that..." in one quick move, Morri punched her fist in the fifth agent's direction and sent out a powerful energy bolt, knocking the agent clean off his feet and sending him through the wall in a crackling ball of blue light, everyone shielded their faces away and the other agents leapt over the table for cover, but as quickly as she struck, Morri recalled the energy back until her force field was flickering like a candle flame.

"My God! What did you do?" one of the Generals exclaimed in alarm, but before anyone could say or do anything else, a shuffling sound drew attention to the hole in the wall and everyone gasped at the sight of the six foot tall alien insectoid robot with clothing and flesh hinging off its sharp edged armour plating. It had four red eyes set into a mantis-like face and two additional sets of pincer-like arms protruding from its sides, coupled with a long whip-like tail with a stinger that was slowing growing our from the base of its blade-lined spine. Every weapon in the room was aimed at its forehead, but the creature merely smirked, revealing a mouth lined with dozens of tiny silver piranha-like teeth.

"Well, I guess I can drop the act, and about time too; having to play the servant to those useless cretins was starting to get tediously annoying...I have to say, for a carbon based life form, you are a cleaver girl..." it smirked in snarky raspy voice, everyone bar the kids and section 9 agents was frozen in fear. As the creature slowly stepped away from the hole, the Rangers nervously kept their poise while the section 9 agents fluidly moved forward slightly, well within range for a clear shot. The other CIA agents on the other hand, gawked in shock from where they hid behind the table.

"Did you seriously think we wouldn't have guessed that you'd try to extend your reach beyond these shores? That you wouldn't try sticking your noses into another country's spy network and manipulate it to your own advantage?" Morri stated with a commanding tone.

"Manipulate? We practically invented the global satellite intercept net; it's been a most useful commodity over the years, but then, mostly everything in this world was a creation of ours in one form or another; you flesh bags of course, had to stake your claim on anything that's of great usefulness to you, it doesn't even matter if it's your own creation or not, you simply stick a label on it and call it your own; typical...but still, for all their grotesquery's, humans do make for a useful commodity, and as one of the Autobot's pets, you seem exceptionally well trained" the creature sneered with a disgusting grin, Morri paid no attention as she cautiously stepped forward, her force field flickering more intensely.

"...How long have you been in this universe?" she asked forcefully and frankly

"Me personally? Can't say, my memory's not what it used to be; but the rest of us? Certainly long enough to see your species crawl out from the trees and down into the dirt"

"...Why did you come here?"

"Oh it wasn't out of choice, like you, one day we were minding our own business, then suddenly, poof, we were stuck here without power, no way of getting home, and with loads of filthy organics for company and sport; since we're playing twenty questions I have some for you...Since when did the Autobot's start keeping pets? And how's the war going?"

"The war's over; Megatron's dead, and so is the Allspark" Sam replied sternly, the creature merely narrowed its eyes at him

"Oh? And you know this for a fact meat sack?"

"Sure do, I'm the one who sank the Allspark into his spark chamber"

"Really?...Hm, I find that incredibly hard to believe"

"Yeah? Well you ain't the only one...but we're not here to talk about me; what the hell have you been doing all this time?" Sam sneered

"Isn't it obvious?...The technology of this world may have descended from our own through reverse engineering, but suffice to say, humans are not completely backwards, and have actually had one or two good ideas along the way; ideas that, presented a golden opportunity for us. Namely the process of becoming a full bodied cyborg..."

"What has becoming a cyborg got to do with anything?"

"Quite simply, it's the single greatest stride in human evolution; the rebirth of humanity that casts aside the shackles of fragility and disease, it embraces immortality and the complete and utter totality of a human mind that has fused to the net. As cyborgs, we are gods; no longer bound to the restraints of nature and we forge our own world, created in our image" the creature sneered in a revering tone; everyone in the room stared at him in puzzlement, 'what the hell is he talking about?' Morri thought.

"But your Decepticons, since when did you care for the evolution of anything but yourselves?" Mikaela asked; the creature quirked an eyebrow in bemusement, but then narrowed its eyes at her.

"...Believe it or not, the evolution of humankind is everything..." the kids went ridged as a flair of alarm swept over them, "...Full bodied cyberization is the solution that will ensure the survival of our race; the Cybertronian race, and to ensure that we will continue long after your worthless species has been ground into the dirt where it belongs...In the great scheme of things all cyborgs will in time see that they are the rightful masters of this dirt-ball planet, and your executioners...I suggest you all take this time to reconcile the worth of your wasted lives, because the extinction of your race will be nothing compared to what's coming..." it growled, and within the blink of an eye a flash of white light, a loud bang and a huge cloud of white smoke engulfed the room and choked everyone near instantly.

"THE WINDOW! SHOOT!" the chief barked as the sound of glass smashing made the combatants raise their weapons and fire a volley of rounds in the hope of hitting their target; four flashes of bright blue light signified the kids flying out of the window in hot pursuit, bullets ricocheting off their force fields like heavy rain. Once outside they looked around and right away spotted a sliver glint streaking across the roof of the building at a fast pace. Firing up their force fields they sped through the air and managed to close a good hundred yards between themselves and the target, Mikaela and Morri flew off to the sides and fired down several blasts of energy, all of which the pretender dodged with fluid swiftness.

"DAMN IT!" Tom grunted as he fired one huge bolt down at where the pretender was going to run and sent the creature up into the air in an explosion of concrete, blue energy and fire. The creature flipped on its side and whipped its tail stinger right into Sam's back.

SAM!" Mikaela screamed as he dropped to the ground howling in pain, the teen went down like a lead weight but fortunately his force field had stopped the blade from going through him and deflected it away, but that didn't make it any less painful. Tom and Morri carried on after the pretender as he leaped across the end of the roof; with one huge jump he cleared the building, but halfway across to the neighbouring building a glowing blue humanoid mass shot up from the ground and knocked the pretender downwards with such force that it shattered the concrete; the blue mass landed nearby and reviled itself to be Ashley, completely engulfed in his force field and with his spear in one hand. Tom and Morri came to a halt overhead as the pretender picked himself up and sneered at the pre-teen in contempt.

"Well, this is interesting; looks like your masters have been too generous; but no matter, killing sparklings always was my favourite pastime" it grinned

"Funny, cuz I recently discovered I like killing cons-" Ashley growled as swung his spear and went in for the kill; as the two opponent's engaged each other, Tom was about to take a shot when Morri stopped him.

"What're you-"

"NO! Look..." Morri pointed down below to Bumblebee and Bluestreak slowly creeping up to the corner of the building while on the opposite side Hot Rod and Trailbreaker primed their weapons as they peeked around the other corner. At the same time a shimmering 'ripple' some several meters above indicated Deathshot's presence as he came into hover right above the fight forty meters down below.

"Ashley'll keep him busy long enough for the guys to close the net; this guy is slippery, we can't take any chances here!" said Morri, Tom nodded in compliance. Down below Ashley was putting quite a performance as he kept the pretender at bay, 'bloody hell! This bastard's quick!' he thought as he dodged the pretender's tail stinger, taking the initiative he grabbed the tail and lopped it off with one swipe of his spear, the creature reeled back with an ear splitting scream, and with a angry howl Ashley jumped and landed a kick to the creature's face, channelling his force field energy down his leg and out through his heel, the blast sent the creature flying up and over Bumblebee's head and into the reinforced concrete wall. Without leaving room for him to recover, Bumblebee grabbed the creature by the waist and slammed him down on the ground hard, hoping the blow would knock him out; but the pretender was still conscious, and in the blink of an eye a red light on his chest armour flashed before an explosion forced the yellow scout to let go, Bluestreak fired at the creature as it landed on the ground nearby but it's speed and dexterity enabled it to dash away in a zigzagging manoeuvre. Like a sparrow hawk ambushing a pigeon on the garden fence; Deathshot disengaged his invisibility camouflage, landed, and ran along the ground with surprising speed (for a flyer) and caught the pretender in his retractable talons, but no sooner had he caught him the sniper howled in pain as red lightning bolts shot up his leg and body, the creature had engaged some sort of repulsing energy field that threw the thirty foot giant off him; with a smug grin, a compartment nestled in the creatures chest plate opened up and before anyone could reach him, a massive fireball engulfed the whole area, knocking the bots onto their backs, the kids went head's over heels over the roof, and Deathshot was thrown back so hard he went straight through the wall of the building and into one of the larger foyers. Ashley was quick to flip around and dash down to the immediate blast zone with his spear at the ready, but as the smoke cleared and the flames reseeded, the pre-teen growled in ire; the pretender was gone.

"SHIT!" he yelled out, but his anger quickly turned to concern as he suddenly saw his guardian's feet protruding out of the huge hole in the side of the building.

"Holy crap! D!" he cried as he ran over, clambered over the rubble and through three demolished rooms until he managed to come up alongside his face; the sniper had landed on his front and his wings and tailfins had him lodged into the good and tight.

"Oh God! D Are you okay mate?"

"I'm fine youngling, my stabilizers just need to reboot; where's everyone else?"

"We're right here!" Hot Rod called as he and the other three bots came over to the hole and stepped into the hole while the kids came into land on the sniper's legs. "Whoa, you really got yourself stuck in here mate" Tom said offhand as he inspected the hole around the sniper's wide frame.

"Never mind me, what happened?" asked Deathshot

"I thought he blew himself up, but there's no body-parts lying around, he suckered us!" Ashley replied

"Right, **Ravage! Are you nearby? Try to pick up the con's scent; he might have injured himself in that explosion!"**

"**I'm already on it!"** the panther growled over the comm link; "Ravage is looking for him" he replied; at that moment the sound of pounding footsteps drew the sniper's attention and from the side he saw sections 9 and 4 running down one of the corridors and out into the wrecked foyer.

"Holy shit! What happened?" Batou exclaimed

"We were played! That con came prepared and blind-sided us with a cheap getaway tactic!" Trailbreaker fumed

"It could've been much worse, that con knew what he was doing and he knew he wasn't going to get caught so don't go venting over one pretender that got away; is everyone okay?" the sniper asked

"For the most part, what about you?" the Major asked

"I'm fine; I just need how to figure out how I'm going to crawl out of here without demolishing the rest of the building, give me thirty or so minutes and I'll be out of here" he replied

"Or better yet, let us help you out! We'll shoot some cables onto your legs and we'll pull you right out!" one of the Tachikoma's called out from the other side of the rubble, Deathshot didn't have time to reply as he felt several sticky webbing-like cables hit the armour on his legs and ankles and soon felt himself being tugged backwards out of the hole; as he slowly began to shift he wriggled around to loosen himself from the hole and as he slowly got dragged out of the hole the rubble around his shoulder's, neck, head and wings shifted to one side, and from the other side of the wreckage the kids managed to squeeze through and into the foyer.

"What happened up there?" the Major demanded, Morri was surprised by her sharp tone, but disregarded it and carried on

"We weren't able to catch him; Ashley knocked him for six, Bee threw him down and D sank his talons into his back, but he managed to throw us off and got away; Ravage is searching for him now, trying to pick up his scent" Morri sighed in defeat

"So why aren't you and the other's up there right now looking for him?" the Major asked incredulously, her team snapped their heads round, surprised at her tone of voice as Morri blinked in surprise.

"I said Ravage is looking for him right now, he'll be able to sniff him out, and with Lazerbeak, Buzzsaw, Thundercracker and Skywarp circling the immediate area that con's not gonna get very far, especially not if he's injured from that explosion" Morri replied

"So why are you still here? If he's not going to get very far I suggest you all get back out there and start looking for him!" the Major barked

"Major, we will get after him, but it's pointless to send everyone out at once when he could easily lead us on a wild goose chase; let the seekers and the drone handle this one, we'll provide the back when they pick up his trail, for now, I'm more concerned with getting D out of this hole" Morri replied firmly as she turned and crawled back through the rubble after Deathshot, the Major scowled in ire at her for a moment before considering the logic and passing a sigh of frustration, the others however, stood in bemused concern.

"Are you okay?" Batou asked in a hushed tone

"I'm fine, just get out there and verify the situation" she growled...actually growled, Batou tensed up when she glared at him and the other agents.

"NOW!" she barked

"Yes ma'am!" they replied and swiftly clambered out of the hole and over the sniper's head and shoulders with the Major bringing up the rear, the Rangers went off down another corridor that lead to the outside while Sam, Mikaela and Tom looked at one another in concern.

Fifteen minutes later the building's security had surrounded the hole in the wall and secured the whole area, with one last hard tug the Tachikoma's pulled Deathshot free of the rubble, he quickly gave his thanks, then transformed and hovered a few meters above the ground, his form shimmered and disappeared from sight as he engaged his invisible camouflage; the explosion had drawn some attention from the building surrounding the Prime Minister's residence and everyone was hurrying to conceal as much as possible while a press blackout was being put in place, the other Autobots had reconvened in the cordoned off area in their alt modes, along with the rest of section 9.

"Find anything?" Sam asked Batou

"Nothing, did Ravage turned up anything?" the ex-ranger asked

"He called in just now; they found his scent and followed it for over three quarters of a kilometre past the perimeter fence, it went down into one of the abandoned subway stations then somehow came to a dead end in one the tunnels; he must have had one of his buddies waiting there to pick-up him up. Either way, he's long gone by now" Jazz replied over his loudspeakers, Batou sighed in frustration and rubbed the back of his head.

"So now what do we do? Now that we know that the CIA has been compromised, how do we go about trying to warn the rest of them?" Tom thought aloud

"Somehow, I don't think that's going to be our issue, after what happed in the conference room the CIA agents were pretty; well, pissed to say the least; they're accusing us of setting up this whole thing and that it was a deliberate set-up, staged in order to try and intimidate them. Watanabi hasn't stopped bitching to the top brass for the last ten minutes" Togusa sighed in annoyance

"What! You're kidding! After we just saved their asses they think we punked them? ...Oh boy-" Sam facepalmed

"I've come across some real arse-holes before but those two are just unbelievable" Mikaela sighed

"Well so much for letting them in on the A-team" Tome sighed

"They maybe idiots, but their putting their country in danger; if they blow off what happened here today a whole of people could end up in harm's way!" Morri pointed out

"So? It's not our concern if they get their comeuppance for being ignorant; and after the trouble they put us through last year their well over due for being put in their place" The Major interjected, everyone looked at her in surprise, completely taken aback by her choice of words, Morri frowned at the Major in irritation and stepped over with a particularly piercing glare.

"I meant innocent civilians! The American public may not have the perfect military or secret service, but they're the only ones they have! If the Decepticons are planning to wipe everyone out then the army are gonna be the only thing standing between them and annihilation; you'd rather let them all suffer just because a small minority of narrow-minded individuals tried to drop a nuke on your head? ...If your idea of getting back at the CIA for they did to you is to stand by and let them fall apart from the inside out; you really chose the wrong time and place to have your petty revenge!" Morri practically shouted at her, everyone stood in silent tenseness as the two females glared at one another, eventually the Major broke it off and walked away.

"Batou, have everyone ready to move out in ten minutes" she ordered venomously

"Rodger; alright guys, pack it up and let's go" Batou said as the kids followed him at his side, but the Major stopped and glared at him over her shoulder

"You know, I just realised; since you kids have those BSHB's to enable you to fly, I don't think your presences will be required on the tiltroater this time..." she said coldly, the kids stopped in their tracks and the Autobots jerked on their tiers.

"What? But, what about the debriefing?" Tom asked in surprise

"We'll manage without you; the rest of you, back on the tiltroater in ten minutes!" the Major barked and strode away before anyone had the chance to protest; the team and kids stood there in surprise and shock, did the Major just blow the Autobot gang off. Ashley looked up at Batou, who looked down at him in equal surprise, Morri's frown lightened into an impassive look of confusion as she watched the field commander walk away to the helipad, Sunstreaker was about to speed off and rip her a new tailpipe when suddenly...

"**JAZZ! BUMBLEBEE! ANYONE-*krrrish* -READ ME OVER!"** Becky screamed over Jazz's sound speakers on the open comm line

"**Becky? What up?"** Jazz replied in alarm

"**THE SAFE HOUSE! WE'RE-** *krrrisherchishhhssshhkrich* **-ATTACK!"**

The last word grabbed everyone's full attention.

"**SAY THAT AGAIN?"** Jazz called back

"*krrrrisshshhs* **-I-** *krriishhsh* **-THESE GUYS IN UNIFORMS SHOWED UP! THEY FIRED SMOKE GRANADES INTO THE HANGER AND THIER TRYING TO KILL JETFIRE OUT THE FRONT! WE'RE IN THE-... Oh no...NO! NO STOPPIT GET OFF ME! AUGHIIIIII!-*krishshskrishkrishkirshshsh*-blip*..."**

"**...Becky? BECKEEEY!"**

* * *

Cliffhanger! D: R&R please!


	58. Chapter 57: Rescue And Reach Out

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 57: RESCUE AND REACH OUT

'Please please please let them be okay!' Mikaela repeated over and over again in her mind as she sailed through the air at break-neck speed. Speeding past the skyscrapers and other tall buildings the seekers and two airborne drones lead the way while down on the ground the Autobots were burning serious rubber as they ploughed their way through the city, stopping for nothing while not far behind the tiltrotor was pushing it's rotors to their maximum speed. Soon enough they entered/flew above the warehouse district where the safe house was located; the sight of black smoke and several demolished warehouses immediately drew everyone's attention, and sent a flair of panic through the gang; as they circled around to come into land, the two ex-con seekers and Autobot sniper instantly picked out Jetfire's unconscious form collapsed facedown among the rubble.

"Jetfire!" Deathshot called out, not wasting any time the three of them landed and started digging him out, until a low gravely growl made them stop.

"Mmmuh? You little fraggers back for more?" the ancient seeker grumbled as he came around

"Jetfire, what the slag happened here?" the sniper held him up; the seeker looked pretty beaten up for most of his armour was covered with dents, dings and scrapes, several scorch marks and parts of his smaller armour plating had been blown off too, but overall he didn't look too bad, but the sharp looking dent to the side of helm had seemed to have caused a bad concussion. As he rolled him onto his side, the seeker's clasped hands opened up to reveal a badly injured Hailey, covered in cuts, bruises and part of her clothing was burnt and ripped off, she moaned in pain as the seeker gently clasped her by the waist and handed her to Skywarp, who looked at the sniper in a mild panic, not knowing what to do with her; as the other Autobot's screeched to a halt and transformed, Jazz was the first to come to the seeker's side while the others wasted no time in searching the rubble for the safe house entrance.

"Hailey! Holy Primus what happened here girl?" the first lieutenant panicked

"I- ...I couldn't stop them, they-, they came and-" was all the blond could muster before she broke into a fit of pained sobs.

"Easy baby girl easy; Jet's, what happened?" the first lieutenenant demanded as he stroked Hailey's head

"They, took us by surprise, they came in via the escape tunnels under the safe house; they locked me out before I had a chance to do anything, and the younglings weren't quick enough to activate their force fields in time. I forced my way back in, but just in time to grab Hailey...I couldn't reach the others before they fired a grenade at my head!...GHAA! Aaah that's better..." Jetfire growled as he gave one hard tap to the side of his head, he managed to bang the dent out and straighten the armour surface out.

"Who? The cons?" Jazz demanded

"No, not the cons; humans..." everyone stopped and stared at the seeker in disbelief.

"Humans? Who?" Bumblebee called over

"Don't know, they were American's but they weren't ours; they wore black military uniforms with no badges or insignias, just the dog tags. There were about twenty of them, ten stormed the safe house while the other ten were in exo-suits and tried to offline me! They took the younglings before blowing the whole place up" Jetfire replied, the bots looked at one another in a panic

"Where did they go?" Sideswipe demanded

"Back down the tunnels" he replied, at that Scorponok leaped up and burrowed down through the tarmac and down into the tunnel system below, the other drones followed after him and as the tiltrotor came into land nearby Skywarp ran over and handed Hailey to Boma, the other kids rushed to her side and gasped at the sight of her injuries.

"She's damaged, do something!"

"We'll take her to the medical wing at the naval base, that's the closest one to here!" Boma replied before taking her into the tiltrotor's forward section and grabbing the first aid kit, all the while Mikaela held her head and reassured her everything was going to be okay. "What happened here?" the Major ordered, "Some human soldiers stormed the place, they took the younglings and the sparkling"

"They took Jay-jay? Where did they go?" Morri panicked

"Underground, the drones are-" but before he could finish, Morri, Tom, Sam and Ashley took off, dashed across the tarmac, leapt down the hole and followed the trail of grounded concrete left by Scorponok's claws; Batou soon caught up to them with his semi-automatic at the ready.

SCORPY! YOU DOWN HERE?" Ashley called out

"OVER HERE!" he called back, his metallic voice echoing off the tunnel walls, after running along and rounding several corners they eventually caught up the scorpion and the other drones.

"Which way did they go?"

"This way, the scent's still fresh so we have to hurry!" Ravage replied as he picked up the pace and galloped along the tunnel at cheetah speed with his brothers at his flanks, the kids activated their force fields and flew along while Batou deployed his cyborg strength to run at nearly three times the speed of a normal human. They followed the tunnel for what seemed like a good seven hundred yards or so, but with all the twists and turns and no real point of reference it was hard to say exactly where they were; suddenly the sounds of voices and feet pounding metal drew everyone's attention, there was light fast approaching and the tunnel opened up into a huge open space that formed part of a let-out system that flowed into the sea; turning around in the open pool-like lock was a small black submarine about forty feet long, making its way out to the open water. The hatch on top of the streamlined conning tower closed with a loud clang and with a sudden burst of speed the sub sped out of the lock into the open sea. Ravage fired up his hip guns and fired at the sub's stern, one grenade round hit one of the rudder fin's dead on and the craft leaned hard to starboard before submerging beneath the waves and disappearing completely.

"They won't get far with that damage! **Deathshot! Can you track them?"**

"**I'm already over your current position, the sub's maintaining its depth at approximately thirty feet; I'll try to shoot out the propeller and force it to make an emergency surface" **the sniper replied. Thirty feet above the water Deathshot invisibly chased after the sub as it sped out to open water, about two miles ahead the sniper's topographical scanners detected a steep drop in the ocean floor that went down for almost nine hundred feet, at that depth the sub would be unreachable so he had to act now, dropping down to the water surface the sniper folded his wings back and engaged his engines hydro-propulsion drive and dived down under the water; with the sub well in range, his sniper rifle swung out from his undercarriage and aimed for the sub, with one shot the propeller and remaining tailfins blew off and tore a large hole in the rear of the hull. Within minutes the sub began to veer upwards and swiftly descended up, breaking through the surface of the water like a breaching whale before crashing back down and levelling out. Transforming and blasting out of the water, Deathshot landed on the sub with a booming thud, being as large as the sub itself his weight made it sink down slightly and the craft shook unsteadily as he unsheathed his claws and ripped off the hatch door. A volley of machine gunfire made him back off, but from a small compartment in his wrist he produced a small smoke bomb and dropped it down the hatch; a muffled explosion sounded, followed by a succession of coughing and spluttering. Deploying his cables from out of his wrist and arm Deathshot sent them down into the sub and after finding the control room, 'plugged' them into the subs computer systems and within seconds he was in control of the whole craft; the uplinks to the crews cyberbrain's were disengaged and all the crew were rendered into sleep-like state, and through the sub's communication net, he heard something that caught his attention.

_:This is command Enterprise, come in AY03, why have you surfaced?:_

'Command Enterprise?' Deathshot thought in curiosity, looking out over the water across to the American naval fleet poised at the mouth of the bay, he spotted the aircraft carrier with the name ' A.E Enterprise' written across it's bow; 'so, that's where you guys were heading' he thought with a frown. Engaging the sub's online systems and searching the layout of the craft, he found the compartment where the kids were being kept, and the separate compartment where Jay-jay was being held captive. Turning round to face the stern, from out of his other wrist a long red lazar blade shot out and he sliced open the side of the sub like a tin can; inside, slumped on the floor, covered in bruises, cuts, blood and bound with metal wire, Darren, Glenn, Danny, Miles and the Waineright twins weakly looked up and blinked as the sniper gently picked them up and cut their restraints.

"D-D-Deathshot...you c-came..." Danny moaned; each of them slumped against the sniper's side, too weak to sit up straight.

"Heh, n-not like to m-miss out on a p-party man..." Miles grinned before he spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Don't try to talk, I'll get you all to the naval base in no time" Deathshot reassured as he cut open another hole on the side of the sub; as he gazed inside, he gasped at the sight before him. There, tired up in metal cables, dented, dinged, energon bleeding from her wounds and her wings bent backwards, Jay-jay gazed up the sniper with the most pitiful, spark-wrenching look any Cybertronian could muster; with energon tears streaming down her bruised little face, she weakly whimpered and sobbed as she tried to raise her head. Rage and anger shot through the sniper's mind as memories of his own sparkling came to mind, and the look on her face, the moment he knew he failed her. Gently pulling her out and cutting her loose, he held the sparkling tightly to his side, recognizing the warmth of his armour, Jay-jay instinctively tried to hug his side, but was too weak and in pain to do so and instead let out a wailing cry.

"Shh-shh, don't worry sweet-spark, I'm here now and we'll soon be-"

BOOOOOOMM!

A tall plume of water exploded up in the snipers face and nearly knocked him over into the water, holding the humans and sparkling closer to his body, the sniper looked around in ire; of all the times for an enemy to fire at him, this was not it. Suddenly, he saw one of the guns on the foremost destroyer of the fleet was eliciting smoke and aimed directly at the sub. Another round was fired, but the second before it hit its target, Deathshot leapt up and took off, making a beeline for the Niihama naval base.

The next several hours seemed to fly by within minutes, at the rate everyone was preoccupied with tending to their own no one had time for anything else, and not least for nearly losing their tempers with what actually happened; after a verifying the situation and gathering all the necessary facts, it transpired that the CIA had secretly deployed a covert special ops unit to try and secure the Autobots; by using the kids as bait they had hoped to lure them away and entrap them in a pre-determined location on the docks, but unfortunately, they hadn't counted on the drones tracking them through the tunnels, nor Deathshot being able to snipe the submarine in thirty feet of water (and underwater at that). After zeroing in on their communication's frequency and storming their hiding places, the GSDA apprehended the remaining special ops team and detained them. The Prime Minister, as well as the military top brass were now well and truly at the end of their tether with the Americans, and the CIA were still playing hard ball, denying that they ever approved such an op...Things were shaping up to turn real nasty behind closed doors, but that wasn't what was on the Autobot gang's minds/processors right now.

In the safety of the hangers and in the Niihama Naval base's hospital wing, the kids, Jay-jay and Jetfire had their wounds seen to; despite the apparent severity of her injuries Jay-jay wasn't as badly hurt as everyone had believed; because her protoform armour was more soft and pliable than adult protoform armour her dents and dings were easy to repair, and her wings were easy to bend back into shape, but because her sensory system was still delicate and sensitive she needed a lot of pain killers. With the Lambo twins and Deathshot's help Mikaela was able to formulate a low-grade energon with an added nanite formula with pain suppressants and recharge stimulators to help her relax and sleep while her treatment was carried out. Only Mikaela worked on Jay-jay, since a human's sense of touch was far more naturally acute and precise than a Cybertronians, her delicate fingers were just the thing to carry out the more sensitive work on a sparklings damaged body and systems, and after two hours of tedious delicate correcting and readjusting, Jay-jay was finally back in shape, and fast asleep. Afterwards, Mikaela, Sam, Tom, Thundercracker and Skywarp turned their attention to Jetfire as they helped to patch up the worst of his injuries, all things considered it wasn't as bad as when he got hit by that missile while teleporting everyone to the first safe house. As they watched them work, the two ex-cons were surprised by just how well the humans knew Cybertronian anatomy, Mikaela especially caught Thundercracker's attention and was surprised by just how much she knew of a seeker's physiology, he had to give her credit, despite being an organic she could pass for being a decent Cybertronian medic, though he was careful not to say it outright, Skywarp on the other hand didn't make an issue of it and simply followed her instructions as she gave them.

Across the base in the hospital wing, Danny, Darren, Glenn, Miles and the Waineright twins were recovering from their ordeal, it turned out that the special ops who took them team had tried to subdue them by firing tranquilizers and then beating them up so as they didn't have a chance to fire up their force fields; the twins broke down into a fit of sobs at the sight of their eldest sister lying unconscious in her bed, hooked up to IV drips and with a respirator in her mouth; her fair features battered, cut and bruised, she bore a shallow cut that went down from her chin to her collarbone, two other cuts that criss-crossed across her left shoulder and a large gash across her right eyebrow; the spark-aching look on Bluestreak's face when he saw her was enough to make even a hardened bot like Sunstreaker come close to tears. Trailbreaker was both spark-wrenched and livid as he saw his charge lying semi-unconscious, Darren had tried to put up a fight, his knuckles were raw and bleeding and he'd somehow managed to obtain a particularly nasty cut to his side; Miles was mostly covered in bruises with a nasty gash to the back of his left shoulder; despite his anger at seeing his charge like this, Jazz couldn't help but smile as Miles joked about his injuries, Danny had a shallow stab wound to the side of his left arm, but fortunately it was more a shallow flesh wound than a deep penetrating wound. Both the twins had sustained several cuts and bruises to their sides, bruises that were shaped like fists and sure enough they explained how, in a semi-conscious stupor, some of the more 'on edge' troops punched them to try and get them to divulge any details on the Autobots; despite their fear, the twins had given nothing away, but their resilience hadn't stopped Bluestreak from blowing a fuse. Glenn however had been unconscious the entire time and therefore hadn't had had as bad as the others, save for a few bruises and a sore head, but the whole experience hadn't made him any less unnerved and trying to control his panic attack was more the concern. As the gang's human medic Morri rushed back and forth between the beds, checking the IV's, pulse and repertory monitors and everyone's charts and generally helping the doctors where she could; with her father being a doctor, Morri was well acquainted with the in's and out's of how to treat someone for several wounds, as well as how to practice good bedside manner, and in the back of her mind, she sent out a secret thank you to her father for his wisdom, meanwhile Ashley guarded the entrance to the ward with Saito and Pazu by his side. Outside, sitting by the windows, the Autobot guardians sat with their charges, their hands and fingers extended through the open windows in an attempt to be as close to them as possible. Hours later, Batou appeared around the corner of the corridor and stopped just short of the door.

"How is he?" Ashley asked listlessly

"Mikaela says he's good to go, it's just dents, dings and a bad concussion; nothing like last time" the ex-ranger sighed.

"That's good, what about Jay-jay?"

"She's fine too, she's asleep, Mikaela said she should be okay in the morning, the pain killers should've had a chance to work by then...how's everyone else?"

"..., Last I heard, Hailey's still out but the doctors say's she's okay, the other's are all awake if you wanna go in" Ashley gestured to the door, but as Batou opened the door, Ashley gently grabbed his arm to stop him, and held his gaze with a serious look.

"...Where's the Major?" he asked, Saito and Pazu both looked up as Batou scowled in ire, but relaxed as he met the youngster's gaze.

"She went back to HQ; said she had things to do" Batou sighed in frustration

"...You know that's not true...what the hell happened today? Why was she so..."

"I know what you mean kid, and believe me I'm just as edger to know what the hell's going on" he grumbled as he entered the ward, inside the roomed echoed with the beeping of the monitors and the IV's silently dripping like leaking pipes; lying in the bed nearest the door, Hailey was sitting upright with both her little sisters lying by her side, asleep from exhaustion.

"Hey, how're you feeling?" he asked softly as he approached the bed

"Like hammered shit, but otherwise, the morphine's been working wonders...it's them I've been worried about..." she gestured to her sisters, "...I let them down, I should've known those bastards were in the building...I should've-*sob*" she dropped her gaze as the tears and stress overwhelmed her.

"Hey hey come on, your gonna be okay, we got you back and Bluestreak's not going to let anything happen to you; there's no one dumb enough to try and get by him right now" Batou reassured as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder, being careful not to disturb the dressing on her left shoulder.

"...I know, but even so; how did they manage to open the escape hatches without setting off the alarms?" She said as she tried to stop her voice from shaking; Batou stiffened in alarm and looked at her in surprise.

"What? ...what do you mean they didn't set the alarms off?" he asked seriously, Hailey stopped sobbing and looked up at him in confusion.

"...Well, the escape hatches were in that room behind the kitchen right?" he nodded, "I was in the dining area getting the girl's lunch ready when I heard a beep and then a clang, so I went into the kitchen to see what it was and I saw the special ops guys standing there, right before they fired that tranquilizer into my neck" she explained as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Did you see anything else?" Batou frowned, Hailey dropped her gaze for a few seconds as she tried to rake her memory, then, something came to mind; "...there was a moment; when the tranquilizer went in my neck and I went down, I fell down next the wall and saw into the other room, the hatch was open...but, if they had tried to force their way in they would've tried to use some kind of explosives to blow the lock off right? But the hatch door was intact, and the little light on the lock was green; that's all I can remember...why?" she asked, the ex-ranger dropped his head in thought, but was brought from out of his musings when the doors opened and the Chief walked in with Kobuta at his side.

"Chief? What're you doing here?" Batou asked

"Making sure our friends are alright, what else?" he replied as he approached Hailey's bed, Kobuta hesitated for a moment before looking the blond in the eye.

"For what this has all been worth, I'm so sorry you, your sister's and your friends had to go through what happened earlier today; believe me, if we had known what the CIA were up to we would've been on within a heartbeat, and I have no excuses to offer for what happened afterwards either" he said ruefully

"It's okay, but seriously, the CIA was so desperate to get their hands on the guys that they'd risk carrying out a grab and dash as if it were a standard mission of some kind? That's just crazy, and if they haven't already gotten the hint that the guys are aliens I don't know what the hell will, I mean, how many humans do you know that can snipe a submarine underwater?" Hailey replied

"Not many, but you don't have to worry about them now; the Prime Minister blew a fuse when she heard what happened, she had the agent's placed under armed guard at the American embassy and a couple of hours ago we managed to reconfigure the protective barriers around our networks, they won't be able to try and sneak in the back doors anymore" he replied

"You reconfigured the barriers...without me to check for any inconsistencies in the data alignment software?" Darren mumbled as he came round from his nap

"Finally, you decided to rejoin the living!" Hailey grinned

"I don't recall wanting to give death a try so I think I'll stick around a little while longer...so what's been going on?" he asked

"A lot, and surprisingly we managed to avoid the worst case scenario with the Americans; the American Secretary of Defence won't recall the fleet but has ordered them to stand down and remain on standby, so for the time being at least we have some borrowed time to work with, but the heads of the Pentagon and CIA haven't stopped gnashing their teeth over the botched mission and for now are keeping quiet, no doubt to try and find another way around all this" the chief replied

"So in essence their still gonna try something...or at least, the cons are gonna try something" Morri said as she approached

"I wouldn't be surprised if anything else does happen and it leads back to them in one form or another...that was quite a gamble you took, exposing that creature like that" Kubota replied

"It wasn't a gamble, we already knew what he was, Ravage confirmed that for us the night before when the agents touched down at Niihama airport; the problem was making sure the real agents got a good look at him and seeing the enemy for what it really was; we couldn't tell you guys before in case the cons were listening in on the military network via the Intelligence departments comm frequencies, in which case they would've gotten the drop on us before we even had a chance to within range; evidently it didn't make a difference since they think we set them up...but that only leads me to suspect that they really are under the con's influence, I can't believe for one second that anyone who's got a half decent brain can be that ignorant and ignore the truth even when it's staring them in the face. If the cons are able to snatch kids away and make their parents forget ever having them then surly the agents are under the same or similar influence" Morri reasoned

"...I think I'm inclined to agree; but if the American secret service has been compromised all this time, then no one in their ranks can be trusted" Kubota pondered aloud, "...probably, but it makes me wonder; if the Americans have been infiltrated by the Decepticons...how many other countries have been compromised? ..." Hailey fretted; everyone fell silent in horror, and the realization of how dire the reality of the situation really was.

"...But, what did that creature mean when he said that full bodied cyberization would be the solution that would ensure the survival of the Cybertronian?" Kubota asked, the kids looked at one another but didn't know what to say.

"...I don't know, but I don't like where this is going..." Hailey reluctantly replied

"Which is why I think we should try to find Prime and the others" Sam spoke up

"I agree, if the cons have got something big in mind then we're gonna need all the help we can get; I don't care what the implications will be if the CIA comes after us again, we'll be seriously outnumbered and outgunned if we take the cons on again" Danny peeped in

"That'll only be the half of it, if the cons had Demolisher and his clones on hand who knows what else they might have in their ranks, someone just as big, bigger; or worse" Glenn thought aloud, 'who could possibly be bigger than Demolisher?' Miles thought

"I agree" Jazz leaned down and drew his head as close to the window as possible, "after what happened today I ain't gonna leave anything to chance; if you guys have any objections ya better speak up now"

"I have no objections; if you're going to attempt to contact the rest of your friends I can have my guys set up a secure online frequency for you to send out an SOS" Kubota replied

"A generous offer, but no, there's only one kinda signal that'll be able reach Prime without the risk of interception..." Jazz said as he tapped the Autobot insignia on his chest plates, realizing what he was implying, Morri took out her the medallion from under her top and looked at it in surprise; "...Of course, I completely forgot about this!" she facepalmed

"Oh yeah! The SOS beacons in the medallions...man I'm such an idiot!" Sam exclaimed as he grabbed his from under his T-shirt.

"Like the one Annabelle used the night she and the other kids escaped from that Decepticon?" asked Kubota

"The very ones, when we were each assigned our guardians Prime had these made in case of an emergency; they've got a miniature lazar blaster, a force field shield projector and an emergency SOS beacon built in; that night Anny and Mizuki came to find us, before then we were kinda hopping she wouldn't figure what the medallion could do until she was a bit older, least her mom and dad would throw a fit if they found out their daughter was carrying a lazar blaster with the same kinda fire power as a twenty stinger missiles, guess it was a good thing she figured it out sooner rather than later" Darren said as he pulled out his own medallion.

"Yeah, and the beacon has one setting we haven't shown you yet" Jazz smiled

"Really? What?" Sam asked

"Come on out here" he replied, without hesitation the kids assembled outside, Batou helped Hailey over to the largest window so as Bluestreak could pick her up, once outside, Jazz told the other Autobot guardians to gather in a circle with their charges on their shoulders while the chief, Kobuta and the other section 9 agents stood nearby.

"So how does this work?" Glenn asked

"Okay, open up your medallions and press both the lazar and beacon buttons at the same time then hold them up so that the beams all connect together in the middle; this'll create a superficial alpha level contact beam" Jazz told everyone

"Oh I get it, like the one Prime sent out into space after Mission city" Sam realized

"Exactly, this beam'll reach out over a ten thousand kilometre radius and will be heard on a lot of high frequency comm and radio signals out there, but the message we'll input will have so many layers of encryption that no one will be able to crack it in real time" Jazz explained

"Won't that just draw more unnecessary attention?" Kubota asked

"It'll grab attention yes; but the cons already know about us so there's no loss there...but if anything, this is certainly gonna make people stop and think, because this signal ain't anything you humans can crate, not even the technology of this earth can come close to replicating it's baseline structure, and as I said before, there's no way any human can hack into it, and it'll go out to too quick for the cons to pinpoint in time, don't worry we got this covered...Although, it might be best if you guys put your cyberbrain's in autistic mode, this signals got a real kick to it" Jazz winced slightly, "...Okay, everybody ready? When the beams collide all together, we'll have just twenty seconds to send the message out, ya dig?" everyone nodded in agreement, "Alright, let's do it..." he grinned, and as each of them pressed the buttons on the opened backs of their medallions, the red beams shot out of the insignias and true to the first lieutenant's words the beams didn't blow away anything; as the kids held them up the beams interconnected and as they aimed them above the centre of the circle, they exploded and formed a massive beam that shot up into the sky, piercing the clouds and illuminating the dark night sky in a vivid scarlet hue. The Autobots lifted their heads up and a series of tiny lights flashed on the sides of their helms as they combined their own comm signal frequencies with that of the beam; as it hit the upper atmosphere the earth's ionosphere the beam dispersed and created a long swathe of red light, like blood bleeding from a wound.

"WOW! It looks just like the northern lights!" Becca exclaimed

Even though their cyberbrain's were in autistic mode, the humans on the ground could feel the powerful energized buzz from the beam washing over them like electric waves; and just vaguely, Batou could faintly hear the complex Cybertronian language being spoken at what sounded like a thousand words a second. All across the city and for over ten thousand kilometres beyond, radio and TV signals turned into strange garbled white noise, with even stranger voices echoing out from the electronic ether and in the earth's orbit high above, every military satellite buzzed with activity as they relayed the strange signal to their control centres and receivers.

"WOW! Check this out! The Autobots are sending out a signal of some kind!" one of the agent Tachikoma's squeaked as it bounced around in its server.

**:THIS IS AUTOBOT FIRST LIEUTENANT JAZZ CALLING OPTIMUS PRIME: CODE ALPHA EMERGENCY LEVEL 3, WE HAVE A SITUATION ON OUR HANDS THAT REQUIRES IMMEDIETE RE-ENFORCEMENTS: LOCATION IS AT:101010011010100110 : ALL AUTOBOTS AND HUMAN CHARGES ARE ACCOUNTED FOR: WE ARE STANDING BY AND AWAITING YOUR RESPONCE...PLEASE HURRY OPTIMUS, WE'RE HERE, AND WAITING FOR YOU GUYS...JAZZ OUT:**

And as quickly as it began, the beams suddenly cut out and the giant skyward beam dissipated in the blink of an eye, and all across the electronic ether, the strange voices disappeared and everything returned to...well, as close to normal as possible.

"Whoa...that was something" Boma said as he tried to remain upright

"I hear ya...there's no way anybody will be able to say that's a military comm frequency; man what a buzz..." Batou said as he rubbed his head.

"I know, pretty strong huh?" Trailbreaker smirked

"That's certainly an understatement...so what now?" Pazu asked

"Now, we wait, and hope they respond soon...it's all we can do" Jazz shrugged

"In the meantime there are other things that need seeing to; despite the dire circumstances of the last few days, our one and only possible chance of finding a connection to the Decepticons lies with the contents of the trucks we found in Hidaka's secret bunker; we'll head back to HQ and go over the evidence again, but this time we'll cover every angle possible, now that we have an idea about our opponents modus operandi we might be able find something that give us an idea about what they've been doing all this time, and possibly lead us to where they may be hiding" the chief said

"What about Hailey? The doctor said she can't leave the hospital for at least another several days" Becky interjected as Bluestreak placed them back down on the ground

"I'll arrange to have your sister transferred to our medical facility tonight; the rest of you can stay in the living accommodations and the Tachikoma's auxiliary hanger until we can arrange another location for you all to stay at" the chief replied

"Don't you think that's kinda tempting fate a little? I mean, we ain't exactly been having the best of luck with safe houses" Miles pointed out, the chief couldn't help but chuckle

"True, but it's a small price" he smiled

"We'll make do, but concerning all the stuff we found in those trunks, we read over most of it before and it was mainly all police reports on all those kidnappings" Bumblebee pointed out

"Uh, not everything; there were a few boxes in the third trunk we didn't get a chance to open yet, and they didn't look like they have papers inside" Hot Rod interjected

"Really? I didn't see those, where'd they go?" Morri asked

"I dropped them off at section 9, along with all the reports the day after we found Jay-jay, they should be still in the forth dive booth in the dive room, unless the techs moved them to the lab" Darren shrugged

"Alright, we'll get a start them when we get back to HQ, the rest of you, get your sleep and let your wounds heal, you can start first thing in the morning; Batou go and find Togusa, the rest of you head on back, I'll catch up later, there's still a few things I need to take care of here" the chief replied

"Alright, catch ya later chief; everyone pack up and move out" Jazz ordered, and within minutes and without another word, the kids, agents and Autobots took off across the city, disappearing into the moot of traffic and smoke.

* * *

Outside the city, on the slopes of the northern mountains that looked out over the whole of Niihama bay, something was watching...and waiting; standing under the pine trees, looking towards the metropolis from the cover of the forest, a tall, dark broad-shouldered figure watched the city lights and the giant smoke plumes rising up into the night sky. The shadows obscured most of his face, but his sharp predator-like eyes glistened in the moonlight; he pulled from his pocket a small photo, a photo of Ashley. A rustle in the nearby bushes caught his attention and a figure emerged from the shadow holding a semi-automatic weapon of some kind.

"Boss, the frequency scanner just picked up a Cybertronian signal coming from the city, it's Autobot and I think it's the alpha level contact beam Prime mentioned" the stranger said, the figure frowned.

"...So that's what that red beam was; they would've only sent it out if things were getting dicey for them" the figure spoke in a voice was that was deep, hard and had a gruff Yorkshire accent; he turned to face the stranger and approached him, "alright, from here on its double time, no stops, no detours and no distractions; we head straight for them" he ordered

"Yes Boss, by the way; O'Connell and Tyson have finished loading up the supplies and we'll be ready to go within the next few minutes" the stranger spoke in a firm tone

"Alright, I'll be down shortly" the dark figure replied

"...You think the cons had something to do with that?" the stranger gestured to the smoke plumes in the centre of the city

"I wouldn't be surprised; and I certainly wouldn't be surprised if Jazz and his team were there to try and stop them...oh, one other thing; tell Peters that, when we do finally catch up to them, if he looks at my niece the wrong way, he's gonna find out very quickly that me and the cons have something in common" the figure growled

"Heh, fair enough, it's his funeral" the stranger smirked

"...Tell the lads I'll be right down; and make sure those patrol cans are loaded up too, I got a feeling they may come in handy, we move out in the next five minutes"

"Sir!" the stranger saluted and disappeared into the undergrowth; the stranger looked back over the cityscape, and down at the photo, passing a heavy sigh, he slipped the photo back into his pocket and breathed in the night air; he was ready, he was focused, and he knew what he was after.

"...Don't worry son...I'm coming to take you home..."

And without a sound, he vanished into the forest.

* * *

R&R please!


	59. Chapter 58: Disturbing Developments

Man, I have seriously been off my game of late, & being in bed with a wretched cold doesn't help either (seriously? how the hell do you catch a cold at this time of the year?) anyway, enjoy the chapter! :)

Caution: Some mild swearing here & there

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 58: DISTURBING DEVELOPMENTS 

"Okay, remind me again WHY we're in here?" Ratbat squeaked into Ashley's ear as he made himself comfy on the twelve year olds shoulder; Ashley stretched his legs out in an effort to stop the oncoming cramp in his left leg, being huddled up in the gun cage's storage room with Darren and three laptops wasn't the most comfortable hiding place, but it was the only one that would surface for the current circumstances.

"Geez, you can eavesdrop on practically anyone anywhere yet you missed out what Batou said when he was standing right in front of us?" Darren deadpanned "...We're keeping an eye out for the Major, after that disappearing stunt she pulled yesterday the chief's been right royally pissed, not to mention she's got some serious explaining to do to us...You know, of all the people to hang around and give those CIA pricks a real shake down and a swift kick in the nuts, I was expecting her to be first in line...why the hell did she just leave? And right before the raid on the safe house?" he replied as Ashley watched all the individual security camera feeds on one of the laptops.

"I don't know, but I hope she's got a good reason, cuz I'm in no mood to go easy on her when I finally find her" Ashley huffed as he folded his arms and slumped against the wall; passing a sigh, his frown softened into an impassive look of mild concern as he glanced at the bandages wrapped around Darren's hands.

"How're your hands feeling today?" he asked offhand

"To be honest, sore, but not as painful as I'd thought they'd be; but then, I guess I still got some adrenaline left over from yesterday...you know, that's the first time I really fought someone one on one, and I tell ya, the movies make it look so much easier, all I did was curl my fists and just ran at them like a lunatic" Darren sighed with slight embarrassment.

"Word of advice, leave the punch-up's to me in future, you just stick to being a techy" Ashley grinned, "Yeah, but what about when you're not around next time?" Darren retorted, "Eh, just run at them like a lunatic and aim for the jugular" Ashley replied, to which Darren couldn't help but chuckle, a moment of silence passed before Darren turned to face Ashley.

"...How're you feeling?" he asked, Ashley dropped his gaze as he realized what he was referring to.

"...About dad?...I don't know what to feel really; on one the one hand I can't wait to see him again after so long...But on the other, after what happened the night before last, I don't think things are gonna be so simple when he sees Batou and the Major. If he killed their duplicates with his bare hands how's he gonna react when he sees the originals?"

"Well that depends, what's he like?" Darren asked, but Ashley glanced at him with a distinct 'do you REALLY want to know?' look in his eyes.

"Uh? ...Not exactly good at first time meetings is he?" he tensely asked

"That's an understatement, he's one of these guys who can walk into any room and right away everyone knows he's not the kinda guy you screw over; I mean, he can stare you in the eyes and it's like he's looking into your soul. In a way, I think he'd like the Major, and Batou, and I know Ravage will like meeting him; he's kinda 'no nonsense', and he doesn't like beating about the bush when he's serious about something; but the rest of the time he's a great guy...when he's in the mood...but, Darren my dad's not the kinda guy you can back into a corner in a fight, and when you do you find out very quickly why everybody calls him 'the thunderstorm'; he never lets up and he never give you any chance to able to go on the attack. Whenever it's a one on one fight there's never any doubt who'll walk away in one piece...even though he tough, I hope he's okay; wherever he is..." Ashley sighed as the image of his father's face drifted through the forefront of his mind; sensing this telepathically, Ratbat quirked his head in curiosity while Darren passed a heavy sigh, unable to think of anything to say.

"Okay...Getting back to the subject at hand, why do we have to hide in here when the dive room's got all the better equipment necessary for what needs to be done?" Ratbat squeaked.

"While the dive room's got all the equipment, it doesn't have the thick reinforced armour plating and electronic signal dampeners built into the walls like the gun cage and the firing range does; so while the Major could locate me on the section's network, she won't be able to track my laptop's signal to its physical location; don't worry, as long as we're in here we'll be fine" Darren reassured. At that moment the door to the storage room opened and Batou, Ishikawa and Togusa walked in and sat down at the make-shift desk where the two lads were sitting; Batou's wide frame took up most of the width of the narrow space so Togusa and Ishikawa were left having to shuffle into a more comfortable position on their small seats.

"So what did you guys find?" Darren asked

"Nothing, we checked out all the usual safe houses she uses and she hadn't been to any of them, she hasn't even been to her home in over three days; we also checked out her usual contacts and none of them have seen her either, and with her cyberbrain in autistic mode we have no idea where she is now. What the hell has she been up to? It's bad enough she won't confide in me what's been on her mind of late, but disappearing after that attack yesterday? Something is seriously wrong here and she's not telling us anything, that's not like her..." Batou huffed in annoyance

"For sure, but, we haven't known her as long as you guys have; just to be sure and on the level, has she ever been like this before?" Darren asked with an air of caution, the three agents looked at each other and all shook their heads.

"In the long run no; there was an incident some months back where she back-hacked into a certain terrorist's mind and it somehow threw her off her game for a while, but she got over it after the case was over; she's never done anything like this before, and suffice to say, any other time and place and this would be suicide...most people don't get away with trying to back-hack the Major's mind and she doesn't know about it, the last guy to try it ended up as a vegetable" Togusa replied

"Undoubtedly, but this is the Major we're talking about, whatever's going it's clear something is influencing her somehow, and if it were any of us she'd be there in a heartbeat to help find out what's wrong...So, we know she began acting strange the night we went out to investigate the site where the rift is based, after we got back to HQ was when the pattern seemed to start; did anyone notice anything was off when we went into that underground bunker? Or when we found our Decepticon doppelgangers?" Ishikawa asked

"It was a pretty tense night an' all, finding those doppelgangers was pretty sobering but she didn't seem any more alarmed than any of us; after this last month we've all grown used to being around alien robots and while the initial discovery of the Decepticons was a real shock I don't see how this would totally shock her; she adapted well to the reality of there being sentient life beside humanity, so I don't know how all this in any way would start to instil a sense of doubt or worry for her, not when she's already such a flexible person" Togusa pondered aloud.

"But...what if that's just it? What if this IS proving too much for her and she's starting to descend into a form of depression and she's in the first stage, denial? I've heard most people who start to become depressed don't often realize that they have a problem until it's too far gone and all the stress built up from the rigors of a tense situation start to take their toll. Guys she may be a cyborg but she's still human at heart, and even the best can suffer at times" Ashley reasoned, the agents looked at him slightly bemused; That was the first time anyone had said that, nedalone described the Major in the human sense of her identity, while anyone else would see her in terms of a cyborg, human in essence and spirit yes, but ultimately external appearances always made an impression on what lied underneath; and being the formidable combatant that she was most people were inclined to see her as someone/something that was above them, not equal in terms of physical alikeness or mental proficiency; she was more than a soldier, more than a hacker, and more than a human in the all natural sense of the name. This, the agents of section 9 knew, and to a degree they themselves were above most other experts in terms of how they went about their profession; but in a subdued, almost unconscious way, it was always in her shadow and that whatever they did, because of what she was and how she commanded her team, it was as if the agents were an extension of her essence, and if the Major could reprimand Batou for an indiscretion by hacking his cyborg body's motor function and making him punch himself in the face, it was undoubtedly the proof that proved no one was beyond her reach; it was both sobering, and unconsciously scary for those who knew, they could win against her...with such a reputation and level of proficiency, why would anyone see her as an ordinary human? If not anything lower? Something about Ashley's words made Batou commit them to memory...in some strange, almost spiritual way, he felt they might be needed again, sometime.

"...That maybe one possibility, but, somehow; I just can't envision the Major suffering from a nervous breakdown...she just-...doesn't seem the type..." Togusa hesitated

"I know, and as mach I can't believe it either, we have no other options but to keep an open mind on this; but first, we have to rule out any possibility that someone is pulling her strings, unlikely as that sounds considering its the Major, it's not totally impossible...so Darren, since you're the only Class-A hacker here who can do this without a cyberbrain you don't have to worry about being back-hacked if she catches you; what have you found so far?" Batou asked

"So far, with her cyberbrain still in autistic mode I can't find where she is at the moment, but I managed to slip under her online net here on the section's network and found something interesting; there's a two way hot-link going out of the section's network that links directly to her cyberbrain's external memories; it was skilfully camouflaged as a case file and left in the E level of the network's online attack barriers. She's defiantly been in contact with someone over the last three days and judging from the amount of data transference readings it looks like they've been up to something; the encryption is really tight, there's no way I can decrypt it without the Major noticing any discrepancies in the hot-link's set-up, or tripping one of the ten attack barriers she set up around it, and whoever she's been in contact with has double the security measures, an unlisted online address, online attack barriers, and what look looks like a whole bunch of chimera viruses...but it's weird, the hot-link connection itself is redirected through over eighty different servers, and through each sever the data alignment is reconfigured slightly based on a series of prime numbers that repeat over and over again in a linear pattern; undoubtedly its weird why this kind of data alignment would be implemented, but after checking a few figures and running several scans on the programme I found something even weirder. The hot-link doesn't work like a conventional online chat room, rather than send one message back and forth at a time; it looks like the system was set up so that both individuals can exchange information from their external memories simultaneously, and what makes this really strange is that during the transference the data aligns itself in such a way that it forms a basic algorithm comprised of factual data equations that creates a collective network of linear-based information streams; similar to those used in the Tachikoma's AI to process thought and memories" Darren explained as he showed the figured to the others.

"Ooh! You mean they created AI's just like us?" one of the agent Tachikoma's squeaked as it bounced up and down in the corner of the laptop screen

"Wait, you mean to say the Major and some other guy have been making basic AI's online?" Batou quirked an eyebrow

"Honestly Batou, you make it sound like she's been sleeping around behind your back" Togusa deadpanned as he rolled his eyes, Batou glanced at him with hard scowl, to which Togusa promptly shut up.

"Basically, yeah, it looks like she and, whoever else was involved, were creating these 'mini AI's'; but while creating these via external memories and data comprised into linear patterns was nothing short of sophisticated if not totally awesome; each one was made incomplete. I couldn't figure out why at first, but then I noticed certain pieces of the data alignment connected together at key points in the AI's formatting, it's as if their jigsaw pieces, each one is formed in such a way that it links to one or more around it, and judging from just how many data alignment 'slots' there is on each one it's a pretty big jigsaw" Darren replied

"Whoa...I didn't know she could do that..." Togusa breathed in awe as he looked at the figures and diagrams on the laptop

"Neither did I; no wonder she's been so high strung, that kind of up-link to create something like that would put a strain on anybody's mind nedalone their cyberbrain...why the hell would she do it? Something like this takes a lot of time and concentration you can't just do this in a day nedalone an hour...what is she trying to accomplish? And who's the guy on the other end of the line?" Ishikawa frowned as he watched the readings.

"That I don't know, and suffice to say it's just as weird as the 'jigsaw AI's'; I traced the server's to try and get a general online location, but it didn't make sense either. The further I went along the line the more and more the sever locations became 'distant', as if they were embedded into the net itself and not actually external to the system, and as soon as I past the last server I found it lead to 'nowhere', no international access gates, no barriers, no back doors, no anything, not even any form of a stealth gate" Darren explained

"That is weird, and no Cybertronian symbols either; whoever's behind this has got to be a Wizard-class hacker" Batou frowned

"There may not be any Cybertronian symbols visible here but that doesn't mean the cons may not be behind this; if the Major's being so secretive about this it's possible they might have gotten to her somehow. I'll run a couple of more scans and browse around her external memories net uplink to check for any other inconsistencies I might have overlooked, I can slip under the attack barriers on her personal up-link but it's going to take me time to re-route the encryption keys; with practically half the section's network linked to her brain it's gonna be hard to slip under the A, B and C levels without tripping her hidden customized virus traps" Darren explained

"I've got some spare dummy barriers in the dive room you can use; they won't stop a hacker like the Major outright but if she catches you they should buy you enough time to cover your trail and get offline" Ishikawa offered

"So what's the relevance of these 'Jigsaw AI's'? And what are they for?" Togusa asked

"Initially I don't know, I'll have to run a more thorough analysis to be sure, but each of the AI's seems contain a tiny amount of factual data that seems to correspond to a much larger chain of data somewhere on the net, what that is though I have no idea, but, going by the time-stamp on the hot-link the only AI's I found were the one's she created last night, in total she and this stranger created over twenty five in the last three days, but their all gone; uploaded to the stranger's end via the sever trail" Darren replied

"If he's taken the time to set up so many security measures there may be a way we can trace him via other means; forward all the data you collected through to my dive terminal and I'll see if we can find where he's hiding" Ishikawa replied, Darren nodded in reply

"So what do we do in the meantime?" Ashley asked

"For now we wait until she gets back to HQ, regardless of what she's been up to with this online stranger and these AI's, abandoning us after that botched raid was inexcusable and I'd like to hear what excuse she has to offer; Togusa and I will keep an eye on the IR system, Ishikawa you do your thing and Darren you keep searching the Major's net up-link for anything else, one way or another we're gonna help her whether she wants it or not" Batou announced, to which everyone sounded their agreements.

"What about me? What can I do?" Ashley asked

"Stay sharp, I need you to guard Darren in here while he works; considering how 'uncooperative' the Major's been of late we can't be a hundred percent sure how she'll react to what we're doing, if she shows up you need to be ready for anything okay?" Ashley nodded in acknowledgement, at the same time Ratbat flew off his shoulder, flew above the door and squeezed through the grilles of the air vent, "So, is there anything else you found we need to know?" Batou asked Darren

"Yeah one other thing, I don't think that stranger on the hot-link was only one who knew about this; someone else knew what they were up and I think they wanted to help" Darren replied

"Huh? Who?" Togusa quirked an eyebrow

I don't know, but about four days ago the Major received an email from an unspecified online address, look..." Darren said as he typed some keys on his laptop and brought up a small window on the screen with only a single line of words that read,

: You've entered the danger zone, stay off the net and get help now! :

"You've entered the danger zone? What's that mean?" Togusa thought

"Some cheap threat you think?" Ashley thought aloud

"I don't know, but according to the section's network data tracker, she opened it, took one look and promptly deleted it...I managed to retrieve it, run a few diagnostic analysis scans and found this cleverly hidden 'signature' from the sender hidden in the file, there's no name, but it's a cool little icon, look...Darren said as he clicked the entre button and brought up another window on the screen. The icon in question was a blue and white smiley face wearing what looked like a baseball cap, encircled by a stream of words that read 'I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes'; Togusa's eye's flew wide open in surprise while Batou and Ishikawa both stared at the screen in amazement.

"...What? ...How the hell did he get involved in this?" Togusa breathed.

* * *

"So, these things tried to take your place huh?...Eh, can't say they're the most impressive bunch of pretenders I've ever seen, not if they got themselves killed by a bunch of organics, but then, I never really liked pretenders at the best of times; always such a pretentious bunch" Skywarp shrugged as he displayed a holographic image of the dead Togusa pretender.

"Really?..." Pazu deadpanned, "Being physically stronger and faster doesn't necessarily mean you're better fighter, there is such a thing as strategy"

"For sure, but even so, being defeated at the hands of a bunch of organics is embarrassing enough for most cons, but for a pretender who's mimicking their target? It's just sad" Skywarp shook his head

"Tell me, why are you all in here again?" Thundercracker deadpanned at the gathered humans and Tachikoma who were sitting on Deathshot's wings, using them as impromptu seats and one big table top while the Autobot sniper sat motionlessly in his altmode.

"Two reasons, one; we need to go through all the stuff in those other boxes that were in those trunks we told you about; and secondly, if you guys are not kept busy then there'll be trouble. It doesn't take a genius to work out that a couple of ex-cons thrown in with a pair of bored Lambo twits is an invitation for trouble" Mikaela replied

"And that's being generous, considering they haven't actually tried anything yet" Sam deadpanned as he thumbed over his shoulder at the Lambo twins, who simply glanced at the seekers with equal mischievous twinkles in their optics. Across the floor of the hanger, Boma, Saito and Glen came in through the double doors carrying large stacks of old tatty cardboard boxes, after Trailbreaker and Bumblebee handed out a couple of boxes to everyone gathered, the whole group set to work opening them and inspecting the contents.

"Huh? What's this? It's not like the other photo album we found" Tom thought aloud as he pulled out an old black photo album and started flicking through it.

"I got a set of keys here...looks like their pretty old too" Glen said as he pulled out a large ring stacked with old fashion-style brass keys.

"Ooooh, what's this?" Batou's Tachikoma squeaked curiously as it pulled out a small silver rectangular object about the size of a USB stick, it was covered in Cybertronian glyphs and blue cubic patterns with a hexagonal shaped head that had a set different shaped of prongs on the end.

"...Huh, it's the key to a holo-projector cube, and judging from the alignment of its coding it looks like it's designed to open an old fashioned-style quantum lock; man I haven't seen one of these in eons" Jazz replied as he picked up the key out of the think tank's claw and inspected it up close.

"In that case where's the cube?..." Sam asked, Bumblebee scanned all the boxes, but shook his head in reply, "Guess it must have gotten lost somewhere?" Hot Rod commented, "Or not here for a reason?" Jetfire pondered; looking at one another and shrugging in equal bemusement, everyone returned to their task at hand.

"So, what are we looking for in all this?" Danny asked as he pulled out an old rusted revolver for one particular box

"I don't know yet, but I got a feeling we'll know when we find it" Mikaela said

"You mean something like this...look, is that Saski?" Tom replied as he pointed to one old grainy black and white photo in the old album, everyone gathered around and saw to their amazement, there was Gorou Saski, dressed in silken robes with a katana blade at his side staring straight up at them with a harden scowl upon his face, at both his sides were a pair of elegant geisha's dressed in their fineries and hiding their smiles behind a set of fans.

"That's Saski? When was that picture taken?" Danny asked; carefully running his fingers along the edge of the photo, Tom gently slipped the picture out of its slots and turned it on its back, where at the bottom were a few words scribbled in faded pencil.

"Gorou Saski attending the cheery blossom festival in Kyoto 1923? Whoa, this must have been the real Gorou Saski, before that pretender took his face and identity" Tom breathed in surprise

"It used the identity of a guy from 1923 as its cover? How did it avoid detection for so long? Wearing the same face for over a century isn't the most prudent form of camouflage" Pazu commented as he inspected the photo

"It must have used false documents to cover its tracks over the years, and forging fake death certificates isn't exactly rocket science if you know how to do it right. But even so why didn't it swap its face regularly?" Saito concurred

"Guess it must have grown comfortable with the human's face format over time; most pretender's tent to use the same face as their cover, guess it's usually out of habit" Skywarp shrugged

"...Huh...so if this guy was the real deal, I wonder what the real Gorou Saski was like, you know, before that pretender killed him?" Mikaela pondered aloud

"Guess we'll never know, if the guy lived that long then its way ancient history man, a hell of a lot's changed since then, and nothing would be familiar to him anymore anyway" Miles shrugged

"Speaking of familiarity, do these guys look familiar? They kinda look like those dudes who transformed into those cons that attacked us outside that mall during the city-wide attack; look..." Glen pointed to several other grainy black and white photo's on a another set of pages, each photo depicted the faces of various people, each looked like they were in their twenties or thirties and had pale blank expressions across their faces.

"...Your right, these are the guys who attacked us; man the cons took their faces too?" Glen said off hand as he leaned in closer for a better look.

"Apparently; just how many people from back then did the cons intercept?" Saito pondered aloud

"Quite a few, look how many others there are in this album, it must be a record of all their ID's" Tom replied as he flicked through the album, sure enough the only images they could see were just faces of other various people.

"Whoa, you realize what this means? We'll finally have an edge on being able to pick the pretenders out of the crowds, if they haven't been changing their faces over the years, we can upload these photos to the network and simply scan the IR systems for them!" Glen exclaimed in excitement.

"Yeah, but considering what went down four days ago I don't think the cons will be showing their faces in public again anytime soon, disguised or otherwise" Bumblebee pointed out

"Maybe, but if this album is the only reference of all the pretenders faces, then it's worth keeping handy in case anything happens right?" Mikaela reasoned

"Right, Trailbreaker scan all the faces in this and upload them to our shared info net; and make sure to upload them to the section's network..." Jazz ordered as he gently picked up the album between his finger and thumb and handed it over to the black bot, who then proceeded to scan all the photos; "What else do we have?" the first lieutenant turned his attention back to the group.

"Um? Another set of keys?" Danny pulled out a twin pair of small silver cut keys from one of the smaller boxes, looking more closely, Mikaela noticed something inscribed on the both the bows.

"Tokyo post office? They must be a set of keys to a safe deposit box" she thought aloud

"It's likely, but if that's the case then they're useless, much of Tokyo was sunken during the war and in all likelihood the city's post office went down underwater with the old part of the city" Boma replied

"Tokyo was sunk? Well that sucks!" Glen exclaimed in surprise

"Never mind...looking at all this I don't think there's really much to go on here, save for the photo album and holoform cube key..." Tom sighed as looked over the various bits and pieces of old junk, "Oh well, it was worth a shot" Danny shrugged

"Hang on a sec, what's this? ..." Miles interrupted as he pulled out a huge dusty and tatty ledger from one of the more older boxes, the cardboard was so old and ripped at the corners that it fell apart as soon as it's content were pulled out; placing the ledger down on Deathshot's wing, the blond teen blew the dust off the cover and began flicking through the giant book and staring in bemusement at the contents of the pages while the other humans gathered around and stared at the pages with equal puzzlement; each page was filled with illustrations, schematics, diagrams and scribbled notes, all of which depicted some form of Cybertronian technology.

"Dude, these look like blueprints to somethin'" he quirked

"Something seriously complicated, and look, someone knows their Cybertronian..." Sam pointed to a series of scribbled notes on the edge of one page, each paragraph written in longhand Cybertronian along with some Japanese.

"What does it say?" Boma asked

"...Hm...'The forward ion cannons appear to point down at two hundred and twenty degrees with the rear energon chambers poised at fifty degrees; this seems to compensate for ballast at the front of the forward props, for a ship of this size, such adjustments to the position of the weapons seem mandatory considering its sheer bulk'..." Sam read aloud as his finger trailed over one particular line of text.

"Ship? These are the blueprints to a Cybertronian ship?" Danny exclaimed

"More like the observations to the blueprints of a Cybertronian ship; see how these are more descriptive rather than upfront and informative; whoever wrote this must have stumbled upon the ship in question by accident, and must have spent his time studying it" Saito pointed out

"But how would he know what an ion cannon was? And where did this dude learn Cybertronian?" Miles pointed further, to which everyone's train of thoughts abruptly stopped

"Oh wow! Maybe he came across another Cybertronian and they must have taught him your language! How else would a human learn it?" Batou's Tachikoma squeaked in excitement around Jazz's legs

"It's a possibility; but wait a minute, there's a Cybertronian ship somewhere here on earth? ...does it say where it's located?" Trailbreaker exclaimed

"Dude this book is the size of a cinder block! There's gotta be like ten thousand pages in this thing! It'll take like forever to go through it thoroughly! Besides, this more of Darren's thing!" Miles retorted.

"And mine, don't forget I have been studying this kinda stuff for the last three years; I'll go over it and see what's what here, at least we now know how the cons all got here in the first place..." Mikaela said as she took the ledger and put it to one side.

"Hey wait! Look who signed it!" Glen pointed to a couple of initials at the bottom of one of the pages

"S.H? The same guy who wrote that letter we found in the first trunk? He discovered it?" Danny quirked an eyebrow

"But the question here is, where is that ship and is it one of ours?" said Jazz, the other Autobots all glanced at one another in uneasy confusion.

* * *

Several floors above the Tachikoma's auxiliary hanger, Ravage strode down the corridor towards the section's medical wing, his metallic paws hardly made a sound as they pit-patted along the metal platted floor; with practically everyone busy downstairs and Batou and the others doing their 'top secret investigation' no-one was around to keep an optic on Hailey, her sisters and Jay-jay, at the least the youngling's company would keep the boredom at bay, and after yesterday's fiasco trying the keep little Jay-jay happy was somewhat of a priority, the kids even let Annabelle keep the Waineright sisters and the sparkling company so hide' n seek coupled with a cuddle fest were the order of the day. The idea of babysitting a sparkling that wasn't one of his own siblings was somewhat of a new concept for the panther, having so much experience with own family, caring for her was a walk in the park, but not having that same telepathic bond and being able sense another spark at the end of it was strange, even alien in a way; it made him ponder on just how human relationships function the way they do, with no spark bonds as such how did they know what their spouse or offspring were feeling/thinking? It was basically guess-work, albeit sophisticated and naturally refined by organic standards; being social beings that relied on living together in family units for survival, their behaviour towards each other had evolved over millions of years to the point where vocal, facial and bodily signals could be interpreted in a number of different ways on a number of different levels; it was primitive if not backwards by Cybertronian standards, but for what the humans required of each other as a whole, it was a behavioural adaptation that worked for them (even if he didn't have a clue what some of their more individual 'quirky quirks' were meant to imply). Down the bond, he could sense his brother's sniggering as the mental image of a human talking complete nonsense twittering about in the back of his mind; smiling in satisfaction, it was so nice to finally have his family back together again, though all his brothers were alive and well, none of them could deny the gaping hole left by their creator, being such a big part of their lives in more ways than one, the thought of Soundwave made him stop and drop his ears in melancholy thought, the sniggering stopped, and a sense of nostalgia began to drift about the bond. Nostalgia for happier, more simpler times, a time when things were more straightforward, and the implications of war were not so important to them.

Buzzsaw and Lazarbeak's first flight, how thrilling and exciting was to feel the wind for the first time

Frenzy and Rumble's first upgrades, how excited they were to finally receive their first alt modes

Their first time up in orbit over Cybertron, remembering how big outer space was, and how it went on forever

Their first mission together; the rush of excitement that filled them, and the joy that followed after successfully completing it

Those were happier times, and that's how they wanted to remember him, for to remember that spark-wrenching moment when his bond to them was severed was to invite sorrow, grief and misery into their own bond and none of them would be able to get over it in total; though no other could take their creator's place, Ravage did feel a small ounce gratitude towards the Autobots for letting them be together again, being an Autobot was still a strange thing, but it was a small price to pay for the sake of family and although he couldn't sense it down the bond now, he knew that his brothers would thank the bots too, in time. Carrying on down the corridor and passing by one of the many glass walls that overlooked the city, Ravage looked across at the 'ground zero' of the Sukaitawa towers and the thick plumes of black smoke that continued to billow out and up across the sky; it would be weeks before the fires were finally put out for good and all the dead finally collected and identified (or what remained of them at the least, some of the news channels had reported that some of the human remain were so disintegrated by the blast that the only remnants that were found were only a tiny handful of flesh, bone, or teeth; even smeared blood stains on the rubble were all that remained of some of them); the scene was nothing new to a hardened ruthless ex-con like him, but it didn't stop a tiny pang of guilt flit through his mind, and a sense of nonplus began to grow in his line of thinking.

From the start none of this made sense, having characters like Hidaka and Saski in the picture was confusing enough and the fact that Saski turned out to be a pretender was not a surprise (for him at least), this 'S.H' character was a real mystery too and the contents of those trunks could point to something else at work here, but just what was at work here anyway? The Decepticons intentions were not clear and their modus operandi was just as strange if not unorthodox for them, and having been one of the most lethal and proficient Decepticons in Megatron's closest ranks, Ravage knew just about every ploy, strategy and underhanded technique every con was likely to use; the fact that nothing of the sort had been (knowingly) seen was weird. Was it possible that after so long being cut off from their own universe, the Decepticons and the war, these cons had resorted to alternative means of survival? Even going to the extent of incorporating organic formatting into their own designs, at the extent of going against their own beliefs? Hard as it was to conceive or imagine, the fact that one has to stay adaptable for the sake of survive was part and part of staying alive under difficult circumstances, and personal or political beliefs counted for very little if not nothing if they didn't ensure your survival in the long run; when the chips were down and the odds weren't in your favour, you had to be willing to try anything, even if it meant you changed to the point where no remnants of your former self was left noticeable. If that was the case then it was understandable, but something else about all this made him think that that wasn't necessarily the case, it's clear something else is at work here, a much more 'higher' goal that's in their sights; who was the bot that sent that telepathic message to Matti? And Matti herself? What were the chances of coming across an organic that was gifted with the sight of precognition, and being able to interpret and interact with sparks/ghosts to boot? Such gifts were rear enough among many Cybertronians, but organics? The concept was often dismissed as lunacy if not laughed at one point in Cybertronian history, and towards the beginning of the war the general consensus on the subject hadn't really changed much. But the fact that this child and her gifts were real was confounding enough, to be sent to them by some unseen force made the panther question just where this was all going; the nation-wide attacks, the Autobot rescue party that had arrived and now lost somewhere in the wilds of Japan, the CIA, and now the Major acting strangely...one way or another, his spark told him it was going to transpire in a spectacular fashion.

Suddenly, a strange almost unidentifiable feeling of hollowness shot through his spinal unit making him stop in his tracks, glancing slowly to his side, he saw he was passing the door to the Major's office, and the source of the strange feeling was shrouding this room; turning to face the door and sniffing around the frame, he could smell the Major had been here recently, not today, but she had been here at some point in the last few days...but another scent was also present, not another human or bot, and certainly not a con, but something was seriously off here. Pressing his nose against the doors key pad entry button and stepping into the room, the first thing that struck him was the sensation of abandonment; the lights were off, the computer and dive terminal were offline and the papers on the desk lay undisturbed and touched, as if they had been that way for a long time. Stepping in further and sniffing the air, Ravage opened his mind to the ambient energies of the room, like flicking through the pages of an old worn book, this room was fully of energies from past events and each one was laced with concentrated essence's of determination, focus, and the will to keep one's chin up and carry on no matter what. That certainly felt like the Major's spark, her real spark, the one that caught his attention and intrigue when they first met; but as he scanned the room, the more recent energies felt dull, hollow and gray as thick sea fog, as if she hadn't been here at all, instead, a feeling of constriction and restraint began to filter through and the sensation of being trapped began to grow stronger. Turning his attention to the desk, he sniffed over the papers, computer and dive terminal and right away the strange scent hit his nose in its fullness; what was it? It smelt neither mechanical nor organic, but something about it smelt familiar, but for the spark of him he couldn't put his paw on it; then, like a flash of lightning, one of the room's energies formed a stray blurred image that flashed through the front of his mind, and with it an intense feeling of smug contempt and a red haze of hatred. Acting on instinct the panther hunched his back and growled viciously before calming down a little, realizing he was in no actually danger; concentrating his ability, he searched the room for that one stray energy, looking all round as if it were a mouse trying to hide from him, he was about to dismiss it when suddenly, there it was, and this time it stayed suspended in his mental sight like a carrot on a string. Concentrating, he could see the image more clearly...

A tiny piece of pure white paper, folded into the shape of a bird ('an origami crane' he corrected himself) nestled in a red silken handkerchief that was held by a human hand, the Major's hand...

...But in that moment the image transpired into something else...

In the folds of the paper crane, a black slimy substance began to ooze out and creep along the Major's hand and arm like an ivy creeping along the branches of a tree; then, it burrowed under her synthetic flesh, creeping and squirming through her like a parasite consuming it's host; through the image a sensation of panic and helplessness began to grow, at which point Ravage cut of his concentration and found himself back in the room, alone.

'Brother? What's wrong?" he heard his brothers through the bond, their concern beginning to fill his own mind.

'...The Major...I think she's in danger...' he growled as promptly left the room and looked up and down the corridor, breaking into a gallop, he took off towards the dive room to check the IR systems to see if she had arrived yet, but before he even reached the door, a familiar presence caught his attention as it entered the building...but this presence was tainted somehow, like poison in a deep wound, something was seriously wrong. Hunching forward and growling instinctively, Ravage doubled back the way he came and made a bee line for the medical wing.

"Frag it! What trouble have you gotten yourself into Major?" he growled with ire

In the dive room, Frenzy flinched sharply, his whole frame went ridged and his optics widened with fear, as if he had seen a ghost; Batou and Togusa nearly jumped themselves, Ishikawa removed the dive terminal from his neck ports and off his shoulders and glanced over his shoulder in alarm.

"What's wrong?" Batou asked in alarm

"I-I-I-It's b-b-bigbrother! S-S-S-S-Something'swrong!" he stammered in a panic

"Huh? What's wrong?" Ishikawa straightened up and moved to get out of his chair

"T-T-T-T-TheMajor! Sh-Sh-She'sintrouble!"

* * *

"You know, I'm going to collect a few souvenirs before we finally go home, I'm thinking maybe bag myself a few con's and take their insignia's to hang on my wall; maybe if I ask nicely, Batou might let me take one of those sweet looking bad boy's home, perhaps with a full belt too" Ashley smirked as he eyed one of the large anti-aircraft guns on the thick weight-baring shelf.

"Oh please-" Darren rolled his eyes, "That's hardly counts for a souvenir; now a full set of custom written anti-viral upgrades with full attack barrier and vertical experience maze software set-up's, now THAT's a souvenir!" he beamed smugly

"Yeah, for a techy! But if you wanna show the cons who's got the brass balls around here, THAT's what I'm talking about!" Ashley pointed to another, much larger six-barrelled automatic machine gun sitting on the opposite shelf.

"*sigh* Always with the guns..." Darren sighed as he continued to type away on his laptop; suddenly, one of the images on the screen flickered slightly, "Huh? What was that?" he frowned

"What was what?"

"One of the images on the IR system just went out for a second..." he replied as he leaned in closer to inspect the feed, after typing up a quick-scan programme and running the image through it, the results made Darren's eyebrow's fly up in surprise.

"Tachikoma, did any of you just tamper with the image on camera 34? The one above the entrance to the firing range?" he asked hastily

"Uh no, why, did something just happen we should know-*blip*"

"What the-"

"What just happened?" Ashley frowned in alarm

"The Tachikoma's agent functions just got taken offline-" suddenly, a whole load of red warning signs began to flash and beep across the laptop screen, "all the section's online functions just got cut off, the whole section's completely stand-alone! What the hell-"

"BE STILL!" Ratbat squeaked angrily, silencing both the boys and grabbing their attention as he flew out of the air vent and landed in Ashley's hood, "What?" Ashley quirked

"Something's not right...someone's approaching, be quiet!" the bat drone hissed. Darren was about to ask why when suddenly, the main door to the gun cage could be heard opening and closing on the other side of the storage room door; the footsteps sounded light and had a distinctive click in their step, the same sort of click a high-heel shoe would make, racking their memory, the boys suddenly realized none of the girls were wearing high-heels today, and only one other female wore heels all the time around here.

"It's her!" Ashley mouthed

"What's she doing out there?" Darren mouthed back as he heard the Major's footsteps go back and forth slowly across the room; carefully and as quietly as possible, Ashley slowly slipped off his chair and lowered himself onto his front, crawled on his elbows to the door and pressed the side of his head down flat so as to look through the gap between the door and the floor; sure enough, some distance away the Major's feet were moving across the floor, as they both listened, it sounded like she was doing something as they heard metal cages open and close; clicks and clacks, the sort made when a firearm was being assembled and a succession of metallic tinkling, the sort made by an ammunition belt full of machine gun bullets. As they listened and try to guess at what she was doing, they finally heard her slowly step across the floor to the storage room; a sense of dread shot up their spines as every step sounded hard, slow and intentional, as if she already knew they were hiding in there (in all likelihood she probably did); then, a long tense moment of silence; it felt like time was being stretched out on a torture rack and every second bored into the boy's already mounting nervousness...

Several more seconds passed by, until finally...

The sound of a gun being cocked was heard on the other side of the door, followed by the sound of rotating gun barrels; in an instant, Ashley realized what was about to come as his BSHB force field exploded to life.

"SHIT!"

* * *

"What the- I just got locked out of the network!" Ishikawa exclaimed

"Me too, you think she knows what we're up to?" Togusa asked in alarm

"It has to be, why else-"

RATATATATATATATABOOOOOOMMM!

The room vibrated and shook sharply as the sound of machinegun fire and a particularly load explosion reverberated through the structure of the building; in his office the Chief stopped what he was doing and looked around in confusion, frowning, and having a good idea trouble lay ahead, he reached for the revolver in his desk draw, loaded the chamber and strode out the room to find out just what the hell happened. Down below in the auxiliary hanger, everyone jumped out of their skins and armour as a sudden rush of red hot air blew out of the air vents, and sucked all the air back up again like a giant vacuum cleaner; no doubt it was the blow-back effect from the blast, and judging from how much air was sucked up it had to be a pretty big explosion, back in the dive room, Batou, Togusa and Ishikawa wasted no time in reaching for their guns and storming out the room with Frenzy covering their backs with his mini-guns. As they ran down the corridor towards the firing range, they stopped in their tracks as a blue fireball exploded through the wall at the end of the corridor and flew towards them at a fast pace, the agents were about to duck when the fireball formed into two humanoid shapes and the blue flames parted to reveal Ashley and Darren, both dishevelled and with looks of utter shock across their faces, all the while their force fields hugged their bodies so close and thick that barely an inch of their flesh or clothing could be seen.

"Darren? Ashley? What the hell happened?" Batou exclaimed

"I-It's the Major! She's gone off her fucking nut! She just open-fire on us with a friggin' Gatling gun! We threw an energy blast back but the gun exploded from the blow-back and she went flying through the wall!" Darren yelled in a near-panic

"Where is she now?" Togusa demanded

"She's-" Ashley's face fell when he glanced back over his shoulder and saw the Major standing several meters away with a HUGE Gatling gun aimed at them.

"SHIT! TAKE COVER!" Ashley cried as he threw up a force field and the Major open fire on them, the bullets disintegrated as they hit the electric blue energy field but the force of the gun's firepower was equivalent to being punched in the stomach in quick succession, both Ashley and Darren struggled to hold the energy field up as the Major slowly stepped towards them while feeding the belt of ammo into the gun's chamber with one hand; holding their shoulders and keeping them upright, Batou and Togusa remained firmly in place until finally the gun ran out of bullets and without wasting a second, both the lads switched the energy filed from a shield to a bubble that enveloped the Major and lifted her off the ground; Ashley unleashed a massive burst of lightning bolts and fired on the bubble. As the energy hit her like a brick wall the Major yelled in pain before passing out and the boy's approached closer, concentrating all their strength on the bubble, re-enforcing and tightening it, for fear of what would happen if she woke up.

"What the hell-What just happened?" Ashley grunted as he strained to maintain the energy field

"A ghost hack, it has to be" Ishikawa was quick to step in

"Just as I thought, get her to the dive room and shut off her cyberbrain's secondary functions, we need to isolate her from the system and quarantine her net up-link! If the bastard controlling her didn't get knocked out by that blast then we might be able to corner him! Quickly!" Batou ordered; but just as they turned to rush back a small click caught Ashley's attention, turning around, he noticed a small hand-grenade floating in the bubble with its pin floating next to it.

"SHIT! DROP THE-

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!

* * *

R&R please! :)


	60. Chapter 59: Hacked

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 59: HACKED

"What the hell was that?" Tom exclaimed in alarm

"Trouble!" Mikaela replied as she leapt up onto her feet and flew out of the hanger with the other human's in tow, with Batou's Tachikoma leading the way.

"Where did that explosion come from?" Sam panicked

"It had to be right above us, probably three floors up!" Boma replied

"I swear if these con's think they have the nerve to try and storm this place then their-" the Tachikoma paused in its annoyed rant and stopped dead in its tracks as up ahead the Major stood in the doorway.

"Major! Thank god your here! We got a situation upstairs, we just heard an explosion and it sounded it came from-"

"I know..." she replied darkly, everyone glanced at one another puzzled

"...Well, yeah of course but why-"

"Because I'm here to kill you all" she continued calmly, THAT caught everyone's attention; as she lifted her head and locked her ice cold gaze upon them, everyone gasped in horror at the sight of her eyes; instead of her usual crimson coloured irises, both her eyes glowed in a vivid shade of scarlet red. With lightning fast cyborg reflexes, she drew her handgun and fired at the humans, in equally quick time the Tachikoma rose up on its legs to provide cover as the bullets pinged off its pod.

"MAJOR! Why are you doing this? You're clearly not in your right mind! STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!" The Tachikoma demanded as it drew its own machine gun claw and fired several warning shots in the Major's direction, the female commander ducked out of the way and disappeared around the corner of the corridor while everyone beat a hasty retreat back into the auxiliary hanger, only to meet their Autobot guardian's with alarmed looks on their face plates, but everyone was more concerned with finding descent cover behind them.

"We heard gunfire! What the slag happened back there?" Jazz demanded as he transformed as stood up

"It's the Major! The con's got to her! Her eyes were doing the whole glowy-thing and she just said she's here to kill us!" Miles panted as he hastily climbed up his guardian's leg and hid behind his shoulder

"Glowy-thing?" Thundercracker echoed

"Whatever! Look it's her but it's not her ya dig? It's like she's possessed or somethin'" Glen panicked as he hid behind the seeker's left wing, to which Boma, Saito and Pazu glanced at one another in alarm

"You don't suppose she's been ghost-hacked?" Danny exclaimed

"Unless she decided to swap her regular eyes for glowing ones and spontaneously use us for target practice, I highly doubt it!" Saito sarcastically replied

"Okay enough with the attitude! Can you guys see if anyone else upstairs is okay?" Mikaela asked, all three agent's flipped on their cyber-comms, only to have red warning signs flash across their field of vision

"Dammit! The comm's been taken offline and practically all the section's online functions too! We can't reach Batou or anyone else!" Pazu hissed in annoyance

"What about you guys? Your comms still up?" asked Sam, instinctively flipping on their comms and online software, the bot's scanned the section's network in a matter of seconds, "Ours are okay, but all of section 9's been taken completely offline, all the agent Tachikoma's bar Batou's have been locked out and are trying to get back in via their satellite's uplink; the Major's controlling the block-out through her cyberbrain!" Jazz replied in surprise

"What! But why?" Bluestreak exclaimed

"Beat's me, but she's set up a whole virtual experience maze around her online access terminals and I'm detecting a whole bunch of two-way trip-viruses within the immediate proximity of her Chroma file; whatever she's doing she doesn't want anyone interfering, I can't even contact her without tripping one of the viruses!" Trailbreaker replied as he scanned the network in a mild panic

"So no one can reach her? But there has to be something we can-

BRATATATATATATATATA!

An explosion of gun fire ripped through the doors and into the hanger, everybody ducked down and curled up in their hiding places while simultaneously the bots shielded their faces away as the bullets pinged off their armour like popcorn in a hot pan; those holding their charges curled them into their fist's for extra protection as Skywarp fired up one of his wrist-mounted lazar guns and fired at the door, destroying the frame and blowing the double doors clean off their hinges.

"SET THAT WEAPON TO STUN ONLY!" Jazz angrily reprimanded "She maybe under the con's influence but she's still our friend!"

"Maybe under the con's influence?" Skywarp mouthed in confusion for a moment, before he suddenly remembered he wasn't a con himself anymore and made the necessary adjustments to his weapon; at the same time, Mikaela activated her BSHB force field and waved her hand, sending out a powerful wave of blue energy that cracked the wall around the doorway and sent a shockwave through the corridor, knocking the Major off her feet. Taking advantage of her downed defences; Sam fired up his force field and flew out of Bumblebee's cupped hands towards the Major and enveloped her in an energy field, but before he had time to full re-enforce it, the Major flipped back up on her feet and punched the energy field so hard that it sent a block-back effect though the field and knocked the Witwicky boy flat on his back; quick as lightning the Major went on the attack and started punching at the force field while Sam tried to hold the field up, the thought of being beaten to a pulp by a powerful ticked-off cyborg like her was the only thing keeping his strength at its peak (even if it was the adrenaline doing the work). With an angry yell, Mikaela shot the Major with a blast of lightning energy, sending her flying through the air and smashing her into the wall over Thundercracker's head, the seeker was quick to grab her and hold her in a vice-like grip as she tried to wriggle free.

"No one hit's on my boyfriend except me!" Mikaela growled as she hovered in the air towards Thundercracker; "Uh? Thanks sweetie?" Sam blinked in surprise as he got back up, but Mikaela was more concerned with the Major as her glowing red eyes stared up at her with a deathly glare. Every bot cautiously approached, being ready for anything; Pazu and Boma climbed up Thundercracker's sides (much to the seeker's distain, but he said nothing) until they were at the Major's level.

"Major, it's us, Pazu and Boma, don't you recognize us?" Pazu calmly and cautiously asked as he caught her gaze.

"Of course I recognize you cretins! Now let me go!" she hissed venomously

"I don't think so Major; you ain't yourself right now, but we'll try to help-

"I don't want any help!" she retorted

"Now now femme! Don't make me squeeze your guts out! That would be such a waste" Thundercracker threatened as he tightened his grip.

"What guts?" the Major smirked darkly, in one move she flexed her cyborg strength and pushed the seeker's clawed hands open.

"What the-OOF!" Thundercracker promptly got a flying kick to the side of the face, knocking his head back and cracking the wall behind him, making him loosen his grip completely; without skipping a beat Sunstreaker grabbed her as she fell to the floor but the Major beat him to the punch and promptly shot him on the nose plates, making him flinch back sharply, knocking his brother, Jazz, Bumblebee, Trailbreaker, Bluestreak, Hot Rod and Bluestreak over backwards like a set of giant dominos, the humans and Tachikoma quickly scrambled to get out of the way as several tonnes of giant robot fell to the floor with a resounding collection of loud clangs, while in all the chaos the Major leapt her way back to the door like a springbok and disappeared down the corridor; after quickly scrambling back onto their feet, the bots all shot a stern look at the two ex-con seekers who were trying like hell to stifle their giggles.

"...Sorry, old habits die hard" Skywarp shrugged

"We gotta get upstairs, Batou and the other's are up there! What if she tried to get them too?" Tom exclaimed

"We gotta regroup, there's no way we can take on the Major separated like this, first we gotta make sure everyone upstairs is okay first and then go after her and pin her down" Saito ordered

"That's easier said than done! This is the Major we're talking about! She'll cream us before we even get within twenty feet of her!" Danny exclaimed in a panic

"I didn't say this would be easy! But first we gotta make sure everyone's okay" Saito replied

"I agree, you guys go up there and regroup everyone, we'll try to get the section's network back online down here; Deathshot, try to get the agent Tachikoma's satellite feed reconnected to the network; Trailbreaker, try to establish if there's any signals infiltrating the Major's cyberbrain, if anyone's controlling her, shut them out and disconnect all her online functions!" Jazz ordered, "Yes sir!" both bots replied while everyone dashed out the hanger.

"So, got any idea how we're gonna do this?" Miles asked

"Not a clue" Boma huffed

* * *

"Christ! How the hell are we gonna corner her?" Ashley grunted as he rubbed his head while helping Frenzy stay upright, the drone's processor was still spinning from the explosion and he had to be carried all the back to the dive room when the six of them had to beat a hasty retreat.

"Corner her? This is the Major we're going up against kid! There's no way you can corner her without getting your ass shot off!" Batou huffed as he typed away on the keyboard, when another red warning flashed on the screen he slammed his fist down on the desk, "Dammit!"

"It's no use, she's locked the whole system down, no data's coming in or out unless it's through her; looks like we're on our own for the time being guys" Ishikawa sighed as he pushed himself away from the dive terminal and turned in his chair to face the others.

"Are you sure hiding in the dive room's the safest option? She busted through the walls of the gun cage and firing range as if they were made of paper!" Darren asked

"Well we had to see if we could do anything from in here, we're not staying in here anyway; the only safest way to survive her stay ahead and to keep moving" Batou replied

"Don't you think we should go and find the others first? Hailey and her sisters are still in the medical wing and I'm pretty sure I heard gunfire coming from down in the auxiliary hanger" said Ashley as he readied his spear, clicking a button on the shaft, the hilt extended out to its full length with a sharp click.

"That's what we're gonna do right now, stay sharp and stay on our asses, with the Major you don't drop your guard even for a second, and if she finds us first, don't give her a chance to go on the offence, got it?" Batou ordered, "Got it!" the boy's and drone replied as they headed out the door; looking back and forth, Batou signalled the all-clear and together they headed down the corridor.

* * *

"What the hell's going on out there?" Becca exclaimed as she and her twin, along with Rumble finished barricading the door with one of the empty beds.

"The Major's not 'herself' right now, I fear she's under the influence of the cons via a ghost hack of some kind, either way no one can contact her through the usual means" Ravage growled in reply and he stood before the door, his hip guns ticking over as he waited for the Major to present herself.

"Ghost hack? But how?" Hailey asked from where she sat in her bed

"I don't know, but she's not the type to let something like this happen to her without something else being a factor; it would seem someone's found her weak spot and exploited it to their advantage" the panther replied

"Even so, why is she doing this? We're her friends! She must be aware in some way what's going on and what she's doing!" Becky angrily replied

"It's not that simple youngling, even now as I expand my mind out to hers all I'm getting is a passive sensation of ease and stillness; whatever's going on in her cyberbrain, her conscious self is asleep and unaware of what's going on, effectively she's in a dreamlike state and no matter how hard I force myself into her psyche I just can't wake her up! I guess human minds are more psychologically complex than I originally thought" he huffed, flicking an ear in annoyance.

"But wait, if you can sense her mind, you must be able to tell where she is" Hailey pointed out; the medical wing fell silent as Ravage studied the door, tilting his head back and forth and side to side, as if trying to pick up a faint sound. "Where is she?" Becca whispered

"...She's just arrived on this floor, and is heading straight for us. Now listen, you younglings are in no fit shape to fight so I'll take care of this; I sense the others are already on their way to help us so all we have to do hold the doors and wait, you hide in the surgical unit with Annabelle and Jay-jay and wait until I tell you to come out" the panther said sternly

"But what about you? If she's packing heat she'll simply blow the doors off!" Hailey pleaded

"I can hold my own against her, she maybe a superior fighter in human terms but she's no Cybertronian, and suffice to say her cyborg form isn't made from Cybertronian alloys. I'll be fine, and if she's got half a processor while in her ghost-hacked state she'll know not to push her luck-

A load muffled thud and a sharp clang echoed down the corridor.

"...She's here; Rumble, help Hailey out of bed and get her to the surgical unit; you two guard the door and keep your force fields up, don't drop them for anything not even me, because if the Major's see's you defenceless you won't stand a chance; now go!" Ravage ordered sternly; reluctantly, but without a word, the twins nodded in acknowledgement and followed Rumble and Hailey through the double doors at the end of the wing; as soon as the doors closed a bright blue glow coming through the round windows signalled the twin's BSHB force field's being thrown up to form a shield. Satisfied, Ravage aimed his left hip gun up at the lights on the ceiling and shot them all out until the room fell pitch black, and he softly paced backwards and slipping into the darkness, his glowing singular optic being the last trace of him to disappear. Several minutes of tense uneasy silence passed before the sound of footsteps approached, and stopped in front of the main doors.

BOOOM!

The doors blew off their hinges and the barricade of beds, cupboards and gurneys went flying through the air, crashing about all over the large room, knocking over the other beds and sending various other objects flying about; the smoke dispersed to reveal the Major standing in the doorway with a grenade launcher in one hand and a collection of other firearms strapped to her back, a belt of hand grenades were strapped her waist, a whole load of ammo belts hung from her neck like a metallic boa and a pair of large combat knives were both strapped to each of her thighs, and with the look of death across her face coupled with her glowing red eyes, she looked ready to bring about the apocalypse. She stepped in and looked around the darkened room, after quickly accessing the building's power-grid and accessing the back-up generators she flipped the emergency lights on and looked around the now dimly lit room, no one was there, but at the far end of the room the blue glow coming from in the surgical unit told her there were another set of targets to blow away. Setting the grenade launcher down, she grabbed the rocket launcher off her back, loaded a round into the chamber and aimed at the door, she was about to pull the trigger when suddenly-

CRASHTHWACKCRACK!

Before she even realized when just happened, the world turned upside-down and sideways in a split second as she found herself face down on the floor, her weapons discarded around her and as she tried to get back up something hit her across the face hard and sent her flying across the room, crashing into the wall and cracking the plaster; she scrambled to get back up but before she could even get on her feet something struck her in the side and sent her crashing into the opposite wall; siring pain struck her immediately, and as she turned off her pain receptors and looked down for the source of the agony, her eyebrows flew open as she saw a huge gaping hole in her right side. Her synthetic skin had been shredded around the wound, the metal plating of her prosthetic body was dented and twisted in an ugly fashion and underneath her body's components were all but totally destroyed as wires, circuits, synthetic ligament and muscles as the artificial organs were dangerously exposed, all pulsating and squirming as the trauma of the injury began to take its toll almost immediately, all the while blood squirted and seeped out of the more organic tissues and pooled on the floor beneath her in a bloody mess; a wound like this would've killed an all natural human being outright, but as it was, the Major began to sense her body's emergency medical protocols begin to kick in. All blood in the area of the wound was immediately cut off and diverted to other areas of the body, all pain receptors in the area were shut off for good and her cyberbrain's motor functions began rerouting the hand/eye and muscle co-ordinations so as she could stand back up without the risk of falling over. As she straightened up to look more closely, she realized the way the metal was gouged formed the shape of a set of claw marks, BIG claw marks. Realizing who most likely made them, she tried to grab her handgun but something hard landed on her back and pinned her face down on the floor; a set of claws dug into her synthetic flesh in her back and shoulders, and on the back of her neck, a particularly sharp set of teeth slowly sank into her flesh.

"You have no idea just how many bots died in this fashion thanks to that little trick" Ravage growled as his tail flicked back and forth

"How-I didn't see you, you didn't even have any therm-optics on!" She hissed

"Don't need them, telepathy isn't just for reading minds you know; and with your mind in its poisoned state, your even more vulnerable than you'd like to think" The panther smirked

"Poisoned? Hardly, for the first time in my life I'm seeing things more clearly, seeing humans for what they really are; weak, worthless and disgustingly organic" she growled venomously

"A couple of years ago I might have agreed with you; but I found humans aren't totally useless, if anything they got real 'spunk', and I like that, just like you had when we first met; now look at you, how did you let this happen to you? How could you fall so far? A femme of your calibre is not one to let someone into your mind like this...such weakness, its disgraceful!" the panther replied in distain

"Really? Your one to talk considering you don't even have the balls to kill me"

"Tempting, but right now it's not a question of having 'balls', true your fighting spark and austere presence warranted respect on my part and even I'll admit normally your force to be reckoned with, but right now your hardly the Major I first met over a month ago. You mean much to your team and they'd danm their sparks to the pit for you, there's nothing they wouldn't do for you, and no lengths they wouldn't go to, to see you be your true self again; I know this wound won't be enough to stop you nedalone kill you, so that's why I'm going to snap your spinal unit at the shoulders, your cyborg body will be paralyzed from the neck down but your cyberbrain will be fine; you won't be able to cause any more trouble and soon as we locate the ghost hacker and kick him out of your mind, you can swap into a new prosthetic body. Now hold still, I promise this will be quick and painless..." Ravage explained as he positioned his jaws over her neck, ready to deliver the paralyzing bite.

"Heh, who said I was being ghost hacked?" she smirked

"Huh?"

With her one free hand, the Major sent a blind punch back over her head and hit the panther square on the jaw, knocking his head back, giving her just enough room to grab her gun and fire at his head, the bullet nicked the top of his right ear while another knocked out one of his silver teeth; growling in ire the panther swiped her across the face, shredding the synthetic flesh from her face and exposing metal and tissue. Unfazed, she raised her gun at his face but this time Ravage swiped at her arm and knocked the gun out of her hand, realizing he'd moved to her side, she brought her legs up and with one powerful kick she went flying out from under the panther's other paw and slid across the floor several meters away and quickly got back up again; Ravage didn't waste any time and promptly leapt across the room, but in one move the Major jumped up and back-flipped clean over the panther as he landed and screeched to a halt before he ran into the wall, turning on his heels he turned and went for another pounce, but again she was ready and this time she flipped to the side to let him fly through the door; grabbing one of the guns up off the floor she took aim and ran out the door, looking both ways down the corridor she flinched in surprise, he was gone. She was about to turn back into the medical wing when something sharp hit her in the back, this time she went flying through the air at break-neck speed and crashed into the doors of the surgical unit, bending the door frame and sending cracks through the walls, if it hadn't had been for the BSHB force field in place the doors would've flown off their hinges. On the other side of the doors, the Waineright twins skidded backwards as the shockwave on the other side of the energy field forced them back sharply, but they quickly regained their footing and held the field up; behind them, huddled behind a barricade of gurneys, machinery and the one surgical table, Hailey sat on the floor with Annabelle and Jay-jay huddled at her side while Rumble kept his wrist-mounted guns trained on the doors.

"What's going on out there?" Annabelle asked nervously as she hugged Jay-jay's side

"I don't know baby, but we'll be okay, kitty'll look after us" Hailey reassured as she stroked her head, wondering herself if Ravage was okay. Outside the Major quickly leapt back up on her feet and punched the panther hard on the jaw as he lunged at her with his teeth bared; the panther quickly took advantage of the defence and as he went down he swung his mace tail round, hooked her arm on one of the sharp pointed spokes and lifted her off her feet, flinging her around and over his head and right into his jaws. Within a split second his teeth locked onto her left shoulder and sunk down into her synthetic flesh, all the way down to her prosthetic body's shell; the pain was unlike anything she'd ever felt before as the pressure began to crush down like a giant vice, her will power alone was all that kept her from screaming as she could feel her prosthetic insides begin to crack, grind, creek and snap from the strain of the panther's bite, if she didn't get out now she was dead for sure. With her one free hand she fumbled about trying to reach for something, anything on her belt that would help, finally, her fingers fell on a cylindrical grenade; realizing what it was, she snapped it off the belt, pulled the pin out with her teeth and promptly shoved into his jaws, forcing it into the back of his mouth. Before Ravage could react, pain and heat hit the back of his throat as white smoke exploded from his mouth and billowed out in a thick cloud; he dropped the Major as he coughed and spluttered while desperately trying to claw the grenade from out the back of his throat, he shook his head from side to side as he coughed and coughed again, until finally a half chewed grenade canister flew out of his mouth.

"A smoke grenade? You sly little bitch!-" The panther growled venomously, but as he looked down, and then around the room, he realized the Major had made her escape; growling in ire, he turned his attention back to the surgical unit doors, but before he could give the all-clear for the girls to come out, the sound of pounding footsteps drew his attention back to the main entrance as Batou, Togusa, Ishikawa, Ashley, Darren and Frenzy stormed the room, weapons at the ready and force fields up. Looking around and realizing they just missed the fight, they relaxed their stances and approached cautiously.

"So nice of you turn up, right after the fight's won and lost" Ravage sarcastically smirked

"I take it we just missed her? We saw the smoke at the end of the corridor" said Batou

"She caught me off guard with a smoke grenade, I half expected her to stay and keep fighting but she turned tails on me" Ravage growled in reply, Togusa's eye's flew open at the sight of the pool of blood on the floor nearby, "What the hell happened? Who did she get?" he nearly panicked

"Actually, I got her, managed to take a chunk out of her side and clawed half her face off, the wound won't kill her but the blood trail should make tracking her a bit easier..." Ravage gestured to the trail of blood drops that lead out of the room and around the corner of the corridor.

"How badly hurt is she?" Batou asked in alarm

"Not badly enough, she's still got a lot of fight left in her, but the wound is deep, if I can get close enough and deliver one good bite I can probably bleed her enough to weaken her; she can always swap into a new body right?" Ravage replied, Batou wasn't too sure how reply on that one, any other time he would've probably shot the panther's optic out for attacking her, but right now his commanding officer was trying to kill him and his team, for the sake of staying on track with the situation he let it slide; "...one other thing, she's not under the influence of a hacker" the panther continued

"What?" everyone looked at the panther in disbelief.

"She's not being controlled, not only did she tell me herself, but being in such close proximity I was able to analyze the signals going in and out of her cyberbrain while we fought; she's got the section's online system's locked into her own data net and has got every online terminal shut down, there's no external signal, online or otherwise, entering her head; whatever's controlling her, it's something autonomous" Ravage replied

"But how? That's impossible!" Ishikawa exclaimed in disbelief

"_I'm afraid it's not..."_ Trailbreaker replied over Frenzy's sound speakers, _"I've double checked the system and aside from the Tachikoma's satellite uplink there's no signal of any kind entering the section's online systems; whatever's controlling the Major is already on, or inside her, an external device running an autonomous control signal of some kind, that's why we couldn't locate the hacker because there's no hacker in the first place!" _he continued, the human's glanced at one another in alarm, realizing the situation just got a whole lot complicated.

"Is there any way to hack into the signal?" Togusa asked

"_Negative, whatever the control device is it's completely stand-alone, the signal must be closed circuit and the device itself must be somewhere in her body, if we locate and remove it the signal should cut out and she should return to normal"_ Trailbreaker replied, "Someone planted a control device in the Major? How the hell did they go about that?" Togusa exclaimed in confusion. "Never mind that for now, we'll know as soon as we find her and remove it, Trailbreaker can you guys get the network back online?" Ishikawa asked, _"Deathshot and the Tachikoma's are doing that right now; I was trying back-hack the Major but seeing as she's being controlled autonomously I'm now trying to keep track of her movements through the building; but it's proving difficult, she's even locked down the building's blueprints so I'm having to rely on Lazerbeak and Buzzsaw's heat-scanners to scan the upper levels of the building just to keep track of her!"_

"Can they see where she is now?" Ashley asked

"_They just now saw her going up the emergency stairs in the building's north east corner, to floor 156"_

"That's the floor where the other kids and their families are staying! Along with Matti and James too! Where're the others?" Darren demanded

"_Their approaching the floor below you, Boma managed to get one of the elevators working and they're going to...wait a minute...Buzzsaw just reported back, the Major's changed direction, it seems she knows their coming, she's heading straight down this time"_

"Good, that means her attention's away from the families and kids; okay if she's in the north east stairway we can catch her out, there's only one corridor leading to that stairway and there's no way she can come out if we're there to meet her! Quickly!" he ordered as he flew out the door, followed by the others.

"Can we come out yet?" Becca called out from behind the doors, no answer

"Hello?" she called again

* * *

The elevator pinged and the doors opened, Boma, Pazu, Saito and the Tachikoma pointed their guns out and checked the blind-spots around the doors; not seeing anything and signalling the all-clear, the kids moved out and fell into formation, keeping their force fields up as they jogged along the corridor with the agents leading the way and the Tachikoma bringing up the rear.

"Okay, we're right below the medical wing, the emergency stairs up there in just around the-...huh?..." Boma stopped when he noticed several large drops of blood on the floor, but before he could say anything else...

BRATATATATATATATA!

"FALL BACK! FALL BACK!" Tom cried as a burst of machine gunfire exploded out from down one of the adjacent corridors to his side and pinged off his force field; Sam and Miles immediately threw up their energy shield as the Major came running at them in full rage with a large modified semi-automatic in her hands, but the gaping bloody hole in her side and the deep claw marks across her face was what grabbed everyone's attention the most.

"What the hell happened to her?" Boma gawked in alarm

"Chances are I'd say she ran into Ravage and pissed him off big time dude!" Glen replied as he threw up his energy field.

"Looks like he won that round, let's see if we can pin her down!" Mikaela exclaimed as she charged forward, fists crackling with energy as she punched hard and knocked the Major head over heels, knocking the gun from her grip and sending it flying to one side; the Major flipped in midair, landing on her feet and instantly threw up her arms for protection and the black-haired teen locked her in her energy field and pinned her to the wall. With her strength still intact the Major kicked hard and knocked Mikaela back hard, but not hard enough as her energy field cushioned her against the opposite wall of the corridor, allowing her to bounce off and drop-kick the Major square in the jaw, sending her flying several meters back down the corridor. As the Major flipped back onto her feet, Tom, Sam and Miles came flying at her with energy fields crackling about their hands, the Major swung her fist back ready to punch them out of the way, but as soon as the three boys hit her first, the energy fields exploded in a blue fireball that expanded down the corridor and through the adjoining corridors in a defining roar, the blowback blew out the air vents and elevator shafts with such force that the whole of the building suddenly turned into a wind tunnel, vibrating with the shock. In the split second it started, it dispersed and halted just as quick, Glen, Danny and Mikaela cautiously lowered their force fields off of the agents and think tank and looked around, at the end of the corridor, Sam, Miles and Tom got back on their feet in a dazed stupor, looked around, and realized the Major was gone.

"DAMN! How the hell did she survive that?" Sam exclaimed angrily as she hit his fist against the wall

"Man she's one reinforced cyborg! That was the hardest triple-nuke-punch we could do man! Now what do we do?" Miles sighed in exhaustion

"We go after her, look" Saito pointed to the trail of blood drops on the floor

"That blast didn't even knock her out so how the hell are we gonna pin her down?" Glen huffed as he laid a hand on his chest in an effort to control his breathing.

"I say we find mister Batou and the others! The only way we're going to be able to take her down is if we're all together, and with a good strategy to boot!" Batou's Tachikoma piped up

"Well if it's strategy we need I say we go upstairs and lock down the gun cage; that way her options will be limited to what she's got at hand and we don't have to worry about being blown away, or have half the building being demolished in the process" Mikaela suggested

"I agree, right now she's got the whole building at her disposal, if we can gain some ground by taking the gun cage we might be able to even the odds" Saito agreed

"Well okay, let's-

BOOOM!

Another violent shockwave went through the building and rattled the humans and think tank where they stood.

"What was that this time?" Glen exclaimed

"It sounded like it came from the floor above us!" the think tank squeaked in alarm

"Who did she go after this time?" Miles thought aloud; at that moment, several meters back down the corridor, the ceiling exploded downwards in a fireball of metal, wires, plaster and dust as something crashed hard on the floor, cracking the floor panels; as the dust cleared the something revealed itself to be the Major, but before the kids had a chance to throw their force fields back up and go on the offence, Scorponok dropped down through the hole in the ceiling and landed right on top of her; quickly she ducked out of the way as he tried to grab her with his claws, but she wasn't quick enough to avoid his tail and promptly received a hard blow to the back of her left thigh as his tail blade shot through her like a pile driver and sliced her prosthetic leg's artificial muscles like a surgeon's scalpel. She tumbled forward and over as her leg failed her, Scorponok quickly tried to grab her again but with an angry growl she fought back with a succession of lightning fast punches to the scorpion's front, he instinctively shielded his face behind his protective helm armour, with the plates slammed shut over his face she turned her attention to the cannon above his head; she was about to fire a round from her handgun when the drone deployed his tail blade again and sliced through her left shoulder; with a yell of shock she fell back onto the floor and before she could even draw breath, a thick energy field encased and enveloped her, forming a tight bubble around her body, squeezing her into a tight foetal position and forcing her to fold her arms inwards and keep her legs tucked under her chin; desperately she tried to wriggle out, but the energy field was just too strong this time.

"Nice try, but you ain't getting away this time!" Miles grinned with satisfaction as he approached, keeping his hands in position as he and the other kids held the energy field-bubble in place around her.

"Good work! ...Scorponok, if you please?" the chief called down from the hole in the ceiling, the scorpion backed up and lifted his tail up to the hole, Aramaki climbed down and stepped onto one of the scorpion's tail plating, using it as a make-shift step-ladder to climb down to the floor below. "Chief?...how the hell-" Pazu quirked as he laid his eyes on the modified AK47 strapped to his left side and the grenade launch strapped over his right shoulder.

"You seriously didn't think I've been running this place for the better part of ten years and not keep a few items handy for an emergency?" he sternly asserted and he cocked the gun.

"An AK47? Why use such an antique?" Saito quirked

"Please, I knew how to use one of these since you were in diapers, they got the job done back then, and they can still do the job now..." he replied as he laid his eyes on the Major, her glowing red eyes took him aback somewhat as he calmly stepped round to Mikaela's side"

"Just as I suspected" he sighed

"You knew?" Danny exclaimed, the three agents blinked in surprise

"Not for definite, but I suspected something was up long before yesterday; it makes sense that the enemy would try to strike at us directly in one form or another, I'm just surprised it took them this long" he replied

"Guess we should've expected something like this huh?" Danny thought aloud

"What's done is done; right now our top priority is getting our Major back" the chief replied confidently

"What makes you think I want to go back to being your lap dog old ape!" the Major hissed angrily as she pushed hard against the bubble, the kids strained to keep the energy field up, fortunately it held this time

"She's even worse than I thought! How the hell are we going to get her stay still while we try to help her?" the Tachikoma asked

"I don't want your help!" she growled, the chief approached the bubble and looked the Major in the eye, his commanding presence held her gaze as he stared her down with his trademark glair.

"...I know you're in there somewhere Major, so listen up; we're going to help you anyway we can, but you've got to make the effort and help us out here, I know you can beat this guy, since when did you ever let anyone use you for a puppet? That's not the Major I know" he addressed her, laying a hand on the energy field

"I'm nobody's puppet! ..." she retorted, before a sly smirk stretched across her face, "...but you all are..."

Suddenly, Saito, Pazu and Boma froze on the spot; their eyes went wide with fear as beads of sweat started to form on their temples and brows, they opened their mouths to speak but no words came out and their whole bodies started to shake as they aimed their guns at the kids who simply gawked at them in shock.

"WHAT'RE YOU GUYS DOING?"

"She's back-hacked them! MOVE!" the chief ordered as the agents fired at the kids, forcing them to drop the energy field so as to shield themselves from the bullets; Scorponok moved in front and grabbed Boma in both claws, forcing him to let go of his gun by squeezing his arm and promptly knocked him out by swinging his head hard against the wall, Mikaela and Miles both sent out an energy blast which stunned both Saito and Pazu, rendering them both unconscious but the Major didn't even blink as she lunged forward to try and grab the fallen agents, but before she got within an inch of them Sam quickly scooped them up in an energy field bubble and shot off down the corridor like superman, backed up by Miles who snatched Boma and stayed on his bro's tail, "DON'T LOOK BACK!" he cried, the other's quickly brought up the rear as they tried to push the Major back. Flying down the corridors at breakneck speed the kids didn't stop for anything as the Major chased after them, now more enraged than ever; from where he hovered in his own energy bubble, the chief aimed his weapon and Mikaela promptly dropped the field halfway to let him shoot ; he fired several rounds right in the Major's chest, she stumbled briefly but quickly recovered as she sped up after them, the Tachikoma took a few shots as it speed along but the Major was quick and dodged the bullets with a forward flip over where the bullets hit the floor. Danny threw several energy balls, each exploded in a blaze of blue lightning but the Major avoided them too.

"THIS IS INSANE! She's got half her guts spilling out on the floor and half her face swiped off and she's still coming at us? HOW THE FUCK DO WE STOP HER?" Danny yelled in a panic as he shot another round of energy blasts behind him; this time the Major dodged them, leapt forward and grabbed him by the ankle. Tackling him to the ground she proceeded to try and beat him to death but his force field held strong as he tried to throw her off; "M-MAJOR PLEASE! STOP!" he cried out as wave after wave of blow-back came at him as he strained to keep the field up, but as she sped up the punches, the field began to crack and waver as his arms began to weaken from exhaustion and his concentration began to shift to the growing pain from the energy blow-back. Finally he couldn't hold out any longer, and just as the Major was about to deliver the final blow, a loud mechanical roar made her look up; just in time to see Ravage's open jaws fly right at her. The giant panther aimed straight at her gaping wound and clamped his jaws down hard, the Major howled in pain as he lifted her off the floor and violently shook her like a ragdoll, ripping and shredding the synthetic flesh and metal and opening the wound even wider and deepening the tissue damage; blood poured out between his silver teeth and as the Major switched off her pain receptors she swung her fist in readiness to punch the panther's optic out, but he was onto her and threw her against the wall where she fell in a bloody mess.

"This time, don't bother trying to stand up, I won't make the same mistake twice!" he growled

"Oh please! I can do this all day!" she spat as she staggered back up on her feet; Danny watched in horror as her wound dripped with blood, (said wound now resembling something akin to having a bomb exploded from the inside out!) but what really sent a shiver down his spine was the fact that she simply looked down at the gaping bloody hole and dismissed it as if it were a mere scratch; Ravage eyed her threateningly as he paced forward and stood over the red-head protectively, his tail flicking back and forth and both hip guns whirring in anticipation; this cyborg femme was not going down so easily.

"...You really want to do this the hard way don't you?" Ravage growled

"Why not? You're hardly making the effort!" she hissed defiantly

"Sweetspark, I'm may be an Autobot, but I used to a Decepticon; I haven't even started yet!" he growled in ire; in a split second he was on top of her with her neck in his jaws and her hands pinned down by his front paws, with an ugly mechanical growl he activating his left hip machine gun and fired point blank range at her legs, ripping her right leg off in a hail of bullets, he then lifted her up and flung her down the corridor; back and forth he grabbed and tossed her, flinging her, pawing at her and chewing her like a ragdoll over and over again in quick succession, not once letting her try to go on the offence. Although the whole thing lasted barely a minute the panther was surprised just how durable her prosthetic body was as she tried to kick and punch at him; maybe the human technology of this universe wasn't as backwards as he originally thought, after all, not many Autobot rookies had survived this particular brand of his treatment. As he turned to swipe at her again, she flipped up on her one good leg, grabbed him by the muzzle and held his jaws tight in a head-lock manoeuvre, taking him completely by surprise.

"You're just getting started? I trained my whole life to be the best soldier there is! I got the started the day I first swapped into a prosthetic body you pathetic whelp!" she grunted as she threw him down and punched out his optic, shattering the protective glass plating and causing energon to bleed out through the cracks; the panther let out a deafening raw howl of pain, elsewhere in the building his brother's screamed and screeched in agony as their elder brother's agony shot through their bond and hit their minds like a blade between their joints.

"BROTHEEEERR! SHE HURT BROTHER!"

* * *

On the floor directly above:

"AGHAAAA! MY EYES! MY EYES!" pain stung in Ashley's eyes, making him keel forward and grab his eyes in agony as he yelled in pain, Batou turned back in time to catch him as his knee's gave out underneath him.

"What's wrong?" the ex-ranger held him as he looked him over for any sign of injury

"MY EYES! Something's stabbed my eyes!" he cried out in pain as tears streamed from under his clenched eyelids

"Open your eyes and let me look kid!"

"I can't! It's too painful! It-"

"Just do it! Let me see...there's nothing there kid, what just happened?"

* * *

Back down below, in a fit of rage and raw unbridled fury, Ravage blindly shot back up and went wild as he writhed around back and forth, biting, clawing and swinging his mace tail around, growling and roaring in anger as he tried to find the Major, though the shutter that protected his optic had snapped shut to stop the energon bleeding out, he could still smell and hear her nearby as she moved to get out of the way; Danny too hastily moved to dodge the panther's mace tail as it crashed into the wall, he tried to run back down the corridor but the Major slammed him face down on the floor, knocking him half-unconscious and nearly breaking his nose and knocking out his front teeth. This time, Danny thought he was done for good, and as the Major flipped him onto his front, the last thought on his mind was that of his cousins, his Autobot guardian, and all the things he realized he'd never get to do...

'Heh, it's funny, I'd never thought I'd go out like this...oh well, I guess there are less interesting ways to out...thanks for everything guys...' he thought as he watched the Major raise her fist...and then...

FWOOOOOOOSH!

The entire corridor lit up as blue fire engulfed the whole place, blue fire that burned so intensely it almost turned white, the Major was thrown off Danny and smashed into the opposite wall of the corridor with a resounding crash, Ravage stopped his outburst and listened as the flames formed a giant hand that grabbed her and slammed her into the floor, walls and ceiling with such force that the metal plating and tiles dented and warped from the impact and intense energy. Danny looked up and gasped as a female humanoid figure made of white fire came jogging down the corridor and stopped just short of the Major, energy flickering off like an inferno, then, the fire around the figure flickered and dissipated to reveal an angry Morri. Fire danced about her hair and licked close to her skin in thick wave, making it look like her flesh was made of variegated silver leaf while her eyes glowed with an intense blue glow.

"You okay Danny?" she asked in concern

"Uh, I'm good now!" he smiled in relief as he slumped back on the floor

"Great..." she turned her attention back to the Major, softening her gaze and reaching out to cup her face with both hands "...I know you're in there somewhere Major, and I know this isn't the real you" she softly spoke

"This IS the real me you disgusting human! Get your filthy hands off me!" the Major spat as she struggled to try and free herself; but Morri's force field was much stronger than the others, the more she struggled the tighter the energy field grew around her; Morri was about to ask her something else when Ravage approached from behind.

"It's no use youngling, she's too far deeply trapped in her own mind to hear you; let me take care of this...enclose the field around us" the panther growled as he came up alongside the Major and pressed his muzzle to the side of her head, Morri waved her hands up and the white fires of the energy field enclosed around the three of them in a tight sphere-like cocoon. Opening his mind to hers, Ravage forced his way past her mental defences and dived down into the darkness of her mind, looking around for the source of the autonomous hack; the Major writhed and shook her head as the sensation of the panther's telepathic intrusion felt like a worm burrowing into her head, pushing her concentration aside as he was diving deeper, and getting closer to the centre of her psyche. Looking around her mind, Ravage could 'see' how far the hack had entrapped her, every thought and every memory was trapped by a web-like net of black, almost slime-like tendrils, each one squirmed and wriggled as the real Major tried to shake them loose; clearly she was still in one piece and trying to fight back. But something was seriously wrong, this wasn't any kind of hack he'd come across before, as he looked through her external memories and the cyberized areas of her mind he noticed there wasn't any one source for the autonomous signal to be coming in, in fact, it didn't even feel like a signal at all, but rather an omnipresence, like a swarm of bees of a shoal of fish, it felt like many working together as one.

"...Ravage...Ravage...is that you?" a tiny whisper sounded in the panther's audio

"Major? Are you there? I'm here, tell me where you are so I can help!" he called across her mind, looking for the source of the voice.

"I can't-...I don't know if I can-..."

"What's wrong? I'm here to help! Just reach out to me and we'll fight this 'presence' together!" he called back

"No! I don't trust you! You're dangerous, you're deceptive; you say you're one of them but we both know that's not true!" the voice called back, quirking in bemusement, Ravage cautiously approached the source of the voice and looked ahead as something began to materialize from out the shadows of her psyche; the vague ghostly image of a small girl clothed in lilac pyjamas stepped forward, most of her body was wrapped in bandages with the exception of one side of her fair pale face showing through, she looked to be about five, maybe six years old and as Ravage stepped forward to get a closer look at her, she recoiled away from him. Sniffing the air around her, something about her told him she was part of the Major, some deep aspect of her psyche that was part of the foundation of who she was, but at the same time, there was an aura about this child, an aura that for some unfathomable reason, he just couldn't interpret as the Major he knew.

"Who are you child?" he asserted softly

"I-...my name's Motoko Kusanagi, but...I wasn't always called that...I...I was, someone else...but, I don't remember anymore..." she hesitated; Ravage tilted his head in curiosity

"Listen, I'm not here to harm you, I'm here to help, your mind's being poisoned by a malignant presence, I can help drive it out but I can't do it alone; this is your mind Motoko, this is your domain, and only you can drive it out completely" he replied

"But...you're a killer, I don't trust you..." she hesitated; Ravage paused before answering, carefully considering his words, in this level of her mind, lying wasn't an option.

"...Yes, I am a killer, but you are not my pray; from the moment we first met I knew you would never be anyone's pray, your too strong and determined to let anyone come so close unless you wanted them to; so why are you letting this poison run about your mind like this?" he gestured to the dark tendrils that slithered about over their heads, she didn't reply as a look of dread fell on her little face, she looked like she wanted to say something but hesitated with a look of fear in her eye.

"Do not try to deceive me child, this may be your mind but I can still read it like a data pad; what is so vexing your spark that you would allow yourself to succumb to this poison and lose yourself to its power?" he asked, a tense moment of silence passed before she reluctantly stepped forward.

"...I don't..."

"You don't what?"

"...I don't want it to go, if I do, I'll lose my chance to find him...I haven't seen him in a long long time, he folded all those cranes for me, and this is the only way I can find him again, they said if I do what they what they tell me to do, they'll show me where he is..." she replied quietly

"Who child?"

"...Kuze, he's still alive..." she extended her arm to show him the paper carne sitting her hand; Ravage recoiled backwards in disgust as he saw the black slimy tendrils were originating from the crane itself, seeping out from the folds of the paper and writhing and pulsating across the expanse of her psyche, all the way out to her conscious self.

"...Listen, I don't know who this 'Kuze' is or what his relevance to you is, and I'm sure when this is all over we can help you find him, but for your sake, and the sake of your friends you need to let that thing go!" he ordered, she hugged the crane close to her chest, recoiling away in fear.

"NO! I'll lose him! I don't wanna let him go! He's the only one who understands me! If I don't find him I'll have no-one!"

"That's not true! You have Batou, and Togusa, and Aramaki! Ishikawa, Saito, Pazu, Boma and the Tachikoma's; Jazz, Bumblebee, Morri, Sam, Mikaela and all the others, we're all here for you right now and we're trying to help you because you're our friend, your...my, friend..." he replied, forcing himself to say the last part as he swallowed his pride hard (which actually didn't feel that bad, now that he thought about it). Motoko didn't look convinced as she tried to back away, but found she had nowhere to hide from him.

"N-No! I want to find Kuze! He's the only one I want!" she whimpered

"Look at me!"

"But-"

"LOOK AT ME!" the panther ordered sternly, as she gazed up into his one optic, her vision became filled with vivid red light and the images of her team-mate's flashed before her, their faces filled with worry, agitation, and fear; fear for her, fearing she'd never come back.

"They are risking their lives to save you and your killing them by letting that poison control you! Are you so selfish that you'd let them die for the sake of one? Do you hold yourself in such higher regard than them that you'd disregard their courage and loyalty for your own selfish needs? What leader are you if you cannot take charge of your own demons and be there for them, because their all here for you right now!" he growled, she fell to her knee's, tears pouring from her one un-bandaged eye as she clutched the paper crane in desperation.

"...B-But, they don't know me! Nobody understands me!" she cried

"That's not true!" another voice echoed through her mind, sensing another familiar presence, Ravage turned around to see Batou drifting towards them, he extended his mind out to the ex-ranger to help him come closer and let him come up alongside; softly approaching with a soft understanding look in his cybernetic eyes, Motoko recognized him immediately but was still hesitant as she continued to keep a hold of her paper crane while the black tendrils continued to seep out.

"...You say no one understands you? Maybe that's because you never gave anyone a chance to try and understand you; you spend so much time and effort trying to understand the reasons why anyone does anything that you forgot to ask why they do what they do in the first place. Are you so afraid of losing yourself to humanity that you'd rather preserve your ghost in this place? Away from what makes you human in the first place?" he asked seriously, she looked at him in dumbfounded disbelief. Sensing that he wanted to show her something, Ravage allowed the ex-ranger to expand his mind outwards to hers; in a mere moment, every memory of every mission they'd ever been on together flashed before her eyes, and with them, the sense of dedication, loyalty, willingness, and friendship, became present too, each one lighting up the darkness with tiny flickers of pure golden light.

"...Motoko, in all the years we've worked together I've never known anyone to try and understand the human condition more than you; I know you worry about keeping yourself in one piece, hackers like us who constantly keeps themselves exposed to the net are always cautious to keep their guard up, but you've been doing this for so long I think you somehow forgot the more important things in life; it's okay to want to be good at your job, but not at the expense of regarding your teammates as just your teammates, Togusa, Ishikawa, Saito, Pazu, Boma, even the Tachikoma's, we all look up to you, but not just as our field commander, also as our friend; you took a chance on all of us when most others would've disregarded us, you saw our talents and potential, and you brought it out of us in the best way, in the name of justice and doing what's right when no one else was willing to do so...I've been there for you, all these years I've been there ready to carry out your orders without question; and the only reason I never question you was because you earned it from me, you earned my respect, and my friendship..." Batou explained a she continued to look at him bemusement.

"...But, Kuze's still out there, I have to find him, if I don't, I won't have anything left...I won't-...know if..." she hesitated, behind her the image of Kuze, dressed in white, materialized out of a haze of grey fog, but the images shifted to reveal a six year old boy, sitting in a hospital bed, paralyzed with only his left arm unaffected, folding paper cranes with his one good hand with a young girl sitting by his side all the while feelings of kindness and puppy love washed over him like a summer breeze. As Batou studied the girl's face, he suddenly realized it was her, and the boy was...

'...Her first love...' Ravage whispered into his mind; suddenly, it all made sense. Why what happened on Dejima happened the way it did, and why she had acted strangely during that time after diving Kuze's ghost line, she discovered who he really was; for some strange reason, he felt a small smile tug at his lips and as he kneeled down and looked her in the eyes, a sense of clarity and understanding seemed to come about his attitude.

"...Motoko, I realize now what he means to you and it's okay, I understand why you want to find him; he was the only guy who cared about you when, you had to the endure the hardest thing any kid could bare...but that was a lifetime ago, people grow and change over time and a lot can happen to a person in thirty years, the guy-...the Kuze you knew then, was not the one you met on Dejima, I know he must have seemed like the genuine article and you wanted to believe it was that same kid who folded all those little paper cranes for you. But in all likelihood, he was just using you to his advantage; if you really care about saving innocent lives, why would you help him try to upload the ghosts and minds of over three million refugees onto the net? I know letting them get blasted by that nuke would've been a human tragedy, but was there really any guarantee that they would've survived once they were permanently detached from their bodies? Did Kuze know they would survive? I don't think so...I know you want to believe that he escaped death and that he's waiting for you somewhere on the net; but do you realize what the odds of that happening actually are? You're talking about finding a needle in a vast wheat-field nedalone a haystack, its impossible" he gently explained

"But it can't be...if their real, what's to say he's not still alive?" she retorted as the memory of her first meeting with the Autobot materialized around them, the shock, awe and incredibility of that day came back, washing over him like a tidal wave in a buzz-filled rush of adrenaline.

"...I know...and if there's one thing they've taught me it's that nothing's impossible...if Kuze did escape death and he's still out there somewhere then I'll hand it to him he one real tough son of a bitch, but whether he's that little kid you met all those years ago? There's no guarantee of that either, perhaps he is out there somewhere living his life, and I'm sure in some way he remembers you too. But right now, we are on the brink of something terrifying and unimaginable; an alien force has been snatching our kids from right under our noses for the past hundred and thirty years, their armies attacked our cities and right now they are out there somewhere planning our demise, and the only ones who can stop them are down in the auxiliary hanger, trying like hell to find a way to help you so we can help protect the ones we love...please Major, if that little kid is alive and is out there somewhere, he can wait, but right now, we need you...I need you..." he pleaded, although had listened to his every word, doubt still seemed to cloud her gaze.

"He's right..." Ravage interrupted, his one optic pulsating and illuminating the darkness with scarlet red, the darkness shifted around them to reveal...something that froze them to the very cores of their being. All around them, as far as the eye could see, dead Cybertronian bodies lay strewn about an arid and bleak wasteland, some were piled up so high they looked more like mountains as energon poured forth from their battered, broken and mutilated forms, across the scorched ground in small streams and rivulets giving off a vague blue glow; the stench of burnt metal and ozone hung so thick in the air that it was suffocating every breath, high above the sky looked like it was burning as thick swaths of crimson red and burnt orange rippled through black and grey cloud while grey ash and red embers fell like snow, coating the apocalyptic battlefield in a fine dusting of grey and red. Both Motoko and Batou stood in horrified awe, as several giant silhouettes loomed out of the gloom and trudged their way across the expanse of robotic corpses, checking to make sure none were left alive; though their faces couldn't be seen, the red glow of their optics told them what they were, and in the dim fiery light of the dead landscape, the outline of the Decepticon insignia could be seen on their chassis.

"...This is the fate that awaits your whole species, if the cons are allowed to remain free, this is what will happen if we don't succeed...I know your scared, fear is inherent in all humans so don't be ashamed for following the letter of your instincts; but you cannot dwell on the past or wonder what would be, and forget to live, not just for yourself, but those who care about you..." Ravage growled softly, the images shifted again, this time all the memories of section 9 came to light, memories of happier, more simpler times; exercise training, run-of-the-mill missions that ended successfully, and after-work drinks, all radiated a sense happiness, togetherness, but more importantly, friendship. Motoko stood there impassively, her expression mirroring her inner realization that, these people, who she never thought had known what it meant to be her, really cared about her despite her inner doubts at her own humanity; and what of her humanity? Being a cyborg for so long, what did it mean to be a human in a machine's body? A ghost in the shell? Being detached from the essence of her own species for so long didn't affirm her confidence that she could be a true human...but wait a minute, if she didn't consider herself a true human, how and why was she so human to everyone around her? Sure she could talk-the-talk and walk-the-walk, she was treated like a regular person and for intents and purposes she was a human in the sense she possessed a ghost...but then, how many all natural humans listened to their ghosts? If they were 'whole' the sense of mind body and spirit being one and yet separate elements, why then didn't any human that became a cyborg, had considered their ghost as a separate entity up until they were cyberized?

"Because cyberization, is not part the human life-cycle..." Ravage spoke softly, snapping her head up in surprise, she realized he'd been reading her secret thoughts all this time, "What do you mean?" she asked, unsure if she really wanted to know the answer.

"Is there a gene in human DNA that is responsible for the production distribution of micro-machines? Is there a gene that's responsible for how much plastic and metal gets absorbed into the skeletal and muscular systems? And is there a gene that's responsible for immunity against cyberbrain sclerosis? ...No, none of this is so because it was not meant to be; you may have believed that you were ensuring the survival of your species with the invention of full-bodied cyberization, and for a single individual this is true, but in the long term it is the death sentence that will condemn humanity to extinction. The con's know this, and no doubt have taken advantage of it; humans are physically finite yet complex beings, the limit of what they can do is only restricted by their imagination, this, is their greatest, and their worst asset...their 'ghosts' are not separate entities, just as our sparks are not separate from our own bodies, you consider yourself separate because you've not known what it means to be at one with your form, you've spent so long in here that you neglected the fact that what makes you human is out there..." Ravage gestured to the image of New Port, filled with people, filled with life, "...the net may be vast and infinite, but in the end it is but a mere construct of data, and all data, in time, turns to dust; only the universe and it's red carnivorous nature remains, and the more you strive for life, the more you fight and the more you want the more alive it makes you; your wholeness is so, only because your wanting to be alive; but if you spend all your time trying to understand the reason for that being so, you will be left behind, and then what good would you be to anyone? ..." he explained

"And besides, if you're so worried about being human, trust me you are human, and don't take my word for it..." Batou interjected as he allowed the memory of Ashley's words filter through to her...

'Guys she may be a cyborg but she's still human at heart'

Her eye glazed over as tears welled up and threatened to fall down her fair face; looking down at the paper crane in her hand, she stepped forward and looked up at both Batou and Ravage with a look of clarity.

"...Do you think he'll wait for me?" she asked

"Motoko, if he really is the one, he'll wait an eternity for you; I know I would" Batou replied with a smile, a moment pasted before she smiled back.

"...Okay...and Batou? Thanks for being there...you too Ravage, I guess your okay..." she replied honestly, turning to one side she tossed the crane up in the air; the second the crane left her hand, a giant attack barrier riddled with Cybertronian glyphs, appeared over their heads and everything bar Motoko froze in place.

"I guess it's time to go, see you guys on the other side..." she waved, and faded from sight; looking at one another, Ravage promptly 'scooped' Batou up with his telepathic link and existed the Major's mind together, returning to the waking world, and their own forms. In a split second they found themselves in the corridor, Morri still had the Major locked in a vice-like grip with her energy field, Ravage sensed Batou on her opposite side with a wire connected from his own neck ports to hers; but behind him, he sensed Togusa, and someone else, some other human he'd never met before, connected to the Major via another wire.

"WHO DARES!-" the panther growled, spinning around to face the stranger, who promptly fell over on their backside with shock.

"WHOA! Easy Ravage! He's a friend; he came to help the Major!" Togusa was quick to explain

"Is it safe to lower the, uh, 'field?" the stranger asked with a slight nervousness in his voice, with an affirmative nod, Morri called back the blue and white flames until the whole corridor was empty of the energy field and her own BSHB deactivated automatically; looking down at the Major, Batou saw her whole body paralyzed in a rigor mortis-like fashion, he breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed her eyes had stopped glowing and in the back of her neck ports a ghost key had been inserted. Turning his attention to the stranger, his face nearly dropped when he recognized who it was.

The stranger wore white trousers with a huge over-sized blue parker coat with a thick fur lining in the hood; he pulled back the hood to reveal a young man, probably in his early twenties with black unkempt short hair, a fair face and greyish slate blue eyes. At that moment everyone came rushing down the other end of the corridor, stopping just short of Morri, the chief's eye's fell on the stranger and frowned in disbelief.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he exclaimed

"Saving your asses, and from the looks of it just in time too I'd reckon" he replied as he stood back up, making sure to give the blind panther a wide birth

"Sorry, you are?" Ashley asked sarcastically

"I'm Aoi; and you no idea what I've been through to try and find you guys" he replied.

* * *

Okay, I've always had this image in my mind of the Major's ghost being her younger self before she underwent the cyberberization process, because if her ghost is the essence of her humanity it makes sense that it would be a manifestation of that time when she was still all natural and her mind, body and spirit were 'in sync' so to speak. In addition, I was tempted to make Batou mad at the fact she still has feelings for Kuze, but after some careful consideration that just seemed too easy; I figured, best friends are many things, but more importantly their people who understand you, and accept that what you feel is what you feel, even if it's not towards them, there are many kinds of relationships, and I'm hoping there'll be something of a MotokoXBatou thing somewhere down the line, and that this was a catalysis for the begining of that relationship...I would REEEEEEALY appretiate some feedback on this one guys, just a few scraps? pretty please? :3


	61. Chapter 60: The Laughing Man Returns

**A/N: **Man, I have just not been able to consentrate on anything! B( & this chapter was certainly no acception; I've got too many things going on at the moment, so for the forseeable future at least (& to keep the damn plot bunnies in check) I'll be taking little breaks here and therewhile working on the story, SPARK IN THE SHELL IS NOT GOING ON HOLD! But the updates won't be as frequent from here on. Seriously, I'm just haven't got the same drive I used to have when I first stated this story, but seeing the outcome of our hero's triumph over adversity just won't leave me alone, thus, I still have the drive to keep it going! Stay tuned and please don't for get to R&R on your way out! ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 60: THE LAUGHING MAN RETURNS

"Nanites! She's infected with nanites?" Miles exclaimed in disbelief

"Type-7 intersector sleeper nanites to be exact; they were once used during the fourth age of the Allspark wars as a means of procuring strategic data from the enemy without having to actually send in a double-agent, you simply find a straggler on the battlefield, slip the carrier in-between his armour plating or joints and let him go back to his base. They can stay dormant for weeks, months, even years at a time; they work their way into the subject's mind by slowly procuring the sections of the processor responsible for conscious thought and self-awareness, essentially turning them into 'half-zombies' without them being aware of what's going on; they could steal thousands of files of data from the enemy and upload them to one of our recognisance scouts without being the wiser, and because they're the size of the flu virus they don't even show up on a medic's scanner" Deathshot explained

"Whoa...But how would she have come into contact with the nanites in the first place? And if she's really been under the con's control this whole time, how were they able to send a signal without us noticing?" Ishikawa asked

"The thing with the Type-7 was that that particular variety of nanite could be modified in a number of ways depending on what was required of the mission in question; in this case the nanites had to have already been pre-programmed with their set assignment, that's why we didn't detect any signal because there was no signal in the first place; and considering the Major still has organic components in her cyberbrain these nanites were adjusted to interact with the organic neurons as well as the synthetic ones in her original brain, whoever created this particular batch of the Type-7 really covered their angles, the programming even went so far as to 'seep' through her ghost barrier by rearranging the barrier's coding on a factual level, that, and I'm picking up traces of a type of brain-washing programme designed to deviate the Major's original personality and replace certain aspects of her character with more, shall we say more 'insidious' qualities" the Autobot sniper replied as he looked down at the sleeping form of the Major as she lied on one side in a coma-like state in Bumblebee's lap, various wires connected to her neck ports while nearby several monitors beeped away as they kept track of her vital signs and Deathshot had one of his snake-like cables connected to the emergency maintenance ports in her back and shoulder blades. In the last hour she'd been brought down to the Tachikoma's auxiliary hanger where the Autobot's could diagnose the cause of her glowing eyes and apparent ghost-hack more thoroughly; while her cybernetic needs were tended to by Ishikawa and Boma, Morri and the section's red coats had done the best they could to patch up her damaged body; with the injuries she's sustained from Ravage's assault it was a wonder she had been able to remain conscious at all, fortunately her artificial cardiovascular system had stopped her from losing too much blood. As she remained unconscious Batou remained at her side, sitting on Bumblebee's knee with a mixed sense of relief and worry.

"...Can those 'qualities' be removed?" Morri asked from where she sat on the Autobot sniper's shoulder.

"Fortunately the brain-washing programme had only started with an initial 'graft' of the changes it was going to make; nothing had been permanently altered or destroyed yet; with that attack barrier in place the nanites can be offlined and removed safely, but it's going to take time to decrypt their total programming with some 'cleanser' nanites of my own. Judging from the software write-up for their activation and hibernation stages I'd say the nanites most likely infected her via being uploaded while she was connected to someone online, the nanites have only been active for less than a week, but the rate of their physical growth in her cyberbrain case suggests they've been inside her for over a month, implanted possibly a few days prior to when we fell through the rift" Deathshot replied.

"A few days prior to you guys arriving here?" Ishikawa snapped his head up in alarm "Tell me, did you find anything to suggest what the upload in question was?" he asked

"Actually, I did find something in the nanites micro-memory banks; some lines of texts, most likely from when the person in question who was linked to her, they weren't the activation codes but the nanites did record them none the less, look..." as the Autobot sniper kneeled down closer to the humans, a small panel on the inside of his wrist slid back to reveal a small monitor, as they read the line of text that scrolled across the blue screen, the agent's eyes flew wide open with shock as they recognized the words...

: Good afternoon Ishikawa, Batou, Togusa, Boma...:

: ...Thanks for the Major, she's mine now...:

: ...Oh and Ishikawa? I wouldn't recommend disconnecting her just yet, her ghost is still within me and I'm having too much fun to let her go just now...:

: Well...I've had my fun, you can have her back now...good bye:

"That was when she was infected? When she-...SON OF A BITCH!" Batou exploded, punching his fist into the side of Bumblebee's knee, making the scout flinch and nearly letting the Major slip out of his lap, Batou hung on and eventually regained his balance.

"Hey watch it Batou!" Bumblebee retorted in a reprimanding tone

"Sorry Bee...that bastard was the one who did this to her? We were right there! And he-" he fumed, but stopped when he glanced up and noticed the distinct 'yeah, we know, we were there too remember?' look on his teammate's faces, "...I'm sorry guys" he sighed exhaustively.

"We know big guy; in the meantime, will she be okay?" Togusa asked

"As soon as I'm done extracting the nanites from her braincase she'll be ready to swap into a new prosthetic body, I already contacted the chief about it and he's already gotten in touch with Megatech, they'll have her new body ready in time for tomorrow; in the meantime her cyberbrain's secondary functions must be kept powered down and all her online functions must kept switched off and in autistic mode while I perform the procedure, extracting the actual nanites is one thing but I have to make sure their programming is completely destroyed; it'll take time so I'll probably be finished by tonight" Deathshot replied.

"That's good...man this is insane, even for me!" Miles huffed

"Hang on a sec, I just remembered: back when you first 'contacted' us, you sent that vaccine programme that eradicated the A11 virus from the Major's systems; why didn't that stop the Type-7 nanites back then?" Batou asked

"Because that particular vaccine wasn't designed to eradicate the Type-7 nedalone detect them; at the time I encountered the A11 I didn't detect the Type-7 so I simply put out a vaccine programme to deal with that specific virus; but now I know that that virus must have been sent as a decoy so the nanites could have a chance to embed themselves into her braincase more efficiently. There's no way anyone can detect nanites like the Type-7 when their dormant, even I couldn't detect them when the Major was linked to me..." Deathshot replied, heaving a heavy sigh, the ex-ranger dropped his gaze back down to the Major.

"I still can't believe she actually took on Ravage one-on-one and was still standing when he ripped her up; I know she's tough, but man...she's something else" Sam shook his head as he glanced down from where he sat on Bumblebee's shoulder, Bumblebee in turn nodded in agreement

"Yeah...and that's why we love her..." Batou smirked as he leaned down and brushed away one of her purple bangs from her damaged face. At that moment the doors to the hanger swung open and the Chief and Saito walked, followed by Mikaela, Ashley, Danny, Darren, Tom, the Waineright twins and Batou's Tachikoma, the blue think-tank opened up its pod and out came Hailey, still wearing her pyjama's and covered in bandages and dressings, her sister's quickly rushed to her side to help her stand up as she stretched her legs, Bluestreak didn't waste any time in quickly manoeuvring his way to the front of the hanger and scooping them up in his cupped hands, much to the Lambo twins chagrin as they nearly got knocked over again. Behind them came Ravage, who sported a large wire-mesh bandage wrapped around the whole top half of his head, completely covering his optic; he walked in with his brother's Lazerbeak and Buzzsaw at his side and Rumble and Frenzy riding his back, guiding him over to an open spot between Hot Rod and Trailbreaker they helped to sit him down, after which they curled up next to him in a tight circular ball with the bird drones spreading their wings across his body to form make-shift blankets while the two smaller brothers sat in the curl of the panther's body; leaving just enough room for Ashley to squeeze in and sit in the crook for his left front leg; the others walked over to their guardians, who offered their hands out to let them climb up and sit on their shoulders.

"I thought you weren't cleared to leave the medical wing yet?" Miles glanced over at Hailey who was sitting contently in her guardian's hands

"Technically no, but the Major totally trashed the place and the doctor's still blowing a fuse other the mess so he said not to come back until he's got things sorted up there" she smiled

"And everything else is still a wreak, the techs and building maintenance teams have secured the whole building and are already getting a start on the clean-up; Boma and Glen have finally gotten the section's online functions and network back on-line; fortunately none of the building's main support structures were damaged in the explosions so we don't have to worry about evacuating the place" Saito added

"And we managed to successfully re-establish our satellite-link with the section and are currently decrypting all the attack barriers and trip-viruses the Major put up around the network!" Batou's Tachikoma squeaked

"So what now?" Togusa asked, the chief glanced over at her unconscious form in Bumblebee's lap and passed a sigh

"...We got her back and she's going to be okay; that's the important part taken care of. But what I'm interested to know is how you and Batou disarmed the ghost-hack in the first place" the chief glanced over at Ravage, sensing the attention was now on him, the panther raised his head and faced in the chief's general direction. "...I may be a pro saboteur and a spy but nanites were never my thing, even when their formatted to exert a basic brain-washing programme their tricky to pin down in the confines of a processor, even a partially organic one; that's why when I entered her mind I sensed an omnipresence rather than a singular entity, because nanites typically function as a collective, or 'hive mind'; millions and millions of individual units that share the collective intelligence, like the Tachikoma's" he replied

"So their basically microscopic AI's?" Togusa quirked an eyebrow

"In a way yes, of all the Cybertronian technology, nanites are classed as a 'collective AI' because they all share the exact same processor specs, memory and thinking functions that are interlinked through a network of data synchronization hubs that keep every unit in tune with each other; but unlike the Tachikoma's their not individual from one another, if one goes one way, the rest will follow without question, plus they don't have added collective emotional tendencies to influence their thought processes, every action they take is based purely on logic" Deathshot interjected

"Wow, how boring" Batou's Tachikoma deadpanned

"Perhaps, but when it comes to proficiency there's nothing that even comes close to being their equal" Ravage replied

"Hey, I just realized, if the Major ghost-hacked Saito, Boma and Pazu how come you guys are okay?" Tom glanced over at Batou and Togusa

"With the cons in control of her mind I figured sooner or later they would use her to try and ghost-hack us, so we had our cyberbrain's in autistic mode the whole time, we would have called you to warn you guys but having the comm's taken offline meant we had to go the long way round just to catch up; good thing Frenzy had a spare decrypter programme handy or else we'd still be busy trying to get you guys back in shape" Batou glanced at Saito

"Yeah, talk about your close call..." Saito sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck in unease.

"Okay, that explains that, but what happened to me? Half-way through the whole thing something stabbed me in eyes, and yet, nothing did; what's up with that?" Ashley asked puzzled, Ravage snapped his head up as if alarmed by something; a moment of uneasy silence passed as all eyes fell on the panther once again and he passed a heavy, disappointed sigh.

"...It's my fault..." he replied quietly, lowering his head in an almost disgraced manner, his brothers leaned in to nuzzle him and Ashley put one hand on the side of his jaw.

"What's your fault?" Ashley asked

"Why you felt as if your optics were being stabbed; those weren't your optics that were in pain youngling, they were mine..." he ruefully sighed, everyone glanced at one another in confusion while Ashley turned to face the panther head on.

"What do you mean they were yours?" he asked

"...It's complicated, but basically, when that pain hit me it spread out down the spark-bond to my brothers, being telepathic we're always aware of each other's minds and what we feel, including physical pain. Being my student, and my friend, you've had a place in my mind for a long time now; a tiny window that enables me to glance into your thoughts very briefly...human brains are not Cybertronian processors, their like a whole other organism in their own right, always buzzing with thought, memory and emotion, even in recharge mode they never truly 'switch off'; trying to telepathically read a human mind is like trying to read words between a blur of white noise, and emotions carry their own potency at the worst of times...I always tried to maintain a distance from your mind, for fear of something unforeseen occurring; because human's don't have sparks in the same sense that we Cybertronians do I couldn't be certain how your body and mind would react to being part of a shared spark-bond, and there was your guardian to consider..." he glanced blindly up at Deathshot; the sniper stiffened as he glared down at the panther in a mix of surprise and slight annoyance; the other Autobot's too were equally surprised, but all stayed silent as Ravage continued, "...In any case, no matter how many times I pondered over it, I kept coming back to the conclusion that for everybody's benefit it wasn't a risk worth taking; an organic being part of a Cybertronian spark bond? There's no guarantee what would happen, to you, to me, to my brothers; so I let you be close to me, but I couldn't be too close to you...at least, I thought I wasn't too close...turns out you human's have grown more on me than I liked to have thought, to such an extent that a superficial mind-link subconsciously grew into place, one that stretches out only to your mind, and would appear, to only be opened when extremely stressed, both mentally and physically; I can reach you, but whether you can reach is another matter. Being non-telepathic it's highly unlikely you can reach me at all, unlike Batou's sister, it would seem your particular blood-line doesn't carry 'the sight'"

"You mean, you've been linked to Ashley's mind this whole time?" Morri exclaimed in disbelief

"Whoa, that's totally awesome dude! Instant mind-link!" Miles grinned

"Not the whole time, only in the last several weeks; stupidly I mistook it for a sense of overprotective diligence for the boy's welfare, but it wasn't until today I realized the extent of the link's 'permanence' in my psyche...mind-links are extremely difficult to shut out, even when you suppress them deep down in your subconscious, once their opened they can never really be closed" he explained

"But, you can close it right? If anything happened to you again, Ashley would feel your pain or worse" Batou suggested

"...I could" Ravage hesitated

"So why don't you?" Jazz pressed

"...Because I'd have to kill him" Ravage sighed listlessly, the room fell deathly quiet as everyone stared at him, not believing what they just heard, even his own brother's and the ex-con seekers looked at him confused; the Lambo twins stiffened and were about to step forward, until Jazz held his hand up to stop them, "Care to enlighten us a little further on that?" he asked curiously.

"...Mind-links that spontaneous open to another's mind can only come about through a sense of genuine spark-felt concern for the individual in question; friendship is what drives the link, and imbues it with the strength and will to reach across the physical distance and embed within the mind of that individual...for Cybertronians it's a sublime, almost dream-like experience were the perception of reality blurs for an instant and the presence of another can be sensed, even when there's no one else standing nearby; but for a human I can't say what it must have been like for you..." he turned to 'look' at Ashley, "I can only surmise it must have been subconscious, otherwise you would have reacted in some way; the closet I can interpreted the 'manifestation' of the link, is your mind in its REM state, during your natural recharge"

"So, you can only 'activate' the link when I'm dreaming? That's so cool! We can like, chat while we're asleep!" Ashley exclaimed in excitement, but before he had a chance to totally get carried away Ravage swatted him hard over the head with his claws partially sheathed.

"This is not something to make light of youngling!" he snapped, "Nothing like this has ever happened before, a Cybertronian mind subconsciously reaching out to another Cybertronian mind is one thing, but an organic?...I don't know why this has happened or, why I even allowed it to happen in the first place-"

"Isn't it obvious?" Togusa deadpanned, the panther 'glanced' up at him in confusion, as did everyone else. "You said it yourself; friendship is what makes the link what it is and why it reached out to Ashley's mind in the first place. You guy's spend practically every moment together, you both like the same things, your both in tune to one another and your both amazing on the battlefield together; don't you think if the link hadn't 'opened up' that you'd both still be just sparing partners? If anything, contrary to what the Major believes you to be and how you make yourself to be around others; your genuinely not a bad guy, and for what it's worth, if you were one of the Decepticons once, what does this tell you about what and who you are now?" the detective pointed out, Ravage stared dumbly at him for a split second before dropping his head in disbelief, his realization filtered through the spark-bond to his brothers who reinforced it with their own bewilderment.

"So...I guess any lingering doubts we had about your true loyalties are well and truly invalid now huh?" Hailey cut in a with a small smile

"Heh, I suppose you could say that" the panther grinned listlessly

"But how could you not sense it sooner? And if you had been aware of it all this time why didn't you come to me about it? I am Ashley's guardian remember? And as his combat tutor part of our deal was that your obligated to keep me informed, however out-of-the-ordinary it may be" Deathshot pointed out in a reprimanding tone.

"You didn't you ask?" Ravage retorted, Deathshot blinked in surprise, "Ever since we first met you've been aware of my past and what I used to be, and yet not once did you question me or my true loyalties; even when we came here and you entrusted me with the boy's combat training, you didn't even give any doubt, why?" he asked, Deathshot dropped his gaze as he raked his processor to find an answer, everyone glanced at one another at one another in wonder as they considered the panther's logic.

"...I suppose; old habit's I guess" he sighed

"Okay, you lost me" Ashley quirked an eyebrow

"Being what I am, being able to read another's thoughts with a mere glance of their face plates has always been one of my specialties, and not least when it came to defector's...I'd be lying if I said I believed Ravage was being absolutely truthful from the start, being the most proficient and lethal drone in Megatron's rank's hardly did much to gain my absolute confidence, and as such I did hold my own doubts, like everyone else at NEST; but when you started hanging out with him, it was...I don't know how, but you seemed to bring out something else in him that I never would've imagined being there at all; he was more, 'tolerant' of the other Autobot's and he wasn't so aggressive towards any of the human soldiers any more...and the more I watched you both the more I began to see just how much my own prejudice towards the cons blinded me to the fact that even the worst of us can be capable of change; and in a way I realized maybe we, the Autobots are not as good as we like to believe; after all, I, for the better part of war did things that would've made Ironhide cringe. Letting you be friends with Ravage for the sake of being a friends was one thing, but when we came here and events transpired the way they did, I was even more surprised when you both actually did well together as partners, or rather, as master and student" the Autobot sniper replied impassively

"I didn't know you had your doubts about Ravage? You guys always seemed okay when we saw you in the rec room talking over a cube of energon together" Bluestreak asked offhand

"Oh believe me, he did; discretion is a fine art with him that's barely noticeable, even to Prowl. And if you don't mind, I'm still in the hanger, and don't appreciate being referred to in the third person!" the panther growled in irritation

"Sorry...anyway; yes, being a former intelligence and reconnaissance agent It's my job to analyse and question the worth of one's word, especially when it came to separating the genuine defectors from the double agents...Knowing that, Prime asked for my 'unofficial' opinion on the matter..." the drone and kids stared up at him in surprise.

"...And? ..." Ashley pressed

"...I said it was too early to tell; but after everything that's happened over this last month, I have no doubts as to where your loyalties truly lie, especially where the mind-link is concerned...I've come across many drones that shared mind-links to those they cared about and over time I've come to discover that they are the ultimate test of friendship and loyalty; because of this I know you truly care for Ashley, and you really are an Autobot" he smiled

"Hey! Easy on the 'A' word! I'm still not comfortable being called that in public!" the panther growled peevishly, Deathshot and the other bot couldn't help but stifle their chuckles.

"Sure you're not" Ashley grinned as he petted Ravage's jaw, eliciting a loud purr from the panther's vocalizer

"So, the mind-link's not a bad thing after all?" Becca asked offhand

"In terms of determining the worth of his spark, no; but as for the inter-species part, we can't be sure how it'll have on any further effects on Ashley" Deathshot said

"Why just Ashley?" Tom asked

"Because-" in the blink on an eye, Lazerbeak moved to strike Ashley with his beak, but in equal quick time the pre-teen automatically rolled back and flipped over backwards, landing on all fours in a cat-like fashion; the rest of the kids blinked in surprise at just how fast he was.

"Wow, I knew you were fast, but that's like cheetah fast!" Becky said offhand

"Not cheetah, drone fast; the link has already had an effect in terms of influencing the boy's combat training...why do you think you caught on so well to the more advanced techniques I taught you?" the panther addressed Ashley, who stared back at him astonishment.

"You mean, all this time you've been training me, and it's been you putting those moves in my head?" he breathed

"No, that was all you youngling, the link is only accessible when you dream during your recharge mode and rest of the time its dormant; my sub-consciousness must have exerted itself to try and correct any mistakes you sub-consciously made during in training, but as to whether it's had an effect in other areas of your psyche is another matter; I will have to meditate on this to 'see' just how far the link has had an effect" Ravage replied

"But what about you? If the link runs between the two of you surly there must be some form of effect on you too?" Mikaela asked

"If we were both equal telepaths then we'd both influence one another in equal terms, but since the boy isn't telepathic, naturally or otherwise, whatever feedback I get from his mind is barely even minimal compared to my end of the link; that's why we must tread carefully with this. Being what I am, and the potency of my mind being what it is, there's a remote but possible risk that the boy's very mentality could be 'diluted' by my own" he replied seriously

"In other words, he could become a human version of you? Man that would be something to see!" Miles pointed out

"Oh won't that be fun" Sunstreaker deadpanned

"Hey! Don't I get a say in all this? Surly being part-drone's not so bad?" Ashley demanded

"Are you kidding? If you were trouble before I don't wanna guess what you could get up to with the psycho-kitty in your brain giving you ideas!" Becca argued

"And that's REALLY so terrible?" Ashley grinned, to which Ravage reached over and swatted him over the head with his paw while Deathshot simply rolled his optic with a deadpan look on his face.

"We'll continue this later; in the meantime I'm boosting your BSHB's bran scan function up to 65 percent, if there's ANY indication to suggest that something could go wrong with the mind-link, we'll intercept it before it has a chance to transpire into something that could cause trouble...fair enough?" he asked both Ashley and Ravage, both nodded in agreement

"And how do you feel about it?" Mikaela asked Jazz

"...Ravage is right, a mind-link between a Cybertronian and an organic has never happened before, and suffice to say with all the slag that's been going down I ain't will' in to take unnecessary chances; being Ashley's guardian I'm fine with letting Deathshot handle this, and equally I'm okay with Ravage keeping it in check..." the first lieutenant said as he kneeled in front of Ravage, the panther 'looked' up at him, ears pricked forward in alertness, "Just so long as you keep both Deathshot and me 'in the know' on this, the second you sense ANYTHING is off, you tell us right away, got it?" he asked with assertion. "Acknowledged" he growled in reply, "Good...now, changing the subject, there's one other issue we have to address"

"Indeed, and he's right outside the door..." the chief gestured to the hanger entrance; opening one of the doors, Sam leaned out and waved to someone in the corridor to come in. The whole group watched in silence as Aoi appeared, stopping in his tracks as his eyes gazed upwards in stunned silence at the giant robotic beings standing around and over-shadowing the other humans in the hanger; glancing round in hesitation, he surveyed the scene carefully before nervously stepping in a little further and standing before the kids and other agents, glancing upwards he quirked an eyebrow when he noticed some of the kids sitting on the giant's shoulders, and in particular Hailey, who was cradled in Bluestreak's arms like a doll with both her sister's at her side. It was both surreal, and scary, especially when he noticed just how big their feet were and the thought of being accidently stepped on suddenly sent a shiver up his spine; but despite his fears, he didn't let them show as he stood his ground and straightened up, he knew what he'd come here to do and he knew he was way past the point of no return, as Jazz turned to face him, he braced himself for whatever was about to come next.

"So, the chief here was tell' in me you guys go way back; caused a little trouble for our lil' buddies here, as well as a few folks in the government over two years ago?" the first lieutenant grinned

"What can I say? I had a job to do at the time, and I swore that I wouldn't back down until the truth had been brought to light" he replied calmly in a passive voice

"Heh, nice to see you haven't changed a bit, still busy trying to save the world?" Batou smirked sarcastically

"You could say that, and it's the reason why I had to come here today; I don't have to tell any of you what's been going on out there, being part of the reason why everyone in New Port is packing up and trying to escape the city, for fear something else more terrible happening" Aoi replied, Jazz's grin dropped as his face turned impassive.

"...I'm sorry to say we were caught out on that one; we had no idea that was goin' to happen, or just how bad it would turn out" he sighed

"I know, I was there, and believe me you have my sympathy for what went down that day; but, I'm talking about before the attacks, before any of this every came to the public's attention, and before you all even came here" said Aoi; Jazz frowned behind his visor, his instincts telling him something was up; sitting down on the concrete floor, he held the young human's gaze as he studied his face for any trace of a lie.

"...Are you scared of us?" the silver bot asked

"...I'd be lying if I said I wasn't, and I think you know that" he replied confidently

"...True, there ain't that many human's who meet us for the first time in their lives and don't feel at least some ounce of intimidation...but you look like you've known about us for a while, and I get the feel' in that as you stand here now, your processor's go' in two way's; on the one hand you've had an idea about what we are and what to expect, and on the other, you realize that what you thought before, just didn't do the real us any justice, not now that you stand here and see what we really are for yourself...So, care to tell us why you're really here? Cuz I'm think' in it ain't just the Major you came here to help" Jazz asked; looking around at the curious, dubious and impassive expressions on everyone's faces, Aoi knew he'd have to pick his words carefully; as he drew in breath and relaxed his shoulder's, he focused on everything that had lead him here to this.

"...I'm not going to waste your time or insult your intelligence by reciting the obvious; even though I'm still finding the idea of giant alien robots unbelievable, I've known of your presence here for a while now, and know that you've been trying to help stop the 'other' robots, the ones that want to kill you"

"The Decepticons?" Hot Rod asked

"That's what their called?" Aoi blinked in surprise

"You've met them?" Bumblebee asked in surprise; Aoi hesitated a moment before taking off his oversized coat, putting it down to one side and lifting up his shirt, the group immediately noticed the bandages wrapped around his waist and the small red blotches of blood that had soaked though the dressing's beneath. "...You could say that" he continued with a sigh

"How did you survive?" Batou asked

"By the skin of my teeth; I didn't know he was behind me until he was right on top of me, fortunately I had that Smith and Wesson chief's special on me and was able to shoot out one of his eye's, he turned to swat me but only cut my stomach and accidently struck a load of scaffolding, demolishing half a building in the process; I missed getting hit by the falling debris and managed to take advantage by playing dead amongst the rubble. Apparently it worked, he took one look at me and ran off, after which I made a beeline for the hospital"

"But why did they go after you?" Sam asked

"Maybe because they know you're not the only one's who're chasing after them" Aoi replied, a short moment of tense silence passed as Jazz gazed down at the young human with a grave look on his face.

"...Do you have any idea what you've gotten yourself into kid?" he asked impassively, Aoi stared straight back up into his optics, his features unreadable, but his eyes held a 'I think I do' look about them.

"...Something no one can even begin to imagine, and something...*sigh* I didn't believe was real until this..." he pointed to his injury, Jazz softened his gaze and sighed through his vents as he leaned back and relaxed a little.

"Just how did you come to be involved in all this?" the chief frowned as he folded his arms

"...Several months ago I was contacted by a mutual acquaintance who needed my help; her brother, who was patient at the Kobe Vocational aid centre had disappeared one night from the centre's residential unit, after searching the whole place top to bottom the police found no evidence that the kid had gotten out; it was as if he'd vanished into thin air somewhere in the building, but that in itself was only half the puzzle, about twenty eight days after the kid's sister filed a missing person's report, I back-hacked into the police's national investigative database to check on the process of the investigation, and found not only had the kid's case been wiped from the system, there was no evidence anywhere that he existed at all; his birth records, national ID, even the registered ID code for his cyberbrain and legal documents confirming his cyberization didn't exist anymore. Whoever took him went to a lot of trouble to virtually wipe him from existence, and when I checked in on his sister I was even more stunned to discover someone had ghost-hacked her, her whole family, and wiped out all of their memories of him too. Suffice to say something big was going on and after a couple of weeks investigating through several other contacts, I found evidence, or rather 'non-evidence' that other kids had been taken in the same fashion; I back-hacked the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare's residential records and found an enormous discrepancy between the number of people listed as minors compared to the number people listed as adults; I couldn't pinpoint the figure exactly but after crunching some figures I discovered that the number's had been rising slowly over the past several years"

"Are you sure?" Togusa breathed

"Positive, but that was just in New Port and the surrounding prefectures alone; if my calculations are correct, all over Japan an average of twenty to seventy children have been taken every year; but in the last seven or so months the numbers have spiked dramatically...If the numbers continue to rise, New Port will have no children at all within the next eight months" Aoi replied gravely, the whole hanger fell silent as everyone looked at one another in dread and alarm.

"Why didn't you come to us sooner with this information?" the chief demanded

"Because at that point I didn't know you were involved" Aoi frowned, "...Soon after I discovered the disappearances, I dug deeper and discovered that an organization called the Black Lotus was connected somehow, but after further inquiries I found no one had ever heard of or seen them before, not even the major Yakuza families knew anything about them. But in any case I knew I couldn't let this go...I made plans to try and find their base and infiltrate them to see what information I could gather, but a few days before I was to go undercover, something...happened, I lost the online connection to them and subsequently lost their trail...I went to the location where I'd pinpointed their activity and found the whole area swarming with troops, guys in hazmat suits, and two giant domes covering half the sight"

"That must have been shortly after we arrived, we ran into the Black Lotus and managed to get away; we hid out in the woods for the night but the next morning we found the military had set up shop over our means of getting home" Bumblebee replied

"You mean the 'rift'?" Aoi asked, everyone blinked in surprise

"And how did YOU learn about that?" Sunstreaker scowled

"Believe it or not, by one of your own...After losing the Black Lotus's trail I didn't know what to do, at the time they were the only lead I had to the disappearances; but a few days later someone sent me an online tip-off that the GSDA was up to something, that they were trying to locate some 'specialized weaponry' that had gone rouge and escaped, and that somehow the Black Lotus were connected...Naturally I was suspicious and tried to locate the tip-off's point of origin on the net, but when I tried to use the tip-off's sender-address to locate who sent it, the file automatically deleted itself via a trip-wire chimera virus that was encrypted into the message's data-configuration. That only raised further speculation, especially because the tip-off had been signed with this..." Aoi reached into his pocket and pulled out a small piece of paper, holding it up to show, everyone blinked in surprise at the Autobot insignia scribbled on it.

"An Autobot tipped you off?" Jazz blinked in surprise

"Apparently...Another few days after the tip-off, a mysterious 'E-package' arrived, it had detailed files and administration access keys to the military Intelligence Department's data net, as well as files on Section 9, plus detailed instructions on what to look for; the message said that I was 'the one who must see into the shadows of the world to see the light of truth'...Of course there was no way of knowing if this was legit, that someone wasn't trying to set me up for something; after all, being who I am and what I do I've made a few enemies out there that would gladly want to see me dead or in jail, so taking the institutive I stowed the E-package away and put up a trapper-barrier around my info-net, so if they sent me anything else I'd be ready to catch them in the act...A couple of more weeks passed and my investigation hadn't yielded anything new; then, one night I was out near the harbour front on my way to visit a contact, when I saw the explosion on the Niihama-Wan bridge. But something else too, a giant black and silver exo-suit, one who's design I'd never seen before; I watched as this thing tore up the highway, throwing cars and other vehicles aside as if they were toys and watched as it exploded in a giant fireball once it reached the other side. The news channels and online forums called it an advanced military AI that went rouge, but of course everybody was pretty dubious, and so was I...something like that? It was just too...'convenient'" Aoi replied, everyone glanced at one another as they remembered the night in question

"Yeah, that was a con who tore up that bridge; and one of our own who blew him up" Trailbreaker replied

"Really? ...Well, anyway after that night things began to get tense, the military's online security was virtually all but locked down, barley any information that wasn't classified was going through, and all over the Asian net many of the major online data-link forums were being monitored by the police and other authorities, even the American CIA seemed to had taken an interest"

"They did, which is why their parked out in the bay right now; the other day they tried to help themselves to our friends here and thought they could take us by surprise. Big mistake" Tom replied sarcastically

"I know" Aoi replied simply, everyone stared at him sceptically.

"This goes without saying, considering your 'particular hacking talents'; but how did you come across that particular bit of data?" Togusa quirked an eyebrow

"Well..." Aoi hesitated, "...After I got home that night, another message was waiting for me, this time it read 'you could've prevented what happened on the bridge tonight, we gave you the means to avert this tragedy, and you chose to ignore it...whether you like it or not, you are involved and your life is in danger now; they know about you, and what you can do; nobody finds out about the Black Lotus without them knowing about it, and they know you now...reopen the E-package we gave you and find a way to help us, and please, don't ignore the warning signs, for something much worse is coming, and you are one of the selected few who can stop them...help Section 9, to help save your species...'...That message was not caught on my trapper-barrier, nor did it automatically back-hack the sender; I custom made that defence barrier from scratch, only another class-A hacker could ever have a chance of getting under it, and there was only one other hacker of that calibre I knew of that could pull it off..."

"The Major" Batou sighed, Aoi nodded

"...For a long time I racked my mind over what to do next, did the sender really know I hadn't accessed the E-package? I'd taken it off-line so there was no way anyone could've known what I'd done with it-"

"Kid" Sideswipe interrupted, Aoi snapped his head up, "...If the sender was an Autobot, trust me, he would've known what you'd done with the file, regardless of whether it was still online or not; for all intents and purposes we're machines, everything from our culture to the 'cellular' structure of our anatomy is based on quantum mechanics, and it's way more advanced than anything that exists on this world; there may be only so many ways you humans can stealthily spy on one another, but we got over a thousand, and about two thirds of them are based on an on-line system like the net...believe me, technology like yours is nothing much of an obstacle for us" he explained as he folded his arms, Aoi blinked in surprise, but sighed heavily with a sense of scepticism; sensing this, Deathshot leaned forward, catching the young human's attention as his shadow overcast him.

"...Youngling, if the sender was an Autobot, and he knew of you, I doubt he would deliberately try to deceive you unless it was for a good reason; the first duty of any Autobot is to respect and protect all sentient life, both mechanical and organic, and human's are certainly acceptation...Over the past month, all the event's we seen transpire suggest our enemies have been here for a very long time, and have been planning something big; something that involves the kidnapped children. If the bot who sent you that E-package knew you could help us in some way, he wouldn't have gotten you involved unless there was no other choice; if you can help us, then it's a fair assumption that everything you have learnt of us, you were meant to know for a purpose, and part of that purpose lead you to here" he spoke with a sincere look in his one optic

"...You believe in fate and destiny?" Aoi asked in slight disbelief, sceptical at the idea that a robot could have a concept of a god and the comprehension of supernatural and spiritual elements at work in the world.

"...I've lived a long time youngling...far longer than your species, and have seen and done many things that made me question the spiritual beliefs of my people; my life has been nothing but war, measured by the death-tolls and empty bullet shells I rack up as I moved from one target to another. I may not be wholly at peace with what I am in a spiritually sense, but I do believe everything that's happened has happened for a reason, I don't believe in just coincidence, and after everything I've seen; I believe we are being pointed towards something that will make the human world shudder in its foundations" the Autobot sniper replied confidently.

"...You believe in things happening for a 'reason', and yet you don't believe in the idea of a god existing 'in the great scheme of things?'" Aoi quirked an eyebrow

"We have a 'God' human...but his audios turned deaf to our pleas and prayers many lifetimes ago..." Thundercracker replied quietly, Deathshot quirked an optic ridge at the seeker but said nothing, a short moment of silence passed before Aoi spoke up again.

"Okay...regardless of my reasons or whatever conclusions I finally came to, I reopened the E-package, and found practically the complete manual on how to crack any military network in the world; many of the files detailed some pretty sophisticated stuff, and after following the instructions I finally accessed the military Intelligence Departments closed data system, there was a lot of sensitive stuff in there, but what really grabbed my attention were the files that detailed the 'rouge AI's', and their true origins...as I poured over the data I couldn't believe what I was reading, even the best science fiction writers couldn't make it up even if they tried. I learnt of everything that happened this past month, to you, to the military, to everyone involved; and per the instructions I finally caught up to the Black Lotus, but they were already aware I was on their tail, and on the same day the cities were attacked they caught up to me too. I barely got away, but that day they were only half the problem; getting out of the downtown area while the battle was in full swing was like trying to get out through the gates of hell...I can't remember how long I was trapped in the rubble, but when I finally got out I managed to get away from the fires that had started to spread after the Sukaitawa Towers fell, after which I encountered that 'con' who took a swipe me...The day after I tried to find a way to contact whoever sent me the E-package, if they had known the attack was going to take place too then I wasn't about to let them hide in the shadows like a coward while the city was being brought to its knees, whoever they were, I was going to make them take responsibility for their choice of trying to rely on me to clean up this mess; needless to say I was running on anger and adrenaline so I can't say it was the wisest thing to do, even if the circumstances were understandable. But either way I didn't have to wait long, the day after that I received another message from the E-package's sender, this time it read 'the Major's in danger, find her and save her now' and with it was attached a file containing the attack barrier that was designed to stop the ghost-hack virus she'd been infected with...the last few days I spent tracking her down, and needless to say she's not easy to find, and after much searching I finally decided to come to Section 9 in person, only to find the virus had already taken effect...the rest, as you all know, is history" he explained as the group looked at him in stunned silence.

"All this time you've known of us and what's been going on? Didn't it occur to you that what you've had in your possession might help us in some way? That we might have been able to pool all our resources together and try to stop the cons? What the hell was going through your mind when you thought you could take this on by yourself?" Morri frowned as she folded her arms, Aoi hesitated before answering.

"...Before I read the E-package, I was angry and brimming with conviction to find the Black Lotus and try to stop them somehow; I maybe only one but that's never stopped me before and I wasn't about to let anything to stop me then...But, after I read the files in the package, I realized nothing was as I thought it was, and that I might be out of my league-"

"Might be outta your league? Dude, you nearly get turned into sushi by a giant alien robot and you're STILL convinced this all ain't for real?" Miles asked sceptically

"Yes I'm well aware of that fact now...but, even so, throughout this whole thing I kept coming back to asking myself, 'this can't be for real can it?'; I know that's pretty redundant at this point now, but I guess it's just the human being in me trying to save itself from the insanity of all this. Seriously, how's ANYBODY supposed to rationalize the fact aliens are responsible for all the weird shit that's been going down this last month? Regardless of whether their intentions were good or bad" Aoi retorted in mild irritation

"Point taken, and as much as I wish I can offer some form of comfort to ease the burden that you've been handed; I'm afraid all of us are way past the point of no return on this kid. Somewhere out there the enemy is planning something big, something that'll put the whole human race in danger, and we're no closer to finding out what that is" Jazz sighed

"Correction, YOUR enemy; this whole thing started because your war spilled over into our world, if anything you should be trying to go back the way you all came!" Aoi defiantly replied, with a serious look about his face plates, Jazz looked the young human straight in the eye, and heaved through his vents as he replied.

"...Aoi, we can't go home, not until the Decepticons have been destroyed-"

"-And how many more of us have to die before that happens?" He angrily retorted, this time not holding back, "Are you so blind to what's been going on out there that you're willing to keep fighting regardless of who gets hurt? People are panicking and dying out there, and all the while you're trying to fight this from behind the curtain! If you really care about the welfare of all life then you'd find some way to stop all this right now!"

"Excuse me? If you know what we've been doing all this time then you'd know that's all we've ever been trying to do ya stupid dick-head!" Ashley angrily retorted; Sam stepped forward, fuming, and stood before the young man right in his face, "Seriously, do you have ANY idea what we've really been through this past month? We've been dumped in an alternate universe full of cyborgs, androids and a whole bunch of other weird shit that, in our universe is only found in manga's and anime cartoons!; we've been shot at, chased, uprooted, nearly killed twice over and scrutinized by the top brass at every other turn! It was bad enough we had to fight the Decepticons once in our world, how the hell do you think we felt when we found out they'd been hiding here this whole time too? That this reality's humanity had been in danger from the start! ...All we've been doing ALL WE'VE EVER BEEN DOING, is trying to find them and put them down for good! But at every turn we've been smacked down, and just when we thought we're finally onto them, all this shit goes down! And now you turn up saying you've known about all this from the very start, and you think you can just tell us to find the cons and tell them to go home with us? WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOUR KIDDING?" Sam angrily burst out, Mikaela placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, to which he instantly met her concerned gaze and took a deep cleansing breath and stepped back a pace.

"Seriously dude, we didn't even know any cons were here! It was only because we came here at all that they finally came outta hiding!" Miles concurred

"And chasing after them has been no picnic either; they've been around humans for so long they can disguise themselves as one of us, it's no wonder they'd been keeping tabs on you! You probably met one and you didn't even realize it!" Hailey retorted

"And forget trying to reason with them; these particular cons have had it in for the human race from the very beginning, at the end of the day it doesn't matter how many times you try to reason it or make sense of it; to them, humans are pond-slime, and are only good for dying and squishing. I'd say that's a good a reason as any to carry on the fight, even if it is from behind the curtain" said Darren

"If you think we don't care about the people out there then you're seriously out of touch; all the decisions we've made in what we do and what plans we follow through have been nothing but for the protection of the public; true we've been trying to keep our encounters with the cons under wraps, but what good do you think making all this public will do? People are already freaked out as it is, telling them that the 'rouge AI's' are aliens is one thing, but telling them that an army of evil alien robots have been hiding on this planet since God knows when? It doesn't take a genius to figure out what'll happen!" Danny said in an assertive tone.

"Aoi..." Morri caught his attention as she approached him with an impassive look in her eyes, "...If you really have known about all this from the start; what made you think that telling us to just stop would achieve anything? ...Regardless of your brazen immature attitude I think your smarter than that, so why the petty bravado if you already know the depth of this whole messed up affair?" she asked passively, Aoi blinked in surprise; studying her face he saw the commanding presence she held, much like the Major's, but somehow, with more kindness.

"...You don't miss a thing do you? ...I can see why the Major likes you, she spoke fondly of you in her reports" he smirked, to which she passed a brief smile, "I like her too, which is why I need you to be honest; if you think she's scary when she's pissed you ain't seen nothing yet, I can be pretty brutal myself when I feel like it" she deadpanned as she gestured to the unconscious Major. Aoi dropped his gaze in thought as he considered his reply.

"...I suppose, if you cut away all the details and sordid emotions stirred up by this whole thing; I guess my instincts got the better me...I've seen and done many things as a hacker, but at the end the of the day, no matter what I do, no matter what I say, I can never stand to see innocent people suffer injustice. It's bad enough that bad things seem to happen to good people, but its worse when good things happen to bad people. I figure if that son of a bitch God hasn't lost all sense of balance and rectification then he'd at least let someone like me try to take the one big gamble for all or nothing; from the start I never expected to win absolute, but I had no intention of loosing either... I may not have appreciated the fact that a 'non-human' factor was at the heart of all this, but I did understand that this was far too big to confront head on. I figured it would be more efficient to work from the sidelines and try to find a way in with no-one being the wiser; but I underestimated the fact that these 'rouge AI's' really were aliens, and that they brought a whole new meaning to the term 'electronic warfare' ...Despite it all I thought I could find a way around it, to find something, anything that would turn the odds in my favour; but the day of the nation-wide attacks was the day I realized this was way too big for one person; in the end, the fact that I couldn't bring myself to face the truth had lead me to commit the sin of hubris, the one thing I thought I could never bring myself to do, consciously or otherwise. But somewhere in all this moot and folly I'd betrayed my own principles, and for that you have no idea how much I hate myself...and I hate myself even more for thinking that I could come here and just tell you leave...after seeing all the suffering and fear out there, anyone would want scream at those responsible, even at those who're only trying help..." he sighed, for a brief moment no-one said anything before Morri passed a heavy regretful-sounding sigh and stepped even closer to him with a more forlorn look in her dark eyes.

"...There've been times I wanted to scream too; and after all we've been through I don't know if I've got any tears left to cry...We didn't ask for any of this Aoi, we didn't ask to be part of this war, or to have our friends and loved one's put in danger...All this started because one being thought the universe was his to take, and because of it everything was changed forever...I may not have been there when the war started for us back in our universe, in Mission city, but I intend to see it end in this universe, for everyone here. And I don't intend to go home until I know I've done what's needed to be done...And I think you know that" she softly spoke

"...If there's one thing I'm truly sorry for, it's for underestimating the randomness of all this; and thinking that you all were doing this out of ulterior motives" he replied honesty

"What made you think we wanted anything else? We turn into vehicles, we have no need of money, and power is way overrated; I figure you can settle for a life with happiness then there's not much else you could really need out of life, and after everything our kind has been through throughout this war, having friends like you humans have truly made our lives whole again" Bluestreak smiled proudly as Hailey smiled up at him, stroking his chest plates affectionately; to which Aoi nodded in understanding.

"...So, what are you going to do with me?" he asked cautiously

"Well, that depends; for what it's worth I ain't angry at your choice of actions in all this, but I'm afraid we can't just let ya go home kid; believe it or not, the Black Lotus and the Decepticons are one and the same" Jazz explained, Aoi's eyes lit up in shock, "-and if they know that you're involved with us, I guarantee they'll find some way to use you against us in some way; but equally, from what you told us it sounds like you might be able to help us in more ways than one...So, how do' ya feel about roll' in with us and helping out? We'd keep ya safe and at the same time you can still carry on the fight" the first lieutenant asked, to which Aoi looked up at him in surprise; the rest of section 9 was equally amazed.

"Whoa...of all the things I was expecting of this meeting I wasn't expecting an invite" he replied

"Us neither, but this time don't palm off that crap that you're not a team player; because this is the one situation where the wrong choice will cost you your life, and I ain't talking about getting arrested by the military. The cons, for all we've learnt of them and our own combat experience to back us up; without the Autobots there is no way we can take them on, even with the military leading the attack we're seriously out-classed and out-numbered...so for what it's worth kid, do yourself a favour, don't be an idiot and try to take them on by yourself" Batou deadpanned in a less than intimidating tone, Aoi merely passed an impassive sigh before donning a deadpan look of his own.

"As much as I'm not comfortable with the idea of working alongside others, *sigh* joining up with you would be the more logical option in all this; but what about you? You know, my mind is still made up from the last time we met, when this is finally all over, whenever that'll be; I still intend to go back out into the world and carry on my work" Aoi asked the chief, the old man studied the face of the young man and relaxed his stance, but still maintained his firm unyielding gaze.

"If that's how you feel I certainly won't stand in your way; but I will part this one piece of advice to you...over this last month a lot of things have changed, in more ways than even I could anticipate...Don't be so stubborn in your opinion on how you view all this, if anything being so set in one's ways is the worst thing you can do; don't be so quick to past criticism and certainly don't underestimate what we're up against" the chief replied as he turned to leave

"Why? Because the Decepticons are bigger?" Aoi asked

"No...Because they're not human"

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R&R Please! ;)


	62. Chapter 61: Blessed Are The Meek

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 61: BLESSED ARE THE MEEK

The night was so still and silent

Even with the chaos and panic on the streets outside, in here, it was like a graveyard; hardly a soul could be heard stirring, and even the operators were few and far to be seen throughout the entire building tonight.

Such stillness only came from the sweet release of sleep; in the section's living quarters the humans slept like the dead, exhaustion and fatigue finally forced them to stop and rest to regain their strength, neither a snore nor a snort could be heard, for everyone was so deeply unconscious that they weren't even dreaming. The day had been long and testing, after the Major was secured and hooked up to Deathshot to have the rouge nanites removed from her brain case, the rest of the day had been spent making up for lost time; the kids and agents took it in turns helping to put things back in order, while at the same time, trying to juggle the other tasks at hand. Some of the kids made some head-way in sorting out the rest of the stuff that had been found in the trunks; Darren, Mikaela and Frenzy in particular had spent most of the day going through the old ledger, and trying to make heads and tails of the strange Cybertronian ship that was described within its pages; Sam, Miles and Tom went with Aoi to help him retrieve the 'E-package', as well as some other things from his home; navigating the chaotic city while the rescue parties were still trawling the remains of the Sukaitawa buildings for survivors (as well as retrieve the dead) had been tough, but had been accomplished never the less. Between that and putting the section back in order after the Major's rampage, everyone had just about burnt out by sunset, even Batou's reinforced cyborg body was craving for sleep; for once, it was nice to feel the strain of exhaustion, it reminded him of being completely being flesh and blood again, and being able to feel relieved that Major was going to be okay brought a measure of comfort to his weary mind. The day had waned into the night, and outside the moon and stars were hidden from sight by the thick blackish smoke that continued to rise from the city's scattered ruins; in the far distance the noise of sirens, vehicles and people endlessly working echoed around the sheer concrete canyons and geofront's that dominated the cityscape. Inside, down on the lowest levels of the building, the Tachikoma's stood motionless in their recharge births, while in their neighbouring auxiliary hanger most the Autobots had transformed back into their altmode's and stood silently around the hanger floor like cars in a showroom, deep in recharge, oblivious to the world.

Most, but not all were so tired tonight...

In the canteen, Glen sat by one of the glass walls, watching idly as the embers from the fires rose up on the wind and disappeared into the night sky, on the table in front of him his coffee sat cold and forgotten; passing a deep listless sigh he lifted his head up, and nearly jumped out of his skin as he noticed someone's reflection in the glass standing behind him, spinning round, he sighed in relief when he saw it was Hailey.

"Damn girl! You shouldn't be sneakin' up on people like that!" he huffed

"And you shouldn't be so edgy all the time, considering everything that's happened I'm surprised you haven't had a heart-attack yet" Hailey grinned as she pulled up a seat and sat across the hacker "Yeah well, you're still supposed to knock before entering" Glen deadpanned as he propped his chin on his arm, sensing his less-than enthusiastic mode, Hailey pulled her seat in closer and leaned on the corner of the table.

"So what's bugging ya?" she asked, Glen looked at her a moment, contemplating on whether to say what was really on his mind, he dropped his gaze and glanced out the window

"...I've been thinking..."

"About?"

"All kinda things..."

"Such as?" Hailey asked; Glen hesitated a moment, glancing up at her with an honest yet vexed look in his dark eyes

"...By all rights I should've had a heart attack years ago...Three years ago I knew I didn't have the guts to even walk down my street at night, and yet, with all the crazy-ass shit we've been through these last two years, I'm still scared...so how come, despite being blasted into a cyberpunk-universe, being shot, chased, having to hide, and all the other crazy stuff we've had to do to survive; I'm still in one piece? ...God knows I ain't the same guy I was the day before Mission city" he said

"...I know what you mean..." Hailey sighed

"You do?" Glen blinked in surprise, with a reassuring look in her blue eyes, Hailey leaned back in the chair and glanced out the window

"...When I was in high school, I was always scared; I was part of the cheerleading team, the 'popular kids' clique, I had boys lining up wanting to ask me out and half the girls in the school envied my figure and looks..." she grinned as she memory of her younger days came to mind, Glen simply looked at her slight confusion, "...Yeah I know what you're thinking, 'what girl in her right mind would want to trade that for anything less?'...At first glance you'd be right, being popular may be a way out of being a target for the jerks and snarky hipsters; but what everyone doesn't appreciate is how hard you have to work to stay on top, to stay the top dog and make sure everyone's aware of it...and more often or not, you realize that just traded one shitty position in the high school food chain for something much worse..." her smile dropped with a rueful sigh, straightening up, Glen leaned in slightly closer as she continued. "...I was the 'weird one' when it came to being one of the popular kids, weird in as much I was the only girl that didn't take any joy in tormenting the 'less desirable' kids in school...It wasn't, and still is, no secret that the girls in my cheerleading squad were mostly a bunch of bitches who roamed the school like it was their own personal slaughter house; whenever some poor kid had the dumb luck to accidently get in their way, or stand out somehow, they'd rip them to shreds, and the worst part of it was I was always too scared to stand up and say anything"

"That ain't surprisin'; cheerleaders are the prey-mantises of high school, beautiful but so deadly; they woo ya, make out with ya and then bite your head off and leave you to wallow in pity and tears. Seriously Hails, they ain't worth anyone's time" Glen offered

"I know, but one thing girls like that can't stand is being seen without their flunkies at their side to provide an entourage...Our cheerleader captain, Marcy Peters, she had a face that would make the cover of Vogue any day of the week, but she could have easily made Starscream her little bitch, (if he were human). She was manipulative, selfish, mean at the best of times, but when she was pissed she was far worse; but most of the time she could never stand to see anyone standing her up, take something or someone she considered to be hers, or generally just being happy and content with their lot in life ...This one time, after she broke up with her boyfriend, a month later she discovered he and one of the freshmen were dating; so to get rid of her she slipped some weed into the girl's locker and told the principle she and her whole family were a bunch of drug pushers, and naturally she got suspended...I wanted to say something, I knew she'd pulled off some sick shit in the past but this was taking things too far, but of course Marcy had already thought ahead, she always knew everyone's dirty little secrets, and when we confronted her about what she'd done she threatened to blackmail all of us...including me"

Damn, what did you do?" Glen blinked in surprise, Hailey hesitated.

"...Nothing illegal; but back when I was a freshmen, I cheated on a few maths tests to avoid getting my ass chewed out, our maths teacher was a real stubborn, cold-shouldered asshole who berated anyone in front of the rest of the class if they failed a test; I don't know how Marcy found out but she threatened to tell the principle that I was a 'cheat-dealer' who sold test and exam cheats to the whole school. She held that over me right up until graduation, and not a day went by I wasn't angry at myself for not having the courage to speak up"

"So what happened after you graduated?" Glen asked.

"...On graduation day, I realized that after that day, Marcy wouldn't be able to intimidate or manipulate me or anyone else; after the ceremony I found the principle and told him everything, needless to say he was disappointed...but what really surprised me was that he said it was better to speak up now rather than stay scared and not say anything at all, even if it was a little bit too late for him to do anything...after that I went on to study fashion at college, but I promised myself that I would never allow anyone to intimidate me like that ever again...Time passed and I moved on with my life, but at times some part of Marcy would always come back to haunt me, and it always made me wonder if I'd ever have the real courage to go through the rest of life...I may not have been in Mission City when that whole 'thing' with the Autobots and Megatron went down, but God only knows I don't think my mind would've stayed in one piece and-" Hailey suddenly stopped when she noticed the wide smile plastered across Glens face, as he sat across from her with a look of delight about him.

"...Okay, what's gotten you so happy all of a sudden?" she smirked, to which the hacker broke into a chuckle

"Nothin!' It's just-...I'm always amazed at how you and Blue are so much alike, the way you both look, the way you both chatter on, anyone would think you were both made for each other!" he grinned, Hailey couldn't help but smile

"I'll admit he's hot, even by human standards; but I DO NOT chatter on! We're just good conversationalists!" she protested while trying to hold back the giggles that threatened to burst out, "Conversationalist? Girl both you and Blue managed to actually chat Prowl into recharge! You like, never run outta anything ta say!" Glen retorted, and together they both laughed as the memory of the said incident replayed in their minds, when they both finally calmed down, they sat in silence for a brief moment before Hailey spoke again. "I guess we both surprised ourselves...I know someone once said that, 'courage isn't the absence of fear but rather the knowledge that there's something more important than being afraid'; but until your actually in the heat of the action, when things are getting real serious and you realize no one's coming to help you, some part of you deep down realizes that you have to do something, and that running away isn't the best option...Your still scared, and the adrenaline pumps, but at the same time, you're not that afraid".

"Afraid? Girl I've been scared shitless since we got blasted here! ...But I get your drift; hell the only reason I ever got involved with NEST was cuz Maggie twisted my arm, sayin' that I'd have access to a lotta sweet high-end tech, and she was right, plus I certainly couldn't say no to the pay-check...bein' a hacker for the Autobots certainly wasn't the worst choice I ever made in my life; the whole 'freedom is the right of all sentient beings' policy is right up there with Martin Luther King, Gandhi and Mother Tarrasa an' I certainly say Amen to that...but sometimes, I can't help but wonder where we'll all be in like, twenty years time; how many other cons are still out there among the stars? And if any of them haven't completely burnt out their hatred yet, how long do they want to keep the war goin'? ...how long can we keep goin'?" he pondered aloud

"...As long as it takes I guess" Hailey replied, not really sure what else to say as she gently stroked the bandage around her neck, looking back up at the hacker, an idea suddenly came to mind "Say Glen, have you ever considered getting yourself a guardian?" she asked

"What?" he blinked in surprise "Come on Hails, I work a desk job at NEST, it's not like I'm out in the field like the rest of you guys...besides, when I first joined I made it clear that I wanted a position that wasn't anywhere near all the crazier, 'shoot 'em up an' blast their aft plates off' kinda shit"

"Heh, with the twins and Ironhide around it usually looks that way, but for the guys guardianship isn't just about making sure the cons don't try to get the drop on us and making sure we stay safe; a lot of the time we hang out together, do our favourite things like shopping at the mall, drift racing and taking on the monster trucks when the rally come to town. Every time we all do stuff together you're the only one who needs to hitch a ride with one of us, and I hate to see you be the odd-one-out; plus, I think it would be good for you to have someone who you can really hang with, someone chilled out, laidback, and tech-savvy of course" Hailey smiled.

"And since when did you start being the human-Autobot match-maker? Besides, there ain't anyone who would be a good guardian for me even if I wanted one. Ironhide, Jazz, Bee, Blue, Trailbreaker and D are already taken; the twins are both nuts and psychotic, Ratchet and Jetfire are both way too cranky, Hot Rod and Cliffjumper are both too much of a pair of speed freaks and don't know their Star Trek from Star Wars, Hound spends too much time outdoors in the wild, Brawn and Inferno are both too impulsive and trigger happy, Prime, Ultra Magnus and Prowl are all great guys but a little too uptight at times, Red Alert is paranoid with a few nuts short of a full fruit cake, Perceptor may be a techy but the way he goes on about quantum equations is enough to bore anyone to sleep, and Wheeljack? I wouldn't last ten seconds with him! And don't even think about the drones, even if they are reformed I ain't takin' the pettin' zoo home every night" Glen deadpanned

"Fair enough; but you know, Thundercracker DID say that more bots arrived with them the day after we arrived here, maybe one of them could be a good match for you? And he did say some of them are lady-bots" Hailey teased

"Hmm...I don't know" Glen sighed dubiously

"Just think about it okay? And you know, it would be nice see you out of the tech labs every once in a while, Darren has an IQ of over 140 and works like he's on crack but yet he still makes time to go out with Trailbreaker; maybe having a guardian can help you relax a little? Blue always knows how to wind me down after a stressful day"

"Yeah, but your idea of 'winding down' is talking about what shade of pink you like to paint your toe nails and what kinda air-freshener Blue would like hangin' from his mirror! ...But...Maybe, just maybe, I might talk to Prime about it when we get home, but I ain't makin' any promises, I don't wanna get involved in any additional crazy-ass shit after all this, God only know today was a whole other level of insanity..."

"I know; do you think the Major's gonna be alright?" Hailey asked offhand, Glen quirked an eyebrow.

"Girl, this is a woman who is the living embodiment of every cyberpunk-fan's wet dream, and every supermodel's worst nightmare; How many thirty-something year old women do you know that can knock a dude flat on his ass, Jackie Chan it on Sunstreaker, keep a whole team of supped-up cyborg cops whipped and still maintain a perfect ass-to-breast ratio? I know way too many online honeys back home that would go all Freddy Kruger-kinda psycho to even gain a fraction of that degree of awesomeness" he stated with a broad grin

"Hmm, so you have a thing for her?" Hailey teased with a sly grin

"What? Hell no! As fine lookin' as she is, she's way too uptight for me; plus...the idea that her 'being more physically machine than organic' is somethin I finally got my head around', is one thing...but after this last month, seeing what we've seen, and having to deal with it the way we have...I can't help think that maybe things are gonna get a whole lot uglier before they get better..." Glen thought aloud as he dropped his gaze and looked out the window as a large scattering of embers blew up and illuminated the canteen in an eerie orange glow.

"...I think you may be right..." Hailey sighed ruefully as she placed a hand on the bandages covering her shoulder, "...Up until a month ago, I had only ever heard of the Decepticons through the war stories Ironhide, Jetfire and Ultra Magnus told us about, I never met any of them in person, and that's how Blue wanted to keep it...Do you know what he promised me when he first became my guardian?" she said, Glen shook his head, "He said, 'I promise, as long as I'm here for you and your sisters, you will never be a soldier in this war; I'm here to fight, so you and your family will never have to' ...the one thing that hurts me more than seeing people die, is knowing that Blue's heartbroken because he feels that he failed me..." she said as tears welled up in her eyes.

"Huh? ...You never said anything was up with Blue; he looked fine when we left the hanger" Glen said offhand

"Only because he's been putting on a brave face and soldering on through, but I can tell; since the towers fell he hasn't been as 'enthusiastic' when he makes small talk...Because of what those Decepticon bastards have put us through, for the first time in my life I've had to stare death in the face and fight back, and I knew I couldn't afford to flinch away, because if I did, I'd lose more than just my life; Becky, Becca and Blue are my family, and for the first time I realize just how serious Optimus takes all this; only now do I realize, how much he and the others have sacrificed to hold onto what's precious..." she continued as she tried to hold back the sobs that threatened to overwhelm her; but with a deep breath, she looked up to meet Glens gaze as he sat in silence.

"...I failed them...when the American's came for us, I was too slow and -...if they-"

"No no! You can't think like that! Believe me you have no idea just how guilty I still feel over that whole thing! I mean, I fainted for Christ sake! Even worms have more backbone than me! But if they hadn't had shot us with those tranquilizers, I know you would 'a been the first to blast their asses right out the door! ...Look, I may not be anyone's first choice for bein' good soldier material, but by God I know I can't afford to back down either; I know as much anyone here just what's at stake, and what'll happen if we fail. I may not be the best when it comes to fightin', but that don't mean I can't try, and man I've been tryin' like hell ever since we came here, even with the upgraded BSHB's to act as both armour and weaponry, it still doesn't stop the chills running up my spine every time we've had to go into action..." Glen exclaimed; Hailey sat in astonishment as she wiped the tears from her eyes and for a moment neither of them spoke as a vague sense of mutual understanding seemed to pass between them.

"...If you didn't have the BSHB, do you think you could still be there to back us up?" she asked offhand, for what felt like the longest minute in that moment, Glen looked Hailey in the eye as his thoughts turned inwards, and he searched himself for that notion of courage that had seen him through this difficult month; a large part of him wanted to run and hide away from all this, but at the same time, deep down, a small voice told him to hold firm and face the fire as it drew near. It was a strange sensation, but one that he didn't flinch from; and as his mind came back to the present, and to Hailey, a small sense of confidence made an honest smile cross his lips.

"...Do you even have to ask that? 'Course I'll back us up; besides, someone's gotta make sure Darren doesn't crash again" he quietly replied, to which Hailey smiled.

"Thanks, I don't doubt you, but I do worry for you"

"Seriously?" Glen blinked in surprise

"Yeah, why?"

"Cuz that's the first time any girl has given me any real form of encouragement besides trying to beat everyone at DDR; and for a guy like me who spends most of his life around computers rather than people, that's really somethin'"

"Thanks, at least I know you're covered; I still can't help but worry about Blue"

"Hey, for what it's worth, Blue's heart is never gonna break so long as he has you, Becca and Becky, he'll stay strong for all of you, and I know you'll be strong for him. After all he's been through in his life you an' your sisters are exactly what he needs...I don't know what we're gonna go up against next and I don't what's gonna be waiting' for us when we finally discover the reason for why the cons kidnapped all those kids, but I do know; we'll all be there together, an I know you'll be standin' right up there on Blue's shoulder when we do" Glen smiled as he took a swig of his coffee, but his smile was quickly replaced with a deadpan grimace when the less-than-appealing taste of cold black coffee hit his tongue; making Hailey laugh as he spat the foul liquid back into the cup. Outside the canteen, hidden in the shadows as he leaned against the wall, Boma smiled as he listened as the two youngsters laughed and joke together; he then straightened up and quietly walked along to the elevators, without hardly making a sound.

Far down below in the Tachikoma's auxiliary hanger, Deathshot sat cross-legged on the floor in a deep meditative state as he continued to remove the rouge nanites from the Major; his hands poised in position as if he were an Indian Fakir deep in a spiritual trance; he hadn't moved all day, and after Bumblebee grew tired and needed to recharge, he transferred the Major to his lap, though he had to position her carefully, for fear of her much smaller form accidently sliding down through his legs, as well as avoid snapping the life-support systems from her body. Aside from the deep, almost inaudible thrum of the Autobot sniper's systems gently humming away, the silence in itself was almost defining; at the far end of the hanger, snugly tucked up behind Jetfire's large altmode, the drones lay curled up on each other in a tight ball, warm and content in each other's embrace as they opened their minds, and allowed their spark-bonds to filter through into one another, and become one in a singular dream.

In the darkness of their sleep their minds were gathered around the eldest, peering into his most concerning thoughts with curiosity and dubiousness, in the back of his mind a tiny golden light, no bigger than a keyhole, pierced the darkness in a single beam of hazy gold; each of them took it in turns to peer into the light and see what was on the other side and each of them blinked in surprise at what they 'saw'.

'So it truly is a mind-link' Lazerbeak hissed

'And you truly are linked to the human' Buzzsaw concurred in astonishment.

'Indeed, but this is as large as I will permit the link to be, as I surmised it is only open when we both recharge, but when his brain begins to shift to 'waking' mode the link will close until he falls into recharge again' Ravage explained as he shifted uneasily, a tense moment of unease pasted before his brother's gathered closer around him.

'Why brother? I know you care for the human, but a mind-link?' Lazerbeak whispered down the bond

'I didn't ask for it to happen!' Ravage snapped, 'It just...happened...' he sighed listlessly, unable to find a more plausible explanation.

'Look, we know you've come to see him as a kindred spark, slag even we can sense the wild impulses of his mind longing for the fight, just like you; but he's only a human, an organic for Primus sake!' Buzzsaw cawed

'We understand our time apart has been hard on you big brother, even we mourned you're supposed 'passing' for more solar-cycles than we care to count; and while we will not force you to turn him away, you know this is not right, you know nothing good can come from this mechanical-organic mind-link' Ratbat whispered

'I didn't choose him out of desperation to feel connected again...I just, sensed he was different from the other humans...I sense he always has been...' Ravage purred as the imprint of Ashley's psyche drifted through their shared minds; scattered blurry images of some distant battlefield materialized in the front of their minds, and with it the distant echoing sounds of booming explosions, gunfire, and war cries...human war cries.

'...The scent of death and war...He really is bred from a warrior's spark isn't he?' Rumble whispered in reverence

'Yes he is...in him I sense a boy longing to become a man so as to stand as tall as his creator, a warrior longing to be born on the field of battle, but is still in the womb of childhood; I sense a spark of crimson red that has slept in darkness and dreams of waking to a red dawn, a hunter that has gnawed on dry bones but has dreamt of blood and flesh...give any army a warrior like that, and who would dare stand against you?...I remember...those days, back when I was sparkling, that I genuinely believed in that, and it filled me with a fire that burned in my spark and kept me strong, kept us all strong, and how it made Soundwave so proud that we were his...how it made his spark sing...Back then, I believed it would last forever, but these long centuries of war slowly sapped it all away, draining it into despair and nothingness as if my very spark were being offlined, I honestly thought nothing and no one could do anything to bring me back from that place, and after we lost our creator I really had nothing left to strive for...but when I met him from the first time; I thought this couldn't be real, how can this be so? Two sparks, so very different and yet so very familiar, separated over the vast near-endlessness of time and space...what are the chances?' Ravage explained

'I-I-I-Indeed...p-p-p-phapsmaybethisis n-n-n-n-notsomuchabadthing' Frenzy suggested, the rest of them stared at him in confusion

'Explain brother!' Buzzsaw demanded

'Th-th-theboyhasshowngreat p-p-p-p-potentialinmorewaysthan o-o-one, he-he-he-hefightswell, he-he-he'ssmart, c-c-c-c-cunning, e-e-e-e-even s-s-s-s-sly wh-wh-wh-whenheneedstobe; b-b-b-b-butalwayshekeepsin m-m-m-mindwhat n-n-n-n-needstobe d-d-d-done...t-t-t-t-truehemaybeahuman, b-b-b-butsomethingtellsmehe c-c-c-c-could p-p-p-p-provetobesomething m-m-m-m-more...eveninhisdreamshe i-i-isdifferentfromhisown k-k-k-kind, l-l-l-look...' the jittery hacker gestured to the beam of golden light; crowding round to get a good look, the drones each peeked at the mind on the other side as the human boy's dreams unfolded like the pages of a book. In scattered images they saw Ashley alone, stalking through a great forest, filled with ancient trees that towered high overhead and haunted by the sparks of the creature-spirits that reside there; his skin was covered in tribal marking, the marks of his ancestors, now long forgotten; as he walked along with his spear in hand, something was different...something seemed to change, and as he stopped, the drones stared in morbid fascination at what happened next.

Stopping in a clearing, surround by moss-covered boulders, Ashley put his spear against one rock and seemed to look around stood in a dazed stupor; suddenly, he hissed sharply and hunched over as his skin began to grow tighter, and he grew larger and bulkier as small slithers of silver metal began to pierce his from out of his skin; finally his skin and clothing exploded off, flying in all directions and what was once a human, was now a huge human/drone-panther hybrid. A peculiar sphinx-like creature with a human face and neck, but a feline's body, covered in black and charcoal coloured armour with sharp triangular spikes on the shoulder's and joints, long powerful hind legs and stoutly built front paws with long blade-like claws, and sporting a long robust tail, tipped with a sleek trident shaped stinger. The face however, was Ashley's, the top of his head looked as if it were crowned with a 'headdress' of Ravage's own form, complete with a 'third eye' slit-like red optic, long pointed cat-like audios made up his ears while his face was covered in smooth pale pewter-coloured metal plates, with sharp fangs at each corner of his mouth, and both his eyes were the most vivid shade of scarlet red, glowing like the dying embers of a fire, and with the same sinister presence of any Decepticon. The drones were stunned to say the least, but as he inspected his new form, Ashley's shock soon turned to delight, and crouching down on all fours he took off into the undergrowth, like a shadow without a master; the scene began to fold in on itself as the opening to the boy's mind began to shrink, closing off the mind-link and sealing his mind away from the drones, who looked at one another in a mix of surprise and amusement.

'Well, that was unexpected' Lazerbeak smirked

'Indeed, though the link hasn't been in place long, I sense he's had this particular dream before; and every time he recharges it seems to grow more vivid, more real...I can't help but wonder if it was more than just my mind that reached out to him; and this isn't first time he's mentioned the subject of swapping species' Ravage explained as he shared the memory of that day by the lake, back when the Autobots and humans took refuge at the first safe house, of all the lines of the conversation they heard, one stood out that grabbed their attention the most.

"Well...even though I'd still be who I am, I can't help if wonder if I could really be willing to swap one life for another, I mean, I love being with you and the guys, but would I'd have to leave behind the life I have now? I mean, would my mum and dad still be my mum and dad? Would my cousins still be my cousins? ...I just don't know..."

'He may have had his doubts then, but what's to say he feels the same way now?' Buzzsaw grinned in a sly manner

'His guardian, not to mention his family; Morri maybe still be a sparkling but it was her his creators chose to oversee the boy's wellbeing while they were away from home, she speaks for him in their stead; plus I doubt Prime would approve of such an undertaking...plus, it's not my decision to make!' Ravage retorted

'Actually, if your memory serves correctly, it was you that asked him if he wondered what it would be like to be a Cybertronian in the first place; is it not fair to say it was you that gave him the idea?' Rumble asked, to which Ravage gave a small sly smile

'Prid pro-quo, he asked me if I wondered what it was like to be a human, even if I was the one that gave him the idea in the first place, I can certainly say I haven't lost my more 'subliminal qualities', even if it was an accidental slip of the tongue' the panther purred in contentment, to which the others all smirked

'You always were able to corrupt the most innocent of sparks brother; but in this case, I'm surprised that you didn't try to turn him into one of us, considering the potential's there, and he secretly longs to trade his flash for armour...if there were no limits would he so readily choose to become one of us?" Lazerbeak pondered aloud. 'That's not for any of us say' Ravage growled assertively 'And it's NOT your place to try and persuade him! If such a choice were possible, it would be his choice, and his alone! Plus, in case you forgot, his guardian was, and still is, the most lethal sniper in the Autobot ranks; to this day he still holds the highest number of kills for any one sniper! He took the shots all the others wouldn't dare touch, and he could easily snipe any of us from up in the planets orbit! Of all the bots in Prime's ranks, he is the one no one will dare to cross; and considering how attached he's become to the boy and his fellow sparklings, it doesn't take a genius to work out what will happen if even the mere mention of this conversation were to reach his audios! Do I make myself clear?' he angrily snapped, his sternness washed over them like burning flames, making them bow their heads low in submission, as the panther took a deep cleansing breath through his vents and relaxed, a moment of silence passed before Ratbat dared to speak up.

'Brothers, what make you all think he can even become one of us in the first place? The technology to create techno-organics was one thing, but to transform an organic into a Cybertronian? ...Do you all not recall the medical facilities on Prarex 9? And the secret experiments that were sanctioned there under Shockwave's orders? ...'

A tense moment of unease passed as the drones recalled what their youngest sibling was referring to.

'...Project rebirth...' Ravage sighed

'They went through hundreds of test subjects in the quest to perfect that procedure, but no matter how many ways they reconfigured the techniques and refined the process every last attempt ended in failure, and in the end each of the test subjects offlined in agony...not that listening to their screams wasn't fun, but even with the sniper's nanite technology at our disposal, isolating the boy's spark is impossible; since human sparks cannot be defined in the same way that our sparks can, there's no guarantee that he would even survive a spark transference to a new body, nedalone survive having his own organic form transformed into a robotic one...even if he were to become one of us, he could only be one of us in spark only, for his flesh and blood would keep his bound to his own kind, forever' the bat drone dropped his head ruefully.

'Exactly, little brother' Ravage purred, sending waves of warmth and reassurance into his spark 'and that is as it should be, he is, and always will be human; but that's not to say that he and the rest of his species are totally defenceless, for what it's been worth and from what I've witnessed these past two years, humans are very different from us in many ways, but there are equally as many ways in which we are alike; and I have to admit it takes a unique kind of stamina to live the lives they choose to lead, at the least they may be strange, but when push comes to shove they never back down so easily...either way, the boy's destiny is his own to follow, we already chose ours a lifetime ago, and it's not our place to say what he should be'

'You may be right there brother, but why the consideration that such a possibility is possible at all? After all, let us not forget what happened when Megatron discovered that particular 'science project'; hatchlings to make into new warriors may have been the rarest of the rear at the time, but the great Decepticon leader would've slit his own energon lines before any new sparklings created from the flesh of organics were permitted to serve in his ranks. He destroyed that place and levelled it to the ground, and with it all the scientists and their research data, and don't forget the punishment Shockwave received for going behind his back' Ratbat continued

'I remember, and it served as a reminder to us all not to cross our then great leader, I was even surprised how well it kept Starscream in check, before he finally regained his nerve again...but even so, had that scientific undertaking actually yielded anything of use; it's long since dead and buried, there's no way it can ever be implemented' Lazerbeak deadpanned

'As much I wish to believe that; I'm not so sure brother...' Ravage sighed quietly

'Why?' Rumble asked in disbelief, at that Ravage opened his memories, replying the sequence of events that had transpired over the last month, and every question that had been left in the wake of each Decepticon encounter; a mixed sense of confusion and dread fell upon the drones as they tried to make sense of their eldest brother's experiences.

'...All darkness is my domain, and it was my duty to know everything about everyone within Megatron's ranks, who was loyal, who was a traitor, and who was a liability...I cannot sense nor feel who these cons are, nor have I ever come across, or even heard the mere mention of any of them before; I know we did many things during the height of the war, and our reach was vast and powerful, but not once had I ever heard of any cons undertaking a mission to attempt to create a space bridge between our universe and another...' The panther said darkly '...nor do I remember Megatron even approving the use of 'transmergence' technology, he knew the dangers involved in that dark science, even his insanity wasn't that great that he didn't know the consequences of the end result...we are dealing with something very different; different from what we're used to, and different in such a way that makes me wonder if these cons have any trace of their Cybertronian heritage left...this will make things very difficult, and I fear we've yet to see what they're real fighting strength is like'

'But...why? Even if we've never seen or heard of these particular cons before, we've been around cons long enough to know how they think and fight, there's no way they can out-do us brother; what makes you believe they're anything more?' Rumble argued in bemusement.

'Because...I sense their unpredictable...just a like a human' Ravage whispered, he was about to say something else when he sensed the presence of another approach; flicking his ear while still deep in recharge, he listened as the doors of the hanger creaked open and the distinctive sound of bare human feet pit-patted across the smooth concrete floor. As he neared his guardian, Darren pulled the blanket around his shoulders even tighter as Trailbreaker opened his door and the young hacker climbed in and curled up on the already warm driver's seat.

"Couldn't recharge youngling?" Trailbreaker softly asked

"Nah, my bed busted a spring and it went right in my back" he grimaced as he rubbed the sore spot on his back; as he fidgeted about, Trailbreaker lowered his driver's seat down until it was flat, eliciting a soft sigh of content from his charge.

"How's the Major doing?, D's taking a lot longer than I anticipated" he asked as he closed his eyes

"I guess he must be going through the final checks, you know how he tends to fuss over the details" Trailbreaker smiled through his speakers.

"...Yeah..." the teenager sighed listlessly, the less-than-positive tone in his voice didn't escape his guardian's notice; "So what's really on your processor?" he asked, knowing he couldn't hide it, Darren shifted on his side to face the dashboard.

"Something that doesn't make sense; among other things" he sighed

"Such as?"

"The Demolisher cones"

"Ah...I've been wondering about them too, that really doesn't make sense. I saw Demolisher offline at the battle of Forexicii seven; I saw both Ultra Magnas and Ironhide blast his head off with a long-range ion rail gun, there's no way he could've survived that...But if those were his clones we saw a week ago then how were they onlined without the original con's spark frequency and format design? ...It's been puzzling me to no end"

"The format design angle is simple enough; Ratchet keeps complete medical files on every bots format design for easy reference in case something happens and you guys need parts or major surgery, it makes sense that Decepticon medics would employ the same strategy, especially for extended missions. But the spark graft? I know Perceptor said once that it's possible to create a 'clone' by splitting a spark in half to create a twin, or even a triplet so long as the original is alive and healthy, but wasn't the battle of Forexicii seven like, fifty thousand years ago? There's no way any Cybertronian spark can survive outside a spark chamber for that length of time; I think it's more likely that the con's we're dealing with probably had his design format on their hard drives and they managed to build his body from scratch and 'implant' some other con's sparks into the chambers" Darren reasoned

"That does sound the most likeliest scenario; but what about the transmergence technology? I didn't even know such a thing existed up until all this...I can understand why the Primes forbade it, the dangers of misusing it don't bare thinking about, but when I was still on Cybertron I never even heard any rumours of it, it didn't even exist in the official historical data archives" Trailbreaker replied

"Maybe because they didn't want anyone getting ideas; if it was so dangerous then it wasn't worth the risk, even if someone's intentions were innocent. But that only begs the question; if the Primes went to so much trouble to practically wipe its existence from history, who found out about it and how were they able to get their hands on it?"

"Well that's a no-brainer, the con's obviously"

"Yeah, but Jetfire said Megatron knew of it and didn't even go near it and he was one of Megatron's most loyal seeker's before he turned on him...It sounds kinda weird in a way; from you told me Megatron was nothing short of atrocious, but also broad-minded to the point he'd try practically anything if it could enable him to gain the upper hand, and considering what those clones turned into when they 'merged' together, I'm surprised ol' Megs wouldn't go for something like that, if anything it screams his kinda thing" Darren pondered aloud

"I know, and that's what doesn't make any sense; Megatron did many sick and twisted things over the course of the war, so why would he avoid something like transmergence technology? ...Clearly something big must have happened to make him stay away from it"

"'Big' might be an understatement, it had to have been something of majorly epic proportions to sway the universe's greatest badass from using it...It's a long shot but what if there was a third party involved?"

"Huh? You mean besides the Autobots and Decepticons?"

"Why not? You told me once that millions of citizens got displaced from Cybertron after Megatron ordered the genocide of all the femmes; maybe some of them thought the only way to end the chaos was to take matters into their own hands and try to fight back, it wouldn't be the first time in the history of war non-military combatants tried to take action" Darren reasoned

"It's a possibility, but very highly improbable; Megatron was very thorough in making sure any pockets of resistance didn't spring up, and considering how vast the Cybertronian empire was at the time Megatron first attacked, it's not inconceivable that some neutrals were able to get away, but whether they decided to come back and join the fight was another issue; those who had managed to escape past the outer star-systems, beyond the empire's boundaries, were never seen again" Trailbreaker replied. Turning onto his back and looking out the sun-roof window, Darren sighed as he glanced up at the two F22 Falcons sitting right above them.

"...Do you think they'll ever get use to being Autobots?" Darren asked offhand, realizing who he was referring to, Trailbreaker hesitated a second before replying, "I...don't know; I can't say I'm enthusiastic about them being with us" he said impassively, trying to keep his disdain for the seekers as subtle as possible.

"You weren't enthusiastic about Scorpy, Frenzy and Ravage joining us either, but two years on and their not as moody or cold-shouldered as they used to be; maybe there's hope for Thundercracker and Skywarp, so far they haven't given any cause for concern" Darren replied with a small hopeful smirk

"Only because they know you and the other kids are under our guardianship, and that if they try anything we won't hesitate to shoot their afts off...but-" Trailbreaker sighed reluctantly, "...You do make a good point on the drones, Ravage and his brothers only defected because their creator was offlined and Scorpy just didn't know any better; but that's no guarantee that those two won't be the same"

"Ah but you hit the nail on the head right there!"

"Uh? I did?"

"Scorpy didn't know any better because not once had he had a chance to learn that there's more to life than fighting and hating everyone all the time, once he got to live a normal life-, Well, normal in the sense that he got to do and try other things that didn't include violence , he soon learnt that there was a better way to live your life, and same went for Ravage and his little brother too...Maybe those guys just need the opportunity to learn, that things aren't always so doom' an gloom all the time; is that really so much to ask of anyone?" Darren reasoned, for a long moment Trailbreaker said nothing as he carefully considered his charge's wisdom, and with a deep huff through his vents, he resigned himself to the fact that Darren made a very good point, and that nothing was going to convince him otherwise.

"...*sigh* I hate how you're able to do that, have you been taking lessons in 'pep talking' from Morri?"

"Hehehehe! No, but I do know what it's like to hate someone so much that you reach the point where you just don't want to believe that they can change"

"...You do?" Trailbreaker quirked, a little surprised.

"...Trailbreaker, I'm a child prodigy who was educated in the Californian public school system; up until the men in black whisked me away to the then newly formed NEST I was fresh meat for every jock, prep, cheerleader, Goth and gangster wannabe; sure I'm into the gaming culture, Star Wars, comic books and all the other stuff your typical American teen geek likes to indulge in and that at least didn't put me right at the bottom of the high school pecking order. But I've endured my fair share of swirly's, wedgies and Polish bike rides over the years and by the time I reached ninth grade I was so fed up with all the crap I'd been dished out I really couldn't care less where my life was heading, and my cousins did help matters either-...Basically, with all I've endured, I had a very narrow-minded opinion of how people think, and when NEST recruited me I thought it was a way out, a way to leave all those dumb-asses behind...When I first met Ravage, he reminded me of Rick Bailey, the line-backer for my high school's football team; God that guy was a prick and then some; that guy couldn't go twenty four hours without taking the piss outta someone to make himself feel like the big man, and Ravage had that kinda feel about him...for the first few months he was with us I avoided him wherever I went, taking Red Alert's advice I didn't talk to or trust him, and considering how aggressive he was all the time I didn't even make eye contact...but then...one day, I walking to Prime's offices to deliver some reports, and, I found him and Frenzy alone the wash racks; Frenzy had been crying and he was nuzzling him"

"Seriously? You never told me about that"

"...No, I didn't tell anyone except for one, I was, really surprised to say the least; I mean, I already knew he and Frenzy were brothers and they used to rough-house around the base' an all that; but I never imagined Ravage having such a caring side. I heard them talking and Frenzy told him how he missed the way Soundwave used to scrub his back plates when he needed cleaning...Letting curiosity get the better of me I followed them around the base during my breaks and off-duty days via the Red's security camera system, because I was one of the humans that help to put it together naturally accessing the feeds was a sync; and as I watch the two of them together, I realized that this great big badass panther, once the most ruthless of Megatron's numbers, was not what everyone was telling me he was. Confused I didn't know what to think, then one day when I was just browsing around the internet I came across a quote: 'The healthy man does not torture others, generally it is the tortured who become torturers'"

"Who said that?"

"A guy called Carl Jung; but it really made me think. If all you know in your life is death, war and suffering, then how can you know anything else if you really don't know? What is 'normal' supposed to be if it was never part of your equation in the first place?...In school my life was tough, maybe not as tortured as some unfortunate few, but I thought I really had it bad, and I hated it; I hated the fact that guys like Rick Bailey could just pick on kids like me and it was considered just part of everyday life. But now I can't help but wonder, what had happened in their lives to make them think so little of those who're smaller and weaker than them? What made them believe that they can just do anything to anyone and think its okay or fun?...You may want to say their just evil and that's that, but when you cut away the superficial layers of social and financial status and expose what's really underneath, you find something so totally different from what you thought they were, and that their human beings who have some major flaws in their perception of life, that their as far from moral and reasoned as most can get without knowing some form of irrational understanding to see them through life..." Darren explained; half deep in thought as his mind ticked over his memories.

"...That's pretty deep, I didn't know you could be that philosophical" Trailbreaker replied in reverence at his young charge, "But, how do the seekers fit into this?" he asked cautiously, having a good idea what the answer was going to be, but felt he had to ask anyway. With a sigh and smile, Darren turned on his side to face the speakers on the dashboard

"Megatron was those guy's Rick Bailey;" he gestured to the jets above him "For so long, longer than anyone on this planet can even comprehend, they've been doing nothing but fighting and killing without end, maybe once they were evil, maybe they were genuinely sick and twisted to the core and there was no way the things they did could be justified. But that was millions of years ago, a hell of a lot can happen in that time, and maybe over that time as the war got worse and the idea of an end to the conflict became more and more unimaginable, time, mental and emotional exhaustion just slowly took its toll, and that so called evil was in reality could've just a second armour, a husk of something that was once dangerous and very formidable, now just a means of keeping the world out for fear of exposing their weaknesses, and they couldn't shed it because they don't know any other way. I mean, think about it; in all that time, in ALL those millions of years they were fighting, they didn't once have an attack of consciousness in some form? After all, they did say the only reason they hung around with the cons for as long as they did was because they believed they could save their wing mate Starscream. The guy, by all accounts, may have been a fragger, and back-stabber and no better than Megatron in any way, but the fact that they stayed by him no matter what shows they believed in him enough to care to want to help him; and that's something...Maybe Prime saw that in them, otherwise he wouldn't have brought them along on the rescue mission, and you gotta admit the boss bot is very perceptive about those kinda things"

"...I can't deny Optimus is a good judge of character, and he wasn't wrong about the drones when they defected"

"So why areThundercracker and Skywarp any different? Their defector's too, even if they behave like jerks that doesn't mean they should be denied the chance to learn, to reform, and prove themselves, just like the drones did...I'm not saying their angels, but I am saying they are living beings too; you guys have been bitter enemies for the longest time so you see each others as nothing but that, and that's what's stopping all of you guys from letting go of the past and moving on"

"Maybe, but if you knew even a fraction of the things they've done, you'd never be so forgiving of them; you weren't there for all those years we fought them during the war"

"No, I wasn't, and maybe if I had things would be different, but that's not the case; that was not my war, it wasn't my inheritance, I may not know what it must have been like for you and the others all those eons ago, but I do know hanging onto that anger isn't going to excuse the fact that two defectors came to the Autobots for sanctuary, two defectors that were real enemies once, but realized that everything this war counted for was nothing but a mad bot's dilution that had no hope of ever becoming a reality, and in the end, it just burned them, and everything they believed to be true, never was in the first place..." Darren said in a sterner tone, making Trailbreaker's train of thought screech to a halt. "Besides, I can't believe this whole thing can only go one way, weren't there any Autobots that went rouge and decided to join the Decepticons? Good and evil can work both ways you know, so how can you tell me that your intentions were any better or any worse? You may have been fighting for what was morally right, but how many cons did you killed over the eons?" he added; for a long tense moment the human and Autobot sat in silence, a heavy pang of doubt and regret began to circle Darren's mind as he suddenly began to regret his outburst, and as the seconds ticked by he became more and more worried that he'd angered his guardian by inadvertently touching a soft spot, one that may either have been too personal or too hurtful to touch upon. Finally, the black Ford Lincoln MKS responded by flipping on the heating and warming the cool air until it felt more comfortable.

"Prime's really had an influence on you youngling; how did you come to learn this?" he softly spoke through his speakers, the slight hint of regret in his voice wasn't missed as Darren sat up and tenderly stroked the steering wheel

"You know I said I didn't tell anyone about that thing between Ravage and Frenzy in the wash racks except for one? Well, a couple of days after that, Prime asked me if I was okay, he said he'd noticed that I'd been looking pretty vexed by something and was wondering if he could help; so knowing you can't keep anything from the all-knowing Optimus Prime I sat up on his shoulder and we got talking. Needless to say he offered some of his particular Zen wisdom and left me with a few things to meditate on...I have to say, when most people talk about freedom being everyone's right, you listen but it you don't really take much notice; but when he talks about it...something about him, really makes you believe it" he smiled

"I know, I still find it incredible how he still believes in those values after all these eons...maybe the seekers really did defect for the sake of finally coming to their senses, and maybe yes, we ourselves are not so innocent as we like to believe; but you do realize those old rivalries aren't just going to go away overnight, just because you make a fair point doesn't automatically mean everyone's willing to get along...for some, the memories of those dark times are still too painful to confront"

"I know, and I'm not asking you to like them; I'm only saying-...Huh?" Darren noticed Deathshot move suddenly, as the cables connected to the Major began to retract and slide back into his wrist; he sat up, threw the blanket off his shoulders and got out of his guardian.

"D? You finished?" he asked the sniper as he stepped around to his front"

"Yes, the Major's braincase is completely cleansed of the nanites; go wake up the others and tell them she's ready to swap into a new body" he replied down at the young human, and without a word he took off out the hanger and towards the elevators while Trailbreaker closed his door and returned his driver's seat to the upright position. Above him though, Thundercracker switched off his audio scanners and sat in silent bemusement, having just listened to their whole conversation, and being completely taken aback by the human's point of view; he realized he had a lot to think about.

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R&R please!


	63. Chapter 62: Okay, Back To Buisness

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 62: OKAY, BACK TO BUISNESS

Darkness

There was nothing but total darkness; no light, no sound, no form, not even her own, as if she were a drop of water in the ocean, or a wisp of wind in the air; it was a calm, almost peaceful existence; to be suspended from emotion and instinct and exist in a state of simply being...

But everything shifted to something...somewhere else as the first thing she noticed was the sound of Batou's baritone snoring.

Then she remembered who she was and the life she had, and within an instant the sensation of that black limbo became a dream-like memory; insubstantial and faded away like smoke on the wind as her consciousness came back to life.

As she opened her eyes, the light pierced the darkness and her vision came back into focus, she realized something wasn't right; she felt as heavy as lead and stiff as a plank, feeling as if she'd hadn't moved in a very long time. As she flexed her fingers, she noticed how they were slow to respond at first, but as she clenched her fist several times, her whole hand responded more fluidly; she tested the rest of her body, flexing and gently moving her arms, legs, feet, body and head, and realized this kind of stiffness was only caused by one thing.

'I've been swapped into a new prosthetic body?' she thought in confusion, slowly drawing back her elbows and sitting herself upright, the Major looked around at her settings; the room was a standard military hospital room, not much save for white walls, a few life support machines sitting idly in the corner and a large window that overlooked part of the seafront; but what really caught her attention were the sleeping forms of Batou, Morri, Togusa, Ashley and Mikaela, sitting around the bed on cheap plastic chairs and slumped over in uncomfortable positions, the bed-side table was littered with empty polystyrene cups, doughnut boxes, Chinese take-out cartons and beer cans, and nearest to her side, Batou slept with his whole top half leaning on the bed with his head propped on his folded arms.

'8:48am? How long have I been out? ...And how long have they been here?' she wondered as she glanced at the clock on the wall and gently placed a reassuring hand on Batou's shoulder, the big cyborg stopped snoring, and with a startled grunt, raised his head up to see what had woke him up. As his cybernetic eyes flipped on and adjusted to the light, his face lit up when he saw those crimson eyes of hers looking down at him.

"Major, your awake" he smiled wirily, rubbing his eyes as he sat upright and stretched his arms out.

"Mmm, huh? Major?...Major! Your okay!" Ashley beamed as he too woke up and twisted his neck to one side sharply, eliciting a loud series of cracks from his spine, which promptly woke up the others.

"Hey Major, how you feelin'?" Mikaela smiled as she sat up and rubbed her tired eyes.

"Okay apparently, and in a new prosthetic body to boot, care to fill me in?" she asked, Batou stopped and looked at her dumbfounded for a moment before a look of uncertainty came over him, the others too all looked back and forth between one another before Mikaela scooted her chair over so she was closer to her side.

"Access memory partition 20384 of your external memory" she replied, the Major quirked an eyebrow but didn't ask; accessing her cyberbrain's external memory, she found the file in question, but no sooner had she opened it, all the memories in that file hit her mind like a kick in the stomach...

The old woman in the shop

The paper crane in the red handkerchief

Snapping at her teammates after that Pretender got away

Abandoning everyone when the Americans tried to kidnap the kids

The attack on Section 9

The fight with Ravage, and the injuries he dealt her...

And the confrontation deep within her mind, as both he and Batou pleaded with her to return

With a sharp intake of air she jerked up as she suddenly remembered everything of the last few days, and a terrible cold sensation made her stomach froze as she looked at Batou and realized she'd actually tried to kill him; and everyone else too. Noticing the look of shock in her eyes, Batou was quick grab her hand and hold her face, gently grabbing her attention, she met his reassuring gaze with an ounce of astonishment, amazed that he could hold such forgiveness in those prosthetic eyes of his, "Hey hey! That wasn't you! That was the cons who're pulling your strings, you were completely unconscious...don't kick yourself in the head over this, we've already seen your memories and know that you weren't to blame..." he was quick to reassure her; she paused suddenly, allowing his words to sink in before she sighed and lay her head back down on the pillow.

"How long have I been out?"

"Since you were swapped out of your old body? About two days, the process would've taken the usual twenty four hours but your body was in such a mess after your fight with Ravage that the doctors couldn't risk doing anything without knowing that your braincase was fully intact and still functioning properly, they spent most of yesterday doing scans and structural analysts, and after learning that Deathshot had had his nanites inside your braincase to clean out the rouge ones, they didn't want to take any chances; they finally got round to doing the procedure at about three o' clock this morning" Togusa replied; another uneasy pause as the Major let it sink in.

"Nanites? ...How, did you-"

"Stop you? You can thank me for that..." Ravage softly purred as he sat up from where he'd been lying down on the floor, seemingly (and stealthily) unnoticed up until now. "Huh? When did you sneak in?" Mikaela asked as she did a double take on the closed door at the far end of the room, wondering just how he got in; "About an hour ago, I sensed your minds were still tired from the day before, so I let you all carry on recharging...and judging from your eased vibes I'd say you're feeling a little better?" the panther asked the Major, his newly repaired optic glistened in the morning light as the sun hit it and lit it up like a polished ruby.

"You could say that...I'm, sorry about your eye" she replied slightly sheepishly

"It's no big deal, the important thing is that you are your own being again, there's no way the con's can ever get a hold of you or your mind again" he purred as he cleaned his paw.

"The cons? How-"

"Rouge nanites...That day, back when we were gathering intel on the Black Lotus, and you engaged that hacker that had snuck onto our network? That wasn't what we thought it was, and the A11 Alpha virus was just a decoy; they managed to slip some of their own nanites into your brain case and they'd been lying dormant this whole time. Deathshot managed to clean them all out after we finally subdued you, but because they'd done a real number on your cyberbrain the whole experience had to be confined to a specially constructed external memory file, and the emotional fluctuations cut out too because it would've been far too psychologically stressful for you to relive" Batou explained, the Major stared at him in astonishment for a moment before regaining herself and sighing in acknowledgment of the situation.

"Alright, but if those nanites had been dormant all this time, what was the trigger that activated them?" she asked frankly, sounding more like her old self, much to everyone's relief.

"That was a tricky one, after running a structural analysis of the nanites programming; Deathshot found that you'd been to some place on the net and received the nanites activation catalyst in the form of a vertical experience maze that displayed itself to you in this form..." Ravage replied as his optic glowed brightly and the image of the little paper crane in the red silk handkerchief flashed through the front of her mind, the Major flinched in surprise.

"How did you-" she wanted to ask, but the smug look on his metallic lips told her enough, "Ugh, never mind, I stopped trying to figure you out anyway" she huffed, to which everyone sniggered, "...Anyway, 'that place on the net', I've been there before" she carried on, Batou and Togusa looked at one another in surprise.

"You have? When?" Togusa asked eagerly

"Back when we were testing those potential rookies for recruitment, and I tested them on how well they could tail a suspect, I had them tail me, remember?"

"Oh yeah...wasn't that when you went on that little mystery tour and you didn't answer us on the cybercomm?" Batou thought aloud

"The same one; and I didn't answer because someone or something hacked me, it led me to this 'shop' where people leave their external memories to be safely cared and looked after; a strange business but apparently a profitable one...But the last time I was there, the whole place was, 'different', the shop was filled with the memories of children who'd disappeared under mysterious circumstances...sound familiar?"

"Too familiar, how many memories were there?" Togusa asked, the Major hesitated as the memory of the shop came to mind.

"...Too many..." she sighed ruefully, before turning serious again, "That shop was the last thing I remember before all this, and that paper crane she gave me stayed with me since then; as soon as we get back to the office I want try and search for that 'memory shop', and find out if the proprietor was the one who really activated those nanites, or if she'd been given that catalyst by someone else".

"Well since we already knew the paper crane was the catalyst naturally we ran a search to try and locate where it originated from, working backwards through the line of infection we couldn't find that 'memory shop' you visited, wherever it is on the net it's well hidden" said Ravage

"Well she did say that discretion was a top priority, if you're dealing with people's memories then it's not something you're going to want to openly advertise, for fear of the wrong people finding out and taking advantage" the Major replied

"For sure, and it's probably the reason why we couldn't locate the source of the catalyst; if that place is well protected by a well built mask array then the catalyst could've remained there for God knows how long...in all likelihood, the cons probably found out that you had been there before, and knew that you might visit again one day; they probably left multiple copies of the catalyst in all the online places you'd been before, or visit frequently, knowing that you'd pick it up sooner or later" Batou suggested, to which the Major frowned.

"...So they cast out all their lines, just to catch one fish; if they've really covered their angles on ghost hacking me then they're not going to be so easy to infiltrate online" she sighed in frustration.

"Our thought's exactly, which why we came up with a three way plan to try and gain the upper hand on the cons via offline means" Ashley proudly peeped in

"A three way plan?" the Major quirked an eyebrow, curious as to what he meant by that.

"Three ways in as much we're now taking on this case from three different angles. Firstly, it's been over three days since we sent out the SOS and Prime and the rest of his team haven't responded, we can only assume that the enemy are pursuing them and that their maintaining comm silence so as to avoid detection. To that end Jetfire's leading Deathshot, Lazerbeak, Buzzsaw and the seekers on a scouting mission to try and pick up their trail, we went back to the 'rift site' to try and find something that could lead us to them and in the course of searching the ruins we discovered some of Ironhide's energon, since the atomic structure in the ion compounds of a Cybertronians energon varies slightly from individual to individual, we managed to use it to track the group's trail. They reported in four hours ago, apparently Prime's leading them to New Port via the long way round, they headed south all the way to the coast and followed the southern most superhighway all the way to the outer most region of the Kobe district, from there they turned northwards into the forests of the Shinseina Oka national park where the trail ran dry ten miles east of the mountain range" Ravage explained, "That's not far from where that old nuclear bunker is!" Ashley suddenly realized, "Exactly, if their vigilant they'll be able to pick up our own energon signatures on that mountain and follow them back to the city, but in the meantime the flyers are still searching that area for them. Secondly, back at HQ we've more or less finally finished going over what was in those trunks; the overall contents are basically accounts and documented sightings of the Decepticons over the last century, as well as the police files on the missing younglings. The two photo albums are both records of the pretender's faces and all the locations across Japan where they've been sighted frequently, with access to the Self-Defence army's GPS navigation net and image analysis programmes, we should pinpoint the locations of where those photos were taken in due course; and thirdly, we're trying to locate where Hidaka obtained those trunks from, the original source of all those files and objects could prove to very crucial to locating our enemy; we've been using Hidaka's leaguers to try and find anyone who might have sold them to him. Whether the intel proves to be fulse or a decoy remains to be seen, but right now it's all we have to go on" Ravage explained

"Well, sounds like you've all got it covered, and all in two days? At that rate I can afford to take the rest of the day off" the Major smirked

"Heh, you wish; your fine fit and healthy, the chief's been griping about the cons ever since the day before last and we're on company time; time to move you're keister outta bed luv, we got work to do!" Ashley grinned as both he and Ravage stood up and turned to head for the door.

"Indeed, we are on company time, which means you can cut the cockiness, and fall back in line" the Major smirked

"Hey, I'm not arguing; and after that little throw-down you had with Ravage, I don't think anyone's gonna want to argue with you ever again" Ashley smirked as he left the room. As he approached the door, Ravage turned and met the Major's gaze with an impassive look, "For the record, you merely blinded me, but I didn't get a chance to take you all the way down either; so as far as our 'fight' is concerned, we're even, and for the sake of avoiding any petty debates I'd prefer to leave it at that. But do keep in mind; an optic for an optic, and if things had been different I would have most certainly taken one of yours" he growled venomously as he left the room.

"Don't worry about him, he's still pissed that you managed to keep standing after he went postal on you" Batou reassured her

"That's not surprising; but tell me, how bad did it get?" The Major asked sceptically, Batou hesitated before answering, knowing he couldn't deny her, but he wasn't keen to tell her everything; after all, if she'd had been all-natural, it would've been outright carnage.

"...Pretty bad, I knew you could put up a good fight, but...well, it wasn't hard to see how Ravage got his name. He knew you were being ghost-hacked, but still, he had to put you down hard" he replied, casting his gaze downward.

"...That bad? ..." she sighed

"Pretty much, but he wasn't the one who froze the nanites programming, someone else did that for you" Togusa interjected

"Who?" she asked

"You'll see, and believe me; you'll be pretty surprised, I know I still am" Togusa smirked as he stood up and promptly left the room, leaving the Major bemused

"Who's he talking about?"

"It's, complicated, but you'll see when you get back to base" Batou smiled

"I'd better; it seems the section's gone a little out of sorts since I was hacked" she frowned in dissatisfaction.

"Not completely, we still managed to keep things in check while you were off doing who knows what; speaking of which, while you were under the nanites influence, Darren discovered that you'd been in contact with someone online via a two-way hotlink, apparently you'd both constructed some sort of 'jigsaw AI's', do you remember anything about that?" Mikaela asked, the Major looked at her bemused, "...No...What did the cons make me do?"

"...We were kinda hoping you'd remember; when you were online you'd been creating these weird 'incomplete' AI's that you'd sent to this other guy, no doubt the cons needed your particular expertise for something" Morri replied

"But for what?"

"We don't know, last time we checked Ishikawa, Darren, Frenzy and the Tachikoma's were still checking over the section's network to see what's been going on; apparently you'd both covered your trails pretty good, they still can't find any trace of the guy. Even with the sections network back under our control we're still having trouble making sure that no one still 'lurking' around the network's main perimeter attack-barrier. And as if the cons were bad enough, the American's haven't been making things easy either" the brunette explained

"The CIA..." the Major frowned as the botched meeting between the PM and the CIA officials came to mind, "Need I ask what kind of trouble they've been trying raise?" At that, Batou and the girls stood up, bent down to release the breaks on her hospital bed's wheels and gently swung her around to face the window from the opposite side of the room; to her surprise, sitting far out on the outskirts of Niihama bay, the Major could make out the outline of the American fleet, poised, and still waiting as if they were about to attack.

"Figures they wouldn't just back away; how badly do they want the Autobots that they think they can try for another attack?" she frowned

"As badly as the cons want us dead; Jazz thinks that after catching that CIA pretender off guard we've officially proved to them that we're not as helpless as we look, and since you're no longer under their control anymore, Jetfire thinks they'll really try to push for something more harder, something that'll really stretch us thin. No doubt they know we're vulnerable without Prime and the other's, and if the cons were able to infiltrate the CIA with a pretender, then it's fair to assume all the crews of those ships are just as susceptible to Decepticon control. On the public side of it all we think they're going to use the Americans to keep the GSDA busy, try to draw the military out into an open conflict so as to keep everyone looking one way while they go about their business with us; it would be very inconvenient for them to do anything otherwise, if stealth is the one asset their relying on" replied Morri

"If that's the case, then we'd better be ready for round two. Help me up" The Major said seriously as she sat up, threw the covers off and swung her legs over the side of the bed; Morri and Mikaela both helped her out of bed and let her lean against them as she took a second to adjust to the sudden weight of gravity.

"You gonna be okay?" Batou smirked

"Do you have to ask? Go wait outside, and tell the chief I'll be reporting in shortly" the Major grinned

"It's good to have you back Major" the ex-ranger smiled as he left the room.

The journey over the city via helicopter was short, but in that time the group filled the Major in on what had been going on and what she'd missed out, with her memory of the past week being displaced the details were hazy, but she managed to get the gist of it; passing over the open bay and docks, they saw huge smoke plumes continue to rise up from the site of the collapsed Sukaitawa Towers site, endless lines of military and emergency vehicles went back and forth along the superhighways, while on the smaller highways below, hundreds upon hundreds of cars and other vehicles slowly filed out of the central metropolis, trafficked and directed by long lines of police vehicles, heading towards the city's outer districts.

"When did they begin the evacuation?" the Major asked offhand

"Two days ago, the home affairs minister finally gave the order after the protesters tried to attack the Central Police Commissioners HQ, I heard it got pretty ugly" Ashley replied

"It's a foolish plan, letting them evacuate to the city's outskirts will only leave them vulnerable to attack; even with the military providing shelter and protection, it won't do much if the cons attack in force" Ravage growled as he peered out of the window

"Which is why we're mainly focusing on finding Prime and the rescue party, the sooner we find them and fill them in on what's happened the sooner we can probably do something to go on the offensive" Mikaela concurred

"Either way, we're already on borrowed time; unless we can find something that'll give us an edge, we'll still be in the same position as we were after the nation-wide attacks" the Major replied, they all watched as the Section 9 building draw nearer and the chopper came into land on the helipad; after making their way down to the central levels of the headquarters, the Major stepped into the debriefing room, only to be tackled and glomped by a big ball of blue squeaking metal.

"Moko! Moko!" Jay-jay squeaked in delight as she hugged the Major by the waist and buried her face plates into her stomach, "Hey, nice to see you too Jay-jay" the Major smiled as she tried to untangle the little femme's arms from around her, but the youngling wouldn't let her go as she happily trilled and chirped while her little jet wings flapped in excitement.

"Major! Your back!" Batou's Tachikoma chimed in delight

"Major!" Annabelle beamed as she ran up and glomped her on the leg, squeezing in under Jay-jay's left wing to get a good grip, nearly losing her balance and falling over backwards, the Major gently pried the two youngsters off her, all the while the rest of the section and Autobot gang chuckled at the cute little sight.

"Moko gotta boo-boo?" Jay-jay squeaked

"Moko?" the Major echoed in bewilderment

"It's the closest she can get to pronouncing your name, she is still a baby you know" Hailey grinned

"You feeling all better Major? Hailey said you were really cranky before; but then Deathshot gave you some medicine and made you all better again!" Annabelle peeped in

"Uh? Yeah, I'm all better now; aren't you supposed to be upstairs with Mizuki and the other kids?"

"She's off with the other Tachikoma's somewhere in the building and Mrs Nobuyoshi's making breakfast for Matti and Aoi" the little honey-blond replied, the Major blinked in surprise, glancing over at the chief, who simply replied with one of his trademark all-knowing smirks

"Aoi? ...Wait, the same-"

"Yes, the same one, and it's nice to see you again Major..." Aoi interrupted with a smug look as he stepped into the room; the Major stared at the young man in astonishment as he stepped up to the chief's desk and handed him several red coloured files, "Here are the reports you wanted sir" he said, to which the chief obliged with a discreet nod, "...I have to say, you're looking in much better spirits compared to two days ago, and needless to say it's been quite an experience for me in that short time" he continued, straightening up and placing a hand on her hip, the Major regarded him with a smirk

"So? How did you get involved?" she asked

"You weren't the only ones looking for those missing kids; in the course of carrying out a favour to a friend I stumbled upon the kidnappings, and after discovering the rift one of the Autobot's contacted me" Aoi replied frankly

"You were in contact with him?" the Major asked incredulously, glancing over at the kids in disbelief

"Actually, he wasn't one of ours; apparently there's an Autobot slash Autobots somewhere out there who's known about all this, he, she or they might have followed the cons through the rift when they first came here and have been lying low and behind the scenes ever since" Miles interjected

"He, or they, sent me an E-package with details on how to infiltrate the military's net, and with the one instruction to help Section 9; so after exhausting all other options open at the time, and nearly getting sliced in half by a Decepticon in the process, I decided to come and pay you a visit, only when I got here I discovered world war three had gone down and you'd been ghost-hacked, badly; fortunately, the E-package had a 'unique' attack-barrier designed to stop the nanites you'd been infected with, and while Ravage and Batou were busy trying to bring you back round, I managed to slip the attack-barrier in" Aoi continued, the Major blinked in surprise before a sly look appeared in her eyes.

"Well, I guess this puts the Laughing man incident into perspective" she smirked

"Undoubtedly"

"But still, the fact that there are other Autobots out there only raises the question: why didn't they try to contact us?"

"Besides the cons being the obvious obstacle, maybe they're not in a strategic or good position to come and find us yet, maybe their injured? Low on energon? Anything's possible" Batou's Tachikoma shrugged

"Yeah, and we haven't even started on the ship yet" Sam said offhand

"The ship?" The Major echoed

"While you were hacked, we discovered a huge journal amongst all the trunk junk that contains the details to a Cybertronian space ship of some kind..." Tom started, the Major blinked in astonishment, "Jazz, Jetfire and the twins have already taken a look and have confirmed it's defiantly an Autobot ship by design, but it's one they've never come across before; but then, to them that's not really surprising, an interstellar war that lasted the better part of a few billion years there were plenty of ships jetting around all over the galaxy, they couldn't be expected to keep track of every single one. But Thundercracker and Skywarp had a look at it too and they were no wiser to what it could be, and being seekers they know every form of flying Cybertronian craft there is" he continued

"Yeah, plus, we checked the journal over thoroughly and there's no description or reference as to the ship's location, all we know is that it's buried deep underground, in the bowels of a dormant volcano as 'S.H' puts it; Japan is home to ten percent of the worlds active volcanoes so that doesn't help narrow it down, also, looking over the description of the ship's proportions and design, I find it hard to believe that a ship that size came to be buried under a volcano" Becca offered

"For sure, but if the volcano was active at one time, it's possible that when the ship crashed it caused the volcano to erupt, and possibly even opened up the ground, allowing it to sink down into the earth: don't forget, Japan sits on the Pacific ring of fire, we get as many one thousand five hundred earthquakes every year, and incidences of the ground opening up and swallowing objects as large as houses aren't unheard of. When the volcano finally stopped erupting, the cooling lava must have formed a giant cavern around the ship and sealed it in place, and looking at the illustrations in the journal you can clearly see the rock formations on the walls and roof around the ship are igneous in structure, and the ground is covered in chunks of pumice and volcanic ash" Togusa offered

"Wow, since when did you get your geography on?" Hailey quirked

"You mean geology; my uncle was the head curator of the Mount Fuji geological society's mountaineering museum; our vacations with him were never 'dull'" Togusa deadpanned

"You? Hiking up the side of Fuyo-ho? With those skinny little legs? Now THAT I'd like to see!" Batou chuckled in disbelief

"Hey! I don't-...Wait a minute, Fuyo-ho? The Lotus peak? You, the big bad boss-man, have actually read poetry?" Togusa exclaimed before bursting out into laughter, followed by the other agents and kids while Batou folded his arms and sank down on the sofa in a huff, glaring at his partner with a distinctive 'I'll get you later' look but Togusa paid no attention and simply took the moment to revel in the boss-man's little trip-up. As everyone calmed down, the debriefing room's monitor blipped and an image of one of the Tachikoma's appeared on the giant screen.

"I thought I said we weren't to be disturbed?" the chief addressed the think-tank

"I know sir! And I wouldn't have called unless it was absolutely necessary, but we got a little bit of a problem down here in the hanger!" the tank squeaked as it flayed its claws around in a panic.

"What's wrong?" the Major frowned, at that moment Sunstreaker abruptly shoved the tank to one side and glared through the monitor with particular look of annoyance.

"Tell the your maintenance crews that the hole in the main south vent is STILL not closed up! Anyone can still crawl through it!" the golden Autobot grumbled in ire.

"What? What's that got to with-" Batou stopped when Sunstreaker panned the image upwards, revealing a happy looking Ryo sitting contently on top of the mech's helm; over his shoulder in the background, Ichiro and Kenji could be seen sitting on both Bumblebee's knee's, chatting happily with the yellow scout, while Ren and Taichi were chasing after Scorponok, giggling with delight.

"...Oh..." was all the ex-ranger could reply. Suddenly, Mizuki popped up at the bottom of the monitor and instantly saw her father, gawking up at the screen in a mix of shock and panic. "Hiya daddy!" she beamed in delight; Togusa facepalmed his forehead with a particularly loud smack while the chief pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance, the rest of the agents looked at one another, unsure what to make of the awkward (yet oddly cute) moment while the Major's frown turned into a deadpan grimace; the kids however, were a mix of face palms and sighs of embarrassment.

"Okay, who wants this one?" Sam sighed as he rubbed his forehead

"We'll handle this" the girls all deadpanned as they got up to leave the room, "I better come too" Togusa hastily got up after them; suddenly, a scream on the monitor made everyone stop, and watch in confusion and astonishment as Togusa's wife stood by the hanger door, frozen to the spot as she gawked up at the giant mechanical beings, who were all standing as still as possible for fear of spooking her even more, all the while the little kids were running around the bot's feet in playful delight and the Tachikoma's were chasing after them in an (fruitless) attempt to clear them out of the hanger...It didn't take a genius to see what was coming, and sure enough, another scream of fear from Togusa's wife blew the whole scene out of control.

"CODE 3! CODE 3! WE GOT A CODE 3 IN PROGRESS!" Miles hollered in a panic as the other kids jumped up and ran out the door, followed by the agents and one Tachikoma with Jay-jay and Annabelle bringing up the rear, giggling all the way as they thought it to be a very fun game of some kind; the chief simply sat in his chair and sighed in exhaustion as he watched the chaos unfold on the monitor. "Perhaps it's time to consider a vacation?" he muttered to himself before coming back to his senses, standing up, straightening up, turning the monitor off and calmly walking out of the debriefing room.

1 hour later:

"How long has it been?" Aoi asked

"They've been in there for over an hour now and she's really calmed down; Jazz's prize-winning smile defiantly won her over, the lady's can never say no him when he turns on the charm like that" Miles grinned smugly

"Do you think she'll fully appreciate the depth of the situation?"

"Dude, none of us ever truly appreciated what we were getting ourselves into when we signed up for this, it's not until the bullets start flying and half the world's turned ape-shit that you realize maybe it wasn't the greatest idea you ever had in your life; but for an awesome bunch of bros like them, you'd risk getting your ass shot off any day" the blond teen smiled coolly

"I have to admit, she's a lot more resilient than I originally gave credit for...being confronted with this really has seemed to have brought out a part of herself I don't think even Togusa knew existed; how do you think they'll be able to move on from this when it's finally all over?" Aoi pondered aloud

"Her resilience is no surprise, different people react in different ways to meeting the guys; it's kinda like bein' drunk you know, the real person underneath comes to the surface, as for moving on when this is over? Who can say? I ain't no marriage guru, but if she loves him as much as she said she does, then I think they'll be okay" Miles shrugged as he peered through the porthole windows of the hanger door; inside Mei and Togusa were sitting on a couple of empty crates as they talked with Jazz and the other Autobots, Morri sat some way off with Mizuki perched on her lap, halfway between Jazz's knee and the couple, sitting patiently as the four year old watched the bots with great curiosity.

The last hour had been a whirlwind for the Nobuyoshi's, not least for Mei, who was now one of the few people on this earth, to know of the Autobot's existence. It all started when she'd left the section's auxiliary living quarters to go and find her daughter, along the way she'd bumped into one of the Tachikoma's and being the helpful AI that it was, the think tank offered to help her look for Mizuki; after searching most of the section's main levels, they finally headed down to the Tachikoma's main hanger, where the think tank had left her and told her to stay put while it went to try and find Mizuki. Unfortunately, unbeknown to everyone, part of the ventilation system that had gotten destroyed during the fight with the Major hadn't been completely repaired yet, and while being showed around the (still wreaked) firing range, Mizuki and the kids had managed to give their 'babysitter' the slip, and somehow managed to find their way down into the hanger where the Autobots were hiding. Hearing a commotion going on in the other hanger, Mei let her curiosity get the better of her and stepped through to see what was going on.

From there on everything got out of hand, upon seeing her daughter in Sunstreaker's hand and the moody Lambo twin's ominous glair, Mei screamed and went into 'momma bear mode', and instinctively grabbed the first thing she could find (in this case, one of Mikaela's wrenches) and hurled it at the golden warrior, striking him dead on the forehead and forcing him to drop Mizuki as he stumbled and fell over backwards; before the other bots had a chance to do anything, she hastily snatched up her daughter and rushed her out of the hanger, from there she proceeded to 'rescue' the other kids from the robotic giants and managed to 'chase' the bots back to the rear of the hanger by hurling other misplaced tools and random objects, while the other Tachikoma's managed to round them all up. When Togusa and everyone else finally burst into the hanger, Mei reacted on instinct, and without thinking grabbed a hold of a bowling ball (which had mysteriously fallen out of Bumblebee's trunk as he transformed into mech mode) and like a pro baseball player, lobbed it at them; everyone was quick to duck as the ball flew towards them, but unfortunately Pazu wasn't quick enough, and got hit right on the forehead and went down like a bowling pin. From there on, it was a case of getting Mei and the kids out of there, to a quieter, more secluded room where she could be given a chance to calm down; but she was anything but calm, she was one stroke away from being outright livid as she lost her temper at the agents, pointing out that the same 'robots' that were in that hanger were the same ones that were in the 'giant rouge AI battle' during the nation-wide attacks. Finally, Togusa stepped up, took a hold of her hands in his, and in practically one breath explained everything, from the botched raid on the Black Lotus hideout up to now, he didn't leave out a single detail, and began to sweat bullets as he explained the night Mizuki and Annabelle lead the kids to section 9 and blew up a Decepticon in the process. As Mei listened to her husband's frantic explanation, she was caught between wanting the slap him for lying to her and just being angry at him for inadvertently putting her and their family at risk, the kids and agents were equally surprised as the detective practically offered his ass up for the proverbial slaughter; the bachelors of the group had to give the guy credit, despite being some of the hardest, smartest, most well trained anti-terrorist police agents in Japan, most if not none could honestly say they would have the balls to do this, not even to the Major, who was staring at the detective in equal disbelief and annoyance for the fact that he was openly disclosing highly classified information to his wife. The idea of ghost-hacking his mind in order to stop him was tempting, but as Mei's expression slowly turned from anger, into disbelief and finally into impassive uncertainty, she realized that she needed to hear this, and held back as Togusa ended his frantic explanation with as many sugar-coated apologies as a faithful husband could give.

The room fell deathly silent as Mei tried to process everything Togusa just said, her face was blank and expressionless as she stared at him, the kids and the other agents in a mix of surreal disbelief and dubiousness, and as she weighed up the incredibility of the whole thing against the worth of her husband's word, she found herself at a very uneasy crossroads, and it forced her to ask her husband the one thing that she'd never asked him before...

"...If you really love me, why didn't you just tell me the truth? ..."

That took the agents by surprise, to which Togusa replied nervously, "Even if I had introduced you them in the first place; would you have still taken Annabelle in and protected her?"

Then it was her turn to be surprised, and after a moment of careful consideration, she answered...

"...Regardless of where she's from or who her family is, she is a little girl and somebody's baby, and she still needs your help...If everything you said is true, and we really are in great danger, then, what do I have to do to help?" she asked, taking on a more serious tone

"HUH?" everyone gasped

"If you think I'm just going to hide away up in a skyscraper while the world's going to pot thanks to a bunch of cybernetic interlopers, you're seriously mistaken! If anyone has the nerve to try and harm my family, they have me to contend with first! And don't palm off any of that bullshit that I'm not capable or 'experienced' enough to fight, if the whole of humanity's in danger then I have as much reason and cause to defend my loved ones as any of you do!" she asserted sternly as she folded her arms and stood before the dumbstruck group, frowning in doubt, the Major lightly pushed Togusa aside as she impassively and emotionlessly gazed the woman in the eye, testing her resolve with her own less-than-positive presence, Morri recognized that gaze well, from when they first met, and silently stood off against one another, to see, and know each other's strength.

"...Even if you have the resolve and courage of conviction to take on an enemy like the Decepticons, there's no possible way you can take them on in a serious fight and expect to win outright, no matter how well armed you are, believe me that's one fact we've all learnt the hard way firsthand. What makes you think you can stand up to them if they come for us again?" she asked frankly; Mai's own gaze hardened into an intimidating look of death as she stepped up to the Major and looked her square in the eye without blinking.

"...Because, I am mother to the two most beautiful children on the planet, and wife to the most bravest, selfless, most amazing guy any woman has had the privilege of calling her husband; if these 'Decepticons', or anyone else ever comes here looking for a fight, I will not expect to win, I WILL win! And I know I will because I have everything to live for, everything to fight for, and everything worth going to hell for! If my husband has had the courage and strength of heart to stand by his best friend and colleagues throughout everything he's gone through this last month, then he's an even greater man than I could ever have imagined..." she gazed at her husband with a heart-felt look of honesty in her eyes, while Batou stared at her in amazement "...and the fact that I'm privileged to be his wife and best friend, is the probably the greatest honour of my life. So maybe I'm not soldier material, I don't even know how to handle a gun, or have the cyberbrain of a top-rate hacker, but if anyone or anything comes crashing through the front door and their looking for a fight; I will rip them apart with my bare hands before I let them come within a thousand yards of my family..."

Another dumbfounded silence

"...Well, if that's how you feel, then I guess there's just one thing left to do..." Morri interjected as she opened the door

"What?" Mei asked

"Since you're obviously not the 'run away screaming in terror' type, your gonna need a little further enlightening on the subject, and the kinds of questions I think you've got in mind, are not the ones any of us in this room are in a position to answer" she replied, Mai blinked in surprise as she realized who she was referring to.

"Come on, they're not bad guys, really; since you're not scared outright, aren't you even the least bit curious?" she gestured to the hanger doors down at the end of the corridor. Cautiously stepping out of the room and slowly pacing down the corridor with her husband and daughter close behind, the agents and other kids watched as Morri lead the Nobuyoshi's back into the hanger and closed the door behind them.

"I'm kinda hungry" Ryo peeped up from where he was hiding behind Mikaela, snapping everyone's attention back to the here and now.

And for over an hour, after the initial shock and awe had waned somewhat, Mei and the Autobots talked on a number of different things, like why and how they'd come here, how and why their age-old enemies had come to be here, and what they were doing to help the humans defeat them, as well as several other things that intrigued her about them; with great relief, Togusa watched as his wife's initial fear slowly turned to confidence as she talked, and even laughed with the them, and Mizuki was delighted to finally meet them too.

All of which had lead up to now, as Aoi and Miles watched them from outside the hanger in the corridor.

"Hey, how's it going in there?" the Major asked as she and Pazu walked up to them

"A lot better than before" Mile's replied

"Just as long as she doesn't panic again, honestly, why the hell does Togusa worry about keeping his revolver at home when his wife's got a pitching arm that could put any cyborg to shame!" the ex-Yakuza grumbled as he rubbed his still sore forehead.

"If it's because you're jealous, I'm sure something can be arranged" the Major smirked with a sly look in her eyes, Miles and Aoi both glanced at one another in alarm while Pazu merely shrugged and turned to head back the way he came, not wishing to push his luck, "Eh, I'll pass thank you-" he replied, but stopped suddenly when the door to the hanger opened and Morri stepped out.

"How'd it go?" Miles asked eagerly

"Everything's okay now. She'll be fine, she just needed some one-on-one time with them; it was more a case of being honest really, and actually, she took it pretty well, but then, I suppose that's the mother in her keeping her tough" Morri replied as she rubbed the back of her neck.

"I have to admit, she is a lot more robust than I originally thought, as long as she's aware of what's at hand and isn't going to tell anyone else, I have no problems with her being let in on this; but, for the sake of being prepared for the worst case scenario, it probably wouldn't hurt to teach her how to hold and fire a handgun, least we have any unnecessary 'accidents' if she reacts on instinct again" the Major replied, the boys all blinked in surprise.

"Uh? Are you sure that's a good idea Major?" asked Miles, the Major was about to reply when Mei poked her head around the side of the door.

"Uh, hi...you guys all cool now?" Miles asked

"Yeah, we're all 'cool' now. Uh, Pazu, was it? I'm really sorry about earlier, I didn't mean to knock you over like that" she said sheepishly

"Eh, it's okay, really, I've had much worse" Pazu shrugged

"But still, that's one hell of a pitching arm you got! Where the hell did you learn to throw like that?" Miles asked

"I was the pitcher for my high school's all-girl baseball team; won the state championships four years in a row, no one ever came close to beating my fastball" she smiled

"I'm sure, but that was a bowling ball, much heavier than a base ball; which reminds me, what was it doing in Bumblebee's trunk?" Aoi thought aloud

"Oh, Sam said it's his dad's, the dude was lookin' for it like five months ago, dunno what Bee was doing with it though" Miles shrugged

"Well, anyway; what do we do now?" Mei asked

"We get back to work, and you look after your family; I think we've all had enough excitement for one morning" the Major sighed with a small smile as she turned to leave, as everyone followed her out, Scorponok came scuttling out with Mizuki sitting atop his head, glancing over her shoulder, Mei quirked an eyebrow at her husband, "Does he come with seatbelts?" she whispered to him, to which Togusa couldn't help but chuckle.

Meanwhile, upstairs, in one of the analysis rooms.

"So, she just picked up the ball and hurled it at his head?" Matti stared at Tom in disbelief

"Oh yeah, pitched it like a baseball and everything, poor Pazu went down like an anchor, I tell ya, if it had been on TV I would still be wetting myself" he smirked

"Yeah but, how the hell do you pitch a bowling ball?" Matti raised an eyebrow

"Beats me, but something tells me it's probably not the first time she's done it; but at least we managed to get her out of there and explain everything. Well, Togusa did all the explaining and Morri took her to be reintroduced the guys properly, I think they're still down there"

"Poor Togusa, I wouldn't be surprised if he's sleeping on the debriefing room couch tonight" Matti thought aloud as she pushed back her long black and ash blond bangs

"Actually, I think they're gonna be okay, she took it a lot better than we thought, after she finally managed to process everything; but I wouldn't be surprised if in the long run some issues crop up, it wouldn't be the first time meeting the guys has raised a few questions and put a few things in perspective, I know cuz the same thing happened to us when Morri first met Deathshot...those first few weeks weren't easy I can tell you" Tom sighed as he cast his gaze down in thought, Matti got the distinct feeling that there was something more to that story, but for the sake of not wanting to come off as nosy, she left the subject alone and turned her attention back to the subject at hand.

"So, all this stuff you found in those trunks, anything useful here?" she asked as her eyes scanned over all the papers, photo albums and small cardboard boxes laying strewn across the larger tabletop in a semi-organized mess.

"*sigh* Aside from the photo albums, which we've already scanned and uploaded to the section's network, there's nothing really that's gives us any real clue what to do next or where to turn; we've looked over the pages of that journal on the Cybertronian ship, but without any reference or clue as to where it's buried we don't even know where to start looking. It's so bloody frustrating" he sighed as he ran his fingers through his unkempt black hair. Unable to offer anything in the way of reassurance, Matti merely placed one hand on her hip and looked at all the stuff in a sense of helplessness, then, something in one of the boxes caught her eye.

"..What's in that box?" she asked, pointing to where it sat in front of Tom

"Oh these? Just a set of keys, house keys by the looks of them..." Tom replied as he pulled the ring of brass keys from out of the box and lightly tossed them across the table...

...The second the keys touched Matti's hand, a flash of white light engulfed her vision and in the blink of an eye, the room, its contents and one other occupant vanished, and were replaced with a very different scene...

In what felt like the longest few seconds she'd known in a very long time; Matti found herself standing in the middle of an old overgrown dirt road, in what looked like the middle of a tall bamboo forest; straight ahead, the sharp steep outline of two raggedy crooked mountains could be seen in the far distance, on the ground closer to her the forest gave way to an impressive Japanese temple, built like a four story pagoda, the building sported tapered curved corners on each of the stacked roofs and detailed carvings on the beams beneath the eaves. In front of the temple was a long straight neatly paved path with weeds growing through the cracks and lined with cherry trees on both sides; standing before her at the entrance was a tall bright vermillion red Torii, to the sides and front of which stood a white marble Fu dog on the left, and a traditional Japanese dragon, carved of black marble on the right. Despite the beautiful scene, the sensations of dread, and foreboding welled up around her, and before the scene faded away, the temple doors opened to reveal the ghostly grey figure of a Buddhist monk with his eyes gouged out, and what looked like the Decepticon symbol branded onto his forehead.

"...STAY AWAY! ..." he shouted out before the doors slammed shut, and as fast as it began, the image was gone and Matti found herself back in the analysis room with Tom, she looked up at the dumbfounded teen who stared at her in confusion, and looked back down at the keys in her hand.

"What the hell just happened?" Tom exclaimed in alarm

"Huh?"

"You spaced out there for second, are you okay?" he asked as he ran around the table to her side.

"Yeah, I'm fine...but these keys, they've a signature" she replied as she shook her head

"Signature?" Tom echoed

"The imprint of someone's aura; sometimes, some people inadvertently leave an imprint of their aura on certain objects, kinda like a 'ghost fingerprint'. It's not an aura per se, more like it manifests as a flash-back, like photo or short film, snapped at a particular moment in time, usually when the person in question was in physical contact with the object" she explained

"...And those keys have a 'signature' on them?"

"Apparently"

"What did you see?"

"...A temple I think, in the middle of a bamboo forest; it was lined with cherry trees and had one of those Torii gates at the entrance, plus a white Fu dog and a black dragon...and, someone, a monk; the person who might have left the signature, told me to stay away...I think he might have been murdered there" she explained in an unsure tone.

"How could you tell?"

"He had the Decepticon insignia branded on his forehead"

"Oh...Well...considering we're not really getting anywhere with this-" he gestured to the tabletop, "And we haven't really come across anything new; perhaps it wouldn't hurt to be open to all possibilities and see if we can confirm this, it couldn't hurt to see if this temple actually exists right?" Tom suggested

"Right, but, shouldn't we let someone know?"

"Ah, I get the feeling it might be a good idea to lay off approaching the Major on this one, at least until we can confirm what you 'saw'. We'll go and find Morri first, she'll know what to do, in the meantime I'll wrangle Ishikawa for a spare computer in the dive room and run a check to find the temple, did you see anything that might give us a general idea of where the location might be?"

"There was no signpost or anything, but there were two craggy-looking mountains in the background; shaped almost like a pair of bull's horns"

"Bull's horns? Well it's not much to go on but it's better than nothing. Come on, we'll go and find-" At that moment Morri walked in through the door "-Morri? We were just coming to look for you"

"Really? Because Ravage told me he'd 'sensed' something had happened with Matti and that you'd be needing me for something" Morri replied, Matti blinked in surprise.

'Whoa, he could sense me picking up a signature from the other side of the building? ...damn...' she thought in astonishment

"Wow, he's good...uh, anyway, yeah; we could use a hand, do you still have your sketchpad and pencil case?" Tom asked

"Of course, why?" Morri raised an eyebrow

Half an hour later:

"...Hmm...I think we've gone as far as we can go with this one, maybe we should check the files in the fifth ledger again, I think that one '22AX3' might have something we could use; or maybe even check to see if the police have anything in their records that match the initials we found in it" Darren said as he leaned back in his chair

"Yeah, that's just what I was thinking; Tachikoma, run a check on ledger number five, check through files ninety to two hundred and twenty and double check to see if data-login code 22AX3 has any other encryptions we might have over looked" Ishikawa ordered

"Rodger that!" the Tachikoma squeaked as it's icon bounced across the dive room's main monitor, as the veteran hacker raised the dive port connector off his neck and lifted his arms up high to stretch out his aches and stiffness, he glanced over at Tom, who was tucked away in the far corner of the room with his attention trained on the screen of the one free computer he could get a hold of.

"And what have you been doing over there these last thirty minutes?" he asked offhand

"Checking out something"

"That something being?"

"...Something Matti came across in the analysis room, I'm just checking to see if it's-" he stopped suddenly as something came up on the screen, "...bingo!"

"Found what you're lookin' for?"

"Partially, now I just-" he stopped when Morri and Matti came into the room, clutching a couple of large pieces of paper and placed them next to the keyboard.

"Sorry it took so long, but this is the closest one that matches what I saw" Matti said as she showed Tom a neatly sketched image of the temple, "Good, because I found your mountains" he grinned, "You have?" Matti looked at the screen, and indeed, there on the screen was a photo image of the mountains she saw in her vision, exactly as she saw them; "Their called the Ushi Kadoyama twin peaks, their about ninety miles east of Nagasaki just south of Oita, so seeing as they exist, that temple must not be far off, so now it's just a question of checking out the surrounding foot hills and valleys for any temples that match your description, a Torii guarded by a white fu dog and a black dragon can't be that common place" Tom explained

"But, that picture's exactly at the angle I saw them, is there anything else on the picture?" Matti asked, Tom clicked the mouse and scrolled down the photo. Sure enough, far off in the distance a pagoda-shaped building was poking out of the top the forest. "...Hang on..." Tom muttered to himself, clicking the zoom on the image, the picture enlarged and got rid of the pixilation to reveal the top of a temple and the vague outline of a Torii which could be made out between the dense trees. "That's gotta be it" Matti breathed, "Does it say where that is?" Morri asked, "...Uh...it says, 'taken from the hillside road one mile west of Shirakawa', that must be the nearest town!" Tom exclaimed as he read the small type at the bottom of the image, he then typed in the search engine for 'Shirakawa' and within a second a website popped up for the said village, one page link read 'local temple', he clicked it and up popped an image of the temple Matti saw, exactly as she saw it in the vision, complete with the Torii with its white fu dog and black dragon standing before it.

"That's it!" Matti smiled

"Hey what' cha' doin'?" one Tachikoma agent squeaked happily as it popped up from the bottom of the monitor, making the three kids jump back in surprise

"GHA! For Christ's sake don't do that Tachikoma! You'll give me a friggin' heart-attack!" Tom reprimanded as he clenched his chest

"Hey look at this!" another Tachikoma pointed as it crawled across the screen

"Oooh! It's a website for the Shiroi-o-Ushi-no jiin temple near Shirakawa! You lookin' to convert to Buddhism Tom?"

"No, we're running a check on a possible lead to the Decepticons; we think this temple might have something to do with it" he replied, that grabbed the other hacker's attention.

"You think you found something on them?" Ishikawa quirked as he got up, wandered over to where they were and peered over Morri and Matti's shoulders at the screen.

"Possibly, I found a 'signature' on these keys that might provide something important; whether it'll prove anything is another matter" Matti replied as she showed him the ring of keys

"A signature?" the veteran hacker echoed in bemusement

"It's a psychic thing" Morri deadpanned

"GHA! Not that again! You seriously expect me to believe that you can sense the so called 'psychic imprint' of someone's ghost that's been left on an object? How primitively archaic!" one of the agent Tachikoma's facepalmed, while the humans stared at the icon in blank confusion

"That's. Exactly what I can do..." was all Matti could reply, "But if you don't believe psychic's, how do you know that?" she asked

"Ha ha! You've been found out! They know you've been reading Psychic Eye Monthly's website!" one of the other think tank's teased

"I HAVE NOT! I may have casually glanced at a few pages on the site, but only out of professional curiosity!" the AI angrily snapped back

"Professional curiosity? Yeah right! You've been reading that website ever since Matti joined the club!" another Tachikoma deadpanned, and as the think tanks continued to bicker amongst themselves, Matti was left somewhat dumbfounded.

"I was in a club?" she thought aloud

"Apparently" Tom shrugged

"Finally! We've found him" Darren exclaimed in exhilaration, making everyone jump.

"Wha-wha-wha-wha-WHAT!" Frenzy panicked in alarm as he woke up abruptly from where he'd been sleeping atop one of the computers.

"What? Found who?" Boma asked as he got up to look at Darren's screen

"The one who sold those trunks to Hidaka, was a guy by the name of Kazuo Godo, he finally showed up in the police's records after the Tachikoma's found that data-login code had a set of encryption codes that opened a back-door programme into the Police's national records; apparently the coastguard's anti-smuggling unit's been keeping an eye on him for years. He's got ties to several major Yakuza families here in New Port and in the north territories, he did a ten year stint in prison for drug trafficking, GBH and weapons smuggling, but before he was caught he had priors for assault, illegal possession of firearms without a permit, grand theft, overseas smuggling, and in 2019 he was the chief suspect in the case of the murders of several Yakuza informants and their handlers. In short, a real nasty piece of work" Darren replied as he read out the police file on the screen.

"Does the file say where he is now?" Ishikawa asked

"According to this he was set to serve twenty years but got out on parole for good behaviour three months ago, his current address is..." he strolled down the screen, " ...Number six Sakura lane, Shirakawa, Oita, on the Island of Kyushu" Darren replied, Tom, Matti, Morri and Ishikawa glanced at one another in surprise.

"...Shirakawa? Now that's just spooky!" one of the Tachikoma's squeaked

"I'll say..." the Major concurred, making everyone in the room jump as she silently stepped out from where she'd been standing near the door, "GEEZ! Where the hell did you come from?" Glen asked incredulously as he patted his chest, trying to slow his racing heart, "I've been standing just there for the last ten minutes, and I have to say it is nice to see no one's slacking off" she smiled as she approached. "...Well, this is certainly an interesting turn, at least now we can find out where those trunks really came from, once we get Godo into custody and question him on the subject; as for this..." she approached Tom and the girls, the Major studied Matti carefully, scanning for even the slightest hint of dishonesty, before glancing at the image of the temple on the screen, "...do you really believe there's something in that place that could help us in some way?" she asked, the slight hint of curiosity in her voice didn't escape Morri's notice. "Well you gotta admit it is pretty, 'unusual'; Matti has a vision of this place being linked the cons somehow, and at the same time we find the guy who might know where those trunks came from living in the same area, I'd say the universe is trying to tell us something" Tom offered with an uneasy smile.

"...It is unusual..." she replied as she studied the image on screen, "But what indication did you get that might suggest the cons were at, or involved with that place?" she asked Matti; the young girl didn't know how to reply, and merely pulled out the second drawing that had been hiding beneath the sketch of the temple; it was a broad, not-so-neat sketch of a Buddhist monk with his eyes as black holes, and blood running down his cheeks from his orbital sockets, but on his forehead was the Decepticon signal. "...You saw this in one of your 'visions'" the Major asked, "Yeah, I think he worshipped at that place, but when I 'saw' it, there was a really bad feeling linked to it, the kind of bad feeling that tells you to stay away. A temple's not supposed to contain that kind of energy, it's supposed to feel peaceful, tranquil, inviting. I think it's possible something really bad happened at that place" Matti replied. The Major looked at her, and then glanced at Morri, who glanced at her with a particular 'what do we have to lose?' look, behind them the two agents and two techys looked on as the Major straightened up and sighed.

"First and foremost we need to bring Godo into custody, and considering his record I doubt he'll come along willingly. We at Section 9 don't go around chasing after ghosts, unless they're on the net. So, when we go to pick Godo up, you can go and check out the temple for yourselves, and seeing as you took it upon yourself to look after Batou's little sister you'll be responsible for her safety Morri" the Major asserted as she folded her arms

"I didn't intend having it any other way Major" Morri smiled

"Wait, what about Batou? I doubt he'll let me go out of this place after what happened a week ago" Matti interjected

"Considering you survived an initial Decepticon attack and got out okay, I think you'll be just fine, don't worry I'll talk with Batou; Boma, take her to the gun cage and set her up with a bullet-proof vest for good measure, I know Morri's BSHB shield will hold up to gunfire, but better safe than sorry" the Major ordered

"Now?"

"Yes, now; get your ass's geared up and get up on the helipad, we're moving out immediately!", "Yes ma'am!" the agents replied as they rushed out, Tom instantly grabbed his cell phone from out his pocket and clicked the button for Deathshot's comm line. "Hey D? You guys back yet?" he asked as the Autobot sniper picked up on the other end,_ "We're just approaching the building now, why?" _he asked, "You need to gear up mate, we're moving out, I'll fill you in on the details on the way".

Twenty minutes later:

"Major, we're two minutes away from the target's location" one of the operator pilots announced, the Major merely nodded in acknowledgment. Down below the Japanese countryside and ocean whizzed by as the tiltroater sped through the clear blue skies, followed closely by the seekers and Deathshot. Inside the aircraft Batou watched the Autobot sniper anxiously from the side window of the cockpit, watching his little sister sit in the sniper's canopy conversing with Morri, Tom and Danny.

"Geez will you relax? She's gonna be okay, my cousin knows how to take care of herself and everyone else; and it's a temple she's going to, I doubt there'll be anything there that'll be a real threat" Ashley reassured him, reaching up to place a hand on his tall shoulder.

"She's my baby sister, worrying about her is my job!" Batou replied in a less-than-positive tone

"Look, Morri can easily hold her own against a few cons; plus, we'll have Deathshot hanging over us and Ravage covering our backs, we're well covered mate! Now come on your gonna miss the mission briefing" Ashley replied as he rushed back into the fuselage and took his place next to Ravage and the Tachikoma's.

"Finally stopped fretting?" the Major glanced at Batou as he took his seat at the computerized hologram table, "More or less, the sooner we get this over with and leave the better I'll feel" he huffed, "Good, then let's get on with the mission briefing; Morri, can you read me?"

"_Loud and clear Major"_ the brunette replied over the loud speakers in the table.

"While we apprehend Godo, you and your team will enter the temple, search for any evidence of possible Decepticon activity, and get out without being detected; you have ten minutes to complete your search, in which time we will apprehend Godo in one swift move-" the Major explained, as she continued to address the team, Ashley noticed Ravage flicking his ears back and forth and twitching his head slightly, as if he were listening to something.

"What's up?" he whispered as softly as possible, trying not to catch the Major's attention.

"...I don't know, something doesn't feel right..." he softly hissed

"What?"

"*Ahem!*" the Major caught their attention, feeling as if he were back in school and getting caught talking in the middle of morning assembly ; Ashley straightened up and didn't dare look away from the Major's hard gaze. "Something you care to share with us?" she addressed them, Ashley hesitated a moment before Ravage butted in.

"Something's seriously wrong, we're approaching the village where your 'target' is supposed to be but I can't sense the presence of any other beings, mechanical or organic" he answered, the Major raised a dubious eyebrow while the other agents and Tachikoma's look on in bemusement. "What do you mean you can't sense the presence of any other being?" she echoed sceptically, Ravage dropped his gaze as he thought for a second, "Deathshot!" he called out; _"yes?"_ the Autobot sniper answered, "Run a complete bio-scan of the whole village and its surrounding areas!" he ordered _"What? But wh-"_, "Just do it!" the panther snapped; a brief moment of silence passed, but the sniper didn't reply straight away like he usually would; the Major began to get a whisper from her ghost, and it didn't feel like a good one.

"_...Primus..."_ he breathed in alarm, right away everyone began to feel on edge as the familiar sense of dread fell upon them.

"What? Decepticons?" Ashley's asked

"_No, there's cons anywhere down there, but there's no human's either; according to the national census Shirakawa supposed to have a population of two thousand five hundred, but I'm not picking up any traces of any human bio-signatures, alive or dead...The whole place is completely deserted..."_ Deathshot replied with grave concern in his voice, everyone looked at one another in confusion.

"Pilot! Get us down there right now! ...Get your game faces on and get ready; something tells me we're about head straight into a whole new load of trouble" the Major frowned.

* * *

O_O

R&R Please!


	64. Chapter 63: Chasing Ghosts

Hey there! Here's my Christmas prezy to you all! Hope you've all had a lovely day, & here's to the new year! :D

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

Additioal disclaimer: Matti belongs to JillTheCrazy1

Warning: A bit of hard swearing in one or two places.

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SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 63: CHASING GHOSTS 

"...Holy shit, he's right! No one's down there, look!" Ashley pointed to one of the streets below as the tiltroater came into hover over the village park; within less than a minute the team made their way out of the back of the aircraft and assembled on the edge of the huge grassy meadow; Deathshot, Jetfire, Thundercracker and Skywarp all transformed and landed with four deep thuds, the Autobot sniper swiftly opened his cockpit to let Morri, Danny, Tom and Matti out. _"Ishikawa, keep an eye on things from there, if anything looks even slightly suspicious, let us know immediately!"_ the Major barked over the comm. _"Rodger that!"_ the veteran hacker replied as the tiltroater took off back up into the sky. The bots flipped their scanners on and looked all around the nearby buildings that surrounded the park.

"What do you see D?" Tom craned his head up, looking to his guardian in the hope that what he said wasn't true; for a moment the sniper didn't reply as he scanned the whole area.

"...Nothing, there's no one here" he replied grimly

"No human's at all? How the hell is that possible?" Batou frowned

"I don't know, but the fact that we're the only one's here means we're the first to know about this; Deathshot, are you absolutely sure no one's here?" the Major asked sceptically

"Major, my scanners are capable of picking up the bio-signature of any life form from over three hundred thousand feet above the planet's surface; if anyone was here I'd know" he replied sharply

"So Godo's gone too?" Togusa piped in, wincing slightly for sounding naive

"Obviously" Ashley deadpanned

"So what do we do now?" Batou thought aloud

"We find out what the hell happened here; I'll fill the chief in on what's happened, and then we'll try to figure out where everyone went and where they might have gone, sound good?"

"Yes ma'am!"

"Yeah, maybe we should start with-...wait a sec...Do any of you smell that?" Morri stopped as she craned her head up and sniffed the air, everyone followed suit; within seconds the characteristic heavy metallic smell of blood wafted on the air, and seemed to grow thicker and thicker with every inhale of air; Matti suddenly felt a cold knot began to tie around her stomach, and the slight sensation of nausea began to make itself present in her throat.

"...Blood, and a lot of it" Ashley suddenly realized

"And still fresh, whatever happened here, didn't happen that long ago...Over there" Ravage pointed as he followed the scent across the meadow towards one of the main streets, everyone else turned to follow the panther, except for Matti, who took a step backwards, reluctant to discover the source of the smell.

"What's wrong?" Morri asked; Batou was there instantly to put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I-...I can't go, I, kinda get queasy at the sight of blood; I'm really not into all that 'blood an' gut's' kinda stuff you know?" she hesitated.

"Stay here with the guys, we'll go on ahead" Batou reassured her, as if on cue, Deathshot bent down to offer her his hand and brought her up to his chest, allowing her to climb back into his cockpit and as soon as the canopy sealed shut, the elongated glass dome instantly tinted into a golden matte colour, blocking out the outside word. "Uh? Lights please?" Matti asked from where she sat in Morri's seat, the console in front of her lit up in an array of neon colours and the central consol flickered to life, showing her the view from Deathshot's optics. "Is that better? My vents are filtering out the smell, you should be okay in there" Deathshot responded, his voice sounded deeper, much more bass from inside the cockpit. "Thanks" was all Matti could reply as she watched the alien consol with fascination, but quickly strapped herself in and held onto the armrests as the giant Autobot suddenly started to move. Outside the group made their way through the village, and as they entered the one of the main high streets, the one thing that struck them right away was the silence, the kind of silence that wasn't natural for a place like this; as they readied their weapons and took up their strategic positions, they strained their ears and audios for any trace of life. A car motor, footsteps, dogs barking, a scream or a whisper, anything that would indicate something was alive here.

"Uh? Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that there are no birds singing or insects chirping and buzzing?" Tom asked in a hushed voice, as everyone listened, sure enough the usual sounds of the native wildlife weren't present either; the only sounds to be heard were the sounds of their footsteps, and the wind whipping high over the valley walls and nearby mountains. "No, I noticed it too" Batou replied, "So that begs the question; what do they know that we don't?" the Major thought aloud, Thundercracker and Skywarp exchanged as concerned glance and carried on, not once daring to turn around, for fear of falling into the deathly glare of Deathshot who was right at their backs. As the team rounded a corner in the road, the smell of blood was now near overwhelming, and in the back of their minds the humans steeled themselves, dreading and preparing for whatever lay ahead; as they followed the road up and around, coming onto a four-way junction, the sight before them made them stop in their tracks.

"...Shit..."

The streets were covered in blood, enough blood to suggest that something of a very sinister nature happened here recently.

"...Oh God..."

For those who'd seen the more austere aspects of combat, both anger and sharp incredulousness began to well up for a moment before their discipline and professionalism kicked back in; but for the kids who had no such experience, shock, sickness and fearful dread welled up in their stomachs, Danny pitched forward sharply as he fought to keep his breakfast down. "Whoa! Hang in there kid, you gonna be okay?" Batou asked as he laid a hand on the red-head's shoulder, Danny staggered for a few seconds before straightening up and taking a deep breath. "Y-Yeah, I'll be fine- just- just need a minute to get it together yeah?" he replied weakly, "Do want to ride with Matti?" Deathshot asked worryingly, "Nah I'm good D-man, I'll be fine" he waved off.

"It doesn't look like a real fight took place here, look" Saito pointed to the blood trails; studying the way it stained the ground, they all lead into/away from the shops, cafes and houses, and it looked like multiple bodies had been dragged along the ground, the vague outlines and impression marks of hands, arms, legs, torsos and heads were clear to make out in most of the puddles, suggesting that the people had been injured in some fashion, fell to the ground, and then dragged along, spilling blood along the way as there were many elongated pools and trailing splatter marks, all lying parallel to one another, suggesting that they had all been dragged away in the same direction; down the main road that cut straight through the village, and out towards the northern most side of the village, at the beginning of the mountainside forest.

"...They were all dragged out of their homes, they were cut, stabbed, and were dragged out kicking and screaming" Morri breathed as she noticed one particular trail indicated that someone fought like hell to escape their attacker's grasp, obviously to no avail. As he looked all around, Ashley didn't know what to think, as his imagination began to spin, picturing the horrors of what happened here; Ravage pressed his nose to the boy's head and turned him inwards so that he was against his shoulder.

"Steady yourself my student, find your centre and calm your thoughts" he purred in a hushed voice

"Sorry, it's just-, I've never seen anything like this before, killing cons is one thing; but when it's your own kind-..." he replied in a small voice.

"I know, I sense your instincts spiking; breathe deep and take a moment to acquaint yourself with this moment, find your centre and steel yourself to it, do not waver your courage boy...Don't worry; you'll get through this..." the panther reassured with a deep soothing purr as he bent down to let the boy mount him; taking several deep breaths, Ashley tried to push the scent of the blood to the back of his mind, and got up on his combat tutor's back, keeping one tense hand on his spear as it hung from its strap across his back in its folded-up position. Above their heads the flyers looked up and down the streets in equal disbelief.

"What in Primus's name happened here?" Jetfire scratched his helm

"I'd say someone had themselves a real party and hit the high-grade too hard" Skywarp interjected, to which Thundercracker smacked him up-side the back of his helm.

"If this was a Decepticon raid why didn't anyone try to call for help while they still had the chance?" Tom thought aloud

"Duh; do the words 'signal scramblers' mean anything to you? They must have blocked out all forms of electronic communication before and while they snatched them" Thundercracker deadpanned

"Could they have even have scrambled any passing satellites too?" Batou's Tachikoma asked

"Are satellites electronic?"

"Uh? Yep!"

"Then yes, they would've been scrambled too, even you little bugs wouldn't have known what was going on from up in your satellite" the seeker replied in a less-than-engaging tone as he wandered over to one of the shops and bent down to peer through one of the windows.

"This all went down and we didn't even know about it! GHAA! How could this happen?" another Tachikoma panicked.

"If they scrambled the phone lines and internet access then there was no way anyone could've known what happened here anyway; chances are all the various military satellites didn't see anything either" the Major replied in a stern voice, grabbing the think-tank's attention.

"So, how we find out what happened to everyone?" Batou's Tachikoma pondered aloud

"I think it's fair to say that wherever all this blood ends, there might be something to find" Morri suggested as she followed Ravage down the street; everyone else followed close behind, and as the ground started to gently slope downhill the outskirts of the village could be vaguely made out over the rooftops of the closely packed houses. As they passed various side-streets and back-alleyways, the horrors of what happened here made itself evident in the various sights and scenes they walked by. Food, groceries and other various items lay scattered and abandoned on the shelves and counters in the shops, meals and drinks lay splattered across the floors amongst the overturned tables and chairs of the few restaurants and cafes, and all throughout the roads and streets, cars, vans and other vehicles sat abandoned, crashed and grid-locked tightly together, abandoned in the attempt to escape. As the edge of the village grew nearer, the blood trails on the ground began to grow more and more in number, until eventually there wasn't a single spec of dry ground anywhere and the gutters had tiny rivulets of the deep crimson/almost black liquid trickling down into the drains.

"...Primus!" Jetfire gasped in dismay as he stepped over the humans and rushed to the end of the street and out onto a large green pasture.

"What? ...Jetfire! Wait up! What did you-"

As everyone ran into the pasture, the first thing that caught all their attention was the huge row of destroyed trees on the edge of the forest, all the way through and over the valley side, something had crushed its way through the forest, creating a huge pathway the size of an eight-lane highway, and on the ground, ENORMOUS tire tracks had left meter deep prints in the dry grassy earth, while leading out from every road, ally-way and pathway in the village the numerous blood trails, coupled with hundreds of sets of footprints, lead straight of the tire tracks, pooled, and abruptly disappeared.

"-find... Oh my god..."

"Holy shit! Look at those tire tracks! They must be from those super trucks we saw up on the Shinseina Oka Mountains!" Ashley exclaimed as he jumped off Ravage and run over to get a better look while the panther wasted no time in sniffing the ground for any clues that could offer information.

"Sixteen set's each, it's them alright, and judging from these I'd say at least over thirty were here, look..." Deathshot pointed across the pasture, activating their BSHB's and hovering up to his optic-level for a better look, the kids scanned the vast area in shock as they saw the many tire tracks imbedded in the ground around the village perimeter.

"No one even attempted to try and run; they were just lead into the back of those things as if they were cattle!" Batou growled bitterly as he studied the footprints and blood trails. The footprints suggested the people walked at a snail's pace as they were lead away, none of the footprints suggested that they'd been marched, or even tried to run; they'd just walked, perhaps resigned to the fact that they knew there was no way of escape. "Yeah but, how could two thousand five hundred people fit into the back of thirty of those trucks? They had to have been about ninety to hundred feet long so you could probably only get about thirty to fifty people on board at a time" Morri pointed out

"Maybe they didn't take them all, they must have selected only what they wanted and culled the rest, it-" Thundercracker suggested bluntly, but stopped when Deathshot's cold optic fell on him, promptly shutting him up; an uneasy and rueful silence passed as the group resigned themselves to the bitter fact that it was now very unlikely that there was anyone here left to look for, if anyone had had the chance to escape at all.

"...But if that's the case, then where are the bodies?" the Major thought aloud as she studied the tire tracks, another cold sense of uneasiness fell on the group as they looked all around, looking for anything that suggested a body was nearby, but there was nothing, not even the telltale sign of scavengers searching for an easy meal. "I can't see anything, but I am picking up the characteristic residual energon traces of numerous cons, so far I count about sixty" Deathshot said as his modified left optic scanned the area. "Indeed, from the scent of all the blood I'd say this raid went down sometime in the last forty eight hours, maybe less. Judging from the overall external formatting of those trucks we saw up on the Shinseina Oka mountains, I don't think they created that pathway, something else knocked down those trees to create a highway for them, Primus knows those country roads we flew over on the way here were certainly not reinforced enough to take their sheer bulk, even when empty" Ravage pointed over to the destroyed trees, on closer inspection of the impromptu highway, the giant tire tracks lead away from the pasture and headed up into the forest along the centre of the path of destruction, leaving tracks so deep that they sank down as far as two meters in the more softer ground.

"So, if there's no one here left to save, and the Decepticons are long gone, what do we do?" Batou's Tachikoma asked. "We make the most of what's here and learn all we can!" Jetfire addressed the group, "So what's the plan?" The Major asked. "We split up into three teams; Thundercracker, your with me, we'll scout and scan the village perimeter for any other clues that might yield any other information as to what happened here; Deathshot, you'll do a thorough scan of the whole village, I don't doubt those advanced bio-scanners of yours but they can't penetrate through thick rock, on the way over here I learned from the net that Shirakawa has several storm drains and reinforced bunkers left over from the third world war, if anyone was able to hide in them then you wouldn't have detected them as we flew overhead, you'll scan for them, and the Major and her team will check them out for survivors. Ravage, you'll take Skywarp and the younglings and head for the temple, see if there is anything there to support young Matti's 'vision' that the cons have been there" Jetfire said, Deathshot flinched at the latter, and frowned at the ancient seeker in dismay; his opposition to his charges being in the ex-Decepticon seeker's company didn't go unnoticed, especially by Skywarp, who now felt uncomfortably caught between a rock and a hard place.

"Something you care to share with us?" Jetfire frowned, "Yes, I don't approve your choice in team selection for this" the sniper replied coldly, the human's blinked in surprise, this was the first time they had heard the well-disciplined sniper openly object to a command. "Well tough! Order's are order's and I'm the superior officer for this mission; well, superior Autobot officer that is" he regarded the Major with a respectful nod, Deathshot was not convinced as he glared at the ancient seeker with a particular seething glance that would've stopped any con dead in their tracks. "Don't think for one minute that look is supposed to intimidate me gunny!" Jetfire sternly reprimanded "Your younglings are well capable of defending themselves, even against this rank-armature, you know that!" he gestured to Skywarp, who deadpanned at the seeker, "Plus they'll have Ravage, and he can easily down a seeker any day of the week. Honestly! You're getting worked up over nothing! Now you will carry out your order and that's that! End of discussion!" the seeker snapped as he turned away to get to work, Morri was quick to float up to her guardian's head and landed on his shoulder, right next to his audio for a 'private chat'.

"Seriously D, we'll be okay, if Skywarp has half a brain he won't try anything with us, not with Ravage around, and certainly not with Ashley, you know you have to be nuts to try and pull the wool over his eyes" Morri pleaded with him in a hushed tone, he glanced sideways at her with a blank look, he wasn't wholly convinced; with a sharp sigh, Morri frowned in frustration, "Look, how many times do I have to give the 'the drones have proven themselves to be worthy of our trust, so why are the seekers any different' speech?". With a reluctant sigh his blank look softened into a look of dubious concern. "Alright, but only for you youngling, I won't argue further but I don't have to like it" he whispered in reply, to which Morri smiled and placed a kiss on his cheek plate; both the ex-con seekers blinked in surprise at the little show of affection the human had for her guardian; gliding off his shoulder and back down onto the ground, Morri touched down just as Deathshot opened his canopy to let Matti out before transforming into his jet mode, engaging his camouflage mode and disappearing up into the sky, Matti kept her eyes tightly shut and her mouth open in an attempt to try and avoid accidently getting a whiff of the pungent blood.

"You gonna be okay?" Tom patted her on the back, making her jump slightly, "Y-yeah, I'll be fine, as soon as we're at the temple and in the fresh mountain air, I'll be fine" she replied, trying to keep herself calm. "Well then, let's go! No time like the present!" Skywarp grinned as he eagerly bent down to pick her up; Matti squeaked as he gripped her by the waist, Ravage instantly swiped his claws across the seeker's ankle, making him loosen his grip.

"OW! What was that for?" the seeker growled, "For being an idiot! Humans don't have armour like us! They don't go 'crunch', they go 'squish'! If you're going to hold her, hold her with both hands and with your palms half cupped, or better yet, place her on your shoulder, she'll be out of the way and safer" the panther sternly growled as Ashley climbed back onto his back, the seeker merely blinked in surprise.

"There's a protocol for handling humans?"

"There's also a protocol for walking around bots feet, you may have to keep looking down to avoid squishing us but we have keep looking up to avoid you most of the time..." Morri deadpanned as she floated up to his hands, and demonstrated with her hands how to make a proper 'cupping' position for a human to sit on, "...like this, palms cupped, wrists together..." she instructed; following her gesture, the seeker brought up his other hand and formed a cup, instantly Matti sat upright and latched onto his clawed fingers for a good grip. "It works both ways you know, now come on" Morri continued as Tom and Danny joined her up in the air. Walking over to the edge of the forest, Skywarp nervously placed Matti on his left shoulder, unsure if she would actually stay there nedalone fall off, but to his surprise she scrambled up and sat herself down between his neck and shoulder plates, right below the edge of his jaw and audio. Ravage stood in front of his feet and squatted down with his tail tucked to one side, to which Skywarp bent down and picked him up as if he were a house cat while Ashley held onto the rims of his spiked shoulder plates, and without further ado the seeker fired up his thrusters and jumped up into the air, speeding off up into the blue sky with the three human cousins flanking the top-side of his left wing. Cautiously opening her eyes, Matti felt a hard rush of adrenaline course through her veins as the seeker jetted over the forest at an incredible speed, as the wind rushed through her hair and the smell of the forest filled her nose, she couldn't help but grin with wild abandonment.

"YEEEEEAAAAH! This is awesome!" she fist-pumped, making the seeker double-take in alarm. "What's wrong?" he frowned, "N-nothing! It's just I've never been on a ride like this before! For an ex-evil robot guy, your pretty awesome!" She called over the whistling wind as she hung onto the edge of his armour for dear life, nervous, but excited; Skywarp raised an optic-ridge, unsure how to reply; no one had ever given him a genuine compliment before.

"Uh? Thanks?...So, where's this 'temple' we're supposed to scope out?" he replied

"According to the website it's supposed to be on the south side of the Ushi-Kadoyama mountain range, about three miles from the main road leading into Shirakawa, over there!" Tom called over, pointing to the twin mountains that loomed ahead of them; banking down, up, and over to the east, the kids lead the way as they half-circled the eastern-most mountain and straight in-between them via the steep curving valley that kept the two giant 'bull horns' separate. Down below the view was breathtaking as they soured over pine forests, ravines, gorges, and at one point flew right past an impressive two hundred foot waterfall; as they came around to the south side of the mountain range, the vast pine forest began to thin out and give way to a tall densely-packed bamboo forest, and about three clicks ahead, the outline of a pagoda could be made out over the tops of the bamboo.

"There it is! There's the temple!" Danny pointed as they slowed down and came into hover just above the tops of the bamboo, "Yeah but where are we gonna land? This bamboo's so thick there's nowhere for Skywarp to touch down!" Tom replied as he scanned the forest for a large enough opening. "What about that road down there?" Matti pointed to a small narrow road that appeared down below, "That's looks wide enough, come on!" Morri lead the way down, the kids touched down softly while Skywarp landed with a thud, cracking the road beneath his talons, Ravage landed on all fours after jumping out of his hold, and with one spare arm he reached up to his shoulder, grabbed a hold of Matti, and promptly placed her down on the ground. "OW! Careful!" she shouted up in protest, to which Morri shot a small energy bolt up at the seeker's forehead, making him flinch; "Hey! Is this gonna be a regular thing with you squishies?" the seeker grumbled as he rubbed his forehead, "It will be until you learn how to handle us right! We're not so soft that we can bounce around like a rubber bouncy-ball if you drop us from a height! Do the words 'broken bones', 'head trauma' and 'spinal damage' mean anything to you? Or did you recharge all the way through Ratchet's lecture on the important points of human anatomy?" she reprimanded, Skywarp blinked in surprise, "How did you know about Ratchet's lecture?", "Duh! He'd been planning for like five months after Mission City, in the eventuality that more bots would make planet fall, that and Mikaela helped him put it together so she told us plenty about it when we first arrived at NEST" Ashley deadpanned, to which Skywarp grumbled something under his breath.

"Anyway, getting back to the here and now; which way is it to the temple?" Danny thought aloud, "...Matti, you said that, in your vision you were standing on a dirt road right?" Tom asked, "yeah, I saw the temple was somewhere in that direction when we landed, so if we follow the road that way, we should find a dirt road somewhere on the left-hand side" Matti replied as she started to walk ahead, "Makes sense" Morri shrugged as she followed after her, "What about the temple's worshipers? You don't suppose the cons got them too?" Danny thought aloud in concern, "We'll find out soon enough, though looking at the state of this road, I'll be surprised if anyone's found their way there at all" Morri replied dubiously, as they looked up and down the road, the other's couldn't help but agree; from the look of the cracked and worn tarmac the road hadn't been maintained it quite a long while, bitter winter frosts, rain, erosion and time had seriously taken their toll, even Skywarp was surprised at how easily the tarmac cracked and crumbled under his sheer weight, and looking at the amount of plant life creeping out from the edges and growing through the cracks and pot-holes, it was clear no one had actually used this road in quite a few years.

"Whoa... I ain't never seen bamboo grow THIS big before; it's nothing like the stuff we got growing in our garden back home" Ashley thought aloud as he craned his head up at the towering bamboo, some of the stalks were forty six to over fifty meters tall, and most were so closely packed together that the stalks sounded like giant wooden wind-chimes as they knocked together in the breeze. After walking along for some three hundred meters, Morri noticed what looked to be a small clearing on the left-hand side of the road, as they got nearer, she noticed how the clearing seemed to go further back into the forest, and when they walked past it, she saw the bamboo stalks were parted by several meters, creating a 'corridor' straight through the forest; curious, she left the road and walked several meters into the 'corridor', wading through the thick undergrowth was like wading through a mesh of string and netting as some of the more creeper-like plants snagged her legs, but beneath her feet she could feel gravel and flat stones. Noticing his eldest cousin's absence, Tom looked back over his shoulder to see Morri disappearing into the forest.

"Hey! Where are you going?" he called over, "I think I found the dirt road! I can feel gravel under my feet and the bamboo's not grown through here, look!" Morri pointed out, Ravage trotted over through the undergrowth and scanned the ground in front of her, "she's right, there's the remains of some sort of road leading up through here" Ravage said. "Uh, I don't think your wings are gonna fit through there" Matti pointed out as she looked at the narrow 'corridor' and up at the seeker's wings, "Pah! I can walk through there easily!" he scoffed as he strode forward, but as his wings got snagged between the stalks, the enormous bamboo flicked him backwards like a paper wad on a ruler, and with such force that he nearly fell over backwards, "What the?-" he frowned, "It's bamboo, one of the strongest natural structures on earth? Some of us humans make our homes out of this stuff you know; and with a bamboo forest as dense as this, I don't think it's gonna be easy going for you" Tom deadpanned, "fair enough, I'll just make it easy" Skywarp shrugged as he powered up his wrist-mounted guns and aimed at the base of the stalks, "NO! No guns! If anyone's up at the temple they'll here us and this is meant to be a covert operation!-" Morri shouted up at him "Just walk sideways down the road and keep your wings tucked in" she calmly finished, "Alright! Alright! Geez!" the seeker huffed as he powered down his guns and folded them away, Ravage only shock his head in annoyance and took point as he lead the group deep into the forest.

They followed the overgrown road for about two and a half miles; the further along they went the darker and denser the forest grew, along the way the bamboo's leaves were so packed together that hardly any sunlight penetrated the canopy, creating large areas of near darkness where nothing grew on the forest floor, for Ravage and the humans those areas were the easiest to walk along, for lack of any dense undergrowth to contend with, but for Skywarp it was a different story; standing at just over twenty seven feet tall, the enormous bamboo mostly towered over his head, but a lot of the larger branches kept smacking him in the face (to which he grumbled a Cybertronian curse for every branch) as he pushed the stalks aside, stepping along sideways like a crab he kept his wings tucked in as closely as they would go, for his bulk really filled out the narrow space through which the dirt road led. Through the thin undergrowth at the sides of the road, Ashley noticed a collection of strange-looking stone structures shaped like little houses and pagoda's, with odd little figures standing inside.

"...Hey, what're those?" he pointed, "Oh, they're Shinto shrines, little shrines dedicated to the forest spirits, I guess the temple can't be too far ahead if they're here" Matti replied as she quickened her pace "Good! Cuz I'm just about sick of this place!" Skywarp grumbled, "We're already there" Morri pointed out. Up ahead through the bamboo at the end of the road, a bright red vermillion Torii stood out amongst the dense greenery of the forest, and at its sides stood a white marble fu dog and a black marble dragon, overgrown with weeds and half-covered with moss.

"It's just as I saw it, except, all these weeds weren't here; but then, the vision I saw of this place must have been from an earlier time, seeing things and places as they once were compared to what they are in the present is a common occurrence with flash-backs" Matti explained as she walked through the Torii, "I guess that kinda makes sense" Ashley shrugged as he dismounted Ravage. "So what are we supposed to look for here?" Skywarp huffed as he pulled several twigs from out between his shoulder joints, "Don't know, but I'm sure we'll know when we see it" Tom shrugged as he followed Matti close behind. Per her flashback, the entrance to the temple had a long neatly paved pathway lined with cherry trees, and as they entered through the main gate Matti clasped her hands flat together and bowed respectively before carrying on with the other kids following suit of the respective Shinto custom, the drone and seeker, for their part, simply followed on through/around. On the other side of the gateway a large flight of stones stairs lead them down fifty or so yards to the main shrine; the layout of the area was that of a typical Shinto shrine, a main worship hall and the pagoda were surrounded by auxiliary shrines, a lecture hall, wooden plaques baring carved prayers, at the foot of the stairway on the right-hand side was a stone trough with an old worn bamboo ladle, along the main pathway leading to each of the buildings was a neat row of decretive stone lanterns, and in the centre of the sight a large circular mound stood out with five elegant bonsai-like tree's standing tall and twisting up into the sky, surrounded by moss, ferns and boulders. It was a beautiful place, but unlike a true Shinto shrine, it had an ominous feel about it; looking around, both the kids and bots saw no-one was here, and just like in the village, the sound of birds singing and insects chirping was nowhere to be heard, plus, the buildings were all in a state of neglect and partial decay as weeds and vines grew out from under the eaves, bamboo shoots sprouted out from amongst the gravel and dead leaves and fallen twigs covered the pathways.

"...I don't like the looks of this; it's just like in Shirakawa..." Ashley said offhand as he kept one hand on his spear.

"There's no sign of an attack; but judging from how neglected this place looks I'd say no one's been here in a long while; why was this place just abandoned?" Tom pondered aloud

"Spread out and search the whole area" Ravage growled as he softly strode along the path towards one of the auxiliary temples, the kids looked at one another and simply shrugged, splitting up they headed off in different directions while Skywarp was left where he was standing. "I'll uh, just stand here and watch out for stray cons or humans then?" he called over, no one replied.

As Matti and Morri entered the main temple, the sound of their footsteps echoed softly off the walls, all around the place was decorated with elegantly carved wooden panels and painted screens; but the further inside they went, the more it grew dark and gloomy, the paint on some of the walls and panels had faded, large wide cobwebs hung from the rafters like delicate silk drapes and in some corners small weeds sprouted out from in between the floorboards. Wrapping her arms around herself, Matti began to feel the whole place slowly growing colder, and more foreboding.

"Are you okay?" Morri asked, "Yeah, just-;this place gives me the creeps" she softly replied, "Do you...'sense', or 'see' anything?" Morri asked; "not initially, but from the way the air feels cold, I wouldn't be surprised if something is waiting for us" she replied as they both entered the main temple's central worship hall. In the centre of the vast room a huge golden Buddha flanked with lotuses stood before them in tall ornately decorated shrine, but looking down, their attention was immediately drawn to a whole series of dark brown-blackish stains on the floor.

"What are those stains? ...don't tell me they're-" Matti dreaded, bending down and scratching one of the floorboards, Morri dislodged some of the dark substance and brought it to her nose to sniff, "...Dried blood; it's soaked right into the floorboards, and seeing as there's been no attempt to clean it up I'd say no one's returned here since the attack" Morri replied, "So the cons were here too" Matti sighed, "Apparently, but this attack went down some time ago, and the fact that the place isn't completely wreaked would suggest that they must have sent drones or pretenders to do the deed; most likely drones" Morri replied, "How can you be sure it was drones that did this?" Matti looked around, "Because only drones would leave this much of a mess; pretenders are interceptors, their quick and clean, leaving as little trace-evidence of their work as possible; drones however are predators, they like to play around with their prey before the kill, the bloodier the better; that, and only a drone would leave those kind of claw marks..." Morri pointed to one of the nearby pillars, at the base of the wooden structural support and its surrounding floorboards were a series of wide deep claw marks in sets of four.

"They look like Ravage's claws" Matti breathed as she inspected the marks, "Yeah, but not quite..." Morri approached the pillar for a closer look, "...whatever made these was bigger than Ravage, his paws aren't this wide, and his claws aren't this neat when they cut into something" she continued as she ran her fingers over the deep indentations. Approaching from the side, Matti bent down next to Morri and placed a hand on the claw marks; a flash of white light encompassed her vision as the scene changed, and as she turned to get up, something hard and sharp swatted her across the chest, sending her flying through the air and crashing into one of the screens at the other end of the room; scrambling to her feet with blood trickling down her chest, Matti gasped in terror at what stood before her. On the other side of the room, a giant Cybertronian tiger-like creature treaded across the wooden floor growling like a lion; standing at about two meters tall at the shoulders, and over five to six meters long from head to tail, the robotic creature greatly resembled Ravage in terms of its armour plating and mechanism design, but unlike the silver panther it was charcoal black with broad silver stripes running along the length of its body, it sported a long robust tail tipped with a three pronged trident-like blade, its external spinal unit consisted of a row of razor blade-like spines and it's front paws were as big and broad as a grizzly bears with long curved claws while its hind legs were clearly suited for running; its head however, was somewhat of a cross between a tiger and a shark's, while its face and muzzle were the right shape for a feline, it's jaws were wide and gapping; filled with snaggle-tooth teeth that looked more like shards of broken glass and metal, and on the sides and top of its head, three crimson red optics glowed brightly. Focusing on the creature and hardly anything else around her, Matti didn't even have time to scream as the creature rushed forward and locked its hideous jaws right around her neck; she couldn't breathe, and when she tried to scream only a gargled cough escaped her throat as blood poured and spurted out from her severed neck, enveloping her whole vision in deep crimson red, and finally darkness.

"MATTI!"

Suddenly, as quickly as it began the creature was gone; Matti blinked in shock, finding herself flat on her back staring up at the ceiling with Morri looking down at her in concern and with worry in her eyes, breathing deep as the horror of the moment subsided, she sighed deeply in relief as she felt her breaths flow smoothly and freely into her chest. "...Another vision?" Morri tentavely asked, "Yeah, but how did I end up on the floor?" she asked as Morri helped her back up on her feet, "Well, you touched the claw marks, gasped suddenly, grabbed your throat and then, you kinda flew over backward as if something hit you in the face" she replied, "Ah, yeah; on the rare occasion when I get a particularly 'vivid' flash-back, sometimes the vision can manifest to such an extreme that I inadvertently relive the actual actions of what happened; in this case getting attacked by the thing that left those marks" Matti gestured to the claw marks in the pillar, "You saw the drone that attacked this place?-" Morri blinked in surprise, "What did it look like?". "Damn ugly, similar to Ravage but black with stripes, and more like a tiger with a shark's mouth; a shark-tiger, or a tiger-shark? Whatever it was, it was huge and fucking terrifying! If we ever see that thing we're gonna be needing bigger guns" Matti breathed as she rubbed the back of her head, "did you see anything else?", "I would've, but I was kind of preoccupied with its teeth, this thing had-" Matti stopped suddenly as she stared intently at something across the room, turning to look at what had caught her attention, Morri turned to scanned the room but saw nothing.

"What is it?" she asked, "...you remember that monk I saw in that earlier flash-back?", "yeah?", "he's standing in the corner, right over there..." Matti pointed to the corner of the room next to the Buddha's right hand side.

Matti blinked as the grey figure stood silent and still with his hands folded together, all around him there seemed to a black aura, blacker than the blackest night, shrouding the whole corner in darkness, the ominous looking energy seemed to hang around him like a mist, his entire being was almost entirely grey with hardly any colour, and as he looked up, Matti held her breath at the sight of his eyes; he had no eyes, just black orbital sockets filled with pure blackness with blood slowly trickling out. "I can't see anything" Morri said offhand, "trust me, he's there" Matti replied nervously, "hang on, let me try something..." Morri said as she suddenly got a brainwave; activating her BSHB, her energy aura extended outward to cover her whole body until her entire form was cocooned with vivid electric blue energy, bringing her hands up, she extended the force field outward towards the corner of the room, and the further away it drifted from her the more the energy dissipated, until it turned into a fine powdery glowing blue dust. As it hit the space in the corner the tiny blue sparks instantly turned bright yellow, and seemed to hit something vaguely in the shape of a person. "Your BSHB's force field can detect ghosts?" Matti gasped, "Apparently! Bloody hell I didn't know it could do that!" Morri gasped in equal astonishment.

"So, what's he doing right now?" she continued

"Hang on...Why are you still here?" Matti asked, the figure said nothing

"...Are you here to tell us something?"

No reply

"Is there something, you'd like to show us?" she asked, at that the figure slowly raised one hand and beckoned them to follow him as he slowly walked away towards another door on the other side of the room. "He wants us to follow him" Matti said as she followed after the spectral figure, "Fair enough..." Morri shrugged as she extended some more of her force field; as the figure glided across the room, the fine energy dust was gently disturbed by the impression of footprints as it settled on the floor; the sight of the odd phenomenon sent chills down the girl's spines, but they followed the footprints regardless. Letting Matti take the lead, Morri followed on as they were lead out of the temple, across the gravel-covered ground past the bonsai-like trees and boulders, past the auxiliary shrines and pray offerings, and up into the forest; walking over a small hill, the girls soon saw a small house through the thick bamboo stalks, and as they got closer they noticed this place looked to be abandoned too. The figure lead them through the open front door, along the hallway and into the kitchen, there he came to a stop, bent down and pointed downwards to a large tatted rug on the floor. As he rose back up, Matti watched as the black aura around him began to swirl and twist, encompassing his entire form until there was nothing but pure blackness, and then, he was gone.

"...He's gone" was all Matti could say, Morri extended some more of her energy field to look for the footprint silhouettes in the energy dust, but sure enough, there were none; moving to one side, Matti bent down and pulled up the rug up, "Uh, what are you doing?" Morri asked, "He pointed to this rug, perhaps there's something-" Matti threw the rug back to reveal a trap door with a brass lock, "-under there...whoa", "Indeed," Morri pondered aloud, "You think it's safe to go down there?" Matti asked offhand, "Maybe, maybe not, we'll just have to find out; it's a good thing I went with my gut instinct and brought these along" Morri replied as she pulled out the ring of brass key's from her trouser pocket, "Good call" Matti smiled as she watched Morri bend down to reach the lock, after trying several keys, finally the last one fit the lock, and with a creak and a clunk the lock fell off and both girls lifted up the heavy door; almost instantly a fine cloud of dust swirled up from below as the air around them rushed in and the musty smell of dust and dirt filled their noses. "Smells like no one's been down there in a long time" Matti commented as she waved away some of the dust, "Defiantly, but even so, let's be careful; after what we've seen so far I'm not willing to take any chances. Stay on my back and don't leave my side even for a second, okay?" Morri said as she extended her force field outward to envelop Matti, creating a protective energy bubble around both their forms, Matti nodded without question and placed one hand on Morri's shoulder as she followed her down the wooden creaking staircase into the gloom. As they reached the bottom, Morri held up her hand and a bright blue-ish white ball of force-field energy formed at her fingertips and lit up the pitch blackness; the basement was a mess, furniture, appliances, boxes and all other odds and ends littered the shelves and floor, all covered in a thick coating of dust while up above the ceiling and corners were filled with cobwebs and spiders. Looking around, there didn't seemed to be anything out of the ordinary, until Morri spotted what looked to be a doorway of some kind behind the fridge, navigating through the clutter to the wall and pushing the fridge out of the way, the girls looked as the doorway turned out to be a long narrow corridor, at the end of which stood a door with flaking red paint, curious and puzzled, they both approached. As she turned the knob, Morri sighed in frustration upon realizing it was locked, but upon noticing the knob and lock were brass she pulled out the keys, and again she tried a few until the lock clicked and the door creaked open; walking into the darkness, Morri brightened her energy light and held it up high.

"SHIT!"

A robotic insectoid face suddenly appeared from out of the gloom, its mandible jaws filled with silver knife-like teeth and its armour lined with ridges of spikes and blade-like edges. Reacting on instinct, Morri fired a blast of energy at the creature, but it simply fell to the floor limp; Matti turned to run but Morri grabbed the back of her bullet-proof vest and held on tight as she kept one hand trained on the downed creature, "Don't run! There might be more elsewhere in the house!" Morri ordered, to which Matti stopped and stood frozen on the spot; approaching cautiously, Morri fired another blast at the thing, turning it on its back; but as she looked at its red optics and realized they weren't glowing the way they should be if it were online, she powered down her energy field and stood up straight. "It's okay, it wasn't alive in the first place" she sighed with relief, "What?" Matti exclaimed, "Its not alive, look, its eyes aren't glowing; and its spark chamber has been shot through" she pointed to the creature's chest, in the centre was a small gaping hole surrounded by partially melted metal, and sure enough it's red optics were dead. Looking the creature over with morbid fascination, Matti saw how it was a mix of human, feline and insect in form and shape, it had a cat shaped head with insect-like mandible jaws, a long slender body with long slender limbs, each armed with razor-sharp claws and talons, on its back were a pair of insect wing-like appendages lined with curved blades and at the base of its spine was a long slim tail tipped with six thorn-shaped blades. "Shit! What is it?" Matti gasped, "It used to be a pretender" Morri replied, "A pretender? They're the ones that can mimic human's right? Instead of vehicles they turn into us?" she replied in a slight panic, "they can, but they always revert back to their original Cybertronian forms when they die; from the looks of it I'd say this guy copped it right in the spark chamber, that's on par with a bullet through the brain for us" Morri explained, "...But, why would anyone want to keep a dead evil alien robot? A trophy maybe? I know some people have weird hobbies" Matti said offhand, "Considering what Ashley can get up to when he's bored, that's an understatement; this one time he-" Morri stopped when something suddenly caught her attention.

At the other end of the room, a small desk and chair sat by the corner and up on the wall was a small cork pin-board with a single photograph pinned on; shining her light brighter to get a better look, it was a small black and white image of a small boy, probably Ashley's age, standing tall and smiling on a large narrow moss-covered bolder, but behind him, barely fitting into the frame of the shot, was a large Cybertronian. Instantly recognizing the Autobot insignia, Morri stared at the picture intensely, trying to analyse the grainy image to see who this mystery bot was; their large wings and engine intakes on the back of their shoulders indicated they were a flyer of some kind, they had a sleek set of guns mounted on both wrists, and sported a powerful pair of digigrate legs, each armed with a set of three curved blade-like talons, but something about their overall form was off; their chest plates were much more robust and curved like a pair of breasts, the limbs and armour plating were more slender, with more curved and smoothed edges rather than straight and rigid ones, the waist was more slimmer and the hips more pronounced with width, and the shape of their helm and face plating was softer, more feminine in form and structure. Shaking her head in disbelief, Morri suddenly realized that this was a femme Autobot; she'd heard Optimus, Jazz, Ironhide and many of the other bots talk of the femmes who'd taken up arms alongside their mech counterparts during the Allspark wars, but never had she even seen an actual image of one; she was surprised by just how similar it looked to a human female (not least because she had breasts! If they obviously weren't for producing milk, then what else were they for? The question threw her mind into a spin, but she pushed it aside for later). Also noticing the photograph, Matti reached up and gently unpinned the picture from the cork board.

"Whoa, who's this?" she asked, "Don't know, I've never seen that Autobot before" Morri replied, "...I might be mistaken, but, that dude looks like a lady robot" Matti said offhand as she inspected the Autobot's features, "It is, she's a femme; a female Cybertronian". "...Oh...wait-hold on a sec! There are GIRL robots? Alien robots have genders?" Matti blurted out in astonishment, "Yes they do, and before you ask, yes they do have alien robot sex and have little robot babies; just not quite in the same way as us..." Morri deadpanned, Matti stared off into space with a morbidly bewildered expression upon her face as the image of two giant alien robots 'getting it on' played through the forefront of her mind, "...Oh my god-" was all she could say, "I know, just, don't think any further than the missionary position" Morri grimaced, at that, Matti just stared at her as if to say: do I even want to know?.

Turning her attention back to the room, Morri noticed a large black lacquer chest on the floor under the desk, it was beautifully lined with gold, and had Japanese cranes made of seashell and mother-of-pearl embedded on the lid. Pulling it out and placing it on the desktop, she saw the chest had a small brass lock on the lid, instantly picking out the smallest key on the ring, Morri opened the chest, and was greeted by a small stack of Traditional Japanese woodblock-printed paintings, elegantly painted and beautifully detailed, but as she gently pulled each one out, the images they depicted instantly made her froze.

One painting seemed to depict a giant samurai warrior, dressed in silver and black armour wielding a giant flaming sword, towering over a little town and people the size of rice grains stood before the giant, as if watching in awe. Another depicted another pair of giant samurai, this time with giant black wings and thunder bolts coming off their backs, flying over a mountaintop, dragging rain clouds tied up with red rope over a rice paddy field; another painting illustrated a giant white armoured tiger-like creature with a human face and a creepy-looking rictus smile, pouncing on a small black skeletal-looking creature with sharp white teeth; and beneath that another image depicted a mountainous landscape with a large ornate-looking black castle, seemingly hovering on a bed of clouds with the sun shining brightly overhead. As she flicked through the rest of the paintings, the one reoccurring theme that stood out amongst them were the giant armoured samurai warriors, as she laid the paintings out on the rest of the desk and inspected them carefully, she saw was how the detail in the amour seemed accentuated and somewhat unusual in some parts. For instance, the faceplates seemed to cover the entire face rather than just the nose, cheeks and mouth, the Spaulders and neck guards were connected together rather than separate pieces, and the Faulds and Cuisse were much more streamlined and form-fitting to the thighs, plus, instead of the typical water buffalo horns, horse hair or symbolic clan crest, the helms were more streamlined and angular, more like a Cybertronians helm than a samurai's. The more she looked, the more she realized that these weren't human warriors, and as she looked at all of them again and noticed each one had a tiny little Autobot insignia on the crest of each helm, a mixed feeling of surprise and relief swept through her mind like a wave breaking on the sands.

"...Oh my god; we were right, there are other bots out there" she whispered

"And it looks like they've been here a long time, I've only ever seen woodblock paintings like these in the Niihama national gallery" Matti commented offhand

"But the question is, are they still here now?" Morri wondered aloud, "and if they are still alive, where are they hiding?"

"...Hey I just had a thought, do you think the cons attacked the temple because they knew of these paintings? And that maybe they wanted to make absolutely sure that no one would know of their existence here?"

"Considering all the trouble they went to before just to kidnap all those kids, I wouldn't be surprised if that was why they came here...but then, that only begs the question; if they were looking for these paintings why didn't they check out this place? The doors were locked and the amount of cobwebs would suggest that no one's been here in forever. It doesn't make any sense; plus, all the people in that village were taken less than forty eight hours ago, the temple and this place have been abandoned for much much longer, and in all that time, no one reported anything or came back to worship here" Morri pondered aloud

"You think the people knew what happened here? And that this whole thing with the cons 'making little kids disappear' became their dirty little secret? ...oh my god; what if they'd been taking their kids since the beginning of this whole thing, and that over time this became one big 'village of the dammed' kinda conspiracy?" Matti thought aloud with dread, Morri looked at her straight with a serious look "...Considering the missing persons reports on the kids disappearances go back as far as nineteen hundreds, and have taken place across Japan in general, I wouldn't be surprised if there are a whole load of other backwater villages in the furthest reaches of this country with their own dark secrets that stem from all this...people knew this was happening, and over time they learnt what the consequences of not staying silent would be" Morri replied as she handed Matti one last painting from the bottom of the chest. The picture illustrated a group of children dressed in white robes, being lead away by a gang of black and gray spiky-limbed cat-like creatures with morbid human faces and wide teeth-filled rictus grins, to one side a group of people dressed in ceremonial robes bowed on the ground under a giant Torii, turned away from the children with their hands covering their eyes, off to one side a man was having his throat ripped out by one of the creatures, his eyes wide and bulbous with terror as he seemed to be looking up at the creature's gleeful smile, red with blood, as if to say: you shouldn't have seen us.

"...Oh god..."

Without another word the girls placed the paintings and the photograph into the chest, did one more sweep of the office, and after finding nothing else of interest they made their way back to the trapdoor; after emerging back up into the kitchen Morri locked the door and put the rug back as they found it. After making their way back out into the bamboo forest they were about to make their way back to the temple when Morri stopped in her tracks. "What's wrong?" Matti asked, "...I'm not sure..." was all Morri could reply as a strange sensation creped down her spine, turning her head to one side slightly, she realized she could hear every rustling of the leaves in the tree's, the very sound of the wind as it whipped over the forest and the nearby mountains, she could smell the leaf-litter and all the plants on the forest floor, and as she stood poised, she felt sturdy yet ready to move with lightning-fast swiftness, and at the base of her spine she could feel movement, like the swaying of a tail.

"...You've been watching everything through my eyes this whole time, haven't you?"

"Yes" Ravage purred as he silently slipped from out of the nearby undergrowth, "Damn it Ravage when the hell are you going to learn to ask before borrowing someone's eyes!" she reprimanded, "I didn't have to ask; if you truly didn't trust me you would've felt something the moment you entered the house" he replied, "Wait, I thought Morri wasn't telepathic?" Matti asked, "she's not, but a 'non-sensitive mind is still susceptible to telepathic contact, it's just more of a one-way link; and anyway, her mind is one I find more agreeable, less, 'dense', and more 'intelligently competent'; besides, for all your gifts your still only a rookie when it comes to telepathic prowess" Ravage purred as he approached and sniffed the black lacquer chest. "So, there really are other bot hiding out there?" he continued, "Yeah but how do we find them?" Matti asked, "Patience child; all good things to those who wait" he finished as he slinked off back into the bushes.

Another hour of searching the temple offered nothing new, nothing that would lend anymore than what had already been assumed and confirmed, and nothing more that would bring them any closer to finding their quarry; for all it had been worth, it was now a dead end. Before long the sound of the tiltroater's engines echoed over the mountains and came into hover over the temple and everyone was soon on their way back to New Port. The journey went by with a sense sombreness, and a distinct feeling of failure, for having found not a single soul, alive or dead anywhere in Shirakawa, everyone felt as if they had let them down; if there had been just something, anything that would have gleaned some indication that this tragedy was about to happen, they wouldn't have wasted anytime charging into battle to defend them.

But sadly, that had not been the case, and for all their knowledge and combat prowess, the bitter truth of the reality was that it happened, and no one had any inkling as to what had gone on; a village of two thousand five hundred men, women and children had been taken, and in all likeliness, they probably weren't going to be found alive...if at all...

As he watched the clouds whip over the tiltrotor's wings out the side of the fuselage door, Togusa stared off into space as his thoughts flitted through his mind like swallows on a summer breeze, lost to the world and the reality around it; he'd had some difficult days to deal with this past month, but today had probably been the most dynamic if not hardest he'd faced; first his wife and the Autobots, and now this? He'd had to deal with a lot and it was barely even lunchtime. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that not once did he freak out or back down, if he'd had done this several years back, he would've most likely have cracked; as the thought of it came into focus before his mind's eye, a small smile crept across his lips.

"Hey, what're you smiling at?" Batou asked as he came alongside the young detective

"Huh? Oh, nothing in particular" he smiled sheepishly, before turning impassive, "Your little sister did well with Morri; I have to admit, I didn't think she was the 'daring' type, I know we didn't encounter any cons back there, but still, there could've been something waiting for them at that temple" he gestured to Matti. Batou glanced over as they watched her talk with the Major. "...To be honest, I've been sweating bullets over this whole 'being the team seer' arrangement; on the one hand I'm angry and scared that something will happen to her, and I'll have no one but myself to blame...But, on the other hand, I'm kinda, relived". "Relived?" Togusa echoed, "Yeah, relieved that she's not as 'fragile' as I originally thought" Batou replied, "...Seriously? I mean, I know she's not as 'bold' as you or the rest of us, but fragile? ..." Togusa quirked an eyebrow; Batou looked at him impassively, unsure how to reply; any other time and he would've been more defensive on the subject, but this time, something deep inside told him there was no shame in admitting one's personal feelings; folding his arms and gazing out of the small window in the fuselage door, he sighed as he watched the clouds.

"...When we were kids, our dad never made it any secret that he preferred having a son rather than a daughter; Matti had to put up with a lot, and take a lot, if you know what I mean..." he said in a hushed voice, Togusa remained silent, "When she approached her teens that's when things got worse and I was having to skip school practically every day just to make sure she was out of his way when he got drunk; then one day there was an-...'altercation', we had fight, dad pulled his gun, things got pretty tense and then-...*sigh* he didn't realise the safety catch was off and she got a bullet through the left shoulder"

"...Crap..."

"...Considering how bad that day was it could've gone a whole lot worse; after she got outta hospital the state gave custody of her to our Godparents, I however, was stuck with that bastard until I turned eighteen, the day after my eighteenth birthday I signed up with the GSDA and never went back, but I always stayed in touched with Matti and went to stay with her whenever I got some downtime. The last decade or so have been the hardest, that one day took a lot out of her, and whenever I had the chance I tried to restore her faith in life again, that the world in general isn't something to fear, and that you can't go through life being scared all the time; these last few years she's really improved, but I couldn't be absolutely sure she could handle the bigger challenges on her own...but then last week-...". "I know, considering how that day went down, she could've come off a hell of a lot worse" Togusa said offhand, to which Batou couldn't help but grin "I know, and that's why I'm so damn proud of her, but at the same time I still worry at times; like there's some part of me that still thinks back to that day, and I wonder how I could've done things differently" The ex-ranger sighed, "We all have those kinda moments big guy, that's just human nature, but at least you were always there for her...I'm, sorry that your father was-, who he was; but I have to say, looking at Matti and how she's handled herself, I'd say he didn't make that much of a great impact on her, or I don't think she would've come to meet you that day in the mall" Togusa reasoned, Batou glanced sideways at him and relaxed, "...I think your right" was all he could think to say as he watched his little sister converse with Morri and the Major next to the hologram-projector table.

"-So all in all, I'm afraid there wasn't much else to go on, there was blood and more claw-marks in the other building suggesting that an attack took place, but I think it was more of a snatch-and-grab job, in and out very quickly before anyone had a chance to go on the offence" Morri explained, "Plus our gloomy spirit friend in the temple didn't offer anything else; he just showed the way to the trap door and nothing else" Matti peeped in; Well, either way, at least we've confirmed our suspicions that there are other Autobot's somewhere out there" the Major said as she carefully inspected one of the woodblock paintings, "I've asked the chief to get in touch with the Niihama national history museum and ask them to analyze the paintings, if we can find out where they come and which era they were painted in, it could give us idea as to where they might be, or have been". "Yeah but considering how old they are it's a shot in the dark" Matti replied offhand, "Maybe, but it's better than nothing; to be honest I'm kinda surprised that this was all we found" Morri sighed, "You were hoping to find something else?" the Major quirked, "I was kinda hoping we'd find the holo-projector cube that goes with this" Morri said as she reached into the little satchel bag she's been carrying over her shoulder, and pulled out the Cybertronian holo-projector key. "Unfortunately we couldn't find it, but I thought it couldn't hurt to bring it along just in case" she reasoned, "what is it?" Matti asked as she looked at the odd little alien device, "a key that opens a Cybertronian holo-projector cube, Jazz said that this particular make is old by Cybertronian standards, it was among the possessions we found in those old trunks, but for some reason the cube wasn't there" Morri replied as she handed Matti the key, "huh, why would-"

The second her hand touched the alien metal, a blinding flash of white light encompassed her vision and engulfed her, all of a sudden she felt like she was in the centre of a tornado as the scene around her rapidly shifted and warped to become something else entirely; the sound of the tiltrotor's engines faded into the sound of traffic and people, and right away she realized she was in a very different place.

'Aw shit not again!' she thought with dread as everything finally came into focus; blinking in surprise, she saw that she was walking through a city of some kind, but this wasn't New Port, or any other city she's seen before, the buildings were old and yet still retained much of the old traditional Japanese architectural trappings; upturned roof corners, shrine-like pillars, and strong even lines. The roads were filled with people riding bicycles, riding in and pulling rickshaws, steering horse-driven carts and riding aboard old-fashion trams while some drove through the street in old vintage cars (cars she'd only ever seen on history websites and in old books in the library), as she passed a man in a sharp looking suit reading a newspaper, she glanced at the date underneath the headline. '1929?' she gasped in alarm, but as she continued to walk along the street, she realized that she was following close behind someone; a young man, probably in his teens, carrying a large cylindrical object wrapped in a tatty dirty grey cloth under one arm, and in his other hand he carried a small parcel wrapped and bound in brown paper and string and was about the size and shape of a large Rubik cube, a tiny blue spark seemed to gleam along one of its corner's for a brief second before a series of Cybertronian glyphs glowed through the paper before disappearing. As he turned to look both ways before crossing the busy street, Matti gasped when she saw his face and recognized him, it was the boy from the black and white photograph, older and more grown up, but his eyes and jaw-line were unmistakable, she stared at him in amazement as he cross the street towards a large building with the sign: Tokyo Post Office above the main entrance.

The scene shifted again, and this time Matti found herself standing inside a large long gloomy room, looking around, she saw its walls were filled from floor to ceiling with metal doors, each with a number above each lock; at the end of the room, Matti saw the young boy kneeling down in front of an open locker and after placing the cylindrical object inside, he paused as he held the cube-shaped parcel in both hands; for a moment a look of fear and hesitation fell upon his features as he gazed down at the meagre little parcel, as if unsure of himself and what he was doing. Quietly yet quickly approaching, Matti strained to listen as he drew in breath...

"...I don't know, if I am doing the right thing, nor do I know what will happen once I go home; I fear-...I fear, what has happened down there will repeat itself one day, and it will fall to someone else to stop them, and stop them forever..." he said in a low shaky voice, his breath quivered as he drew in another breath, and Matti tilted her head in fretful curiosity, "...I don't think I'm going to live long enough to see this through to the end, and it's not fair that someone else will be burdened with this curse, but if I can hide the trunks at the temple, they may stay hidden just long enough for the truth to stay safe; until the day we're all ready to face this...I'm going to miss you, you're the most beloved, dearest most wonderful friend anyone could wish for, I know one day you will find them again, you'll find your family, and your daughter, and one day, everyone will know what we did together, what we did to protect the future, and the cost we've had to pay in the name of our children, and all the children yet to be born...I hope-...I just hope their ready..." he finished.

In his hand the parcel glowed in a myriad of blue hues, and as she strained her ears, Matti could vaguely hear a whisper, a female voice spoken in a strange alien language; then he kissed the cube and gently placed it in the locker before closing the door and locking it. Again the scene shifted and warped, and this time she was standing outside the post office as the young man exited the building and disappeared into the sea of people; as she stood on the curb, a strange sense of surrealism and detachment swirled around her like a thick fog, and as she looked up into the sky, she saw the sun, moon and stars arc across the heavens at impossible speeds, day and night flashed across the sky and all around time itself was speeding up, playing out it's long dance of cause to effect and progress in mere minutes; all around her she saw buildings age, decay and disappear in the blink of an eye with new buildings suddenly rising up from the ground in their place, the people were but rivers of blurred motion, changing slowly in fashion and trend, vehicles changed from old to new, technology evolved and spread its influence as the skyline lit up with the glow of neon lights and in the distance the city's skyline grew taller, vaster and brighter as the number of skyscraper's rose up into the sky. This felt most bizarre, as if floating in deep water, cold, calm and still, while a maelstrom was swirling all around; it was almost indescribable, but as suddenly as it started, suddenly it stopped and Matti found herself in the middle of a catastrophe; people were running and screaming as the sky lit up in a blinding white light and the ground shook violently, knocking her to the ground as buildings cracked and crumbled, people fell about and over one another, cars crashed and collided, and in the distance a giant fiery mushroom-shaped cloud slowly rose into the sky. The ground shook and rumbled, the concrete ground cracked and fractured and slowly but surely the whole world rose up as the city block she was lying on began to sink into the ground; people panicked and screamed in terror as they tried to climb and crawl their way out of the giant hole, but to no avail as another thunderous roar caused the earth above to close in over the block. Darkness suddenly fell, and all around the air rang with the screams, sobs and terrified pleas for help of all the people trapped under the ground; trying to scramble to her feet amid the crowded hubbub of moving bodies, Matti barely had time to regain her bearings when suddenly a low growling noise echoed out over the crowd, the darkness fell silent as the people stopped and listened in fear...

A huge pair of red eyes glowed from out of the pitch black, followed by a disgustingly gluttonous laugh, all around the sensations of eating raw meat and drinking blood filled the inside of her mouth, throat and stomach, forcing her keel forward in utter disgust, almost to the point of vomiting; as suddenly as it began, the air rang with shrilled screams, and the awful sound of flesh being squished and bones being crushed and cracked...

"MATTI!"

Batou had her face gently cupped in his large hands as he gazed down at her with worry written across his face, behind him Matti, Togusa, Ashley, Saito and the Major stood around her with equal concern; suddenly hearing aircraft engines and the subtle whirring of computers, Matti realized she was back in the tiltrotor, and back in the present time. With a couple of deep cleansing breaths she slowed her shaking lungs and concentrated on calming her trembling until finally she felt right with herself again and Batou gently placed his hands on her shoulders as she regained her bearings.

"Are you okay?" he asked worryingly, "...Y-yeah, I am now..." she replied weakly, as if she'd had the wind knocked out of her, "what the hell just happened?" Saito asked in alarm, "Another flash-back; and this time a very bad one" Ravage replied from where he stood on the opposite side of the hologram-projector table, watching her intensely; "What the hell did you see?" Ashley asked with morbid curiosity, for a moment Matti didn't reply as she tried to make sense of what she just experienced; to stop the repulsive essence of carnage from overwhelming her, she pushed the feelings aside and focused only on the images, and as the flash-back replayed through her mind, there was only answer she could give as she looked Batou in the eye.

"...I know where the cube's hidden..."; "what?" Togusa blinked in confusion, "the holo-projector cube, I know where it's hidden" Matti replied as she looked at the Cybertronian key in her hand.

"Major Kusanagi? Major Kusanagi come in please! This is GDSA intelligence officer Kubota calling Major Kusanagi of Section 9 on priority clearance A1, code: red eye, do you read me over?" a familiar voice sounded over the tiltrotor's loud-speaker, the dire urgency in his voice instantly snapped everyone to attention; code red eye was the GSDA's code name for a Decepticon attack. "This is Major Kusanagi, I read you loud and clear, what's the problem?" the Major barked back, "We had a situation in the Shinjuku prefecture of old Tokyo less than ten minutes ago, a Decepticon tried to attack one of the convoy's that had been sent to protect the refugee district there, we came under heavy fire and suffered a number of casualties, but we managed to neutralize the enemy and take him out" Kubota replied, the Major and Batou glanced at one another in confusion. "Are you saying you managed to kill a Decepticon?" Morri asked in bemusement, "Yes, we managed to take him down, but...we found something else too; you better get over here immediately, and bring the scorpion too"

Less than 35 minutes later:

"Shit, that is one big-ass con!" Ashley commented as he stared up at the giant robot. After a quick detour back to HQ to pick up Scorponok, the team immediately headed straight to Tokyo, and to the run-down Shinjuku prefecture where they were greeted by several GSDA tank units. In a half-demolished street, still smoking with one or two little fires still alight, the thirty foot form of a dead headless Decepticon lied where it fell; face down in the middle of the street with parts of its helm blasted into a nearby apartment building, about forty feet away two half-destroyed multi-ped tanks laid slumped over on their sides like wounded beasts waiting for death, all around the GSDA troops vigilantly guarded the perimeter to the sight, overhead a handful of jigabachi's patrolled the skies while in the centre of all the action the Autobots and humans stood around the scene of the attack.

"You said he just 'blasted out of the ground?'" Deathshot queried, "Indeed, over here; when he first blasted out of the hole he couldn't seem to get out properly, as if his foot was caught on something under the tarmac while all the while firing rounds off, as if his finger was stuck on the trigger; and then he seemed to shake it loose and came at us. Luckily the tank units were on standby and managed to fire a round off before he could aim, but not before taking down two of the units as he fell; the casualties we suffered were actually a result of him colliding with the tanks rather than a direct hit from those wrist-cannons of his" Kobuta explained as he lead the way around the dead con and down to the end of the street; there, in the centre of a four-way junction, a huge craves-like crack about fifty feet long had opened up the disused subway tunnel down below, but below that was another, much deeper hole that went all the way down into pitch blackness. All around experts and soldiers dressed in climbing gear were going up and down in and out of the hole on a network of carefully tied-up ropes and cable-lines; their torches were the only lights piercing the darkness some sixty feet down.

"Whoa, he came outta there? It looks like it goes on forever!" Batou's Tachikoma squeaked

"How far down does it go?" the Major asked

"About three hundred meters give or take, but it's what's at the bottom that the cause for concern. We've still got our earthquake analysts looking into it but we think we might have discovered a part of old Tokyo that sank into the ground during the war. The seismic tremors created by the nukes caused the earth below to sink in one large piece while the ground overhead closed in above and sealed it away intact. There were many such areas of the city that sank during the war, but this is by far the deepest set of ruins we've ever found" the intelligence officer replied. "If he was able to navigate between any of these 'subterranean city pockets', chances are there'd be more of them down there" Jetfire suggested as he leaned forward on his cane, "My guys have been down there for the last half hour and so far they haven't reported seeing any tunnels or openings of any kind, at least, not yet they haven't..." Kobuta replied dubiously. As the others talked amongst themselves, Matti stared intently down at the hole and she began to feel a strange sensation lap at the edge of her awareness like ripples in a still pond; in the back of her thoughts a familiar whisper began to echo through the forefront of her mind as a strange alien voice whispering in s strange language drew her attention to what lay on the other side of the darkness.

"You sense it don't you?" Ravage quietly purred in her ear, the sinisterness of his voice sent a cold shiver up her spine, but she didn't flinch this time, "Yes" she whispered, "What is it that calls out to you?" he asked, "...something-...something alive, I think, it's that voice I heard in the flash-back" she hesitated, "Considering how this morning's gone so far I'd say something's down there waiting to be found" Morri peeped in from where she stood at Matti's back, "Considering how intense that flash back was, I'm inclined to agree; bar all the humans I sense no other minds down there, but there is the scent of death wafting up from down there" the panther whispered in reply, "Even so, we need to check it out" Matti replied. "Okay then, hold on and try not to look down" Morri said she grasped Matti's hand in her own, activated her BSHB force-field and stepped off the edge of the hole and together they both fell down into the dark, before anyone had a chance to react Ravage took a powerful leap into the hole and landed on a narrow piece of crumbled concrete, and proceeded to hop and jump his way down the ruins to the bottom, without a word Scorponok spun his claws and leapt after them.

The hole was dark, deep and unbelievably vast; the voices of the soldiers sounded like they echoed on forever as they climbed up and down the ruins and exposed earth, their only form of navigation was a pathway of large lights that had been drilled into walls of the cavern, As the BSHB's force field kept them from falling at terminal velocity, both the girls briefly looked around in awe at the debris and wreckage that lay strewn about the place in a chaotic mess, but down below the scene was quite different; it was an archaeologist's dream, an entire city block sat on the bottom level, partially demolished in places and covered in a thick layer of grey dust and ash, it stood like some forgotten relic that had been left to decay while all around soldiers and people in climbing gear were going about their duties. "Okay, don't forget to bend your knees-" Morri said as the ground quickly approached, although they had fallen at a considerably slower speed thanks to the force field they still landed with a bit of bump, Morri had landed them both some distance off from the soldiers so as not to alarm them and within seconds Ravage came trotting up to their sides while Scorponok spun his claws and burrowed down into the earth, throwing up a plume of dirt and rock as he disappeared. Looking around at the dusty ruins Morri wondered where to begin when suddenly the Major, Batou, Pazu and Boma landed with four resounding thuds, making them practically jump out of their skins.

"GEEZ! Did you have to do that? You could have climbed down the ropes you know!" Matti reprimanded her brother , "I'm a class-A cyborg Matti, I've survived worst jumps than that" Batou causally replied as he looked around, his cybernetic eye's instantly fell on the old buildings around them as he commented offhand "whoa, this is some place", Matti was about to lose her patience with him when Morri placed a hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry about him, you can rip him a new one later, for now let's focus on what we need to do" she whispered in her ear, Matti simply passed a frustrated sigh and let her shoulders drop; overhead Tom, Danny and Ashley drifted down via their force fields and joined them at their sides.

"The guys are gonna wait up top, there's not much they can do down here anyway, being seekers an' all; Togusa and Saito are gonna abseil down via the cables" Ashley thumbed up at the opening, "Whoa, this place is huge! All this has been down here this whole time and no one even knew?" Tom scratched his head, "Apparently; and the next time you two decide to go off somewhere unannounced, give us a head's up first" The Major glanced at the two girls, "Sorry Major, kinda going a hunch here" Morri shrugged, "and you gotta admit, our 'hunches' have been somewhat paying off this morning" Danny added, "Yeah but what are we gonna find this time?" Batou asked offhand, "...Only one way to find out" Matti replied as she scanned her eyes over the ruins, walking forward several paces she tried to focus the sum of her ability on the ruins in general, trying to remember the alien voice and where in particular it had come from, 'where are you?' she thought.

"Your casting your net too far child; spreading your mind too wide and too thinly" Ravage purred as he silently came up alongside her, "talking to ghosts is one thing, but trying to hone in on their aura's is another; I don't even know what I'm looking for" she replied dubiously, "Could it be somewhere through here?" Scorponok called over as he stuck his head out from in between a huge cluster of flat boulders. "Through to where? Through those rocks? " Tom replied curiously, "These boulder's have been disturbed recently, and my sonar's picking up a huge hollow space behind them on the other side, it's so large I can't hear my 'pings'" he beckoned them to approach as he waved his left claw, "You think the con came through that way and he brought the wall down to cover his trail?" the Major asked, "Undoubtedly, it's defiantly big enough for a con of his size to fit through, but..." the scorpion hesitated, "But what?" Ravage asked; "...Well, I can't be certain, but I could have sworn that I detected a faint energy signature on the other side" he replied, "Another con?" Batou tensed, "No, it was much too weak to be a spark signal; it felt more like a beacon signal, similar to the one Prime sent us that night we ran from the first safe house" Scorponok replied, "So, the cube's a beacon too?" Matti thought aloud, "Maybe, we'll soon find out, stand back and I'll blast the rock away" Scorponok said as the cannon on his back behind his head began to power up. "No wait! We don't want to panic everyone over there" Morri gestured to the soldiers on the far side of the ruins, "Plus, you could accidently cause more rocks to fall; can you move one of the rocks just wide enough for us to squeeze through?" she continued, looking around, Scorponok clicked his mandibles a few time as he surveyed the boulders before looking back at her, "Give me a minute" he retreated back into the hole; from the other side of the boulders the humans could hear the rocks grinding slightly, then a loud muffled crack before one of the larger boulder's fell over with a loud deep thud that echoed loudly around the craves all the way up to the opening, as it hit the ground it cracked in half and threw up a cloud of dust, instantly grabbing the attention of the other soldiers, which hadn't escaped the Major's notice either. "You guys go on ahead, we'll make sure these guys don't cause much of a fuss; just be careful okay?" The Major said, "okay" Morri replied as she lead the way through the now exposed hole, followed by her cousins, "Matti-" Batou called after his sister, "Yes Batou?" she looked back over her shoulder to meet his gaze; for a moment Batou wasn't sure what to say, but as he looking at her, and saw the confidence in her stance, he realized didn't have to say anything "...Just-, watch your back in there okay?" he sighed, "...sure thing bro" she smiled and disappeared after the cousins and drones. Straightening up, Batou turned to guard the entrance to the hole, but noticed the satisfied grins plastered across the faces of his team-mates, "What?" he shrugged.

"This is kinda weird, why would a great big thirty-something foot con be hiding all the way down here?" Ashley though aloud as he followed close behind Tom, "Strategy my student: the main craves back there ran right beneath the main road to the refugee district; he must have been planning a surprise ambush attack on the humans but thought the tanks would make a more fun challenge instead; why he screwed up by getting his foot plates caught in the road and exposing himself like that is anyone's guess. But then, he wouldn't be the first con in history to die at the hands of his own stupidity" Ravage replied "Shit happens, even to the worst of us" Tom shrugged.

The five humans and two drones carried on for another seventy or so yards before they stopped in front of a black hole and Scorponok raised his claw above his head to signal them to halt. "Can you detect that?" he whispered, "Yes, my scanners detect it too" Ravage replied, "What is it?" Morri asked, "The signal; its right through there..." the scorpion pointed to the pitch black space, the kids all craned over each other's shoulders for a better look, the ominous darkness sent a chill down their spines, but their curiosity overrode their instinct to stay put. "What's in there?" Danny asked tentavely, "Judging from my pings it's another small section of the old city, but there's fewer buildings in this one...I'm not picking up any spark signals, or any anything else; it's safe to proceed" Scorponok replied, "In that case, and please excuse the pun, let's throw some light on the situation..." Tom said as he pushed to the front, activated his force field and sent a series of energy-light bubbles up into the dark, the bright bluish lights cut through the pitch-blackness and reviled the chamber, making the seven of them stare in muted shock at the scene before them.

Several metres away a collection of partially demolished old-style buildings sat in two long rows forming a high street; cars and trams lay crashed, upturned on their sides and completely destroyed on and near the sidewalks, but in the centre of the street the ground was completely covered in human bones; some were complete skeletons, others were partially complete, but the rest were randomly scattered about in a mess and for the most part were broken, crushed, snapped and splintered while scattered around them were pieces of clothing, shoes and various personal possessions. In her stomach Matti felt that cold knot begin to tie itself around her insides as she scanned over the macabre scene, and looked away in disgust; feeling her knees begin to weaken, she leaned back on one of the boulders as she tried to keep her mind focused, but as two and two began to add up, a strange, dreadful, but not wholly surprising realization began to come to light. "...You know what killed them, don't you? ..." Ravage asked, not even turning to look at her; the other's glanced at one another in bemusement before looking to Matti, wondering what he meant by that remark, passing a heavy mournful sigh, she reluctantly shook her head. "...That con...he's been hiding in here this whole time...he was trapped just like they were..." she replied in a shaky voice, Morri placed a hand on her shoulder, but Matti stopped her, "No, I'll be fine, honest; it's just...why is this beginning to feel so, unsurprising?" she thought aloud. "I've been asking myself that same question since this whole mess kicked off; it may not surprise you, but that doesn't mean you get used to it" Morri sighed painfully. Looking back at the street, Matti's attention was suddenly drawn to the building at the far end of the street; standing back up she scanned the front and instantly recognized it as the post office from the flash-back, "That building, that's where the cube's hidden" she said without thinking, "Your sure?" Tom asked, "Positive" she replied. As they made their way through the street, the kids and drones carefully stepped over and around the bones, not even so much as letting the tips of their toes touch them as they made their way to the post office; finally when they reached the main entrance, the seven of them headed on through the main office and into the back of the building; searching through the various rooms, they eventually found a long tall room that was lined with rusty lockers from ceiling to floor. "This is it..." Matti said offhand as she walked towards the end of the room, trying to remember which locker the mysterious boy was crouching in front of, she looked around at the lower lockers nearer the floor, and the more she looked, the more she began to feel a sense of déjà vu around the locker right in front of her; "I think, it's this one..." she pointed to it, slipping her hand into her little satchel bag, Morri pulled out the little pair of locker keys and put one in the rusted lock, with a few twists the locked creaked and grinded before clicking open with a dull clunk. "Okay, let's see now..." Morri said offhand as she opened the door, at the front of the locker, a little tatty cube-shaped parcel wrapped in brown paper and string sat covered in dust, Morri gently picked it up and handed it the Ashley for safe keeping but at the back of the narrow locker a large cylindrical object wrapped in a dirty grey linen cloth caught her eye, as she laid her hand on it a small 'ting' sounded, indicating it was glass, so carefully slipping one hand under and the other behind it, Morri slowly brought it out and set it down on the floor; squatting/bending down for a closer look, the other's watched as the linen was unwrapped and the object reviled.

It was a tall specimen jar, filled with a grungy pale yellow liquid and inside was the preserved body of a...

At first no one was sure what they were looking at; the organism was a grotesque puzzle of deformed flesh and exposed tissue coupled mangled metal and exposed circuits, the left arm was that of a perfectly developed human foetus while the right was a long metal pincer tipped with three long curved claws, from the groin down the limbs were deformed digigrade legs with the feet elongated to form a set of clawed feet, one of which had a large dark red tumour-like growth extending out from the calf. But the head was by far the worst; the cranium, forehead, temples, upper cheeks and orbital sockets are that of a human foetus, but the jaw, ears and throat were grossly formed into a large set of metallic insect-like mandibles, lined with silver needle-shaped teeth and a double set of razor sharp fangs, it's left eye was dark and sunken with a red optic in place while the left was normal but pale with the cornea being clouded. The torso was elongated for a human foetus, the spine was comprised of metal vertebra and exposed with the spinous process protruding out like a row of curved razor blades, the ribs were external and made of metal too as they hugged the chest in a ribcage-like structure that formed into a series of symmetrical thin armour plates across the chest, shoulders and hips with noticeable deformities and tumour-like growths pushing up from under the plates while across the surface of the organic tissue flesh blood vessels and silver scar-tissue crisscrossed like a mesh of spider webs; the only thing that denoted this macabre creature as a (former?) human foetus was the fact that the umbilical cord and placenta were still attached.

"...Oh my God..."

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R&R Please!


	65. Chapter 64:The Road To Hell

Another Christmas day update! :D

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

Additional disclaimer: Matti belongs to JillTheCrazy1

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SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 64: THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS 

Section 9 HQ, 2:45pm:

For once, the darkness wasn't a scary place

It didn't seem to hold the same forebodingness or unknown fear that it always seemed to have, for once: nothing was so scary compared to this...

For the longest, most painfully horrifying time, no one had spoken, no one had moved, no one needed to be told what they were looking at as they put two and two together:

The kidnapped children

The empty village

The rouge nanites

The Decepticons with the deformed anatomy

It was as if a perfect pattern had been laid out before their eyes/optics and until now they had only seen tiny fragments of it, until now they didn't clearly see what it's meaning or purpose was, only that it was so vast that everything and everyone who had even discovered a mere fragment of it, had been entrapped by it, and that it was moving them in a singular direction; everything that had come before was now put into perspective, with everything they had seen, with all the battles they had fought and all the knowledge they had come to posses, how the hell could they not have seen this? How could they not have thought of this as a possibility?...But then, what sane person/being could? Who could push the boundaries of madness and insanity to conceive something like this? The awful twisted thought of it didn't even bare thinking about, and as their minds reeled and spun from the gut-wrenching horror of it, they found they couldn't utter a single word, for there were no words that could sum this up and nothing that could lend any form of reassurance that here was something, anything, to be saved from this. As they all stood around the table looking at the pathetic little human/Cybertronian hybrid foetus in its jar, the humans and Autobots all stood/sat around idly; some stared into empty space, their eyes/optics glazed as their minds tried to make sense of this.

"...This, is what they've wanted all those younglings for? ...To turn them into-..." Bluestreak thought aloud in a small weak voice, for the first time a very long time, he was near-speechless.

"...Slag...If they've been taking them for this purpose all this time, and managed to perfect the- whatever 'procedure' it is; they must have created an army of hundreds, maybe even thousands" Scorponok dreaded in a fearful voice.

"I've seen some strange and down-right slaggin' weird things in my time, but that? That just ain't right" Thundercracker threw in his opinion.

"Yeah, I mean, I've seen techno-organics before; but something about 'that' is different somehow, and defiantly 'not in a good way' kinda different" Skywarp concurred as he stared at the specimen jar in a mix of morbid fascination and nervous dubiousness.

"For once, I actually agree the twit here; I too have seen a whole range of techno-organics, all with different cell-to-microcircuit ratios, but techno-organics were fashioned from scratch using specially created interface circuit-tissues and 'cyborg' type mechanisms that interfaced with organic components at the cellular level; essentially they were still robotic, they weren't grown in a 'womb'" Jetfire gravely said as he leaned on his cane

"And what about you? That 'thing's' got nanites throughout its whole body; you're the nanite expert here, surly you must have some idea how this creature was created?" Sunstreaker asked Deathshot, but the sniper didn't reply as he leaned against the wall with his arms folded and his trademark cold glare aimed downwards at the floor.

"He doesn't know, but he does know who's nanites they are" Ravage growled bitterly from where he sat in the nearby corner with his back turned to the whole group, his ears pressed back, his optic glowing intensely and his mace spikes raised in raw ire. All the way back the New Port he hadn't spoken a word, though he hadn't snapped or pawed at anyone his anger was radiating off in waves so thick that his brothers cowered away as he had entered the hanger, and even Matti felt the burn of his temper lap at her mind's edge. From the moment he saw the hybrid in the jar his raw tense attitude hadn't changed, even the Autobots had cause for concern; for in all the time he'd been with them they'd never seen him this riled, something had clearly disturbed him.

"What do you mean? What's he talking about D?" Tom craned his head up to meet his guardian's gaze; passing a bitter heavy sigh through his vents he stood up straight and unfolded his arms. "...The nanites in that hybrid's body; came from the same batch as mine" he replied, everyone stared at him in silence as he continued, "...My nanites, are one of the most advanced forms of Cybertronian nanite-technology in existence, even during the golden age there was nothing that compared to them. When nanites are made, their produced inside a cyber-mitosis chamber where their basically blanks with only a base-line self-preservation programming installed; when a batch is transferred to a bot for deployment as a micro-class weapon, the bot's CPU is installed with a primary command chip that protects his higher CPU functions from the nanites, and basically tells them that he's the 'alpha nanite', the one they take their commands from"; "So, it's kinda like a beehive, all the lil' nanites inside you are all the workers and your their queen, or king" Miles pondered aloud, "Basically yes, and without it the nanites self-preservation programming will come into conflict with the bot's CPU command centre and attempt to override it; essentially destroying his entire formatting from the inside out". "So without this command chip the nanites basically become a form of Cybertronian cancer, but what's that got to do with this?" the Major gestured to the specimen jar. "When the nanites are first produced in the cyber-mitosis chamber, their mother boards are imprinted with an encrypted ID code so when scanned they can be traced back to the chamber they were created in...The nanites in the hybrid's body are stamped with the same ID code as mine; but they weren't programmed via a transfer uplink direct from a primary command chip like mine. They're still in their blank stage and straight out of a cyber-mitosis chamber; but they somehow 'latched' onto the organic cells of the human and somehow manipulated the DNA so the body would reject the organs, tissues and all organic functions, and replace them with that of a Cybertronians PBF codes, thus essentially transforming the organic into an autonomous robotic organism" he finished as he scanned the hybrid

"PBF codes?" Batou echoed

"Primary-base format codes; basically the Cybertronian equivalent of DNA; it's the chip that stores the base-line blueprints and data on our shells, protoforms, CPU's and spark chambers plus all the functions of our internal micro-mechanisms" Trailbreaker answered

"So, the Decepticons are trying to create an army of Cybertronians by 'growing' cyborgs to use as shells to transform into their own kind?" Togusa pondered aloud

"I don't think so, that doesn't account for all the kidnapped children; the procedure to 'grow' cyborgs must have been a flop and they had to settle for transforming all-natural humans instead. The label on the top of that jar reads: Experiment 43892, twelve of thirty: failure: circa nineteen twenty one" Pazu pointed to the faded label at the top of the jar below the lid. For a moment no one spoke before Jetfire looked over at Deathshot.

"...So who's nanites are they?" he asked seriously, Deathshot glanced up at him unfazed, "How was it, that this 'hybrid' was created with cutting edge nanites that originated from the same batch as yours; how did the cons get their claws on YOUR tech?"

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Ashley asked incredulously as he stepped in front of his guardian defensively.

"It means that your guardian's just realized there's far more to this whole mess than meets the optic..." Ravage growled as he turned to glance at the sniper, "Isn't that right?"

"...Yes..." he replied bluntly, "But you've not been entirely honest either; how do you know the nanites in the hybrid's body came from the same cyber-mitosis chamber as mine? And how do you know who created them in them in the first place?" the sniper asked in a calm incredulous tone.

"...Heh, your very good at what you do, and I have to say you've done a superb job of concealing your true thoughts all this time, but your counter-telepathy training is starting to slip a little" the panther grinned, the other Autobot's in the hanger gasped in shock. "Counter-telepathy training? YOU received counter-telepathy training?" Sideswipe exclaimed in disbelief, "But, I thought that just a load of old bot's tales? You know, to impress new rookies?" Bumblebee asked in bemusement. "It was no tale youngling, only one division of the Autobots was ever trained in that 'particularly unique' anti-infiltration technique" Jetfire replied.

"...The 9...You were one of the 9?..." Jazz asked in equal disbelief, Deathshot didn't reply as he cast his gaze back down and let his shoulders slack.

"Holy Primus! And you didn't tell us?" Sunstreaker exclaimed

"Considering everything that's happened thus far it wasn't exactly something to bring up over a cube of energon during our down-time!" the sniper snapped back.

"Wait a sec, who're the 9?" Sam peeped up from where he stood by Bumblebee's ankles

"...If the stories are true, they were an elite paramilitary division of the Autobots who specialized in fighting the cons on their level; whatever the cons did, the 9 did ten times worse to them, basically they were the ones who took on the missions that had zero percent chance of success or getting out alive. I also heard they specialized in counter-intelligence, training and sending in double agents and going after the big fish in Megatron's ranks, the ones who knew what the Autobots needed to know, and knew how to get it outta them...Am I right?" Jazz glanced at the sniper as he folded his arms again. "...More or less, true there were many stories about us, most were just rumours, but the one's that weren't?..." his face softened ever so slightly as a look of regret flashed in his optic, "Well, let's just say its better they remain rumours..."

"...Why didn't you tell us? All this time we've trusted you, why you didn't think to trust us with that fact?" Bluestreak asked with a pained look in his optics, the sniper looked at the young gunner, and then down at the humans on the floor and saw how taken aback his own charges were. Passing another bitter sigh, he straightened up and let his cold face relax into a look of regret and slight humiliation. "...This war, has been our lives for as long as any of us could remember, growing up with a gun in our hands was our way of life, it was no creator's idea of raising their youngling but that was the sad reality of it. But even worse was the fact that it lead us down many dark and dangerous paths, some more darker than others, and some, took us to a place beyond where the line was drawn, where we had to practically become the enemy just to beat them at their own game, and I'm no acceptation;...I've done things in my past that would see me be expelled from the Autobots in a spark-beat, things that even Megatron would be proud of, and done so much worse that it would make even Unicron shudder in fear...I was a very different mech back then; back when the war turned into the pit and all possibilities of any form of hope were well and truly snuffed out. I wouldn't have even regarded you as my equals, back then my spark was dead and buried in the ruins of Iacon, alongside my spark-mate and daughter..." he said with pain in his voice.

"...Daughter?..." Hot Rod echoed in stunned disbelief

"...I never told you, not because I didn't trust any of you, but because I was ashamed; ashamed of what I was and what I'd had done in the name of upholding the Autobot's ideals, by all rights I don't even deserve to bare this..." he placed a hand on his Autobot insignia; "The 9 were responsible for many things during the war; we were the ones that supplied Prime with the intel of Megatron's attack force before the battle of Tyger Pax, and many other such tactical deployments that worked in the Autobot's favour in the long run. But at times, more often than not, we, 'did things' that, we believed had to be done for the good of the Autobots and Cybertron, but in truth, over time it became an excuse to seek revenge and play the cons at their own sick games, we simply told ourselves it was for the best because it was the only thing that let most of us recharge at night" Deathshot explained

"But, if the 9 were a paramilitary division, why did they uphold the Autobot's idealssss at all if they were just a bunch of Decepticon wannabe'sssss?" Lazerbeak hissed from where he sat perched on Thundercracker's shoulder, Deathshot shot him a glare. "...When the 9 were first created, we swore a vow that our true loyalties would be, and always will be to Prime; our commander never let any of us forget that fact. We were a paramilitary purely for strategic reasons, because we didn't officially exist or have an official base of operations listed on the Autobot intelligence data-records it meant no double-agents could find us so easily, and because we were always mobile, finding us was virtually impossible for Megatron's best; even if he himself had been tempted to recruit us by way of what he heard about us, and we always knew what he'd heard about us" the sniper replied darkly

"Is that so? Well, Megatron may have been impressed by your division's partialness for the more 'immoral' aspects of warfare..."Ravage started sarcastically, to which Deathshot frowned, "...But he certainly would've turned in his grave if he knew who was responsible for creating 'that'..." the panther continued in a more sinister tone; for a long moment the hanger fell silent as the mood suddenly swung back to that awful state of nonplussed fear as everyone gazed at the panther in confusion, his brothers glanced at one another in alarm. Looking at the hybrid, Sam cautiously approached.

"...Ravage...You know who behind all this? ..." he asked, wishing deep down that answer was going to be what he thought it was.

"Know it? I should have seen it from the start!..." he growled bitterly, "All the signs were there, I knew that thing was still alive, but all time-...All this time I never even considered the possibility-"

"Who? Who is it?" Jetfire demanded, striking his cane on the floor; Frenzy trotted up to brother and gently laid a spiky hand on his shoulder. "P-p-p-perhaps, n-n-n-now isthetimetotellthe t-t-t-t-truth b-b-brother..." he sighed in a painful little voice; without a word Ravage rose to his feet, turned to approach the table, and sat down again as his brother's joined him at his side. Passing a heavy sigh through his vents he looked up at the other bots, whose faces were now a mix of incredulous disbelief and slowly rising anger.

"...Do you recall the 'battle' of the Pyrex system? And the campaign you undertook to try and procure those corlornium crystal mines and energon processing plants?" Ravage asked, everyone glanced at one another, "Yes, but as I recall, by the time we reached the forth planet the majority of the Decepticon forces had blown up six of the processing plants and buried ten more of the mines, the others had all been abandoned; all the cons in the system had upped and vanished practically overnight; there were some that we spotted on our long-range scanners, but they were too far out of the system to pursue...But what's that got to do with this?" Jetfire replied curiously. "A shame, because if you had gone after those cons, you would have had the one and only chance to dispatch Megatron for good; for you see, he was dying"

"Dying?"

"Wha- Megatron was dying?"

"Who was responsible?"

"Not who, 'what'" the panther replied in a calmer tone as he straightened up "...As you said before, the war has lead us down many dark and dangerous paths, you may not realize it but the Decepticons were not exempt from that fact either; and just like you, our actions lead us to a place beyond where the line was drawn, where we had to resort to the, 'unthinkable' to ensure the continuality of our species...Before our last hope for a future was gone forever, some cons had taken the initiative and kidnapped many sparklings to raise as Decepticons for the next generation; but Megatron sought to have control over all life, and in his blind rage-filled arrogance he ordered the deaths of every sparkling in our care. By the second age of the war the last of the foundries had been destroyed, and with it the last of the femmes and sparklings; our species was officially at a dead-end, from there on every death was 'another nail in the coffin' for our species as a whole, and without femmes to create sparklings we would surly become extinct within a matter of eons. Naturally there were those that were greatly in opposition to our leader's agenda, but of course no one dared to stand up against him for fear of being killed on the spot. But that didn't stop those who realized the catastrophe, and wanted to take action before it was too late. Under Shockwave's direction, and behind Megatron's back, a secret project code named: project rebirth, was launched to try and find a way to isolate the sparks of other living organisms and transfer them into the spark chambers of Cybertronian hatchlings. Shockwave went to great lengths to keep the project secret from Megatron, even going so far as to setting the base of operations up on Prarex 9 outside the Xoin system"

"Whoa, seriously? You'd have to be insane to want to stay in that system for any length of time; the elecro-plasmic energy fields are enough to kill a thousand bots twice over! How did they survive out there?" asked Jazz

"Energy dampeners, and setting up the labs four miles underground. From what we understood at the time the project had been going on quite a while; but as time went by someone became careless and soon whispers were beginning to circulate that something was going on behind Megatron's back. Curious and infuriated by these rumours, Megatron sent Soundwave and us to investigate, to see if this so called 'secret project' had any truth to it. It was tricky to say the least; Shockwave never missed a trick when it came to the art of deception, but eventually we found the labs...and discovered that Shockwave and his scientists had been very busy..." Ravage explained, his voice taking on a more impassive, serious tone as the others listened in morbid silence.

"In the course of their experiments many organics had died as they tried to isolate and extract their sparks, most with the aid of a modified spark-extractor, some by other means; but with every new procedure they tried, every one of the test-subjects died. Then, they tried using captured neutrals and using their sparks as a catalyst to 'infuse' the organic sparks with Cybertronian spark-energy; but that too ended in failure. By this time Soundwave had gathered all the intel he needed to inform Megatron, no doubt our then great leader was going to bring the pit down on Shockwave, so I volunteered to stay behind and keep an optic on things until the rest of our forces came to shut the place down...I thought it would be a simple spy job; but-...*sigh*..." he explained before dropping his gaze, his brothers pressing closer to him in reassurance, for once, the bots were taken aback at the panther's emotional fatigue, as his anger seemed to drain away, and was replaced by...(dare anyone say it) fear?. Without a word, the others stayed silent as he straightened up and activated the holo-projector in his optic, his memories played out like an old movie reel as he continued. "...I saw much more than I bargained for...For one of the advanced procedures, a particular young mech was brought forward as the next test subject; who he was and where he come from nobody knew, but he was the most powerful telepath I'd ever sensed, his power was such that it rippled through our bond, and even Soundwave shuddered at the presence of it. Curious, I tried to reach out to him, but when I looked into his thoughts...I trembled in fear; this was no Cybertronian I'd ever encountered; his mind was nothing but pure darkness, no consciousness or sub-consciousness to give his mind and thoughts form, just raw emotion and an instinct a thousand times more savage than that of Megatron's. This creature knew what was going on around him, and knew what was going to be done; but he just sat there in silence, waiting for the scientists to begin...As I watched he didn't resist or try anything to stop them; he could've easily brainwashed the scientists into letting him go there and then, but he didn't...I thought the situation was strange enough, but when the procedure began, all pit broke loose...When the organic test subject was brought forth, the mech was injected with a batch of organic-interface nanites in the hope that he'd be able to 'absorb' the organics spark into his own; but, something went wrong and the mech, somehow, expanded his power to such a high degree that he was able to bypass the nanites self-preservation programming and control them as if they were an extra limb... within seconds he'd broken out of the containment field and had grown in size and strength, at first I couldn't believe what I saw seeing, but when I expanded my own telepathy to see just what he was up to, I really began to panic; realizing that this creature had no sentient mind or conscience was strange enough, but his spark was far worse, it wasn't the radiant energy born of the Allspark's power like all our sparks should be, instead, his spark chamber was filled with, what I can only describe as a 'living death'. An entity made of pure blackness that sought only to make everything as dark and devoid of life as itself, by feeding off the life-force of other living things..." the panther explained, the group watched in silent horror as the image of a huge black mech rose up overhead to encompass the whole expanse of the holo-form; its mouth was enormous, grossly oversized with double rows of shard-like silver teeth, in between the joints and armour plates black slimy tendrils crept, slithered and oozed out, reaching out for them; but it's optics...there were no optics, just hollow orbital sockets were the optics should've been, instead filled with a swirling darkness that held everyone in horror, so much so that they found they couldn't look away; Deathshot in particular had a look of shock and realization in his optic, for a moment he looked as if he couldn't make his mind up between succumbing to fear or losing his temper as a grave and bitter expression flashed across his face, but with his usual swift-yet-subtle touch his cold piercing glare covered his obvious discomfort. This didn't escape Ravage's notice, but the panther didn't ask and simply pressed on, "...I watched the creature began to feed on all the scientists and test-subjects, absorbing their sparks into itself and growing with every life it took. In all the confusion I tried to escape, but as the base was destroyed in the ensuing chaos I became trapped in the rubble. For days I sat there, waiting for a chance to escape, and soon enough I could sense Soundwave and the others approaching, but I couldn't risk endangering my creator's life with a telepathic message; I could sense the creature nearby and I knew it knew I wanted to get out and warn them. I had no choice but stay put...finally, when Megatron touched down he knew something was very wrong, but that didn't stop him from wasting any time in dealing with Shockwave for his treachery, finally when he'd been dealt with, the creature attacked; why it waited so long to make its move I'll never know; but I do know the fight was pure carnage. Of the fifty cons that arrived with Megatron, only Soundwave, my brothers and I were left alive, the rest were offlined in less than a few short minutes, all having their sparked sucked from out of their chambers and their frames crushed like empty energon cubes. Needless to say Megatron blasted the creature with everything he had, and sure enough we managed to make our escape; but just as we cleared the planet's orbit, the creature attacked us from out of nowhere. He'd somehow acquired a set of wings and went straight for us, Soundwave tried to overthrow his mind but the creature simply tossed him aside as he were a fly and we had to get him to safety; Megatron took the creature on and managed to hold it off for quite a while, but even his wrath it wasn't enough and as he let his guard down, the creature made its move and tried to consume his spark. At the exact same moment Soundwave took aim and managed to fire off a round from his sonic cannons, it blew the creature off and hurled it into the nearby asteroid field, and though it had only latched onto Megatron for barely three seconds, the force of its attack had cracked his spark chamber and severely depleted his spark of its life-force...We barely made it back to the Nemesis; Soundwave was in the med lab for over two weeks, but Megatron was on life-support for over nine months, and even when his spark had re-grown and stabilized he was still very weak. It was three years before he fit to fight again, but that fight certainly left an impression on him" he finished before blinking his optic and shutting off the holo-form. For a moment no one spoke as they let everything they'd had heard sink in.

"So that's why Megatron never approved of nanite technology; he was scared of history repeating itself" Bumblebee thought aloud

"But, how do your nanites fit into all this? And what has all this got to do with what's happening now?" Sunstreaker turned to Deathshot

"It has everything to do with what's happening now; isn't that right?" Ravage sneered, for a brief moment he stayed reluctant, until his expression turned impassive and he allowed himself to relax a little.

"...Megatron wasn't the last one to take on that 'creature'; nor was he the only one who had heard of the rumours about Shockwave and the 'supposed' labs on Prarex 9. Our commander dispatched four of us, including myself to go and investigate; with the energy-fields on the outskirts of the Xoin system we had a hard time getting through, but when we finally arrived we discovered the place had already been destroyed and everyone offlined; we didn't have to look far to see something very wrong had happened, and only one individual had been responsible for all the damage and death. After some tinkering around we repaired the central computer systems just enough to access the security logs, and the camera's that were stationed in the labs...Seeing that 'creature' and watching it devour every mech's spark, it was enough to make my energon run cold..." the sniper described as he too activated his own holo-projector, and displayed his memories as they happened. "When we realized the creature wasn't on the planet anymore we took off out of there hoping to pick up its trail, but when we cleared the planet's orbit we detected eight Decepticon signals nearby, not wanting to blow our cover we 'took the long way round' and left the system for our base"

"And you had no idea you had missed your one and only chance to end the war forever? The leader of the Decepticons was right there! How could you pass that opportunity up?" Jetfire interjected in disbelief

"We didn't know it was him, and we certainly didn't stick around to find out! Our first priority at that point was to get back to base and inform our commander of what happened; we had to find that thing and destroy it before it could offline anyone else. At that point we were confident we could clear the system before the creature made it out; but as we approached our ship, we saw something wasn't right..." Deathshot explained as he acctivated his left optic and displayed a giant holoform, depicting a huge alien ship floating through the black void of outer-space with part of its hull on fire; "...Somehow the creature had beaten us to the ship; we tried to board but our commander ordered us to stay put, and try to snipe the creature from outside. I took point and manoeuvred around to the bridge, hoping that my comrades onboard would somehow be able to corner it there and I could fire a shot through the bridge windows. It felt like an eternity as I waited, listening to the battle over the comms was the worst, but things got even worse when the creature made its way onto the engineering deck and blew out the ship's main navigation and steering systems; the ship veered sharply to one side and one of the external destroyer canons on the bow hit me away from my target zone, at that point the main engines control system blew and the ship sped off into a nearby asteroid field. We could barely keep up when suddenly the comms cut out and-..."

At that moment the ship listed sharply to starboard and upward at a steep angle, exposing the whole underside; then, a massive wave of multicoloured energy rippled over the hull of the ship, gaining speed and growing in size while a deep electronic whirring sound grew louder and louder...Suddenly, a blinding white light lit up the whole hanger, forcing everyone to cover their eyes/optics, the holoform image began to flicker on and off until finally blurring into the Cybertronian equivalent of white noise; the hanger fell silent before the Autobot sniper continued.

"...The next thing I remember was waking up in the med bay of the War Hammer, an Autobot missile cruiser that had passed close to the sector we'd been stationed in; they found me with part of my weapons systems damaged and two of my engines cooling lines burnt out, other than that and a bit of CPU concussion I was fine. I wanted to take off to search for my ship but the ship's commander told me that I'd been in stasis-lock for over twenty five thousand years, and it was unlikely that there was anything left of where they found me; unconvinced I took off back to the last place the ship had been and began searching. I searched that sector for weeks but found nothing, no energy trails to follow, no wreckage, no escape pods, not even any trace of an emergency beacon, it was if they'd been wiped from existence. It made no sense, and something about the way the ship just 'disappeared' didn't sync right with me, but with nothing to follow and no evidence of anything else taking place I had no choice but to abandon my search. After catching up with the War Hammer, I learnt that Prime and his forces had finally pinpointed the Allspark's location and that Megatron had gotten wind of it too, so thinking that Prime might need some back-up I took off for his team's last known location, on the very far side of the galaxy; from there, the rest is history, as you humans like to say"

At this point the silence was beginning to grow uncomfortable as everything began to fall into place and add to the pattern of cause to effect.

"...Holy crap, that's some serious shit right there..." Miles breathed as his mind spun

"No kiddin', but how does all that tie into what's happening here and now?" Glen asked

"I think maybe the cube has the answer..." Matti spoke up from where she's been standing in between Bluestreak's legs.

"What cube?" Hot Rod asked, grabbing everyone's attention

"Oh, you mean this..." Ashley blinked in surprise as he pulled the parcel out of his hoodie pocket and tore off the paper and string to reveal a little silver cube covered in Cybertronian glyphs and geometric patterns, on one side was a little hexagon-shaped indentation with different shaped holes, no doubt the opening where the key was meant to be inserted, "Bloody hell, I nearly forgot we had this" he thought offhand as he gazed at the odd little thing.

"What's that?"

"It's the holo-projector cube, the one we thought was stashed in the trunks along with its key; we- well, Matti found it down in the sunken part of old Tokyo" He replied as Jazz scanned it and picked it up out of Ashley's hand for a closer look; "What makes you think this has the answer Matti?" he asked curiously, Matti hesitated for a second or two as she thought up an understandable explanation.

"Well, during the flashback; I heard the cube 'speaking', whispering something in that alien language of yours; I'm not a hundred percent sure but I'm pretty certain that thing is 'alive' in a way, and it wanted us to find it real bad; and later when we arrived in Tokyo and the GSDA showed us that dead Decepticon and the hole in the ground, I heard the same voice calling out to me, I mean, why else would we be guided a mile underground into a forgotten section of old Tokyo if it wasn't important in some way?... It doesn't have an aura like other living things, but I figured since you guys are aliens your auras are already very 'different' compared to human auras anyway; maybe it's the same thing, but more primitive like a starfish or a worm, alive but not sentient. Either way, I've got a feeling it's got something to do with this 'hybrid'" she pointed to the specimen jar

"She wasn't wrong about the forgotten section of the city, her description of the layout of the place was right on the mark" Scorponok threw in his opinion

"And she wasn't wrong about the voice; my abilities may not extent to detect and interpret the ambient energies of other things and life forms, but there is the scent of spilt energon and human blood about that cube; whoever created it went to a lot of trouble to hide it, and even more trouble to be sure only a seer could find it. What are the chances of such a 'breadcrumb trail' even being plausible nedalone possible? Something of a far greater power is at work here, something we haven't seen but wants to aid us; that can't be ignored" Ravage concurred, everyone glanced at one another in uncertainty, but for some strange reason some part of the panther's logic rang true, though no one could put their finger on it. The first lieutenant sighed heavily as he gazed at the little cube and wondered if this would prove to be another dead end, but considering their already dire situation they really didn't have anything left to lose; and at this point how much worse could it possibly get?. As Morri handed him the key, Jazz gently took from her hand and gazed down at the opening where the key was meant to be inserted; everyone watched as he plugged the key in and right away the glyphs and patterns on all the cubes sides began to pulsate with a vivid electric-blue light, suddenly, the top side of the cube flipped open and a small line of Cybertronian text scrolled up and out of the box, followed by several little icon-like glyphs.

"'Please wait for data upload' Huh?" Jazz said offhand as he read the Cybertronian text aloud in English, the first lieutenant flinched in surprise when the cube leapt from his hand, and began to hover in midair mere inches above the floor with the top facing upward. Suddenly, the holoform of a femme materialized in the centre of the group; she was large, about thirty feet tall with a huge set of jet wings and thrusters on her back, long lithe digigrade legs armed with four long curved talons on each foot, sleek clawed hands and arms with a set of streamlined guns on each wrist and an elegantly curved helm with a pair of wing-shaped face guards that extended all the way back over her temples; her face was so human-like, much like Deathshot's with no interlocked face plates, just a singular flesh-like covering (no doubt it was comprised of nanites like his), her 'skin' was pure white like snow with some parts coloured a brilliant shade of sky blue, the rest of her armour though was the richest shade of Prussian blue anyone had ever seen, and her optics were like two twinkling sapphires.

"Morri! That's-"

"I know Matti; it's the same femme from the photo"

Considering this was the first Cybertronian femme the humans had ever seen, they were amazed at just how stunning she was; even the bots were equally taken aback by her elegance and beauty; all except Deathshot, who stared at her in stunned shock...

"...Swiftshot..."

"Who?"

"Swiftshot, she-" the sniper instantly fell silent as the holoform looked straight ahead, and with a mournful look in her optics, began to speak in her native Cybertronian, the kids could understand her well enough but the agents, Matti, Aoi and the think tanks were left to guess as to what she was saying; whatever it was, the pain and sadness on her face told them it couldn't be good.

"...I don't know who you are, or what designation or rank you go by, but I know this data-storage unit could only be found by a human seer, therefore, I know you can be trusted with what I am about to tell you; I don't know how, but by now you should have already encountered the Black Lotus, and the so called 'Decepticons' that don't bare Megatron's insignia, and in their shells you will have discovered highly advanced organic-interface nanites, all dead, and all without any form of specified programming or uplink to a primary command chip..." she said, the bots and kids froze on the spot as those awful cold knots began to creep back in and tie around their stomachs/energon tanks; no one move or spoke a word as they focused their eyes/optics on her as she continued.

"I know all you have encountered thus far has made no sense, and this message must make even less sense; Primus help me, I still don't fully understand it myself, but regardless of the sense or logic it makes, the point is you have found this data-storage unit for the same reason I created it. To finish the fight we could not win...To bring full clarity to your dilemma, and the reason you were brought here, I'll start from the beginning..." she said, suddenly a series of several holographic desktop-type windows were displayed at her sides, showing the data and images of the events as she described them.

"Twenty five thousand years ago, we were stationed in sector XDF3467.02, on the outskirts of the Xoin system. We'd received an intelligence report three months prior that a fraction of Decepticons, under Shockwave's command, had set up a series of laboratories on Prarex 9 in the quest to try to isolate the sparks of organics in an attempt to try and create a new generation of sparklings. This undertaking which had been designated Project Rebirth, had been the subject of suspicion among the Decepticons for a long while, and after verifying the details from our double agents in the field we had finally sent in some of our personnel to investigate directly...The four operatives, all of who were selected from the stealth and recognisance unit, had been gone for over two cycles, when out of nowhere our ship was attacked by an unknown mech, he was neither a con nor a bot, but right we could tell something was very wrong with him..." she explained as the image of the dark Cybertronian-like creature filled the desktop windows, and the battle onboard the ship that followed. "...It all happened so fast...Our commander ordered the entire ship to be put on red alert and seal off all decks and activate the internal weapons systems; but no sooner had we sealed the ship he ripped through every door in his path as if they were made of silicone gel; when our communication's officer and telepath Crystalwing tried to overtake his mind, he simply fired her attack back at her...It was then we learned what we were dealing with; this was no Cybertronian or any life form we had ever encountered before, this creature, this, 'Spark Eater' had no mind, no consciousness, no thoughts, memories or anything to suggest that it was sentient at all, and yet it's telepathy was so powerful that Crystalwing and her younglings were struggling to shield us all...but it's spark, dear Primus there was no spark, just a black hole of darkness where it's spark should've been, but worse still was the fact its entire frame was covered in nanites, we thought we could hack them and kill their programming to stop him, but when we tried we found that the nanites weren't even programmed or uplinked to it, the spark eater was controlling them through its telepathy, bypassing their primary self-preservation programming and using them as an extension of itself. Finally, when it destroyed the navigation and engineering systems and after all our attacks and weapons failed to offline it, our commander ordered us to fall back to the Red Level on deck fifteen; there we activated the Dimensional Rift Dilater in the hope that we could throw the creature into another dimension and imprison it there...But something went wrong, the rift it created opened up too fast and too wide, and the whole ship, along with all of us, was pulled in...Everything exploded in a blinding flash of white light, and in an instant we were rocked violently to one side; when we finally came to the creature had been knocked out, we wasted no time and rushed it to the spark prison where we removed it's, 'Dark-Spark' and placed it in a high level containment field, we completely dismantled it's body and made sure every nanite was destroyed; we thought that would be the end of it, but our troubles had only just started...When we got to the engineering the level we discovered three quarters of the ship had ripped off, probably from when we fell through the rift or when the creature destroyed the ship's energy distribution systems causing a chain reaction in the energon lines that blew out the hulls internal structure, either way, the ship was destroyed and only the sealed forward section of the bow was all that remained. When we looked out the windows, we realized we weren't in sector XDF3467.02 anymore, we were fast approaching an unknown blue and green planet, being pulled in by the its gravity and the pole's magnetic force was wreaking havoc with our telemetry; realizing there was nothing we could do our commander ordered us all to the stasis pods, there we locked ourselves in, and there we waited until everything outside the ship began to burn as we fell through the atmosphere, and then finally the darkness claimed us all..."

A long pause followed as she passed a deep sigh through her vents and a new set of images popped up at her side; this time, the images portrayed a very different scenario...

"...I don't know how long we'd been in stasis, down in that deep dark place, all I know is that when I awoke 'he' guided me out of there, and I saw firsthand, the worse nightmare imaginable had come true...At some point in our stasis, the spark prison along with certain sections of the ship, had been compromised, and the Spark Eater's Dark-Spark had been left exposed; at some point during the more 'primitive' age of the human's civilization one of the humans had discovered the spark prison and had somehow made 'contact' with the Spark Eater, 'absorbing' the Dark-Spark into his organic body and had consumed his own organic spark; upon returning to the other humans, the Spark Eater proceeded to feed and make them hosts for the Dark-Spark, these first human victims were originally a unit of stealthy assassins called 'ninja's', who called themselves the Black Lotus...Guided by 'his' divine wisdom and power, I learnt that from that moment on the spark eater grew and evolved with every spark it consumed, for it didn't just feed off another being's life-energy, it fed off their sparks too. As it grew with the near-infinite level of thought and incalculable number of memories and knowledge gained from its victims, the Spark Eater soon evolved to become sentient with a consciousness of its own; absorbing every thought, feeling, memory, conscience and sub-consciousness, and making them part of itself, and in turn replacing the victim's spark with an obedient and subservient 'clone' of itself, thereby extending its reach and power even more... No sooner had it realized its own existence, the Spark Eater lead them back to the ship, and from there it set about laying the foundations of its power; through its human hosts it discovered the weapons in the forward magazine, the computers and additional devices in the central systems command centre, the cyber-mitosis chambers and the nanite uplink hub-core in the med labs; but worst of all, it managed to open the spark prison, and access every prisoner in the stasis vaults. From there, the Spark Eater's full potential became reality as it consumed the sum total of every Decepticon we had ever caught; within less than a year, all twenty five thousand prisoners had been consumed and absorbed, and with them their knowledge and memories of Cybertron, Megatron and the war...But for all its power and near-infinite knowledge, the Spark Eater was restricted by the nature of its physical being, while the Dark Spark was a form of energy that fed off the life-force of other living things, the Spark Eater had evolved to become a living organism itself, and like all living organisms it eventually felt the instinctive need to reproduce; but creating 'clones' of itself through human hosts wasn't enough, for the clones lacked individuality and the random variations of inherent components to ensure survival of the base-line data that comprises the individual from two creator-individuals. The Spark Eater realized that it needed to re-think, to adapt and readjust in order to survive and ensure its survival through reproduction; it was then in the year seventeen ninety five it recreated Project Rebirth and set out to perfect what Shockwave first started...The experiments were, unspeakable to say the least; but it wasn't until the Spark Eater began using our nanites on human younglings that the 'desired' results began to show. Using organic-interface nanites with a 80/20% carbon cellular PBF graft, the spark eater was able to isolate the human genes responsible for physical growth and development, since young humans bodies are in a state of constant growth, the nanites were able to graft to the human DNA of younglings much more efficiently than in fully grown human adults, and by grafting onto the growth genes the nanites were able to sync their cellular graft into the rest of the human genome, thereby destroying the human DNA, and replacing it Cybertronian PBF codes and after additional 'nanite treatment' to replace flesh and tissue with metal and circuitry, the transformation from human into autonomous robotic organism was complete. As for their sparks, the Spark Eater realized that without Cybertronian sparks, its 'children' could never fully live, so until it could find a way to reactivate the DRD and go back for the Allspark; it placed the newly transformed younglings into stasis deep beneath its base. In the meantime, the Spark Eater made the most of the new 'nanite-transformation' process by using it on the Black Lotus, and transforming them into Cybertronians too; the process wasn't 100% as effective as when it had been used on the younglings, but the results were sufficient enough for what the Spark Eater wanted...

Another uncomfortable pause as the images changed yet again...

"...As time passed humanity evolved, and the Spark Eater along with its new army, had to adapt to the ever changing world; over time they learnt how to hide behind the shadows of the human's world, moving through the crowds as faceless drones and learning to mimic their every move and thought while at the same time swelling they're numbers, but it wasn't until the turn of the twentieth century that humankind's technological and scientific potential really began to blossom; realizing that humanity could pose a threat with technology that could potentially harm, or even kill it and it's 'offspring' , the Spark Eater undertook a new initiative to dismantle humanity's power from the inside out. By the turn of the twenty first century humanity's dependence on their planet-wide data network, or 'the net' as it is known, had grown to such a degree that the network's systems and factions had been integrated into every level of society. Realizing the potential to truly infiltrate humanity on a vast cybernetic level, the Spark Eater created the Incept code...In the past, the name 'Incept code' was an anagram of 'Decepticon' and was used as a code name for the Black Lotus to identify potential subjects for transformation, but when the net went global, it was used for an entirely different purpose. The Incept Code is the name of the net-wide infiltration system that is designed to silently collect and filter data directly into the Spark Eater's processor, and vice versa, implant fulse data on certain networks where needed. The military networks in particular have been under the Spark Eater's possession for quite some time, and I have no doubt you will have already encountered the results of this vast manipulation, through the Incept Code the Spark Eater's drones can ghost hack any key military personnel at will, and because the data is manipulated at the base-line binary level no one suspects anything because all they see is what the Spark Eater wants them to see...With its mind spread across a whole army of drones, and its consciousness integrated into the net itself, the Spark Eater can be anywhere at any time, it can back hack into anyone, and can control anything with a link to the net; and that, is where we discovered the Spark Eater's greatest weakness..."

The femme paused again, but this time the pain on her face faded into a more serious look...

"Because of the sheer level of knowledge the Spark Eater had come to possess from its thousands of human victims, plus the vast incalculable level of data it had gained from the net, the Spark Eater's processor had vastly exceeded its memory limit; this, as you well know, is very dangerous for any Cybertronian, not least because of the inevitable glitches and software malfunctions in certain areas of the processor, and for those who possess telepathy this is very life-threatening. We discovered that while the Spark Eater had expanded and uploaded part of its mind onto the net's continual base-line hub, the part of its processor that was responsible for its telepathic functions was beginning to malfunction from the overloaded memory capacity, and as a result its telepathic control was beginning to slowly diminish. Before, the Spark Eater had solely relied on its telepathic abilities to keep the nanites in its control, but because it possessed no primary command chip, the nanites primary self-preservation programming began to gradually override its minor CPU functions, and because they had been a part of its being so long they too were now sentient and wanted to use its frame for their own existence. But even worse, the Spark Eater's ability to keep the Dark-Spark under control was beginning to fade. The Dark-Spark is what fed the Spark Eaters power, and in return the Spark Eater provided organic life energy and Cybertronian sparks for the Dark-Spark to consume while the Spark Eater drained off the minds and memories of its victims; despite being part of the same anatomy, they were essentially two entities in symbiotic harmony sharing the same form. For all its awareness and consciousness, the Spark Eater is unaware of its own plight; and it is only a matter of time before both the nanites and the Dark-Spark consume it completely...That information in itself should offer some form of hope to all this, but I'm afraid it's the opening salvo the nightmare yet to come...While the Spark Eater was going about its work; we were still alive, while I was the only one who had been awakened from stasis, the rest of my division were still in stasis lock, sealed deep in the bowels of the wreaked ship beneath the Black Lotuses base, the Spark Eater is aware of their presence but has not yet been able to find a way to get to them, that at least buys us some time but they won't be safe down there forever; as for my 'guide', he's in a completely different place altogether, far from the Spark Eater and its army but just close enough that he's been able to slowly infiltrate the Incept Code's primary binary level, thereby able to get the vital information I needed in order to create this data-storage unit; and in turn, create the necessary tools and weapons for you all with which to fight, all of which, should have found their way to you by now..."

The image windows at the femme's side changed again, and the look of pain and sadness returned to her beautiful face as she looked straight ahead...

"...With all you have been through so far, I'm sorry to have to sound so cryptic about all this, but you have to understand; there are certain things you must know, and certain things you cannot know until the time is right, for to reveal them too soon will doom everything we have done to keep you safe...even at this moment the Spark Eater is priming itself is destroy you all. Since we activated the DRD to bring you here, the Spark Eater has been aware of the threat you present, and as such it is now growing desperate to find a way to get to you...With all that I have told you, you must be wondering why the Spark Eater hasn't just wiped us all out in one go, why the wait?...The simple fact is, the net is vast and infinite, practically a whole universe built from data, and even the Allspark couldn't possibly control the whole universe; the Spark Eater's power is currently restricted to key base-line systems upon the local Asian web, and while that section of the global web sectors is fairly large, there are the other sectors to consider, namely the African web, the American, European, Australian and Indo-Pacific, and the Middle Eastern webs; while these regions may not hold the same financial or economic power that they once did for the better part of the twentieth century, they still hold enough military strength to defend themselves in the event of another global-scale war... Despite being restricted by article 9 of its constitution, Japan is currently the most powerfully technological country to date and while not possessing the sheer power to go on the offence overseas, it does possess the strength of numbers and resources to adequately defend itself in the event of a foreign attack, and with the Japanese miracle at its disposal, the threat of a nuclear attack is greatly reduced. Japan is much more useful as a weapon than an enemy. Which is why the Incept Code was also designed to be a global satellite control hub; when the time is right, a virus-signal will be sent out that will hack into and control every satellite in orbit over the earth, crippling every major military instillation on the planet, Japans military will be affected the worse as Japan will serve as both the launching pad for the Spark Eater's army to set out from and start overthrowing the rest of the planet, and as an example to severe to the rest of the world, that even the mightiest can fall. To that extent, a complete format and specs list of the Incept Code's satellite interception virus is stored within this unit; you must find the Incept Code's central hub and destroy it with the vaccine I have stored in this unit; there are a number of other viruses, vaccines and software infiltration programmes I have included that will prove useful to you, they are all listed accordingly. Destroying the Incept Code will greatly cripple the Spark Eater and the Black Lotus, and will give the human's military forces a chance to go on the offence, but you will have to face the Spark Eater and its army, and ultimately the Dark-Spark that resides in the heart of this vast evil...By the time you view this unit's holoform message, I will have been offline for quite some time, to keep this unit safe I could not afford to let the Spark Eater find me, if it consumed my spark it will have discovered everything we have done, everything we set in motion to give humanity a fighting chance, and now with you here, they finally have a chance; I'm just sorry I won't be there to finally see the end...Please, let it be known that I did everything in my power, everything in my being to help save the existence of the humans and their world. Our leader Optimus Prime once said that freedom is the right of all sentient beings, and despite being small, primitive and a little backwards, these humans are as brave, loyal, kind and true as any bot, and I think maybe, he would grow love them..." she smiled, everyone else couldn't help but smile as she continued; leaning down, her arms disappeared out of the holo-frame for a brief moment, before she stood back up holding a small glowing blue gelatinous sack held within a hexagonal frame covered in Cybertronian glyphs and two long glowing pink pipes protruding out from the right side of the frame; as the whole group suddenly recognized the structure was a protoform pod, she cradled the odd device in her arms lovingly for moment before looking back up with bright blue energon tears running down her dazzling white cheeks.

"...The division I served, was not a division that lived and served by the Autobots code of honour, we, did many things that brought shame to the Autobots, and I am sorry to say that I have done things I am not proud of...This war, this insanity is all we have known for the better part of our lives, the idea that there was a time before when peace ruled, and the hope that the end would eventually come one day were nothing more than the fanciful ideals of neutrals and rookies...We were a good species once with so much potential, so much promise and compassion to offer; but we squandered everything. True Megatron may have been the one to rain his evil down upon us, but we were no different when we took up arms, and there were times, more than I care to count, when we were no different to the Decepticons in any way. The way to the pit is paved with good intentions, and we all learnt that to do any good at all we had to do the unthinkable, and it brought out the worst in all of us...I have sacrificed much to complete this mission, and in so doing I rediscovered my spark again, and my reason for being here..."

Suddenly, the picture of a young boy materialized to her left

"...I didn't think I could ever 'feel' anything again, after serving with the 9 for so long I didn't think there was any hope left for anyone when I was awoken, but this young human proved me wrong; his name is Sora Hishikawa, and if it weren't for him, I don't think I would have been able to find my way around this little planet. I'm sorry that you couldn't meet him in person with me in this message, but he has been the most reliable, most trusted, and most dearest friend I've ever had, and if it weren't for his bravery and 'true spark' I don't think I would have been able to create this unit...I- I don't think I ever had any real friends when I served with the 9, war was no place for friendships for fear of losing them to death; and when I first met Sora I was stunned when this simple little organic saw me as his friend. Not once did he flinch away or hide from me, nor was he intimidated by my size or strength, he was-, always there for me, even when I had carry out my mission and things got dicey, he was there to fight alongside me, and to help me hide when needed...*sigh*...We Cybertronians live for so very long, sometimes I think we too long; for while longevity is fact of our existence we take it too much for granted...When was the last time you lied on your birth at night and felt the hollow pang of your mortality in your own spark, knowing that you wasted it on petty things like hatred and revenge, not caring for anyone or anything, being reduced to a level even lower than your worst enemy and at the end of it all when you finally realise all the mistakes you've made and all the unspeakable things you've done, you realise it was all for nothing and you gained nothing from it, and even worse, you realise just how much of your life you really wasted. Longevity may be the next best thing to an immortal life, but it's not necessarily a happy one...I think maybe that's the reason why humans value life so much more than we do; because their existence is such that they know they are going to die, and that knowledge in itself is a very precious gift...they are but cherry blossoms, only here for a little while in the sunshine of life, and then gone on the winds of time just as freely and gently...Before I go, I would only ask one thing; that you tell my daughter of what her mother did to save her and the humans of this world, raise her well and teach her how to be kind, thoughtful, caring, brave, loyal and true, but most all, tell her that her mother loves her so much, and that she will be looking down on her from the Well of Allsparks each and every day...The battle that lies ahead with be hard, but to see the light you must first embrace the darkness, you must have a hawk's eye to see the distant smoke of the fires of war approaching, but most importantly...You must never lose hope; there will always be hope, even in the most unlikeliest of places...Whoever you are, brave Autobots, honourable humans, I bid you goodbye, and wish the best of luck..." she smiled, at which point the bluish holoform dissipated, plunging the hunger back into the grungy pale orange glow of the overhead lights; and back into silence.

7: 45pm:

The winds had completely dropped, which was unusual for a city that sat right alongside the ocean; usually they were quite gusty around the tops of the skyscrapers, but for some peculiar reason the air was quite still this evening. All around the city was still echoing with the sound of vehicles and human traffic; the city-wide evacuation hadn't stopped even once, all day long every citizen had slowly made their way out to the designated emergency camps outside the suburbs. As the daylight began to wane into twilight, the inner city slowly grew darker and the outskirts of the camps began to glow and come to life as everyone tried to claim a spot and make the most of their predicament. On the outskirts of Niihama bay, the American Empire's fleet was still and silent, no activity had been noted since the botched attempt to catch the Autobots off-guard, and since the Maritime Self-Defence Army had been posted both in and around the bay to keep an eye on things it didn't look like anyone would be seeing any action any time soon; but that didn't stop most of the city from panicking, and wondering in fear what else might happen. In the dimly lit metropolis the fires of the fallen Sukaitawa buildings lit the surrounding skyscrapers in a grungy orange glow and overhead the black smoke rose straight up into the sky like a gigantic pillar, drifting up above the clouds and high into the upper atmosphere. For the last week messages of sympathy and condolences had been pouring in from all over the world, near the site of the fallen buildings, flowers, prayer shrines, Japanese flags, and hundred upon thousands candles covered the ground and lit up the street in a radiant golden glow; pinned to the walls and windows of the surrounding buildings was a seemingly endless montage photos of those who'd been in the buildings when they fell, and were the unfortunate ones not to be recovered. Alongside the photos were written messages of farewell, goodbye, and loss, along with little posies of flowers, little personal keepsakes like teddy bears, jewellery, key chain charms and other odds and ends that meant something to people who owned them. As they made their way out towards the city outskirts, random people, families, even whole groups stopped to light candles and offer prayers to the dead, even the military and emergency services personnel made time to offer their condolences.

Standing on the opposite side of the street, Darren stood with his hands in his favourite black and lime green hoodie, watching the flow of people stop and pass the memorial site, and contemplating his own present situation. A familiar black Ford Lincoln MKS slowly pulled up alongside him and grabbed his attention by flashing its indicators.

"Oh, sorry Trailbreaker, I didn't hear you back there" he smiled as he ran a hand over the side of the hood.

"So this is where you've been? I know you said you were going out for some fresh air, but I think your processor's chronometer must have had a glitch" his guardian replied

"Really? What time is it?"

"Nineteen hundred hours and forty five minutes"

"That late? Damn it my watch's battery must be flat again!" Darren huffed in frustration as he looked at the face of his watch, and saw that indeed the watch had stopped ticking.

"Well, never mind. How are you feeling? After the holoform message you just took off, but then, I think everybody took off after that message" Trailbreaker sighed

"...How's Deathshot? Of all of us he took it pretty hard; has he come back yet?"

"No, and he still keeping his comm on silent, he can hear us but he won't answer"

"I don't blame him; after all that, he must have a hell of a lot of old issues to come to terms with...Say, Trailbreaker, when you first heard of Deathshot, what were your thoughts on him?" Darren asked

"My thoughts? ...In terms of being an Autobot, I had heard of him long ago, I'd heard that he was part of one of the intelligence divisions, that he was the only Autobot in the history of the war to rack up the highest death toll of any sniper, and that he was also the most elusive; for a long time I thought him only to be a rumour, maybe even an old bot's tale to impress the rookies. But Deathshot the individual? No one knew who he was, just another ghost of the war, one of those strange individuals who came and went without much notice, and who, I don't think they wanted to be noticed. That being said, I was so surprised to discover he was so...compassionate. I honestly wasn't expecting that..." Trailbreaker thought aloud

"There were a lot of things we weren't expecting when this whole thing kicked off, but now-...It's different, it's like we've been rolling along down the road but someone else has been giving directions, and we've had no choice but to follow all the way...This 'guide', who the hell is he? And if he's been watching out for us this whole time how come he didn't do anything to try and prevent this?" Darren gestured to the memorial site with a bitter and solemn look in his eyes.

"...I don't know youngling" he sighed as he sank on his suspension, "If we ever find him I'd like to know just why everything has gone down the way it has, and if he has known what's happened to us and what we've gone up against, he's got a lot of explaining to do. Innocent beings have died, and while we've been trying to protect this city and its people something else has been going on we've not even been able see"

"This 'Spark Eater', the way Swiftshot described 'it' it sounded like THE ultimate incarnation evil, it even nearly killed Megatron, if that really did happen, but I have to wonder; if that thing has really grown so powerful, and really has had a hand in influencing the course of humanity these past hundred years; then is it possible that it really did stay concealed for so long? That in all that time it got so good at moving through the shadows that no one ever had an inkling as to something being even slightly out of place?...I don't know, what're the chances? I don't want to believe it, but-..." Darren pondered aloud, but sighed in frustration when the answer left his mind. Trailbreaker paused a moment before asking:

"...Do you think he knew?"

"About what?"

"About the second DRD, do you think he knew there was a second one this whole time? And that it was kept on his ship this whole time?" Darren was about to answer when he glanced up at the city skyline and saw the distant building within which Section 9 was based, and noticed the characteristic silhouette of Jetfire's frame looming over the edge of the roof like a raven perched on a dead tree, his head raised up to the sky, as if searching for something. "Well, he's got to come back sooner or later, let's go back and find out" the young hacker replied as he opened the driver's door and got in, the Autobot slowly pulled out and headed off back to Section 9, though he got quite a few looks as he was the only vehicle heading into the city.

Up on the landing pad of Section 9 HQ, Jetfire, Jazz, Ravage, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Morri, Sam, the Major, Batou and Saito stood in silence, watching the sun approach the horizon and the shadows grow longer and darker. Overhead, the deep thrum of Deathshot's ion plasma engines signalled his return as the sniper disengaged his camouflage mode and appeared out of thin air, transformed back into mechmode and softly landed on the helipad; right away he folded his arms and regarded everyone with his trademark emotionless gaze. It was clear he was still keeping his guard up as his reluctance echoed through Ravage's mind, the panther knew right away this wasn't going to be simple; heaving a deep sigh, Morri approached and began to climb up his side, using the gaps and overlapping armour plates as a makeshift ladder to reach his shoulder. Glancing sideways down at her, his spark suddenly sank to the bottom of his spark chamber; the redness around her eyes told him she'd been crying, if there was one thing that pained him more than anything else, it was that he couldn't bear to see her cry, and know that he was the cause of her sadness. His gaze softened into a look of regret as he turned his head to face her and heaved a heavy sigh through his vents, she in turned got up on her knees and landed a small soft kiss on the corner of his cheek, gently stroking his nanite-formed 'skin' affectionately.

"...I'm so sorry..." was all he could whisper

"I know, but you worried me when you took like that" she whispered back as she pressed her forehead to his cheek

"...I didn't mean to cause you worry youngling, I can take care of myself"

"I know you can, but I still worry none the less..." she paused before looking up into his one optic; "...Listen...I could tell, when you first came to us that you had a history; one that haunted you when you thought back to the war, and at times I could see it got the better of you. I knew it bought you pain, regret, sorrow and shame, and every day that we've been together as a family you've never allowed yourself to be truly at peace, for fear of forgetting your mistakes and risk repeating them again. I know we've never really talked about it, and we never pressed you about the subject; we figured that when you finally wanted to be fully open with us about your past you'd do so in your own time and on your own terms and we left it at that...The past may have responsible for what's happening now, but it won't determine how this all ends. No one blames you for this D, no one can say you've lied because technically no one ever asked the questions in the first place; we've never had any reasons to lie to one another, and even if you feel you've tried to protect us from the worst of the past by not telling us all the truth; I'm officially telling you right now, don't worry. We've been through enough already to know that things are going to get worse and that there's no other way around it but forward. But then, we already knew that, we just didn't-...know about this..." she sighed as she dropped her gaze

"I know, and I'm sorry if I ever gave you the impression that I knew anything about this...I honestly didn't know, I swear; I thought the ship had been blown up, and everyone else had been offlined along with the creature..." he replied with guilt laced in his voice.

"...I believe you..." she said before placing another kiss on his cheek, "And that's why I knew you'd come back...The past may follow you around like a shadow, but I know you're not one to let it rule your life now. You're not the same guy you were two years ago, you've come so far since then; but now, part of that past is threatening the future of this world, and we need to know whatever you can offer okay?" she pleaded softly.

"I know youngling, I'll be damned to the pit if I let this go any further; I may not have created that creature but I'm just as much responsible for it being on this world. If I had ignored my commander's orders and got on the ship maybe-", "Uh-uh, stop right there soldier..." Jazz interrupted by raising his hand, stepping forward and looking up at the sniper square in his one optic

"We ain't playin' the blame game no more; what happened was real bad, and yeah, because of it we're all stuck here in this mess. But no matter how many different versions of 'what if' and 'if only' you go over in your processor, it ain't gonna change the fact that it happened none the less; I've seen you snipe D-man and I have no doubt if you had done things differently, maybe you could've changed the outcome for the better, but equally, anything could've happened to make things worse, so that argument is pretty moot..." The first lieutenant told him straight up, but the silver bot softened his stance and passed a sigh through his vents as he continued in a more understanding tone, "...Listen, what's past is past. Don't let it shadow what ya gotta do now okay?" the sniper let his face relax, and nodded as he relaxed his stance and dropped his arms. Jazz smiled and patted him on the shoulder reassuringly.

"So, who translated the message for you?" Deathshot looked down at the agents, "Frenzy, just after you took off...I've seen and heard some real hard shit this last month, but after all that, the Tachikoma's AI all but crashed...Just what the hell went down all those eons ago?..." Batou thought offhand as he rubbed the side of his temple. Jumping up onto one of the nearby air vents so he was closer to the sniper's level, Ravage regarded him seriously as he kept his one optic locked with his.

"...Did you really not know there was a second DRD on board that ship?" he asked frankly, Deathshot tensed but didn't raise his guard, in the back of his processor he knew this question would be asked, inhaling a deep breath, his vents huffed as he folded his arms again.

"Swiftshot said that the DRD had been kept on the Red Level. That was the one level of the ship practically none of us were permitted access to; I was assigned to the Stealth and Reconnaissance unit, and despite dealing with a lot of sensitive data and intel in that unit, I had neither the rank nor clearance to be allowed up there" Deathshot replied, Thundercracker was about to probe further, but a sharp glance from Jetfire told him to keep quiet.

"Who would've had the clearance?" the panther asked

"The commander obviously, the second-in-command probably had to have known, and the Applied Science's Unit; someone had to know how to work that thing if they had intended to use it for another purpose"

"Why would Wheeljack have a second machine built if the one that transported us here was the prototype? Did anyone know it would actually work?" Sam pondered aloud

"Now that I think about it, I don't think Wheeljack knew of the second DRD; he may be a little crazy at times if not outright insane with some of his more 'unstable' inventions, but he'd never lie, not even for the sake for protecting vital intel. And if he went to such lengths to protect it by hiding the original onboard the Ark, it can only mean that someone got their hands on the format designs before he hid it. Either the 9's Applied Science's unit built the machine or the cons got a hold of the design, built it, and the 9 must have heard about it and intercepted it" Jetfire replied

"Either way we'll never know...If this Spark Eater has been here this whole time, why haven't you been able to detect him? If its telepathy really was as powerful as you described, I think someone as 'talented' as you would be able to sense something" The Major interjected as she looked up at Ravage, who glanced sideways down at her.

"I did..." the panther growled, everyone stiffened, "...The day you got hacked, I could smell the energies in your office wreaked of something bad, but 'that' one scent, the one that told me the paper crane was the catalyst for the virtual experience maze that had ensnared you. I knew I had sensed that 'dark hollowness' before, but it never occurred to me that the Spark Eater was the one that had created it. If it really has evolved to point of sentience it must have learnt to conceal itself from me, and others like Matti who could 'see' it for what it really was...I knew that scent was familiar, it had to have been the creature I saw on Prarex 9 all those years ago; but how was I to know it had been transported to another universe?" he sneered in reply.

"Swiftshot also mentioned the 'cyber-mitosis chambers and the nanite uplink hub-core in the med labs'? Since what kind of Autobot warship comes equipped with top of the line equipment like that? ... Or better yet, what kind of ship house's a spark prison?" Jetfire asked dubiously

"The kind that specializes in going to extremes to get the job done, even if it meant keeping our enemies very close at hand" Deathshot replied frankly

"What was the ship's designation?" the old seeker asked

"...The Black Solstus..." Deathshot replied, the other stared at him stunned silence

"The destroyer? But, I thought she went down at the battle of Nervel Sei?" Jetfire quirked in disbelief

"That was the official story, and we went to a lot of trouble to make sure the cons believed we were dead" Deathshot replied

"And for good reason, I've heard the rumours about that ship, how it supposedly wasn't destroyed, and how every time some seeker was sent to investigate, they disappeared and were never heard from again" Skywarp peeped in, the look of nervousness in his optics didn't escape the sniper's notice.

"...There were many rumours, and that's as far as it got as far as the ship's existence was concerned..." the sniper replied

"But, that wasn't the only reason the ship had to stay concealed, was it?" Ravage looked up at him with a dark look in his optic. "...For much of the war the 9 worked closely with Autobot intelligence, quite often we were called upon to interrogate and extract vital data from captured double agents and Decepticon spies, but because there was no way to verify whether one secret location hadn't been compromised or not, we used to take the cons back to our ship for integration" the sniper explained

"And by interrogation, you mean 'extraction' don't you?" the panther growled

"Extraction?" Skywarp asked in a small voice, a brief moment of silence past before Deathshot looked him in the optic

"The Black Solstus wasn't just a warship, it was built to be a fortress, and an Alpha-Class spark prison" he replied, the bots gasped

"You had an Alpha-Class spark prison? Why the frag am I not surprised?" Thundercracker growled

"What's an Alpha-Class spark prison?" Batou asked

"The second worst thing to the pit; it's a facility were the sparks of prisoners are removed from their spark chambers and placed in a specialized life support containment unit and the bodies are placed in a secure cell. It's the worst form existence imaginable, you're not dead but you're not alive either, you just 'exist' in a state of empty limbo; it was so terrible a sentence that it was only ever reserved for the worst cons around... And there were twenty five thousand prisoners on board that ship when it crashed here?" Jetfire asked incredulously, his frustration beginning to rise as he banged his cane on the helipad.

"If that's what she said-" Deathshot huffed in frustration, "...I wasn't assigned to work in the prison, when we caught a con our job was to deliver them there and that was it! We weren't responsible for 'processing' them!...Twenty five thousand? I had no idea we'd caught that many..." he thought aloud, not quite believing the number as it rolled through the front of his processor.

"And now their minds and the sum total of their collective knowledge has been consumed to form the mind of a 'living death'..." Thundercracker thought aloud before he glanced sideways at Jazz, "So what's our next move?" he asked.

"Well, Swiftshot certainly didn't leave anything to chance; that message she left was the only unencrypted piece of data on that cube, all the other files are locked behind a level-five encryption barrier, designed for bots only but still a real slagger to crack; I left it with Frenzy and Glen to get started on, I don't know when Darren will be back, Trailbreaker went out to look for him ten minutes ago, but once he gets to work on it we should get it decrypted within few hours" Jazz replied

"And then what?" Skywarp asked

"Then we call Kobuta and ask to meet with the Prime Minister and the heads of the GSDA and other military forces; if the Spark Eater's armies really are gearing up to go on the attack against us you can be sure they're not going to be subtle about it. The military forces have to be ready to act at a moment's notice, and with all those citizens evacuated from the city the Spark Eater now has a mass of prime targets waiting to be killed, or taken away back to its lair to be turned into more hybrids. Too many humans have died already; this time they will either be ready to fight and defend their own or die trying! Either way, we're now at the point where all-out conflict isn't a possibility, it's inevitable" Jetfire replied gravely

"I'll tell the chief to inform the Intelligence department of what's gone on here, in the meantime we've got to step up our search for the rest of your team; if the situation's about to get much worse then we're going to need every ounce of strength available to us" the Major said

"Actually, that might not be necessary" Ravage replied as he sniffed around the air vent he was standing on

"What do you mean?" the Major asked

"Question: after your little rampage the section got somewhat wreaked; do you think it can withstand another assault despite its present state?" the panther asked

"I don't know I haven't had time to assess the damage report yet" the Major frowned

"What's up? What can you smell?" Morri asked in mild alarm

"Judging from the scent coming out of this vent: it would seem that your uncle and his team have finally found us; and from the agitated vibes I'm getting I don't think he's going to make this little 'family reunion' quite so easy..." Ravage replied with a wicked toothy grin.

* * *

R&R Please!


	66. Chapter 65: The Sound Of Distant Thunder

& one more instalment for today! Enjoy! :D

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 65: THE SOUND OF DISTANT THUNDER

"Shit! As if this day has been full enough, Uncle Johnny chooses NOW to mount a rescue mission?" Morri huffed as she chased after the Major and Batou with Sam and Saito bringing up the rear with Ravage close behind as they all rushed down the stares from the helipad.

"If he's already inside the building, how long will it be before he finds out which level we're on?" Batou asked the Major, she was about to reply when the all of a sudden the lights in the stairwell went out; within several seconds the back-up power kicked in and the auxiliary lights on the floor switched on

"Not long at all" Ravage deadpanned

"_Chief? Ishikawa? Togusa? Can anyone hear me?..." _The Major barked down the cybercomm's, but only scratchy static returned; "They've brought along some kind of signal scrambler, I'm not getting anyone on the cybercomm's" the Major frowned, "me neither" Batou replied

"**Is everything okay up there? Your cybercomm's have gone dead and there's a powerful radio signal emitting a whole load of static from down in the buildings central systems control room"** Jazz asked over the Cybertronian comms

"**We know Jazz, Ashley's creator has finally arrived, their already inside the building"** Ravage replied

"**Seriously? We haven't detected anything down here; we'll try and find them and then-"**

"**It's too late for that! Besides, he's already here, somewhere on this floor; stay alert, if you find any of his team around the building's perimeter, get them to stand down; I'll take care of things up here" **the panther replied, promptly cutting off the comm before the first lieutenant had a chance to reply. "You better find some cover" he said to the Major as he passed her side; "What makes you think I'm going to sit this one out?" the Major asked incredulously, to which Ravage turned to face her with a serious look in his optic.

"In case you forgot, this 'all-natural' human managed to kill your reinforced doppelganger with his bare hands; and besides, any other time he would meet on the field of battle as his equal, but today he's not a soldier, he's a father searching for his creation, and he will NOT be obliging ANYONE with any form of mercy!" the panther growled in a commanding tone

"He's got a good point Major, if he's as wound up as he says he is then confronting us won't do him any favours, it could only make things worse" Saito interjected

"Where's Ashley? If anyone has a good chance of getting him to stand down, he certainly will" Batou concurred

"Fair enough, you will take care of this?" The Major eyed the panther dubiously

"I'll find the boy and then we'll go and find his creator, you just find somewhere to hide" he replied before taking off down the corridor.

"What are the chances this is going end up going ape-shit again?" Sam sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck

"Probably? Most likely; so don't just stand there Witwicky let's go and warn everyone else!" Morri replied as she took off after Ravage, Sam merely shrugged as followed after her and disappeared around the corner of the corridor.

"You two go and keep an eye on things from the dive room; we'll let them try and defuse the situation first, and if things do get out of hand we'll just have handle them gently" The Major said, the two agents nodded in acknowledgement before she took off in the opposite direction. "Where are you going?" Batou called after her, "I left my spare gun in my office" She replied; within seconds she was running at double the speed an all-natural human sprinter could reach. Within less than six minutes she'd dropped down several floors to the HQ's central level, covered half the length of the longest corridor and burst through the door of her office; but she stopped when she suddenly saw that her chair had been moved from the left side of the desk to the right.

'I didn't leave it like that!' she thought in alarm; she was about to turn around when suddenly...

...the clicking of a gun's hammer being drawn back made her snap her head to the far side of the room...

There, standing square in the corner was perhaps the most imposing soldier she'd ever seen, dressed head to toe in black combat gear and every inch of bare skin covered in black face paint, the stranger was bigger than Batou with a frame that was as broad as any Class-A cyborg she'd ever seen. His muscles were robust and well toned, his chest and shoulders were as broad as a set of jet wings, and from the amount of grenades, ammo and blades he had strapped to his belt along with the big old fashioned semi-automatic he had strapped across his chest; it was clear he wasn't expecting things to be easy. But what drew her attention to him most were his eyes; these weren't the eyes of some dime-a-dozen grunt who'd gone through basic training, had been handed a gun and then simply followed orders to the latter...No...This guy had a predator's eyes, like a wolf eyeing up its prey he looked at her with fierce intent and focus; he wasn't going to back down, he wasn't going to play by her rules, and he certainly wasn't going to make this easy for her. Studying his stance and position she knew he had the upper hand, he was over five meters away with a semi-automatic pistol aimed at her head; too far way to employ any close-quarter moves and not enough distance to get away from him before he had a chance to fire first, and the gun looked like it had enough stopping power to do some real damage to her brain casing. As she realized her list of options was becoming drastically shorter, she was gradually growing more and more concerned. As the evening light filtered through the distant skyscrapers and lit up her office in a vivid peachy-red light, he shifted his weight from foot to the other as he drew in breath and let out a low sinister growl (an actually growl, much like Ravage, which sent a slight chill up her spine).

"Considering I've already killed you once, this shouldn't be too much trouble" he growled in low gruff voice, the Major blinked in surprise, his broad Yorkshire accent told her right away who this was.

"...That wasn't me you killed, but somehow, I think you already know that" the Major calmly replied, the stranger quirked an eyebrow; she piqued his attention, that was a good start.

"Well that depends sweetheart, 'that' version of you hardly put up a fight, what makes you think your cyborg strength would do any better?" he retorted with a grin

'Sweetheart? ...like father like son' she thought in a deadpan tone; "What's to say my cyborg strength is all I rely on? If you grow too dependent on one commodity, you lose sight of other vital qualities-" in rapid succession the Major shifted her weight and flew at him, as she knocked his gun away she brought one leg round and kicked his legs out from under him; but he was fast, and sly; in equal quick succession he twisted round on his hip to get out of the way of her foot as she brought it down, then with one hard shove he slid out behind her through her legs, jumped to his feet, grabbed her other arm and twisted it behind her back; even for a Class-A cyborg this was painful. She was about to snap her head backwards in an attempt to head-butt him, but then realized he was standing just far enough away that he was out reach, and his feet were too far away to be hooked and swiped from behind.

"-Like trying to sweet-talk your way out of a situation? Nice try!..." he finished for her as he held her tightly. Gently, but carefully, he let her twist her side so that she could look over her shoulder and look him in the eye; for the longest moment the two opponents studied each other carefully. The Major was surprised by just how much power this guy had, he could've passed for a cyborg with his speed and strength alone, the fact that he was all-natural was nothing short of impressive. But as he gazed down at her with those sharp predator-like eyes, she wondered (and in the back of her mind, worried) what other surprises he had up his sleeves. But her dilemma was soon brought to an abrupt halt when Ravage silently sneaked through the door with Ashley atop his back.

"DAD!"

As if an arrow had been shot in his heart, the stranger suddenly froze, his eyes softened as he recognized the familiar voice, but for a brief moment couldn't believe it; the Major completely relaxed her tensed stance, telling him loud and clear that she meant no harm. Cautiously he let her go, allowing her to bring her twisted arm back around; he turned to face the panther as Ashley dismounted he carefully approached, ready to react in a second at the first hint of trouble.

"Dad?..." Ashley asked cautiously; as the stranger stepped into the evening light and the features of his blackened face were illuminated, the twelve year old instantly recognized him and rushed at him with a huge smile spread across his face.

"DAD!"

"Hey soldier!" he smiled in returned as he scooped Ashley up in his arms and brought him up for a bear hug, "You had me worried there! For sec I thought you didn't recognize your old man!" he smiled in a much more delighted tone. "What? With that paint on yer face who can recognize you ya big twat!" Ashley retorted with a punch to his shoulder, "Well how else was I supposed to creep in here unnoticed? I ain't exactly got any of that fancy invisibility camouflage handy on me do I?" the stranger retorted.

"You could've fooled me, old fashioned camouflage like that hasn't been used in over twenty years" the Major smiled. Turning his attention back to her, the elder Briggs put Ashley down as he turned to face her.

"So you're the real Major Kusanagi? I have to say, if I had a penny for every time some twit pulled that move on me I could've retired years ago" he regarded her dubiously, "I wouldn't say that dad, she's scary beyond all reason when she's real pissed" Ashley was quick to warn him. "What? This skinny little super-model? Come on! She looks like something outta one of those fancy Japanese cartoons!" the elder Briggs chuckled, "Maybe, but she's a cyborg who can bench-press over a ton! And will certainly have no trouble kicking your arse outta that window!" Ashley retorted in a serious tone as the sight of the Major beginning to fume had him seriously worried.

"I take it you're not one for taking things at face value?" she sarcastically deadpanned, to which Ashley's father dropped his smile and looked at her more assertively; "Look Sweetheart, I've known plenty of soldiers who're off the opposite sex, and each and every one of them are no less braver than the next soldier who's laid down their life for they're country. But let's be realistic for a minute okay? Each and every one of them could easily beat the crap out of your skinny little backside any day of the week; besides, if you were a cyborg, shouldn't look a little more-...well, 'cyborgy?' you know, wires and cables coming out of the neck, one robotic eyes, killer lazar cannon fused to one arm?" he asked in a somewhat patronizing tone while Ashley grimaced with a sour look and facepalmed; 'And I thought the kid was bad enough...' she thought darkly. Noticing the discarded pistol lying on the floor, she suddenly got a wicked idea, and with a smug look she went over, picked it up and held it up in a teasing manner.

"So, you think you could easily throw me down right here and now?" she asked in sly tone, Ravage grinned wickedly, the tip of his tail flicking back and forth with glee, while Ashley looked on in worry.

"Well let's face it; you're not exactly a heavyweight sweetheart, more like a featherweight" he grinned, and with that she took the gun in both hands and effortlessly snapped it in two with a loud metallic CRACK! Ashley flinched, but the elder Briggs looked down at the broken gun, and then up at her; he neither flinched, gasped, jumped nor had any look of shock on his face, he just stood there with an unreadable look in his eyes as he studied her carefully. In the back of her mind the Major was impressed; despite his brazenness he had balls, it wasn't hard to see where Ashley had inherited his own cockiness from; finally, the soldier reached up and tapped the earpiece in his right ear, activating the headset radio he was wearing.

"Come in Tyrell do you copy? Over"

"_I hear ya boss, what's the situation?"_ another voice answered on the ear piece

"Tell Peters to switch off the pulse emitter and tell the rest of the lads to stand down, the situation is a code green up here" he replied calmly and smoothly

"_Copy that"_ the voice replied before a sharp blip told them the line had switched off

"Major Kusanagi was it?" he asked politely

"Major Motoko Kusanagi formerly of the JGSDA; ma'am or Major will do fine" she replied with a smug look of satisfaction, "And you are?"

"Sergeant John Horatio Briggs of her Majesties Royal Marines" he saluted, "Now that we've got the pleasantries out of the way, we seriously need to talk"

9:35pm: The Tachikoma's auxiliary hanger:

The holoform massage disengaged and the giant form of the femme known as Swiftshot flickered then disappeared; the top of the data-storage cube closed up and the key that had opened it popped out of its 'lock'. For a moment John Briggs sat there in silence, unsure what to think at first, but as he rubbed his brow with one hand the fleeting look of exhaustion and tiredness flashed through his sharp steel blue eyes. He looked up and regarded each of the Autobots and human's present and saw the unflinching sense of dire concern shared between all of them.

"...You've all seen this?" he asked in a calm listless tone

"Yeah" Sam replied

"And in addition to everything else in the reports you let me peruse?" he looked over at the chief

"The same" Aramaki replied. Behind him Johns men all exchanged concerned glances, wondering what lay ahead now, for this wasn't something they were expecting to find. For the last two and three quarter hours Briggs and his team had been filled in on everything both Section 9 and the Autobots had done together for over the last month; as she watched him listen, the Major couldn't help but see the disbelief in his eyes as he was told of his son's part in their struggle to fight their enemy, at times it looked like he couldn't make his mind up who to be more angry at; the Autobots, agents, and even his own niece and nephews for including him in all this, Ashley himself, for not having the common sense to just stay out of harm's way; or himself, for failing as a father in teaching his son to know better. It was quite a vexing dilemma, and the emotion of it flashed through his eyes every now and then.

"This changes everything..." he looked over at the cube "We weren't expecting anything like this; Prime and Lennox are going to want to know about it, and as soon as possible. About four days ago we saw your 'SOS signal' go up into the sky, have you had any reply?" John asked

"None yet, we figure they're still being pursued, and are maintaining comm silence to avoid detection; but considering its been over a week since you guys came through the rift they can't be that far from the city now, if not already here" Jazz offered, John nodded in acknowledgment

"If you guys don't mind, we gotta get a start on decrypting the other files on this; we'll give you a holler when we've got something" Darren interjected as he reached for the cube and made his way out of the hanger. Followed closely behind by Glen and Frenzy; John slowly stood up and twisted to one side to get the crick in his spine out and drew in a deep breath of air.

"What do we do now boss?" his second in command asked in a south London accent; he was a big guy but a few inches shorter than John with a slightly leaner build, but no less strong with well defined muscles; but his most striking feature was that he had the darkest skin tone of any African-born human, so dark was his flesh that he seemed to almost become one with the darkest shadows while the sclera of his eyes stood out like two polished pears set in ebony. The others weren't too dissimilar in that their appearance was just as intimidating and imposing; these were men that were not afraid to go in hard and fast, and didn't back down easily, the scars and old wounds across parts of their limbs, faces and bodies told of their survival and victories. The agent's could help but be both impressed and quite curious; all-natural human soldiers hadn't been deployed in over twenty five years, cyborg technology had been utilized for so long now that the idea of sending all-natural humans into combat was too ridiculous; but the fact that these men had taken on a team of reinforced alien cyborg doppelgangers and won made them wary.

"For now, get some rest; until we can contact the others there's not much we can do" he replied listlessly. Glancing at one another, the group found there was nothing left to add and so quietly made their way out of the hanger while the bots transformed back into altmode and settled down for recharge. John was about to sit back down again, to be alone with his thoughts, when he suddenly noticed Deathshot was the only bot who hadn't transformed, and standing at his feet was Ashley.

"...Hey"

"Hey..." Ashley replied as he wandered over and stood before his father's giant form.

"So, what's it going to be this time?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well, is it going to be the 'how-the-hell-could-you-even-think-of-being-so-reckless' speech, or will it be the 'what-made-you-think-you-were-qualified-to-do-this' speech? Because really dad, I can't be asked to argue with you over what I should and shouldn't have done this last month" said Ashley, the hint of sarcasm in his voice didn't escape his father's notice.

"I know..." he simply replied, Ashley blinked in surprise

"...You do?" he asked in confusion

"I just spent the last two and three hours reading Aramaki's report; of course I know what you've been through" John replied

"Do you? ...Because, after what we found out today, I don't really feel anyone can truly appreciate the depth of what we know. That holo-message in itself is incredible if not totally unbelievable, but if everything that's happened has happened because of this 'Spark Eater', and our part in all this has just been another means to an end-...How can anyone really know what we've been through?..." Ashley scowled bitterly. For a long moment John wasn't sure what to say; this day had been complicated to say the least, he and his team had spent the better part of a week looking for this place, but to finally find it and then to have a mother of a bombshell dropped straight into their laps didn't make for much of a successful mission...not when he realized that he had his work cut out for him and the rest of his team. Heaving a heavy sigh and rubbing the back of his neck, John placed a hand on his son's shoulder, led him over to the crates in the corner of the hanger and sat him down.

"...Do you remember seven years ago, when I came home from my second tour of duty in Afghanistan and I had that big bandage on my leg?" he asked, Ashley nodded, "...And do you remember when the bandage finally came off, you pestered me for days and days to see the scar, but I told you, you weren't allowed to see it?". "Yeah, you told me there was no scar, but that bandage went all the way up your leg so I knew you were lying; but for some reason, you always got angry about it so I stopped asking" Ashley replied; Leaning down to his left leg, John took off his boot and sock and rolled up his trouser leg, there, running up the outer side of his calf, criss-crossing over his knee cap and all the way up along the inner side of his thigh was perhaps the biggest, most ugliest scar Ashley had ever seen; judging from the tissue damage and the way the skin had healed, the wound had been deep, possibly all the way down to the bone, on his shin were several cleaner, more neater scars; scars that only a surgeon's scalpel could've made, and little dot-like scars where stitching had been present.

"That's what you get for having a mortar round blow up right next to your leg...Eight months of that tour I spent in hospital, three weeks on the intensive care ward alone" John said as he stroked part of the scar on his knee

"Did mum know?"

"Oh she knew alright, and spent a good few hours chewing my arse out over how much I'd worried her; your mum may be tough but she still worries none the less"

"Why the hell didn't you tell me?" Ashley asked incredulously, the look in his father's eyes softened as he passed a small rueful sigh, and cast his gaze away into empty space.

"...Because...I didn't want to remember the day my best friend died..." Ashley looked at him in surprise.

"...What happened?" he asked

"...It was about a month after I'd arrived in the country; we'd been deployed about fifty miles south of Kabul to check out this village that had been red-flagged as a hide out for an Iranian arms dealer who'd supplied several crates of stolen Russian missiles to the Taliban. After several hours of searching we eventually found our man, but unbeknown to us, he had no intention of being taken alive and had rigged his hideout with an unstable trip-mine made out of a modified mortar round and an anti-tank mine...I had no idea the device was right next to us, until it was too late...All I remember was a flash of white light and intense heat, no noise, just a ringing sound in my ears, and then finally darkness; The next thing I remember was waking up in a hospital bed with the whole left half of my body braced and bandaged, and too many IV drips to count. I'd been out for over five days, in that time I'd been transported to the nearest medical base and had gone through three major surgeries to save my leg...Later that day, I'd learnt that my old friend Donny Philips was the one who'd accidently tripped the device, and had had the misfortune to step on the anti-tank mine..." he explained, passing a sigh as he continued, "...Donny and I had been together through basic training together, we joined the Marines together, we served alongside together, he was my spotter when we had snipe long range, we got drunk together, and he was my best man at my wedding; he and I had been like brothers, and for the best part of our careers we both made the worst of it bearable...Finding out that your best friend was coming home in a black bag because all that was left was a few bits of charred flesh is bad enough, but to know you were never going to see him again, hear him laugh or even laugh at his cheesy jokes...you have-, had no idea what confronting that reality meant, and I couldn't stand to relive it, nedalone retell it like some heroic war story to my son; there's nothing heroic about seeing your best friend die in a flash of white light..." he finished.

"You think I don't know that?" Ashley frowned; John looked at him in confusion as he grabbed his arm, pulled him up off the crate, marched him to the end of the hanger, opened the side door next to the main door and lead him up the exit ramp to the turning that lead out onto the main road into the city. "You think I don't know what death looks like?" Ashley scolded as he pointed to the distant black plumes of smoke as they continued to rise up above the cityscape. "There were over nine and a half thousand people in those buildings when they collapsed and further two thousand on the ground within a one click radius! I had to watch those building go down, knowing there was nothing I could do to stop it! And listen to the screams of all those who couldn't get out of the way in time!...That's not a war story dad, its unforgivable is what it is!" he angrily pointed before turning his gaze away and huffing out his frustration; all John could do was stand there with understanding and lament in his steel blue eyes, he knew there was no argument to be had, and nothing to refute otherwise. He approached his son, held his face in his hands, and held his gaze with a pained look of honesty and truth.

"...My point is; losing my best friend was the worst day of my life, but it would've been nothing compared to loosing you...Your my son, and it's my job as a dad to worry about you, and after reading Aramaki's report I didn't-, still don't know what to think...At first I was angry at you for being so reckless when I've told you countless time to think more logically; then I was angry at Morri for being negligent and letting you be so reckless, as she's supposed to be in charge of your care and safety, and then I was angry at Deathshot for being reckless as he's supposed to be your guardian...But the more I read, and the more I learned of what you-, all of you had to go through, and what you had to do for sake of what's right, I began to realise this wasn't as simple as I had wanted to believe; and that, in a way this whole mess had brought out something in you that made me proud to be your father. You showed courage in the face of adversity, you've been loyal, reliable, and committed to the mission 100%, and what you lacked in experience you made up for with your wits and guile and learnt along the way, and all while putting your friends and family first before yourself. For all that, I couldn't be more proud; but at the same time, it scared me to think of the number of times when things could've gone the other way, and you might not have made in time, or got caught out unaware. When you're a father that kind of fear eats you to the core, it drives you in such a way nothing else could, and it's the one thing that's been keeping me going throughout this whole mission..." he explained, Ashley looked up at him in a mix of surprise, confusion and realization; this was a side of his father he'd never seen before. For as long as he could remember his father was not the type to flinch away nor be particularly sentimental, sure he could be soft and funny when he wanted, but he was never 'gentle' about it; he was always 'rough' n tumble' when he was having a good laugh, and always 'the drill sergeant from hell' when his temper boiled (either way he wasn't one for subtlety). But now, here was the one man who'd been the centre of his life, his idol and hero, laying his emotions out bare, and sharing a portion of his grief in this terrible turn of events...and he was okay, as he didn't shy away, nor try to sugar-coat it, as some other parents would be tempted to do...after all, what was there to hide? When the reality of what had happened was rising up on the night air in thick clouds of black smoke for all to see.

"...I...I didn't know that..." was all Ashley could say as his father laid his hands on his shoulders; "I'm sorry dad"

"No, no you have nothing to be sorry for, and neither does Morri or Deathshot, I know they've done right by you despite what's happened; as has Ravage" John replied

"Did I tell you he's my combat teacher?" Ashley offered a small smile

"Jazz mentioned it to me, and from what I've heard it sounds like he's been a good influence on you" his father smiled back

"You'd love him, and he's been real keen to meet you. Say's you have the scent of war and death about you and that impresses him, but then, he's just creepy that way, personally I think it's from being a psycho for too long" he grinned

"Seriously?"

"Oh yeah, and then some!" they both chuckled a moment before John turned serious again.

"Listen, considering all that you've done, and what you've accomplished no matter how small it may be, I know now I can trust you to do the right thing; but from now on you've got to promise me, NEVER to put yourself in harm's way, understand?" he said

"...Now your forgetting your own lessons" Ashley's smiled

"Huh?"

"You told me once 'don't make a promise you know you can't keep'; anytime other time I would say yes, but after today, I don't think keeping such a promise is going to be possible, not when we're all relying on each other to survive and cover each other's backs...If your such a great Marine, you should know that better than anyone" he replied; John couldn't help but smile as he pulled his son in for a hug. "...Nice to know you actually listen to your old man every once in a while" he chuckled, "...Your right; if this 'Spark Eater' is as bad as it sounds, we're all gonna have to pull together to take it down. At the very least, will you try your best not to bite off more than you can chew?" he asked; "Hey, at least I chew before swallowing!" Ashley quipped, "That's not what I meant!" John chuckled as he pulled him in for a playful noogie, Ashley tried to get his arms around his stout girth to try and throw him down but to no avail, the man was as sturdy as a rock and impossible to budge.

11:10pm:

This city was a strange place, as opulent and grand in its vast architectural designs as it was filled with wondrous and weird futuristic technology; he felt like a stranger of a more ancient time displaced from all he knew and understood, and thrust into another time and place (literally). Very few things made sense, and even less made logical sense; androids? Cyborgs? AI's? Robots? All these were science fiction in his world, but here, they were common place and taken for granted, 'such gifts...and the people here are so blasé about them; what a waste' he couldn't help but think as he leaned against the guard-rail of the helipad and let the cool night blow over him...

...He frowned; something didn't feel right as a sharp chill rushed up his spine and told him something was nearby. With well honed reflexes he whipped out his handgun from its holster and aimed at the cause of his alarm; there, hovering in the black shadow of one of the air vents, a vivid red light stood still before slowly stepping into the moonlight and revealing its owner...

"Oh, it's you" John said as he cautiously put his gun away

"I was right about you; such sharp instincts, and a keenness that's well refined to the point of absolute proficiency. Marvellous" Ravage purred contently as he silently slithered through the shadows and joined the Marine at his side. Though he'd only seen the panther briefly in the hanger, and what he knew of the drone was only through word of mouth from the other Autobots back at NEST, John hadn't had the opportunity to see him up close. His size alone was impressive, but the mace at the end of his tail, his claws, teeth and sharp armour told him he was hardly one for being tamed; but his eye ('optic' he corrected himself), it was like looking into a pool of glowing blood, it was both fascinating and sinister at the same time.

"Am I?" he quirked an eyebrow

"Of course, in the time your youngling has been my student, he's shown a level of natural instinct I haven't seen in a fellow hunter for so many centuries. From the start I sensed that he had inherited it from you, he thinks of you often enough; but to finally meet you and see where that instinct comes from, it's both fascinating and deliciously delightful" he purred in a happy yet sly tone as he studied the elder Briggs.

"Ashley was right, you probably have been a psycho for too long" John regarded him with a dubious look; Ravage threw his head up as he laughed in a deep gruff baritone roar, baring his teeth in a grim smile, "Such modesty! I can certainly see where the boy get's his sense of humour from!" the panther chuckled. "And I can certainly see why he likes you, anything with teeth like yours would certainly catch his fancy" John smirked; the panther smiled, but suddenly stopped and pricked his ears forward in realization.

"...What did you mean 'probably?'" he asked curiously

"...Well, the day I joined NEST was the day after you guys disappeared through that rift; and without being none the wiser and waiting for Wheeljack and Perceptor to figure out what to do, there wasn't much we could do except wait...And while we waited we had an opportunity to get to know everyone a little better, and through several conversations with the other bots I learned about you. About how you were the most ruthless, twisted and psychopathic spy and hunter drone the Decepticons had at their disposal, how you made your way here barely alive and defected without hesitation; but what many of the bots couldn't understand was why my son was so taken with you, how you'd become the best of friends practically overnight and spent the better part of the summer together...Ashley's many things but he's no fool, even when we lived in Sheffield during the time of the coalmine closures he knew better than to get mixed up with the street gangs and drug pushers; but what amazed me most was he always had this 'knack' of knowing who to trust, everyone says he gets that from me; maybe their right and maybe their wrong, but somehow something deep down tells me it's something more, and not just because Deathshot's been a good influence in his life...Being what I am and the job I do I've come across all sorts of 'unsavoury' characters, everything from suicidal terrorists who believe they'll go to paradise if they blow up a building full of families, adrenaline-junkie sadists who get their rocks off by butchering anyone who bleeds and screams enough for their pleasures, and then there are those whose idea of 'fun' is so unspeakable that you wouldn't think twice about putting a bullet through their head. I've seen psychosis both at its most tragic and most evil, and the one thread that runs through every time is that it's never as simple or straightforward as you'd like it to be; at least, for humans it's not, being an alien I'm inclined to think it's similar in principle seeing as you have conscious thought and emotions like us, but being essentially a machine, something is bound to be different correct?" John explained,

"Your point being?"

"My point being, psychopaths don't ever change, no matter how much they kid themselves or how adamant the experts think they may have changed, they never do; deep down their urges and compulsions are just too strong and one way or another they have to get their 'satisfaction' the only way they know how. If you are as bad and ill-tempered as everyone says you are, why take such an interest in my son? From what Jazz told me you've apparently made a 'miraculous turnaround', that you're not as aggressive as you once were and that you're more willing to co-operate with others; and that apparently it's all thanks to my son as he's been a good influence on you. Now seeing as this is the first time we've met and I like to consider myself a decent and fair-minded bloke, I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt; if, you answer one question..."

"Which is?"

"...What are you really? Everyone I've met say's you're a psychopath, but something tells me either their wrong in some way, or you're not being completely honest in another" John frowned, dispute his relaxed stance, Ravage could sense his defences going up like a brick wall, but at the same time a particular kind of curiosity was buzzing about his mind like a fly in a jar; this human was no fool, he was perceptive, but at the same the curiosity and wanting to know was more stronger than wanting to be knowingly ignorant and ignore him; so with an unseen grin, Ravage obliged him.

"What am I? I could ask the same of you if we're being philosophical about the subject..." he smiled as he turned to look up at the moon, "The definition of psychosis: as I understand it, is 'the loss of contact with reality'; and for the better part of the human mind, this applies on a number of levels, not least the classical example where one is driven by the negativities of life and their lives to such an extreme, that indeed, they lose contact with reality and suddenly anything and everything is possible; and all too often they're the ones that you've come across in the line of your duty, or are the headline for the nine' o clock news as some poor soul who mowed down a school full of children or a crazed gun man who went to work and killed all his closed friends; and the worst part being, when the sordid details of their lives are brought to the surface and the 'psychological autopsy' picks apart the details of what made them tick. The one thing that terrifies his fellow humans more than anything else is the question 'Are you fascinated by the way I killed those people? Because it was so awful and yet simple? Or was it because I look like you when walking down the street, unassuming, and completely harmless?'...The human mind is nothing like a Cybertronian mind, it can think and function on a number of levels that suits the individual's requirements, and what is needed of the individual's abilities in order to do what they do; but more strikingly, the human mind is capable of such a level of adaption, the thought processes can change when required, and when confronted with high degree stress or mental trauma it can go to such lengths as complete memory suppression and even split its personality a number of times. For us Cybertronians, such dynamics and flexibility of the psyche is near impossible, simply because the way in which our processors are configured, our ability to change to our circumstances is only possible to the degree of which the transmitters and circuitry of our CPU's is designed...You've seen Red Alert, and how glitched up he gets when you start reciting nursery rimes?" he asked. John remembered back to when Lennox told him of when he'd been first introduced to Red Alert, and that later that same day he sang 'itsy bitsy spider' to his daughter; the mech was so confused at the meaning and reason of the lyrics that he glitched on the spot and spent the rest of the day in the med bay being fixed up by Ratchet.

"You're telling me he didn't get 'itsy bitsy spider' because he literally can't understand the fact that a kid's nursery rhyme made up of nonsense words is simply for fun?"

"For bots like Red Alert who're designed to function as security personnel, logic, sound reason and discipline are the core base-lines for their processors thought matrix; nonsense, randomness and fun are the essence of chaos and for bots whose duty and function it is to instil and maintain order, those factors are in direct conflict with their programmed line of thinking. Essentially, he doesn't understand, not because he doesn't want to, but because he can't 'get it' to begin with"

"Seriously? No wonder the guy doesn't have a sense of humour" John sighed

"Oh all bots have a sense of humour no matter how uptight their programming is, it's just his is much more dull, and therefore fun to mess with" the panther grinned

"So what are you programmed to be? If a Cybertronians line of thinking is limited by what he was designed and built for, how flexible is your line of thought?" John asked

"Very, I was originally designed to be a spy, a hunter and a killer and as such my processor was programmed with all that was required of my purpose; but like all sentient beings that're placed in predicaments of unknown variables, my programming had its limits in certain areas so I had to adapt and adjust to change when required, and in time I had grown and evolved into one of Megatron's most proficient and lethal spies, and a far cry from when I was still in my first frame. Human younglings are no different; when your son came online he couldn't walk, talk, care nor fend for himself, nedalone accomplish a sum as simple as one and one adds to two; but twelve years on and he hardly resembles that little ball of pink flesh ...I change because I need to and it's a part of what I am; yes I have killed, in brutal ways, some if not most I even took my time to enjoy, but only because it's what I'm designed to be, I may be monster to most but I'm a predator at spark, and all predators live by a principle by which they hunt and kill. As I told the Major, were we one and the same and our survival was at stake, it would be karma that we'd try to kill each other, and I can sense you know this to be true; but that fact that we are both sentient and comprised from different elements puts a different spin on the equation. I'm not psychotic in as much that I've lost touch reality; but maybe I was psychotic in as much I neglected reality"

"Neglected reality?..." John asked in bemusement

"...Once there was a time I would've ripped you to pieces without hesitation and revelled in it; long ago, back when the war made sense, when there was something, an ideal and a future worth fighting for. It was a time when we were so certain we were doing what was right for Cybertron; we were so ready to believe that everything that was possible was in our grasp...and the only way to make it a reality, was to kill off our future" Ravage dropped his head, his ears sank down to the sides of his head in quiet lament. "...At first we told ourselves that it was an unfortunate necessity, that when Megatron would final possess the Allspark, everything would be alright again and we would have the future we were promised..." he thought aloud

"Hitler promised the same thing to the German people when he spoke at the Nuremburg rallies, promised a future that would last forever. Seven years later he put a bullet through his head in a Berlin bunker while all around him 'the Reich that would last a thousand years' went up in flames and gunfire; he started out as something of a man-made god in the eyes of the weak and stupid, in the end he died a small weak honourless and pitiful man, the lowest of the low consumed by all the evil of the all the wrong choices he ever made in his life. Many say he's the worst human being of the twentieth century if not all of history, but the truth was he was a weak pathetic little man whose reach extended his grasp, and when he went to extremes to get what he wanted it enraged everyone else across Europe and the world to no end" John added

"As were the Autobots...in the very beginning Megatron honestly thought everyone would see things his way, that they'd welcome his ideals with open arms...I didn't see what was so welcoming about seeing countless femmes beg for the lives of their sparklings, only to be mowed down in a hail of missile-fire while clutching their tiny ones to their chest plates. It wasn't until Megatron ordered the mass genocide of the femmes and sparklings across the empire that we began to see the cracks in the logic of his goal, and ultimately his sanity; for the longest time many of us wondered if there was any way to help him see reason, maybe even find another way of achieving our goals without the needless loss of life. But every time someone proposed a new solution, a new way to go about the war, they were cut down and offlined on the spot, and eventually we just stopped trying. But we couldn't leave either; anyone who defected, went AWOL or became a neutral was killed just as quickly, and that's the way it stayed for a very long time, eventually descending into the pit, and to the point where we were stuck fighting because it was all we knew how to do...We all 'lost contact with reality' in those dark times, lost of forgot what it meant to be Cybertronian at the core, and no matter which way we tried to spin it the painfully harsh reality was that we had condemned our species to extinction, by our own hand" the panther growled bitterly

"But if it had gotten that bad, why didn't you try to find a way out?"

"Try to find a way out of a war that spanned half the galaxy? Where every planet in over fifty thousand star systems had been reduced to burnt-out battlefields and wastelands, over twenty thousand alien civilizations wiped from existence and whole suns had been harnessed and destroyed to create energon and open up new space bridges, thus destroying more civilized worlds in the process, while all the while enemy battleships, snipers and raiding parties lied around every corner waiting to blow you to the pit? Oh yes, getting out of the war would've been a breeze" the panther sarcastically replied, the human sighed in frustration as he propped his chin on his elbow and looked out across the city; for a long moment neither of them spoke, before the look in the human's eyes softened, his thoughts going back to the reason he started this conversation, and the one question he'd wanted to ask from the start.

"...What is it about Ashley that drew you two together?" he asked thoughtfully, Ravage hesitated a moment as he thought of an answer; but realized there was only one answer he could give.

"...He reminds me of myself when I was a sparkling..." John looked at him in surprise, "He reminds me of the time when I was strong, wild, fiercely confident without fear or doubt, when I was a true hunter and warrior; but more importantly...He reminds me of what its like to hope, and to know that life is a precious thing worth fighting for. For as long I can remember, life existed only so we could wait for death and there was nothing else that mattered; especially after my creator Soundwave died, I became so very lost. I've been fighting for so long I'd forgotten what it was like to-, just enjoy life and have a little fun along the way; and it lifted my spark in such a way, I never thought possible...For that, your son owes me a dept I could never repay" he said.

"...I-...Wow..." John said offhand, "...Thank you for looking after him; and for teaching to taking care of himself in a tight spot" was all he could say

"Your pride does no justice for his talent; I'm just sorry he wasn't born one of us, he would've undoubtedly been the greatest hunter drone to have ever lived"

"...I'm, sure he would" John quirked an eyebrow, "He told me all about what you'd been teaching him, along with that spear of his"

"The trophy of his first fight won" Ravage grinned proudly, "you should've seen him"

"One question though: he mentioned that you're a telepath; so if you can read my thoughts, why did we just have this conversation when you could've already have known the answer by plucking from out of my mind?"

"Perceptive; but alas, as I said before, human minds are quite different from Cybertronian minds. Trying to pin a single thought down is like trying to find and pick out a single bee from a hive of billions; it can be done, it's just much more work. But I have to say, a human mind makes for a much more stimulating challenge, being alongside a psyche that's based on animal instinct rather than machanoid programming is so much more fun"

"Fun?"

"Indeed, instinct is all about survival, logic has no place when survival is at stake, and what fun would there be if everything was logical all the time?" Ravage grinned, to which John couldn't help but grin.

"Yeah, Ashley would defiantly go for something like that" he chuckled as he cautiously reached up and scratched the panther's ear, eliciting a loud purr of contentment as the giant feline leaned in to direct his fingers to the right spot behind his ear. "You know, I do believe we could be very best friends" Ravage purred, "Somehow, I think you could be right there" John thought aloud, "But, there is one other thing that bothers me..." he continued, sensing his seriousness, the panther straightened up.

"This, 'mind-link' you have with Ashley; Deathshot told me what happened and why your mind 'reached out' to him; what are the risks involved?"

"In terms of your son's physical health, none; he's not telepathic and therefore cannot reach out to me. The link is only open during recharge when he goes into 'dream-mode', and even then I've been careful to keep it closed, not for my sake but for his. Because of the spark-bond between me and my brothers we share our minds together when we recharge, letting them into my mind is one thing but unlike me they have little regard for privacy, and if let into the boy's mind there's no telling what trouble they could get up to, what 'idea's' they could sub-consciously give him. As such, the link between us is but the size of a 'key hole'"

"...So, aside from keeping safe in his dreams you've not done anything to 'influence' him in anything else?" John asked dubiously

"Aside from subtly aiding him in his training, no" Ravage replied frankly

"You could've sub-consciously given him the idea to clean his room every once in a while" John smirked; another moment of silent contemplation passed between them before Ravage glanced sideways at the Royal Marine, one ear pricked forward and one pricked back in uncertainty. He was about to say something when the human beat him to it.

"...What does he dream about? ...When you peep through the 'key hole', what do you see?" he asked curiously

"...I was going to ask you, what does he usually dream about?" Ravage asked, John looked up at him in confusion but said nothing as the panther continued; "...I don't mind telling you this; but not long after we arrived here the younglings dreams began taking them to 'strange places'..." he said in a cryptic way.

"...What kind of 'strange places'?" he asked bemused; Ravage leaned down and pressed his nose to the human's forehead. John jumped as a quick flash of white light engulfed his vision and all at once his senses were thrown for a loop, before realigning and telling him he was in a very different place. A moment in time was stretched out into minutes as flashes snap-shots of the children's various dreams fluttered through the front of his mind like butterflies on the wind.

Morri's dream: he saw how she walked along a familiar beach of golden sand, how she slowly transformed from a human girl into a giant white Cybertronian femme. Embraced in Deathshot's arms before watching the Allspark crumble into dust.

Darren's dream: he watched as the boy walked down his street with the moon, the sun and the stars orbiting overhead; he too slowly transformed from a human into a green and black mech; his frame and build grew taller and expanded while his flesh peeled off like a reptile's skin, revealing the protoform underneath as it expanded out and 'grew' it's new armour in place. At his house, he was met by Trailbreaker and the two of them transformed and took off together.

Hailey's dream: the young blond was happy in her guardian company; as she transformed, Hailey became a sleek pink femme, together they transformed into their altmodes and drove off into an unknown bright colourful city, illuminated by a thousand colours.

But Ashley's dream caught his attention the most. He watched his son walking through the ancient forest, how he put his spear down to one side, and transformed into a strange sphinx-like creature and took off into the undergrowth. The other's dreams too were similar as they dreamed of transformation from their human forms into their alien friend's likeness; at first it felt alarming if not disturbing, until Ravage let him feel the emotions behind the dreams. There was no pain, no shock, distress or trauma in these transformations, nor a sense of wanting to transform either; it was as if the will another had granted them a happy wish, as if giving them the chance to be with their friends together forever. But he noticed, how in each dream they became human again, as if that wish had been snatched away by another, like it was not meant to be; but the one element they all shared was the Allspark, there it hovered in the air whilst dying, and as it turned to rust and dust a lush green forest grew in its place. In a surreal way it felt as if a balance was being struck, as if one life was being traded for another, but not in the sense that it presented itself to be; it felt as if something vast and endless was at work here, that in some unfathomable way, something was trying to create something...or correct something?...Darkness enveloped, and in the blink of an eye John found himself back on the helipad with Ravage standing in front of him; at first, in his dizzy confusion he wanted to ask what the hell just happened, but then as he remembered what was going on, he put two and two together and realized what he just saw.

"...What's been going on?" he blurted out

"Good question..." Ravage growled in hushed voice as he turned to watch the rising smoke in the distance, "...These dreams have been coming and going for a while now; every time they grow more vivid and real, and every time the perception and passage of time grows more distorted. Last night Darren recharged for a total of six hours, but his dream lasted nearly two days in length, three nights ago Mikaela's dream lasted a week while she slept for five hours, when she awoke the next morning she'd forgotten she was human; and your niece was a seeker of five days, she too awoke to her organic form and had forgotten what she was. In every dream the longer they spend as a Cybertronian the more they forget they were human...A human mind may be different to a Cybertronians but I know a troubled mind when I sense one, we've been through hardships and encountered some hard truths during our time here, but it's not affected them to the point where underlining trauma or psychological damage is being to form and fester; I would've sensed that much sooner...Something else is at play here, every time these dreams have come there's a 'scent' I cannot seem to identify nor locate, it's sentient in nature, but at the same time it feel's 'omnipresent'..."

"...Could it be another telepath?" John offered

"Initially I thought so, but trying to infiltrate a mind through dreaming is a sloppy technique, especially if you do it over a prolonged period of time; with another telepath nearby its only a matter of time before you get caught...But then I remembered the Spark Eater, back when I saw it on Prarex 9, when it was still that young mech. The power his mind wielded was nothing I'd ever sensed before, even now I still remember the potency of that 'empty hollowness', and how it made my processor ache just being within a thousand meters of it. Power like that I would've sensed from many miles away...but this 'scent' that comes with the children's dreams, something tells me it's not the Spark Eater, but possibly something just as powerful..." Ravage pondered aloud, then, something else came to mind, making him prick his ears forward, John leaned forward in curiosity. "...Swiftshot mentioned her 'guide'; how he was in a completely different place away from the Spark Eater, but at the same time just close enough that he could infiltrate it. Then there's that incident when Saito's ghost was extracted from his body and returned, and then the vision Matti saw, of the giant blue eyes that told her of us and to find us...something about those two incidences sound far too-..."

"-Suspicious to be just coincidence?" John offered, the panther nodded

"Indeed. From the very start everything has unfolded as such, and nothing has been an accident; but if we're being directed to a certain place and time, is it for the right reasons? Or are we a means to an end? Either way, whatever or whoever is leading us in this merry dance is certainly working in strange ways"

"Maybe someone up there's looking out for us?" John offered thoughtfully as he ran a finger over the little silver crucifix that was attached to his dog tags.

"Maybe, but prayers will do us little good now...Already I can hear the thunder, it won't be long now before the storm is upon us..." Ravage sighed as he stood up, stretched his hind quarters out and silently sneaked away into the shadows, leaving the human alone with his thoughts. In the back of his mind John wanted to believe that some part of what the panther said was just wishful thinking, but the conviction in his voice had him wondering if anything else was feasibly plausible in this whole mess; if everything that had happened for the Autobot gang up until this point had been because of the intervention of another unseen factor, what was it? And as Ravage hypothesized, was it for the right reasons? Or was in a means to an end? ...

...That cold chill went up his spine again, but this time it told him it was out there...

Looking up, past the skyscrapers, past the city and even the distant mountains, John cast his gaze far into the darkness off the night and frowned in thought what this unseen 'thing' was, and what it was thinking.

"...Where are you hiding out there?..." he whispered softly under his breath, suddenly, a drip of water splashed on his face, then another few on his arms, and another several on his back and shoulders; rolling in from the ocean the clouds began to drop downwards, swirling and encircling the tops of the skyscrapers, bring with them thick heavy rainclouds. John spun round as the doors to the helipad opened with a bang and he caught a fleeting glimpse of Ravage's tail as it disappeared down the stairs.

'Typical cat; doesn't like the rain' he smirked as he too headed for the door just as the heavens opened up and unleashed a heavy downpour.

Across the Niihama coastal region the rains brought welcome relief to the land, for all the displaced New Porters it meant a night of wet misery as the long lines of human traffic continued to pour out of the metropolis into the designated evacuation campsites several miles outside the city.

But far away, in another place far from all eyes and optics...something else was going on...

In darkness so black, something shifted...

"They have found a data cube" a deep electronic baritone voice whispered sinisterly

"The one the femme hid all those years ago?" another, more snarkier voice asked

"The same" the first voice repeated, all around a chorus of panicked whispers and hushed curse resounded, countless whispering voices made their worry and concern known.

"What will we do? That cube that will be our undoing!" the second voice hissed

"THE CUBE MEANS NOTHING..." a bigger, deeper baritone voice spoke out, rather than one it sounded more like hundreds of voices speaking in synchronization, all male and female, young and old...human and Cybertronian; the whispers stopped and fell silent.

"...WHATEVER DATA IT CONTAINS IS OF NO CONSIQUENCE TO US ANYMORE; WE HAVE TRANSENDED BEYOND THE LIMITATIONS OF THE NET AND CAN CONTROL ITS SYSTEMS AT WILL. THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN STOP US NOW, NOT EVEN THE AUTOBOTS, AND IT WILL ONLY BE A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THE EARTH IS OURS..." it spoke in a completely impassive, yet drowsy tone.

"But ignoring them is folly! Since they came here you've not spoken a word of what we must do to destroy them! And now that the Prime is here, our chance to defeat them while they were weak is gone!" another angrier voice hissed venomously; suddenly, a shriek rang through the air before a flash of deep purple 'black' light flitted through the darkness, and all the other voices whispered to each other in hushed concern.

"...THE AUTOBOTS MAY BE STRONG, BUT THEY ARE FOOLS WHO HAVE YET TO REALIZE THE POTENTIAL OF THEIR GOD-HOOD; THE ONLY OBSTACAL STANDING IN THEIR WAY IS THEIR LOVE FOR THEIR HUMAN PETS, ONCE THEY ARE TRANSFORMED THEY TOO WILL REALIZE THE JOY AND POWER OF BEING IMMORTAL GODS. ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS WAIT AND REACH OUT TO ONE, AND THE OTHERS WILL FOLLOW...AFTER ALL THESE CENTURIES OUR TIME HAS FINAL COME AND THE FINAL PHASE OF THE PLAN CAN NOW BE PUT INTO MOTION. THE OTHER HUMANS NO LONGER POSE A THREAT; YOU MAY PLAY WITH THEM AT YOUR LESURE..."

At that, a chorus of bloodthirsty laughs and roars rang through the blackness, and the sound of metal teeth gnashing and metal claws unsheathing grew resonated all around...

But close by, in another unseen place; radiant blue glowing eyes watched from the darkness, and narrowed in focused determination.

"Not if I have anything to say about it!"

* * *

Phew! What an eventful day! Don't forget to R&R Please!


	67. Chapter 66: Lost Ground

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

Additional disclaimer: Matti belongs to JillTheCrazy1

Caution: Strong swearing here and there.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 66: LOST GROUND

"Cor, what an utterly shit day!" Ashley huffed as he watched the heavy rain splatter against the glass wall of the canteen

"Language Ashley" his father causally said offhand before he gulped down his coffee, Ashley merely shrugged as he took a swig of his tea.

"Hey boss! Peters said he could probably give the radio a boost but the static from this place is still fucking things up" one of the Marines peered around the door.

"Tell Peters I wanted that radio up and working a fucking hour ago; and another thing, no swearing around the kids!" John replied strictly, the marine saluted and went on his way; across the table the Major, Hailey, Mikaela and Togusa deadpanned at him with a reprimanding glair.

"What?" he asked innocently

"It's great to have ya back dad" Ashley couldn't help but smirk

Down in the dive room:

"Man, for a programmer who believed the cube wouldn't be found by the wrong people, this Swiftshot hotty certainly went to the trouble of making sure only someone with the right know-how could get in; this is a damn good encryption lock, hell even Prowl doesn't use this kinda programming on Teletran-1 back home" Glen said offhand as he watched the figures of his partner's hacking programmes scroll across the main monitor.

"C-c-c-consideringthieroutofdate, th-th-!" Frenzy peeped in

"Aside from evolving sentience, has this Spark Eater also evolved a psychotically perverse sense of humour and has been using this past month to mess with us?" Danny thought aloud as he leaned back in his chair.

"Maybe, just because you're sentient doesn't mean you necessarily have a consciousness; hell knows there are plenty of twisted minds out there that have high IQ's but no concept of respect for life or other people" Boma replied

"But even so, this 'Spark Eater' raises a lot more questions, as well as a few paradoxical conundrums: on the one hand, with all the minds of all those Decepticon prisoners a part of its own mind, the Spark Eater could've easily gone on the attack with us at any time, so why the wait? Also, with all its knowledge and ability to manipulate the net at the binary-code level, why hasn't it taken over the world already?" Aoi thought aloud

"Now that you mention it..." Darren straightened up "Do you guys remember back when we fought those 'cons' during the attack on the city, and there was that one who didn't realise he was speaking in Cybertronian? ...I can't put my finger on it, but if that con, along with all the others were being controlled by the Spark Eater, and they really were unaware of what they were saying; could that be any indication that its losing control as Swiftshot said?" he proposed

"If its telepathy is diminishing then that confusion was but a symptom of its waning power" Ratbat squeaked from where he sat on Frenzy's head

"You think there might be other 'symptoms'?" Darren asked

"With telepathy as powerful that, its 'condition' will continue to transpire in more ways than one" the little drone frowned

"But if it's telepathy is going all ape-shit because its memory is overloaded, why not put in more memory chips?" Glen offered

"It's not that simple; a helm has only so much room for all the component's that make up an individual's CPU, you can't just cram more memory in! Not without redesigning and rebuilding the helm from scratch" Ratbat replied

"Could he have just done that then?" Aoi asked

"Perhaps, but if the Spark Eater is unaware of the overloaded memory capacity then it wouldn't be aware of the danger. That data-storage unit was created back in the early half of the twentieth century; a lot has considerably changed between now and then. And there's no way of telling if it's still unaware or corrected the problem" Ratbat replied

"If that thing has the technology to turn humans into Cybertronians, I think it could've found a way to repair itself it was aware. But if it's still unaware and the nanites within its body take over, could we be looking at something like what happened to the Major?" Ishikawa interjected

"Possibly, but if the nanites are sentient as Swiftshot said; there's no telling what could happen if the Spark Eater's control is removed; but if the Dark Spark has no control at all, than there's no telling what kind of destruction it could reap...I can still remember back to that day on Prarex 9 and sensing that awful 'hollowness' come at us; I honestly thought we wouldn't survive..." Ratbat shuddered; Frenzy gently picked him off his head and held him close to his spark, sending waves of love and reassurance down the bond, across the rest of the bond his brothers sent their reassurance too. At that moment the door opened and Hailey stepped in with a bowl of cereal in hand.

"Don't mind me boys, just carry on" she huffed as she leaned against the side of the consol and tucked into her breakfast

"Man, what's up with you girl?" Glen noticed the less-than-pleased look on her face

"Those jarheads thought I was one of those creepy android ladies and ordered me to fetch their breakfast! I mean really! Do these look like metal to you?" she angrily pointed to her breasts; the guys just glanced at one another, unsure how to answer that. Ratbat instantly perked up and in one quick move flew from his brother's hands and dived straight down between her cleavage, Hailey squealed in alarm, nearly spilling her cereal before Frenzy rushed forward, slipped his hand down between her breasts and pulled his brother out; Hailey promptly smacked him across the face which landed the drone flat on his back, "God I swear! You keep doing that Batty and I'm gonna get Ratchet to turn you into an iPod when we get home you little pervert!" the young blond growled through her clenched teeth, Frenzy began reprimanding his brother in a string of Cybertronian curses, but the little drone wasn't bothered, he just sat in his brother's hand with a big sly smile spread across his tiny face.

"Now what's up with you?" Darren noticed the grim look on Glen's face

"Nothin', just the sound of those rice krispies is making me hungry" he sighed

"Uh, Glen? I'm not eating rice krispies" Hailey quirked an eyebrow in bemusement. Frowning in confusion, Glen got up and saw that there were corn flakes in Hailey's bowl, "Well then who else is eating rice-" he looked around the room, but aside from the cups of coffee, he saw no one was eating anything, "-Krispies? ...Then, what's making that noise?"

"What noise? There's-" Ishikawa turned around in his chair, but Darren held up a hand to stop him, the room fell silent as the humans and drones looked around, listening..."Wait! I do hear something!" Ratbat squeaked as his oversized ears twitched and rotated all around, listening to every tiny noise in the room.

"...He's right, listen..." Aoi pointed out; it was hardly audible at first, barely above a whisper, but steadily a faint delicate crackling and popping sound began to rise above the sound of the machines whirring. Slowly rising from their chairs, Darren and Glen silently followed their ears, trying to locate the source.

"Where's it coming from?" Hailey said offhand as she put her cereal down and listened around for source of the sound. Suddenly, all the monitors in the dive room began to flicker on and off, and the power-distributer monitors near the main power cables at the far end of the room began to slowly drop. A flair of alarm went through the room as everyone looked around, a quickened sense of urgency telling them to look harder.

"Up there!" Ratbat squeaked as he flew up and perched next to one of the maintenance access panels by the main hard drive; grabbing a screwdriver and removing the panel, Ishikawa, Darren, Glen and Boma glanced into the one by one metre space and heard the sound coming out at a much higher pitch now. "What's making that sound?" Boma said offhand, leaning in for a closer look, Darren could see something moving about through the mess of wires and circuitry, as it grew louder it began to sound more like the clicking and scurrying of countless insects and as he pushed a bunch of wires aside, he gasped in horror at what he saw...

A black and purple mass of tiny metallic insectoid creatures, barely the size of bread crumbs and pin heads, they flitted, scurried, and swarmed around the circuitry, eating everything they touched; the four humans and drone jumped back in alarm as the mass suddenly grew in size and spilled out onto the consoles and keyboards, within three seconds the keyboards and surfaces disappeared inch by inch as they ate everything within reach. "NANITES!" Darren cried in a panic, "NANITES! EVERYBODY OUT! GET OUT RIGHT NOW!" the teenage hacker cried as everybody dashed for the door and took off down the corridor, but they stopped suddenly as they heard the sound again; glancing at a nearby access terminal Glen gasped in shock as more of the micro-bugs grew out from the terminal and consumed the whole console and surrounding wall. Nearby another a black patch emerged from another console, and then another, and another until the corridor slowly began to grow black and purple with millions upon millions of the hungry creatures.

"SHIT! What the hell kinda nanites are they?" Glen panicked

"The Type-7 Interceptor! When they infected the Major the Black Lotus must have sent an additional payload to hide in the computers! They must have been programmed with a 'metamorphosis' coding that turned them from a micro-cyber-virus into these things!" Darren blurted out as his brain went into overdrive

"Wha-can we stop them?" Hailey panicked

"It took D-man several hours to create the cleanser nanites to kill them off! The building won't last that long at this rate!" Glen barked back

"We've gotta get everyone outta the building! Go get the others and take the emergency elevators, we'll shut down the buildings-"

BOOOOM!

The building shook violently to one side, knocking the humans and drones to the floor, all of who quickly scrambled to their feet to avoid the growing mass of nanites as they continued to eat the corridor; "What the hell was that?" Hailey called out as they ran on further until they reached one of the glass wall corridors that ran alongside the exterior of the building, suddenly, three giant black shadows flew up past the window, making the humans and drones stop in their tracks. "What the hell was that?" Glen panicked; at that moment the giant figure of a black and silver seeker landed on the side of the building with a loud thud and punched through the glass wall; Hailey and Glen both screamed as a giant hand with four long claws reached out to grab them, reacting on instinct Darren fired up his BSHB and fired a shot of blue fire and lightning as the seeker's optics, forcing him off his perch and back into the air where a streak of midnight blue shot out of the rainclouds tackled the seeker from above and sent him in a downward spiral, making him crash into one of the neighbouring skyscrapers.

"D! What the hell's going on?" Darren called out as the sniper latched onto the building.

"We're being attacked! The Black Lotus are back!" he blurted out, "There's no time to go into details, you've all got to get out of the building right now!" the sniper barked before two other black seekers tackled him from below and forced him off the wall, ripping part of the exterior wall and floor out of place but everyone was quick enough to jump out of the way as several large chunks of debris fell away. "Hailey! Go get your sisters and get Matti and the other families out of the building! I've got to go' an get the laptops and other stuff in my backpack, the rest of you do what you can to get everyone out, I'll be as quick as I can!" Darren barked as he took off down one of the other corridors, not leaving any room for the others object, he activated his BSHB's protective force field and started blasting away at the nanites, "Hey man! I ain't letting you ain't do this alone! Now come on!" Glen called out as he tried to catch up to the teen.

Elsewhere in the building, the rest of Section 9 and the Autobot gang were having problems of their own...

"I don't believe this! Where the hell did they come from?" Sam called over his shoulder; "Hell if I know! But one's for sure, if they try to eat me I'm gonna give them the shits!" Ashley thrusted his spear into the monster's arm, forcing it to retreat and as it scrambled backwards it lost its footing and fell over the edge of the gaping hole in the wall.

The attack force had come out of nowhere; it started when three giant Decepticons showed up and attacked the bots in the auxiliary hanger, followed by another six, all of which shot a set of cables up the side of the building and abseiled up to attack the humans in their base; as if they were bad enough; seven seekers showed up and attacked from above, keeping the flyers busy so the humans would be left defenceless...or so they thought. No sooner had the attackers blasted through the glass walls of the building the Section 9 agents, Royal Marines and kids were quick to throw up their defences and start hammering them back; "Okay that's one down-" Ashley grinned; a deep boom from the room next door drew their attention, "Yeah but we still got the other two! What'll we-" Sam was interrupted as a loud chorus of gunfire rang out from next door, followed by another much sharper explosion, the two of them watched as the husk of a headless Decepticon fell from out of the building before the door at the far end of the (now half demolished) room blew off its hinges and Batou and John both stormed in, armed to the teeth with a large set of automatic machine guns in each hand and a couple of belts of ammo around their necks.

"Sorry we're late! We had to raid the armoury- ...where'd he go?" Batou looked around the room

"Oh we took care of him; he should be passing the hundredth floor round about now. Anyway where's the other one? I thought there was only one left?" Ashley barked

"There were-"

BOOOM! BOOM! BRATATATATATATATATATA!

They ducked down as part of the wall blew away in a hail of gunfire, "-But it's five now; the other guy's had some company piggy-back a ride up here with him!" Batou finished as they tried to stay upright amid the violent vibrations of the battle taking place a few doors down the corridor. "Sounds like Mikaela and the Major need some back-up!" Ashley took off for the door, powering up his BSHB midway, but his dad grabbed his arm before he could get out. "Hey! You cover my six and use that fancy force field of yours to give us some cover!" he ordered, "But dad!-", "NO buts! Now fall in!" he barked back, knowing there was no time for arguing Ashley said nothing and followed him and Batou down the corridor with Sam following close behind; up ahead the corridor and surrounding structure blew apart as the giant robotic form of a Decepticon crashed through the floor in a hail of blue fire and bullets.

"You boys took your sweet time!" Morri angrily shouted down through the hole from two floors above. "Where did the other's get to?" Batou called up, at that moment the wall behind them exploded and two smaller cons stepped out baring their silver teeth, "Ah, there they are" John casually glanced over his shoulder; Ashley's force field crackled with energy as he raised his spare and got into a fighting stance.

"Alright, which one of you pricks wants to get whipped first?"

On the other side of the building, Hailey, Becca and Becky quickened the pace as the fight sounded like it had really kicked off.

"What the hell happened?" Mei demanded in alarm as she bundled Haru into his sling shawl and tied him close to her chest while she kept a confused Mizuki and Annabelle close at her side; nearby, Matti, the other families and their kids huddled close together as the building shook and vibrated violently. "The Black Lotus is attacking! We need to get you and everyone else out right now!" Hailey replied as she led Jay-jay from her room with her favourite floor pillow plushy tucked under one arm, having not seen or known of the little femme previously, the other humans gawked in stunned surprise. "Okay, what are our options?" Mei asked, "We are!" Batou's Tachikoma squeaked as it appeared at the door with its fellow think-tanks close behind; "Mister Ishikawa told us what's going on and the Major told us to evacuate you all, and we haven't much time!" the AI panicked.

"Evacuate? How the hell do you intend to do that?" Ren and Ryo's father exclaimed

"You can ride in our pods, between all of us you should all fit in, including Jay-Jay!"

"What's a Jay-jay?" Ichiro quirked

"This is Jay-jay" the twins pointed to the sparkling, "Long story short, she's a baby alien robot from another planet who's currently in our care. I promise you all we'll explain everything when this over, but right now, we've seriously gotta jet outta here!" Hailey replied in panicked tone, a tense moment of silence past as the families glanced at one another in confusion.

"Baby-, alien robot?" Shiro's mother frowned in confusion; Matti placed a hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes. "Listen, you remember those 'AI's' that attacked the city a week ago? Well, they're not unmanned AI's that were created by the military and went postal, their actually giant alien robots from outer space and from another universe, their universe" she gestured to the Waineright sisters, "and the robots that attacked them are called the Autobots, and from the very start they've been trying to keep us all safe and protect the city too; I know this is a whole load to take in right now and I know you have a right to feel angry over it, hell I know I was. But trust me they've only been trying to do what's right because they don't want any more people getting caught in the middle of the whole screwed up mess!" she blurted out in a hurry. "She's right mommy!" Shiro tugged on his mother's shirt, "The Autobots are looking after us because they don't want the nasty killer robots to get us! The night we ran away, we ran away cuz other kids in the neighbourhood were disappearing, and no one knew they were gone! So we hid under the big grey box with all the cables coming out and Mizuki filmed this big killer robot taking kids from outta their beds, an' so we got chased by it and we got away on a floating log down an underground river after Annabelle blasted it with her death-ray medal! And then we went all over the city looking for Section 9, and then Annabelle said the Autobots could help us cuz she's got one of her own, and so we got on a truck to go cross a bridge, but then this other robot chased us, and we blew him up with a box of fire crackers! Then we found Section 9 and got band-aids and got to stay here, and the day before last, we saw the Autobots in the hanger downstairs, and this guy Bumblebee let me sit on his head and this other guy Scorponok let me ride on his back" the four year old frantically explained. His mother stared at him in a mix of confusion, shock and horror. "Did you have one of those energy drinks again?" his father looked at him dubiously, "NO daddy I swear! The Autobots are really real!" Shiro pleaded, the kids voiced their opinions too, pleading and begging their parents to believe them; the Tachikoma's were about to step in when suddenly a loud explosion tore open the ceiling, floor and back wall, throwing the Waineright girls out through the opposite door in the room and through the hole the giant form of a black robotic creature loomed over with glowing vivid red eyes, the families screamed as it growled and lunged for them, but the Tachikoma's promptly fired their claw-guns at its face and chest plates, but the creature kept coming and was within a metre of them before an explosion of gunfire from below tore through his belly and the creature dropped down dead.

"What the hell are you all still doing here? You should be gone already!" Saito barked as he crawled out of the hole in the floor with a big machine gun strapped to his side, Togusa followed up and scrambled to his feet when he saw his family.

"Are you okay? Did he get you?" he checked them over for injuries, but Mei brought his attention up to her, "We're fine, we just need to get in their pods and get out" Mei assured him, the Tachikoma's opened up the doors to the pods and turned around to let the humans get in; "You owe us an explanation for all this!" Taichi's father angrily pointed at Hailey, "And believe me you WILL get one! But right now we need to GO!" Hailey snapped back as Togusa lifted Annabelle, Mizuki and Jay-jay into Batou's Tachikoma with Mei, Haru and Matti both squeezing in side by side, it was a tight fit but the pods sealed up with everyone safe inside. Firing up their BSHB's the girls blew out the glass wall and hovered outside, shielding their eyes from the heavy rain and sharp winds they checked all around for any sign of the enemy seekers; high above the building Deathshot, Jetfire, Thundercracker and Skywarp were dodging about as six other seekers chased after and fired at their tailfins, as the four flyers nosedived down, a stray hail of plasma-fire from the enemy ripped up the side of the building; throwing up their shields on instinct the girls deflected the shower of glass, concrete and debris away before it had a chance to reach the human sniper and detective.

"Hey! If you run into the Major, tell her we're going with the Tachikoma's to provide some cover!" Hailey barked

"We'll try! Head to the Toshima air base, the chief's already called ahead; they'll be expecting us to rendezvous there! " Saito replied before he took off back down the hole.

"HAILEY!"

"Yeah Togusa?"

"...Take care of them" was all he could say

"...Don't worry" she could see the anxiety in his eyes; "I will" she smiled, and took off into the air. The Tachikoma's leaped from the building like jumping spiders before firing their cables at the closest neighbouring skyscraper and swinging in a huge arc away into the city; not far behind, the girls gasped as they caught a glimpse of the Autobots fighting off a whole gang of thirty foot black cons. One of them noticed the Tachikoma's and aimed to fire; the girls readied their shields to deflect the shot but at the last second Jazz fired his gun and ripped the giant's arm right off before landing a kill shot straight to the spark chamber.

"Man that was too close..." he sighed in relief through his vents, **"Alright guys, the Tachikoma's got the humans out! Let's give them as much distance as possible!"** he barked over the comm-line.

"**You know, it's kinda creepy to think these cons were actually humans once! If you can believe that!"** Sideswipe interjected.

"**What gets me is, why the slag are we still calling them Decepticons when technically their bodies are hosts for the cloned mind of a 'living dead' telepathic alien entity? I mean, it doesn't make sense! Technically their not Decepticons in the first place! What do we call them?"** Bluestreak replied as he sniped one of the robots dead. **"Considering the complexity of the situation and they've more or less been 'transformed' to the specs of a Decepticon, I'm still inclined to think of them as cons" **Sunstreaker replied as he unsheathed his blades and took a running leap at two other giants; **"But they were human! Maybe some part of them still is!" **Bluestreak argued.

'That gives me an idea...' Jazz thought as he eyed up the smallest attacker in the group. In one quick move, he transformed, dodged and drifted though the fight until he was in range, then transformed at break-neck speed and shot the attacker in the knee joins before dragged him off behind one of the nearest buildings. Before the con had a chance to fight back, Jazz called upon his knowledge of emergency battlefield first aid and ripped off a small panel at the back of the cons neck plates, there he saw what he was looking for as he grabbed two particular wires and yanked them out. The con's whole body went limp but his vents were still furiously inhaling and exhaling air and his optics still looked around; he was paralyzed, but still conscious and aware of what was going on, just as the silver bot wanted.

"I know you can still hear me; I want you to tell me, who are you?" the first lieutenant sternly growled

"What do you care? You'll only kill me anyway!" the attacker snarled through his clenched teeth and mandibles

"Maybe, But I'm more interested in what you are and where you came from"

"Why's that so important all of a sudden? It not like you're going to win, so why delay your death like this?"

"Why do you bother to keep trying? We fought your buddies last week and offlined a fair few, now tell me! Who and what are you?"

"...Who am I? I'm one of the Black Lotus; we're salvation of humanity, the future that all cyborgs will eventually embrace and the annihilation of all organic humans across the face of the planet"

"And what are you?"

"I told you! I'm Dreadnought! One of the Decepticons most dangerous warriors, and soon to be your executioner!"

"...What?..." Jazz frowned; the attacker seemed to gaze off into empty space for a second before snapping back to reality, and blinking in surprise, not believing what he just said.

"...Huh? Wh-what did I say?"

"Make your mind up! Are you a Decepticon or not?" the first lieutenant demanded, but the con just stared up at him blankly

"...Wh-what's a Decepticon?..." within seconds his red optics dimmed and his body went into violent convulsions, sparks and smoke emanated from a vent in the side of his helm as his head rolled back; his convulsions stopped and his whole frame went ridged, before finally relaxing completely and his optics went dead. A quick scanned confirmed he'd gone offline, and as Jazz got back up, he made a note to mention this to the others later and went to back up Hot Rod, who'd taken cover behind part of the half demolished hanger and was trapped in place by another three attackers who'd just shown up. As the first lieutenant transformed and made his way over, two giant jet wings crashed to the ground followed by a wingless black and silver seeker grasped by Skywarp in his long curved talons, slamming him face first into the ground and offlining him instantly; the Lambo twins charged at him but stopped as the seeker frantically waved at the to stop and frantically point to his Autobot insignia.

"STOPSTOPSTOP! I'm one of you remember?" he panicked, the twins glanced at one another in disappointment and went back to the fight, Skywarp fired up his after-burners and blasted back up into the sky, and back up into the dogfight.

"You okay?" Thundercracker glanced sideways at his partner as he joined him at his side

"I am now; those crazy twins nearly tackled me! Forgot I've defected!" the black and purple seeker exclaimed in disbelief

"Yeah? Well with the amount of Autobots we've offlined down the centuries did you seriously think they'd just forget our past transgressions?" the larger seeker frowned

"Uh? Well- um?..."

"Oh never mind! Just cover my tailfin and wait of the old slagger to make his move!" Thundercracker growled as he nose-dived down on one of the enemy seekers and slammed his talons into his back; directing him upward Thundercracker turned sharply to one side and threw the seeker up over his wings. The seeker turned to shoot the ex-con but his helm blew clean off from between his shoulders and he dropped like a stone. Silently standing atop one of the far off skyscrapers and concealed from sight by the thick rainclouds, Deathshot had made short work of three of the seekers but now that the remaining two were aware that the sniper was applying his art, they'd taken cover behind the opposite side of the Section 9 HQ building and had settled for trying to reach in and grab the humans; but they hadn't counted on Jetfire, who'd climbed as high as he could and then took a speeding dive down the side of the building, knocking the two seekers off the wall with the resulting shockwave and leaving Thundercracker and Skywarp to catch them and drag them into the sniper's range. Two more shots rang out across the top of the city, and the dogfight was over with the last of the airborne attackers dropping out of the sky, limp and offline.

"**Okay, they're down, now let's go and-GHA!"**

Deathshot didn't have time to finish as something hit him hard across the back of the helm, and with such force that he lost his footing and fell down the side of the skyscraper; he barely had time to fire up his engines and take off when something huge slammed down on the back of his wing joins. He glanced back over his shoulder in time to see a huge four-winged seeker reach down and try to rip his gun off his shoulder; reacting on instinct the sniper activated his self-defence mode, several of his black and silver cables flew out of his wrist and neck ports like a nest of angry snakes, latched themselves onto the seekers armour and fired a burst of electrical energy. The seeker let go as he recoiled in pain. Deathshot flipped over and transformed, blasting back up into the sky; but the seeker was not about to give up so easily and took after him at breakneck speed; as he cleared the top of the rainclouds and emerged into the sunny blue sky, Deathshot detected another eight enemy seekers fast approaching his position.

"**Are you alright up there gunny? You cut out for a second there!"** Jetfire called down the comm

"**I'm fine, but we've got more company on the way! Plus I could use a little help up here!"**

Back down below in the building:

"SHIT! These lil' bastards are eating the building faster that we can defend it!" Morri called over as she dodged another cluster of the black nanite bugs as they fell through the hole they'd made in the ceiling, "At least the kids and their families are out safely, which is what we should be thinking about sometime soon!" the Major replied as she fired a grenade round at one of the larger con's who'd crashed through the hole in the ceiling; taking cover behind the dead body of another con the humans curled into the foetal position behind Morri's force field as the whole room exploded in a fireball that washed over their heads and blew out of the gaping hole in the wall. It had barely been twenty minutes since the attack first started, but already the humans and Autobots were beginning to lose ground as the nanites continued to eat the whole building from the inside out, and the Black Lotus/cons had continued to advance just as fast; as soon as one unit was offlined, nearly twice as many would turn up to hammer them some more. Approaching the edge of the now demolished canteen, Morri glanced down and frowned in frustration as she saw another six cons abseil up the side of the building, aiming for their climbing cables she fired several rounds of energy blasts until all the lines were cut and the attack force fell away.

"This is shit! They've got the guys pinned down on the south side while these bastards keep coming up the north! D and the other flyers better have a bloody good reason not to be covering our asses!" Ashley fumed, at that moment several loud explosions and rounds of gunfire echoed from above the cloud, followed by a series of fire-flashes and streaks of white muzzle-flashes. "I think it's fair to say their plenty busy" Morri replied, "Major, we can't keep this up! At the rate these creeps keep coming up we'll be out-matched and out-gunned within the hour!", "I agree, that's why the chief called for the tiltroater to come and pick us up, with the elevators and stairwells eaten up by those nanites there's no way for us to get down, and even with those force field bubbles you can't carry us all out; ETA should be less than five minutes" the Major replied, "That's if they can avoid that!" Ashley pointed to another of airborne explosion, followed by the falling remains of an enemy seek that had been blasted in two.

"This is getting tiresome! We're not getting anywhere here!" Jetfire huffed as he swung his axe and decapitated another two seekers. "For once I agree!" Thundercracker called back he fired his guns at one of the larger four-winged seekers, blowing both its left wings off. The two Autobot seekers dived down to line up for another charge at three other attackers that Skywarp and Deathshot were holding off when the sound of propellers drew their attention down to the oncoming tiltroater as it speed through the clouds some forty feet below them.

"They're falling back?" Jetfire thought aloud

"Huh?"

"If the tiltroater's going to collect the humans it must mean the building's lost! Go down and make sure that plane's got some cover, I'm ending this fight right now!" Jetfire barked as he pushed the seeker away and extended his battle axe's hilt out to its full length; Thundercracker wasted no time in catching up with the tiltroater while Jetfire rose above the clouds, his axe's blades glowing bright orange and rising in temperature until they burst into flames and he swung it around and around until a giant fiery tornado towered up high into the sky; and with a defining roar of his engines he charged head on...

"HEEEAAADS UP!"

The whole battle stopped and stared at the sky in awe as the clouds lit up in a dazzling blaze of orange and yellow before exploding outward in a ring of fire that consumed the rainclouds, creating a perfectly round hole in the weather that spanned for over two or so miles in diameter and in the centre the blacked remains of the airborne assault team fell and disintegrated into ash and embers.

"Wow, how long's it been since the old slagger used that move?" Thundercracker thought aloud as he watched the other's circle overhead. His attention was soon drawn back to the tiltroater as it came into land on the helipad, the doors at the end of the roof burst open as Glen, Darren, Aoi, Aramaki, Ishikawa, Frenzy and Rumble rushed out with their arms full of various odds and ends they'd rescued from the dive room and analysis room before they finally got eaten up. As they rushed up to greet the approaching aircraft Thundercracker noticed a giant black patch growing outward on the side of the building; realising that the nanite-bugs were eating the helipad's main structural support beams, the seeker immediately dived down, activated his electro-pulse emitter and fired on the advancing bugs. The nanites fell away like sand and shingle, reliving the extent of the damage to the beams. Realizing the whole structure could collapse at any moment the seeker perched himself on the base of the beams and proceeded to wedge himself in place, baring the weight of the structure on his shoulders he could feel the horizontal metal beams above him creaking through his shoulder and wing joints as the tiltroater touched down.

"What the hell are you doing?" Tom shouted over the roar of the propeller engines as he carried an injured Pazu in his force field.

"Making sure your ride doesn't fall off the roof! Now GO!" the seeker barked back; bit by bit, floor by floor everyone made their way up to the roof, taking it in turns to fend off the attackers while clearing the way to the aircraft for those who'd fallen behind; Ravage came out carrying a weakened Lazerbeak on his back and a nervous Ratbat on his head, Buzzsaw came limping out with a half scorched leg with Frenzy and Rumble at his side, while the humans sported a range of cuts, bruises and minor burns no one had any serious injuries. As another cluster of nanites encroached closer to the roof, Thundercracker began to get very nervous, wondering and dreading if the little slagger's ate living metal (knowing his luck, probably).

"Is that everyone?" the Major barked as she counted everyone.

"Danny's still down there! We gotta back!" Glen panicked

"Wait here!" The Major dashed out of the aircraft, but screeched to a halt when she saw the fast-growing mass of nanites eating the roof and air vents, looking all around for a way back in, she cursed under breath, she wasn't going to leave anyone behind; after being ghost hacked and made to kill her teammates and friends, she would be damned to hell if she let anything happen to them on her watch. But before she had a chance to try anything the tiltroater fired up its engines, the AI operator pilots didn't even wait for the rear ramp to close up as the craft pulled up and away; the agents ordered the pilot to turn back but the operators refused, stating that it was too dangerous to land now, in one huge jump the Major cleared the distance between the aircraft and the roof, and proceeded to try and override the pilots authority while the worried and panicked kids tried to open the ramp to get back down there.

Having heard all this, Thundercracker considered the situation for a brief moment before finally heaving a fustrated sigh through his vents, and with one hard push upwards, dislodged himself from in between the beams and the helipad's topside structure; "I just know I'm gonna regret this later" he grumbled under his voice as the helipad tilted sideways and finally slid off the roof as the nanites attacked the support beams on the other side. Jetting down to the floors where the humans had evacuated from, Thundercracker scanned up and down, until finally he spotted the Briggs redhead stuck in a small crack in the floor beneath several girders stacked one on top of the other in one of the rooms nearest the building's central structure; folding back his wings and crashing through the crumbling structure, he fired his pulse emitter over and over to keep the hungry nanite-bugs at bay, but as he pushed as squeezed his way through he could feel the little slagger's beginning to munch away at his joints and protoform underneath. "This little flesh-bag better be worth the trouble! Why the frag didn't he acctivate that slaggin' BSHB of his?" he grumbled in annoyance as he finally reached the central structure, beneath a pile of half-eaten rubble and support girders the seeker could barely make out the boy's face as he gawked up at him from inside the hole. "Bloody hell! What're you doing?" Danny exclaimed, "Rescuing you of course! Now hold still!" the seeker snapped back as he scanned the beams and carefully removed them to one side; Danny jumped out, only to be snatched up in the seeker's clawed hands and uncomfortably stuffed into his cockpit. "Right now let's-WHOA!" Part of the wall and floor gave way and the seeker fell halfway down to the floor below, which had been eaten away along with the other three floors below that, leaving a huge crumbling hole, at the bottom of which stood six large Black Lotus/cons, all looking up at him with rictus smiles. Not wasting any time Thundercracker scrambled back up and fired his guns downwards, making them rush for cover amongst the falling debris; Suddenly getting an idea, the seeker smirked as he opened up a small sub-space compartment on his hip and produced a small cylindrical object with purple and red flashing lights at either end, clicking a button on the side, he threw the object next to one of the half eaten elevators.

"Have fun with that!" he grinned, and quickly shuffled his way back out. No sooner had he blasted off the whole top section of the building exploded in a giant fireball, the shockwave of which sent the seeker tumbling forward before the blow-back effect jerked him violently upwards towards the sky. The tiltroater got pushed up with the force of the blast but was quick to level out, onboard the humans and drones watched in silence as the rest of the building lit up in flames and began to slightly lean to one side; down on the ground the Autobots had already abandoned the fight and were already making a quick getaway just as the bottom levels of the building suddenly exploded, and the whole skyscraper collapsed in a thunderous roar, disappearing into a clouds of smoke and dust. The Section 9 agents looked on in a mixed sense of loss and regret as they watched their workplace and temporary home go up in flames, nearly a decade's worth of work and memories, gone in less than a few minutes...At the same time, just as the Briggs family were about to break down over the lost of their favourite redheaded cousin/nephew; Thundercracker reappeared out of the smoke and came up alongside the tiltroater. Their grief quickly turned to joy and relief at seeing Danny's queasy smile as he weakly waved from the ex-con's cockpit, the seeker transformed back to altmode and was soon joined by Jetfire, Deathshot and Skywarp.

"**Why the slag are you all black?"** Thundercracker asked as he scanned their blackened armour.

"**Oh, you can thank genius here for that! He used the 'fire-twister' attack on those last three flyers!" **Skywarp grumbled

"**Oh quit your whining! I got rid of them didn't I? A little soot never hurt anyone!"** Jetfire retorted; a long moment of silence passed before Deathshot spoke up...

"**Hey Thundercracker...I saw what you did back there..." **the sniper spoke impassively; the ex-con tensed, wondering if he was going to demand his charge back.

"**...And?"**

"**...Thank you for saving Danny's life"**

"**What? You think I was going to leave the little squishy there? Yeah right, I've got better things to do than to have one of your bullets fly through my helm; as soon as we land he's all yours!" **Thundercracker grumbled; unable to formulate an answer, Deathshot was left speechless; but there was something else in the ex-con's voice he couldn't quite place, a touch of concern perhaps? Something he'd never heard before...or wasn't expecting to hear from him? Either way, he made no issue of it and was thankful that Danny was alive none the less; together they stayed on the tiltroater's wings and fell into formation as they left the city behind.

4 hours later:

"What the shit's that bug doing?" the soldier frowned in disbelief

"What do you mean what's he doing? The poor guy's been cramped up in a hanger for the last few weeks with nothing to tunnel into! He's just spinning his claws and stretching his tail!" Becca retorted, looking up at the soldier as if he'd taken leave of his senses.

"Uh, I'm sure he is, but he's also ripping up the airstrip and scaring the troops half to death!" the soldier retorted as he waved his hand, gesturing to the numerous muddy holes dotted about the flat green expanse that divided the Toshima airbase's runways.

"Technically, he's only ripping up the grass, tarmacs kinda rough on his claws" Becky folded her arms; at that moment, a pair of glowing red eyes suddenly appeared in the hole nearest to them and disappeared, the soldier flinched but the twins stood there with amused looks on their faces.

"I don't care! Just tell him to get the hell outta there!" he barked angrily, the twins deadpanned at one another and sighed, Becca brought her fingers to her mouth and whistled sharply; the earth shifted in a fast-moving wave before Scorponok blasted out of the ground and trotted over to the twins like an eager puppy, he leaned to one side to let them mount him and scuttled off back to the hangers, snapping his claws with glee.

"You happy to be back in the dirt?" Becca smirked

"Oh I never thought I'd miss dirt and mud that much! And those human soldiers were so nice in providing me with some 'training practice'!" the scorpion chirped happily

"Yeah, I don't think ankle-pinching and pulling someone down into a hole is us human's idea of fun" Becky though aloud

"It's fun for me!"

"We know" both twined chimed together, "Geez you'll find any excuse to chase anything that moves" Becca rolled her eyes

"Hey it's what I'm programmed for" Scorponok shrugged

"Ha! How long are you going to keep milking that one?" Becky grinned, as they rounded the corner of one of the hangers, the sight of a large black helicopter landing on one of the helipads caught their attention.

"Looks like Aramaki's back" Becca said offhand, Scorponok picked up the pace and hurried along to see what was up.

This afternoon had been a real contrast compared to this morning's action; after a forty five minute flight they arrived at the Toshima airbase, there the GSDA were there waiting to show them to one of the larger hanger's they'd put aside for the Autobots; the land-based bots arrived some thirty minutes after the flyers had touched down, followed by the Tachikoma's who arrived an hour later after taking 'the long way round' to avoid the risk of the enemy picking up their trail. The rest of the morning was spent recovering and getting over the initial shock of the attack; though no one had been seriously injured, being abruptly forced to abandon the base hadn't been easy for some. For the Section 9 agents, an unexpected sense of regret had crept up and taken a hold where they least expected, though it had been just a building, it had seen them through the best and worst of times and although an assault on the HQ by the Black Lotus/cons hadn't been ruled out as a possibility (and as with many things in Section 9, nothing was sacred), seeing the building collapse like that felt unreal in a way. But since no one had been killed or injured the mood was relatively less tense than what it could've been, and as the hours passed by everyone made use of their time seeing to everyone else's well being; in the hanger Mikaela had been running repairs on the bots with Sam, Darren, Glen and Miles as her help and the Briggs cousins helped the flyers wash all the soot ( in Thundercracker's case, the now dead nanites) off of their armour while the Royal Marines stood guard at the door and around the hanger. As Scorponok scuttled around the helicopter, the twins jumped off as the doors opened and Aramaki stepped out, followed by Kobuta and several important looking individuals.

"Yo! What-up dudes?" Miles waved from the top of Jetfire's head

"What's up is that this will be our new base of operations for the foreseeable future, as well as your new accommodations; we just got back from clearing the paperwork with the Prime Minister, among other important things...The attack on our building hadn't gone unnoticed I'm afraid; the American Empire's Naval fleet saw everything from the mouth of the bay" Aramaki replied and he and others entered the hanger.

"That's bad isn't it?" Hailey asked as she gave Jay-jay her lunch-time cube of energon.

"In terms of the American's becoming a further nuisance in all this? I'm afraid so; the American Secretary of Defence still hasn't responded to the UN's plea to withdrew the fleet from Niihama bay and our latest intel from Section 6 and the Intelligence Departments Reconnaissance Network suggests that the Pentagon might be planning something else" Kobuta replied

"What? You mean their gonna try to hijack us again?" Miles exclaimed in disbelief

"Not if we have anything to say about it, after the last time they tried that stunt we've been keeping a real close eye on them; if they so much as sneeze our direction we'll be ready to send them packing" one of the other gentlemen stated boldly

"Only if they wanna playing hard-ball again, but with our latest 'discovery' they're the very least of our problems" Jazz sighed

"I agree, but we can't ignore the threat the Americans pose either; a lot of people are still adamant that the UN will get through to them, but our intelligence reports are painting a very different picture"

"You said the Pentagon might be planning something else? If they can't get at us here, what else would they try?" Togusa asked

"Well with their tactical infiltration sub out of commission their stealth capabilities are limited, but they've got seven aircraft carriers, seven destroyers, eight amphibious assault ships and eight missile cruisers; their certainly not lacking in fire power, but at the same time they know our own naval forces can put up a fair fight...if the Decep-, I mean, the Black Lotus 'hybrids', have still got a hold on the military networks, then it won't be long before something else goes down. Do you think you'll be able to crack that little data-cube's encryption before then?" Kobuta looked over at Darren

"As soon as I'm finished up here I'll be getting back to it" he replied as he put Mikaela's tools back in their boxes, "Fortunately I managed to decrypt fifty percent of the 'lock' before we were attacked, the rest shouldn't take more than a few hours"

"That's good, as soon as you've unlocked the encryption and sorted through the cube's contents, report back to us and we'll talk strategy, for now we're going to try to-"

BOOOOM!

The ground shook slightly as the sound of gunfire echoed through the air. "Aw slag what now?" Sideswipe exclaimed as he and everyone rushed out of the hanger to see what had happened; across the vast open space of the airstrip a large hole had been blasted through the perimeter fence, and from out of the woods that boarded the airbase three large Black Lotus/con hybrids came charging out of the trees.

"Shit!" Batou cursed under his breath

"Cover me!" Jazz barked as he transformed and charged at the three attackers with the Lambo twins, Hot Rod and Trailbreaker at his sides, Bluestreak, Bumblebee and Deathshot fired up their weapons and took aim. But just as they were about to fire...

HOOONK!

"Holy shit, I know that horn!" Sam gasped

From out of the woods a huge blue and red Peterbuilt truck with hot rod flames on its hood came crashing through the fence, drifted sharply to one side and took after the enemy bots before transforming into a giant thirty foot Cybertronian. He grabbed one of the attackers by the back of their neck plates, and in one flawless move thrusted a long retractable yellow-glowing sword upwards into their back and out through their chest plates. Another two vehicles came speeding up behind the giant, a big black GCM Topkick truck and a blue white and black 2010 Lonestar truck; the two bots transformed into equally big Cybertronians and offlined the other two attackers just as quickly.

Recognising the first giant and gasping in shock, Jazz and his team slammed on their breaks and transformed in record-quick time, coming to a stop just short of the three familiar bots.

"...Prime?..." the silver bot gasped

"So this is where you've been hiding old friend? It's great to see you online and well" Optimus smiled as he patted a happy Jazz on the shoulder.

* * *

YAY! It's Prime Time! (yup, I know it's a bad pun, feel free to finger-wag) XD R&R Please!


	68. Chapter 67: All Together Again

A/N: kinda short this chapter, just letting you know in case you think I've rushed it, I haven't, it's short on purpose ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 67: ALL TOGETHER AGAIN

"Well? Aren't you pleased to us too?" Ironhide demanded as he deactivated his cannons and folded them away back into his forearms

"I-, you-, your here?" Hot Rod blurted in disbelief

"Of course we're here Hot Rod, we just arrived" Ultra Magnus reassured

"Holy slag! We gotta tell-" Trailbreaker turned around in time to see the rest of the Autobots racing towards them, broad smiles spread wide across their face plates, and catching up behind them humans ran hell for leather across the tarmac, equally overjoyed to see their friends.

"IRONHIDE! RONHIDE! IRONHIDE!" Annabelle came charging up with the biggest smile her little dimples could muster; upon spotting her, Ironhide's own face plate lit up "Annabelle!" he dropped down as low as he could and scooped her up in his hands, bringing her up to his face for a 'cheek hug' "Oh Annabelle, I missed you so much youngling! Your father has been so worried about you!" he cooed softly, "Daddy? Where's-"

"IRONHIDE! Where'd you get to?" another familiar voice called out from the trees

"DADDY!" Annabelle bounced up and down in the black bot's hand as she tried to wriggle free, letting her down on the ground, the others watched as William Lennox emerged from the trees and fell over backwards as his daughter glomped him by the waist. "OF!-...Huh? Anny? ANNY!" Will scooped her up in arms and went into full dad mode; hugging, kissing and teary eyed joy at seeing his precious little one and holding her once again; the kids looked up and watched in awe as ten more Autobots emerged from the woods and stepped out onto the airstrip, followed by the human troops from NEST. Aside from Hound, Ironhide, Ultra Magnus, Prime, Cliffjumper and Ratchet, the kids didn't recognize the others, but judging from the looks of delight and happy surprise on their face plates the bots knew them by heart, and Bluestreak in particular was like a dizzy little kid who'd just seen his birthday presents as he laid his optics on three particular femmes...

"ARCEEE! I can't believe it's you! All three of you!" he gleefully bounced up and down with them in his arms; "Hey Blue, nice to see you too!" they smiled. As Sam studied them he noticed how they were each exactly alike, 'triplets?' he thought; one was pink, one purple, and the other blue; they stood at over nine feet tall with sharp sleek builds, and instead of legs they had, what could only be described as 'mechanized unicycles'. 'Wow, that must be a real balancing act' Sam thought as Bluestreak finally let them down to (figuratively) catch their breath, the pink femme blinked in surprise at the two human twin girls perched on the gunner's shoulders; "Oh, uh? Who're your little friends?" she asked sheepishly, having only realized they were there the whole time, "Oh yeah! Arcee, these are my charges!" Bluestreak beamed as he scooped Hailey up into his arms, "This is Hailey, and her little sisters Becca and Becky!" he proudly announced. "So you're the Waineright femmes? We've heard you've been keeping our little Blue company while we were away" the purple femme grinned, "Oh? Blue didn't tell us he had a little sugar on the side" Hailey glanced up the gunner with a cheeky grin, "Hehehehe! Arcee ain't his girls, they were his co-guardians when he was a sparkling" Jazz sniggered, if Bluestreak could blush, his cheeks would've put Sideswipes paintjob to shame. "Co-guardians? Then who was your mom?" Becca asked. "I suppose that would be me..." Another femme stepped forward next to Optimus. The kids stopped and stared in awe at her radiance; the tallest femme of the group she boasted grace, elegance, and a distinct commanding presence; she had rose red armour that had a vivid magenta iridescence, a sleek feminine form armed with formidable-looking guns and cannons, and radiant shining optics that glowed the softest shade of blue they'd ever seen; she was, simply...beautiful. "Blue was quite a handful when he was little, though certainly not as prone to misbehaving as Bumblebee and Hot Rod as I remember" she smiled

"Uh, hi Elita!" Bumblebee sheepishly waved

"Elita-1? Man oh man you are still fine lookin' as ever girl! And a new paint job? You always did know how set a mech's spark on fire!" Jazz grinned as he turned on the charm, "Jazz, still the infamous flirt as ever, don't tell me you've spent all this time on Earth chatting up human femmes?" Elita teased as she playfully swatted at his shoulder, Nope, just my favourite lil' honey's rights here" he gestured down to Mikaela, Morri and the Waineright sisters, all of who grinned. "Yep, you're still as bad as you were last millennia" Another femme smiled as she came up alongside Ironhide; she was a foot shorter than Elita, with sleek robust cobalt blue armour and a lethal looking set of guns on her wrists and shoulders, "Not as bad as you were when you were still single Chromia" the first lieutenant grinned, "Indeed, she's twice as much trouble as my sparkmate" Ironhide smiled as he slipped a hand around her waist.

"She's your sparkmate? Awesome, that's like, wifey for life right?" Miles grinned eagerly, to which Elita nodded as she gazed at Optimus with a loving smile.

"Hot-damn! So you're the lil' critter's we've been chasin' after? Primus you lil guys certainly know how to keep ol' Hound here guessin'!"" Another, much larger mech grinned down at the kids in a broad Texan accent as he came closer for a better look; for a brief second Sam and Mikaela both froze, the mech bared a striking resemblance to the Decepticon who attacked Lennox and his men in Mission city, the one who turned into the tank, and indeed it looked like this mech's altmode was a tank. Standing taller than Ironhide his build was broad and stout with tan coloured armour, with guns and cannons mounted on every conceivable part of his body, including one huge tank gun over four meters long mounted on his right shoulder; but instead of baring the face of a monster, this bot looked like an over-glitched version of Red Alert, and his mad grin wasn't particularly reassuring. "Aw look! Their so happy ta see us their lil' vocalizers glitched up! Primus I'm good at this meet'an'greet thing!" the bot grinned.

"Uh, I don't think so Warpath, they look little more alarmed than happy-" a huge army-green bot spoke up as he stepped forward, Scorponok jumped in alarm; this bot was a dead ringer for Blackout, except his armour wasn't all sharp and pointy and his face was more humanoid with smooth facial plates and a broad rounded helm while the long helicopter rotor blades protruding from his back denoted his altmode. The scorpion quietly scuttled backwards, trying to hide behind Deathshot's large form and hoping that the rest of the rescue party wouldn't spot him; he was suddenly painfully aware of just how well he'd been accepted by Jazz and the others (even the Lambo twins didn't take cheap-shot remarks at him anymore) this past month, Prime and the rest of the Autobots hadn't been around in all that time and hadn't gone through the same challenges as he had with the other bots and humans; for all intents and purposes the rest of the Autobots still considered him a Decepticon, that made him quite nervous. But as he tried his best to hide, Prime suddenly noticed all the holes in the ground in between the runways.

"I see Scorponok's been having fun" the Autobot leader said offhand

"Where is that bug anyway? I can only imagine the chaos he and that panther have been creating in this world-" Ironhide grumbled as he looked around for any sign of the drones, the kids were about to protest when the weapons expert suddenly spotted him behind Deathshot's feet. "Ah! There you are! Come on out here!" he ordered sternly...

"Actually, I'd rather stay out of your cannon's range!" the Scorpion nervously replied; the whole rescue team fell silent as they stared at the drone in confusion, to which Jazz and the kids grinned.

"Did-, he just talk?" Ratchet blurted out

"I did, and thank you for noticing!" Scorponok chirped; quirking an optic ridge, Optimus approached, kneeled down and beckoned the drone to approach; Scorponok readily obliged, he knew Prime was always fair with him. "How did this come about?" he asked, "That would be my fault..." Ravage purred as he suddenly appeared (seemingly out of nowhere) and smoothly paced up next to Ashley's side, "A while back my vocalizers suffered some damage and had to be completely replaced, and I have to say your apprentice did a fine job" he smirked up at Ratchet; he glanced down at Mikaela in surprise, "Hey, I wasn't going to leave him speechless, and besides, it saves us organics having to translate from 'dronese' all the time; plus, he never would've let Scorpy live it down if he couldn't talk normally too" she shrugged casually, "That would've been true" the panther concurred with a smug grin. "You replaced a whole vocalizer? TWO vocalizers?" Ratchet frowned, "Chill Ratchet I had your medical notes handy; they've been handy for a lot of things this past month" she replied. Looking at the other bots, both Prime and Ratchet suddenly noticed the freshly welded patches of armour and wire-mess dressings, and some older, fully healed minor wounds that they knew hadn't been there before they fell through the rift; standing back up, Prime's optics took on a deep thoughtful look as he surveyed his missing soldiers.

"You two!" Ironhide noticed Thundercracker and Skywarp approaching, "You've been with them this whole time?", "Well since you all took off without giving us a head's up we had no choice but to hang around with them!" Thundercracker glared at him; "We couldn't pick up your signal when you left so we didn't know where you all went. Besides, they didn't need our help, they've been looking after themselves just fine" Skywarp was quick to step in, "I'm sorry about that but we had to maintain our cover, the Decepticons have been tailing us ever since we emerged from the rift, despite our best efforts they've been aware of our presence and have been aware of our search to find you all" Prime replied honestly. "For a while we were concerned you'd turned on us and told them where we were heading" Ultra Magnus frowned, "Well that's not surprising, but those cons who've been chasing you aren't true cons" Thundercracker folded his arms, "What do you mean by that?" Prime frowned, "We've learnt ssssome interessssting thingsssss while you were playing catch-up!" Lazerbeak hissed as he swooped low over the bots heads and came down to perch on Skywarp's shoulder. "I thought I ordered you and your brothers to remain on the base!" Prime frowned at the eagle, "And be parted from our brother even longer? Certainly not!" he hissed, at that moment the rest of Ravage's brother's came up and stood at their oldest brother's side. "You let them hide in your cockpits didn't you?" Ultra Magnus glanced at the seekers, "Only mine" Skywarp sheepishly offered; the bots were about to say something else but Prime held up his hand, making it clear to drop the subject.

"What do you mean you've learnt some 'interesting things'?" Prime asked, the happy mood suddenly took an abrupt U-turn and was replaced by a sense of uneasiness as the kids and bots glanced at one another in uncertainty

"Its-, complicated..." Was all Sam could offer, "Let's just say, we've made some 'uneasy' discoveries, and we're gonna be staying here for a little longer" Jazz added; Prime frowned, this didn't bode well.

"OH MY GOD! I nearly forgot!" Hailey exclaimed in alarm, "We haven't introduced Jay-jay! Where is she?", "Don't panic, I put her in my cockpit for her nap" Skywarp interjected, Mikaela and Hailey both looked up the ex-con with a weirded-out look. "What? She likes the humming sound my consol makes; don't ask why" the seeker shrugged as he slowly opened his cockpit and gently scooped out the little femme; Optimus and the other bots did a double take and stared in shock at the little dozing form of Jay-jay as she stirred in her recharge and rolled over on her side.

"Is that-, a sparkling?" Elita gasped

"How-, where-..." Ratchet was at a loss

"I thought all the sparklings were wiped out?" Ultra Magnus gawked at her

"So did we, but apparently not" Jazz shrugged

"Where did you find her?" Optimus looked her over

"In a Cybertronian-made trunk that had been hidden in a nuclear bunker for twelve years, along with a few things I think you'll be very interested to learn" The Major choose that moment to interject; Sam was about to introduce her when he suddenly noticed the crowd of armed soldiers silently standing by at the opposite end of the airstrip, waiting and wondering what their orders were going to be, off one side Lennox and his men were looking equally uneasy as they surveyed their surroundings, and some of the other bots were suddenly aware of organic eyes falling upon them.

"You know what? Why don't we all take this into the hanger and discuss it in further detail?" Sam pointed, trying to sound professional as he led the way back to the hanger

"What's going on?" Lennox asked as he let Annabelle jump down and run over to her guardian.

"Trust me; you're not going to believe it..." replied Morri.

6:26pm:

"Okay, so the gun-ho guy is Warpath, the green guy is Springer, the triplets are Arcee, one and the same femme who all share the same spark? The big red one's Elita-1, she's Optimus's sparkmate, and the blue one is Chromia, Ironhide's sparkmate" Togusa said

"Right, and bar Thundercracker, Skywarp and the drones, everyone else was already on Earth when we came here, so with Omega Supreme, Kup, Wheeljack, Perceptor, Moonracer, Beachcomber, Mirage, Smokescreen, Tracks, Blurr, Jolt, Prowl and Brawn waiting back home, plus us, that makes a total of forty two bots in all" Bumblebee replied

"That's a lotta feet to keep your eyes open for" Saito said offhand

"Yeah, I expect with all the new bots on Earth NEST are gonna need to build more of those walkways in and around the base; God only knows trying to avoid a room full of giant metal feet is no easy feat" Miles grinned

"Ha-ha your hilarious, but seriously, if we can rescue those bots who're in stasis aboard the Black Solstus, there'll be even more bots to take home. Man it's gonna be totally bots-wana!" Becca thought aloud

"Yeah but think about it, if, like D-man, the 9 really are as teched up as the guys say, it's gonna be mega-ultra-super-awesome-upgraded bots-wana! Total awesomeness 24/7 plus all the coolest weapons and altmode's you can lay your eyes on; it's gonna be totally sweet! And with all that high-tech muscle we'll never have to worry about another possible con attack ever again!" Miles grinned wildly as he stared off into space

"Earth to Miles: That's IF we can get them out alive, we've gotta find them first, and that's not going to happen until Darren's cracked the data-storage cube" Bumblebee pointed out, gesturing to Darren who was concentrating on his laptop with the little cube wired up

"Oh yeah" the blond teen slumped down into his seat

"Hey look on the bright side, at least Jay-jay's happy, now that she's got the rest of her 'family' to go home with" Togusa pointed to the little blue femme, who was currently sitting on Elita-1's knees with her favourite floor-pillow plushie, being bounced up and down and giggling nonstop in delight.

"She's never going to get off to sleep tonight" Becky said offhand, "yeah, and those little energon 'candies' Springer had stashed away in his sub-space won't help either" her sister concurred

"Still, she's got a whole load of aunts and uncles to take care of her, and that's something, considering her mom's not in the picture anymore" Saito sighed in thoughtfulness

"...Yeah..." Becca sighed, "You know, I can't help but wonder what actually happened to her? I mean, I know she had to sacrifice herself so that the cube would stay safe, but even so, how do you kill yourself?" she looked up at Bumblebee, "I mean, for us it's simply a bullet to the brain, but because your brains are hardwired to carry on functioning with injuries it's not that simple huh?"

"I would've though a gunshot to the spark chamber would be quick and painless, since the spark can't feel physical pain, technically you shouldn't feel anything at the moment the spark ruptures and 'extinguishes'" Bumblebee pondered aloud

"Even if, or when, we do find her, will you take her back to bury her?" Togusa asked, Bumblebee couldn't help but offer a sympathetic smile

"Suffice to say our 'funerals' are a little different compared to human burial rights, but I think Prime will want it; least Jay-jay will have somewhere to 'visit' her and honour her mother's memory; I never knew who my creators were, as did many of the Autobots who were onlined during the war, at the very least she'll be more than a story and idea told by us, that she was a real person, who risked much and sacrificed herself to keep her sparkling safe" the scout replied

"Yeah, I know what ya mean dude; it's like what my dad sometimes tells me about my Great-grandmother who died just before I was born. He told me how she was this remarkable lady who did so much stuff during her life, and how she still carried on even up until she died; I mean, I've heard of her and seen the family photos and I know that she was cool an' all that, but whenever we went to visit her grave, I always felt-, 'different', like there was something, more. Now I realize that, that feeling was the me inside me telling me that she really was a real person; seeing the grave of a dead person, reminds you that they lived once, and that no matter how much time passes, they still counted for something in this big crazy thing called life" Miles explained with a look of deep thought on his face.

"That's, actually quite philosophical Miles" Becky stared at him in surprised bemusement, "I know, reading those little 'quote-a-day' flip calendars really pays off" he replied, the twins blinked at one another while Bumblebee, Saito and Togusa merely chuckled.

"Anyway, do you think he'll be okay?" Togusa gestured to the group of gathered bots in the far end of the hanger, all baring dubious and doubtful looks on their face plates; "To be honest, I'm not sure, it's not like we haven't faced overwhelming odds before, but this whole Spark Eater thing kinda puts a new perspective on stuff we thought we already knew. I mean-", "No, that's not what I meant-" Togusa interrupted, "Did Prime have anything to do with the 9 directly? I mean, being the leader of a whole army he must have known about them and their exploits, the 'commander' must have sent regular reports to him?"

"Well, all Autobot divisions and battalions were required to report of course, but, those who worked in the intelligence and reconnaissance divisions were seldom heard from regularly; when your hiding behind enemy lines or disguised as one of the enemy, being able to keep in contact with your superiors wasn't a luxury you could afford often" Bumblebee explain, "That's understandable" Togusa nodded"; "And then of course there was always the risk that a fellow bot could be corrupted by the cons ideology and turn on us. It certainly wasn't an uncommon occurrence during the first age of the war, we lost so many bases and worlds to defectors, I guess that's why Prime must have approved of the formation of a division like the 9, if their main directive was to weed out any traitors or double agents in the Autobot rank then I can understand the need for such a secretive and unconventional group" the scout continued

"That's spooky" Saito blink

"What?" the twins asked

"It's kinda like a mirror image of our own section; Section 9 was originally formed as an anti-terrorist organization to combat the threat of online-based crimes and terrorism, and for the better part of this last decade that's what we did, but of course, with a commander like the Major leading the way we never did things 'conventionally' like the other sectors or regular police; more often than not some of our actions did land us in hot water with the home affairs ministry, but we didn't particularly care just so long as we got the job done" Saito offered

"Oh my god..." Miles sat upright, "What?" Saito asked, "What if I was right all along about the doppelganger theory! I mean think about it; The 9? Section 9? Don't you think that's a little TOO big to be just to be coincidence? Plus, look at all the weird shit that's been happening to us since we got here! The trunks, Anny and the other kids discovering the kidnappings, Matti and her visions, Aoi arriving in time to save the Major with just the right weapon from that E-package he received, the weird Decepticons that aren't really Decepticons, and now this little data-cube with a hot femme telling us she knows what we've been through and that she's provided all we need to stop this Spark Eater?. All this shit was so completely random and nothing that's ever happened has been an accident! Steven King couldn't come up with this stuff and pass it for a great novel even if his life depended on it! There's a reason all this has happened and I think it goes beyond all of us, the conspiracy we've uncovered, the war, maybe everything, I don't know. But all this, everything we've seen and experienced, the direction this 'guide' dude is pointing us towards...what if it's for something else? What if-, this version of Earth is standing at the edge of the crossroads of destiny, and that how this all ends will determine mankind's future, maybe even his destiny?" the blonde teen stared off into empty space, his eyes looking spaced-out yet full of zealousness; the others looked at one another, wanting to disregard his ramblings and put it down to his imaginative mind, but as they considered what he said and all the factors he just pointed out, they knew they couldn't deny the point (?) he'd tried to get across.

"Well, I-"

"Finally!" Darren exclaimed in satisfaction

"You cracked it?" Bumblebee asked eagerly

"Yes! And it was the only encryption on the cube! Now we can finally-...whoa..." Darren's smile dropped and was replaced with unexpected surprise as he strolled down the screen of his laptop, checking and rechecking what he was reading.

"What's wrong?" Togusa frowned

"Nothing, it's just-, there's only six files on here, I was kinda expecting there'd be more you know? Don't worry it's no biggy, I hope..." he replied dubiously as he continued to read through the data.

"...Say, where did Prime get to?" Becky glanced over her shoulder, looking around for the Autobot leader

"I think he's still 'mulling it all over' outside; you know, I thought Deathshot's reaction to the discovery of the 9 was stark enough, but I can't figure out what's bugging Optimus about it? ...I haven't seen him react like that in a very long time" Bumblebee said offhand as he looked out the hanger doors.

At the far side of the airstrip, away from the hustle and bustle of the base's regular activity, Optimus Prime stood with his arms folded and his mind deep in thought, his mind was so far gone into itself that all the sounds around him seemed distant and faded like water droplets on a windshield; all but one, snapped his awareness back to the present, as the gentle footsteps of his beloved approached from behind. With a deep sigh through his vents his shoulders relaxed and his optics closed, the warm pulses of her spark sent comfort and familiarity through his own spark; something he hadn't felt for so very long, and that he'd missed so dearly.

"Your spark weighs heavy within you my love" Elita said softly as she joined him at his side

"...And yours is as soothing as ever" he replied with equal softness as he clutched his hand to his chest plates

"Only because we're together again, having our bond strained apart over the years has been a discomfort we've both had to endure; but now, I sense your spark has turned to the concern of another you care about..." She replied as she gently wrapped an arm around his wide shoulder, letting another sigh escape Optimus turned to face her, his optics unreadable as a flurry of concern, doubt, and worry flashed all at once; Elita's own fair features fell into a look of concern as she felt Prime's spark grow heavy with uncertainty, and the image of another femme came over the bond.

"...Your' worried about her, aren't you?" she asked

"...All these years I wondered where she was; our own bond as siblings hadn't been broken so I knew she hadn't been offlined. But then, she would never go down without a fight, she was always just like him, and equally just as stubborn..." Prime thought aloud.

"But isn't that a good thing? After all this time apart you have a chance to be reunited again, and if she feels the same as you do I know she will not deny you again; she loves you Optimus, and she only did what she did because you meant too much to her, and she knew she couldn't put you in harm's way for the sake of getting to him, the cost would've been far too high and you weren't worth it, she cared about you too much to ever do something like that" Elita cupped his face in her hands; leaning down, he softly placed a kiss on her lips and looked her in the optics.

"...I know, but it doesn't make the guilt of what I did any less heavier; but regardless of what happened between us that one time, I'm not ashamed of who she is or her relation to me, and when the others finally learn of the truth I will not let our family history be become an issue to overshadow our lives. She may have been set in her ways more often than not, but I know she would not pass up the opportunity to make a future for what is left of our people, not now that the war is over" the Autobot leader dropped his gaze in doubtful thought, "...But still, twenty five thousand years is a long time to be 'left out of the loop', as the humans would say" Prime replied

"Well, as the humans also like to say, 'we'll cross that bridge when we come to it'" she smiled, "What I don't understand is how Deathshot served under her command for all those years and not once did he ever learn of who she really was"

"I don't blame her for taking that precaution, if anyone had learnt who her twin brother was they probably would have turned on her in a spark-beat; still, she always did like to play too close to the fire, assembling a division like that who would kill any con in their sights, I always thought to be taking liberties. But then, she had taken so many risks during her life; if and when we do bring her home, I hope her team as well as mine will she see her for the Prima that she truly is, and not hold her heritage against her"

"Another bridge to cross"

"Maybe quite a few; if, I am worthy of her forgiveness..." he sighed sadly

"You are..." she placed a kiss on his lips, "And I know she will be glad to have her brother back"

"I hope your right my love, but for now, I just want to find my sister..."

* * *

Sister? Now who could that be? O_o R&R Please!


	69. Chapter 68: A New Find & Complications

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

Additional Disclaimer: Matti belongs to JillTheCrazy1

Caution: Strong swearing here and there.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 68: A NEW FIND & COMPLICATIONS

The following day:

"Okay, I know we've all been stressing out over this, I know some of us have even been popping stomach ulcers over it, but I can now officially tell you; we found what we've all been looking for..." Darren addressed the crowded hanger, clicking a button on his laptop; the nearby data-cube on the table opened up and activated its holoform-projector, "Now, this is kind of a 'good news/bad news' scenario, but we'll start with the good news: first of all, we have the plans and layout to the Black Lotuses base..." he pressed another button. In an instant the empty space above them was filled an enormous holoform diagram of a large complex subterranean structure, all the different levels and parts were colour coded while several streams of Cybertronian glyphs scrolled around the diagram in loops.

"Whoa, what the hell is that?" Batou breathed

"That. Is an underground complex that reaches over two and a half miles underground, is over one point seven miles at its widest, consists of thirty levels which all combined have enough space to accommodate for over one hundred thousand Decepticon/Black Lotus hybrid troops, has enough computer hard-drives to store the collective history of human civilization a hundred times over, and has enough uplinks to be anywhere on the net at any given time with firewalls, attack barriers and encryption locks that will take conventional hackers over seven hundred and eighty years to crack. And the cherry on the cake, it has its own energon processing plant half the size of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, providing the whole complex with all the power it needs without having to tap into the national grid...According to the footnotes that came with this holoform, the design and layout of this complex is loosely based on one that was on the planet 'Qu'Velt' some thirty thousand years ago; the only major difference is the levels are closer together, and some human tech has been incorporated with the regular Cybertronian tech in certain places. But this..." Darren pointed his lazar pen to the central structure of the diagram, "...Is our main concern: according to the details this is the central satellite interceptor antenna tower, the main device that will launch the Incept Code's viral signal; it's over six hundred feet tall and once fully operational it will be capable of hacking every satellite in orbit over the Asian continent, and from those the signal duplicates itself and hacks into every nearby neighbouring satellite, and so on and so on until all the satellites all over the planet are infected. It's equipped with a double-layer force field and deflector shield so missiles bullets and direct attacks won't work. Plus, there's only two main entrances into the base, a lower-ground hanger that allows for ground-based hybrids to come in and out, and an upper launching hanger for flyers; both are heavily defended by gun turrets, cannons and deflector shields, so their no-goes too"

"I thought you said you were starting with the good news?" Sam asked

"I am, and the good part is, I've looked over the design of the whole place, and found there is a way, not only to take out the tower, but to take out the entire base in one go..." Darren replied optimistically as he clicked another button on the laptop; the diagram spun around to show the energon processing plant in detail, part of the diagram also 'scrolled' upwards, revealing a huge oval-ish shaped red mass some distance under the base; a tiny corner of which was connected to the processing plant by a collection of straight-running tubes.

"This..." he pointed to the red mass, "Is a giant underground chamber of molten lava that's over eight miles in diameter and is sitting less than three miles underground; how deep it is is anyone's guess, but the entire base is built around a dormant volcano and all the central levels and chambers are built around the volcano's pipe here-" he pointed out, "One huge empty cavern stretching three miles down. Those lines going down into the chamber are the collection tunnels for the processing plants main siphoning chambers, the whole thing makes energon from geothermal heat and all that white-hot magma is perfect for producing over five hundred cubic units of energon a day. All the energon lines coming out from the processing plant stem from three main lines: the lower line that supplies power to the labs and other areas over there, the middle line that supplies the antenna tower and central levels here, and the upper line that powers the computer labs and 'central-hub sphere', the nerve centre of the whole complex, and the outside defences. Now this is where it gets good..." he explained, clicking another few buttons, the diagram changed into an animated holoform, illustrating what he explained as he went along, "...This smaller shaft up here, right at the top of the whole complex, is the central-hub sphere's main server, which is connected to the net 24/7 and is basically the only thing keeping the Black Lotus connected to the outside world; but more importantly, because it's constantly running around the clock it has over twelve energon dampening filters to keep it constantly at full power and it's also the only place where the energon lines run the closest to the surface without any major protection. The server resides inside its own access shaft, which allows it to send and receive online signals unhindered; if we can find that shaft and fire a payload down into it, it'll ignite the energon in the dampening filters and start an explosive chain-reaction inside the energon lines which will run all the way back to the processing plant and the resulting explosion will cause a massive shockwave that will ripple through the magma chamber below, and that" he typed another command into the laptop, another animated section of the diagram began to play, "-Will cause this thin section of rock way at the bottom of the pipe to rupture, the pressure from the ripples will force the magma up into the pipe, resulting in the volcano going active again and destroying the entire base in a volcanic eruption"

"Excellent strategy!" Jetfire grinned; the rest of the audience however, was left with mixed conclusions.

"We're going to blow up a complex the size of New Port's central district with a volcano? That's a new one on me" the Major quirked an eyebrow, thinking the young hacker had taken leave of his senses.

"It is a highly plausible theory, but what about the humans the Black Lotus have not transformed into hybrids yet?" Prime asked, at that, the optimism dropped from Darren's eyes and was replaced by a look of dubious uncertainty.

"I thought about them too; according to the data, the humans chosen for the transformation procedure are kept on this level here..." Darren typed another command into the laptop, the diagram 'zoomed in' on several levels at one end of the complex; the humans and Autobots all stared in morbid disbelief and shock.

"My God, it's almost like the layout of Auschwitz" Kobuta breathed

"Yeah, complete with holding pens...What are those rooms there?" Miles pointed to a series of circular rooms

"...They're the 'birthing chambers'..." Darren heisted, "No prizes for guessing what goes on in there" he added in an unreadable tone.

"What are the chances that we can get the humans out before an assault on the complex?" Prime asked, for a moment the room fell deathly silent as Darren searched his mind for an answer, but as he worked through every possible scenario and ruled out the ones that wouldn't work; his face began to reflect more and more the reality of the most likeliest scenario, until finally, he looked up at Prime with a pained look in his green eyes.

"...50/50 would be my best guess" he sighed

"How so?" Ultra Magnas asked, "Well, according to Swiftshot's notes, once their inside the complex their put into chemical induced comas to prevent the possibility of escape. The transformation procedure is done in four stages all rolled into one; first the nanites are injected into the-, 'subject'" he hesitated with disgust, "then their 'activated' and allowed to do their thing, once the transformation is complete their 'ghosts' are absorbed by the Spark Eater and replaced by a 'mental clone', an extension of itself, and then they have their altmode downloaded and are either put into stasis or join the rest of the Black Lotuses ranks. The whole thing takes less than five minutes"

Silence

"Five minutes? For every human?" Chromia gasped

"Pretty much" was all Darren could offer

"That's two hundred and eighty eight humans a day!" John exclaimed

"Which adds up to two thousand and sixteen a week" Ironhide frowned

"...Shit..." Lennox whispered under his breath as everyone looked at one another in a moment of wondering what to make of it and what to do.

"Is there any way we can get them out? I mean, if there's the possibility that some are still human we've gotta do something to save them!" Tom interjected

"If it were that simple I'd agree, but look at the layout between the ground hanger and the holding chambers; it's too far and too well protected, even if we somehow successfully fend off the guards and breach the deflector shields we've got four floors to get past and a whole hoard of hybrids to fight off, and when we finally get to them, how do we evacuate thousands of humans while holding off the Black Lotuses forces? As noble and right as it may be, it's a suicide mission" Ravage growled

"Well that's the typical line of thinking for a Decepticon" Ironhide snorted

"No, he is right..." Prime replied as he studied the diagram, everyone did a double take, as if to say: 'he did NOT suggest that! Did he?' "Strategically speaking, storming the complex via either of the hangers would be far too dangerous, we will have to find another way to get to the humans, one that involves as little close quarter combat as possible. There has to be a way we can get them out safely" he continued, to which most breathed a sigh of relief; "Darren, what else have you learned from Swiftshot's data?" Prime asked

"Well; another bit of good news; there's this..." he brought up another section of the diagram, this time it showed a large smooth object inside a hollow space, connected to the base of the volcano pipe by a long thin narrow passage, the bots perked up when they recognized what it was.

"The Black Solstus" Deathshot breathed

"Just as her data described; it's the front section of the ship's bow, six thousand feet long and encased inside what used to be a magma chamber. The only way to the ship is via this narrow passage, the Black Lotus set up a platform here at the entrance so as to transport all the equipment more efficiently, and a couple of more platforms, winches and elevators inside the chamber" Darren pointed with his lazar pen

"Then that means we can't trigger the volcano to explode, not while the ship is so close to the pipe, the whole thing will be flooded by the magma" Epps interjected

"The Black Lotus considered that too; that's why they built these around the entrance to the passageway..." Darren pointed to a set of five rings around the tunnel, "These are anti-thermal force field projectors, capable of withstanding temperatures of over ten thousand degrees, and more than adequate for shielding against the magma; they set it up so that in case the base of the pipe gave out the ship would be protected, and that passage is nearly a mile from the pipe and surrounded by solid granite; that chamber's not going to give out if the volcano blows, the sheer tonnage of the surrounding rock will keep the ship's chamber safely intact. Plus, there may be a 'back door' of sorts we can use..." he highlighted another section of the diagram, this time, all the hollow magma chambers and caverns surrounding the volcano pipe and complex, "This volcano was at one time a very active one; all these chambers and caverns formed as a result of magma being pushed up from the earth's upper mantle at high pressures and being pushed aside by the formation of super hot gases, kinda like a glass blower blowing molten glass into a bottle. The result is this gigantic honeycomb of both separate and interconnected chambers; some of which the Black Lotus have used as structural support to built their base, and some they aren't aware are even there, in particular, this little cavern here. It's approximately a mile from the ground-based hanger, and leads all the way down to this little chamber here, and along and down to a larger chamber that sits right above the top most holding chamber here. A metre of rock is all that separates them, and with a bit of careful drilling, we should be able to get into the complex no problem"

"But how will I be able to drill through that! Concrete and tarmac are one thing but granite is way too tough for my claws to penetrate" Scorponok interjected

"Uh, hello? I said these chambers were formed from magma, therefore most of them are comprised of pumice?" Darren deadpanned

"Oh, that's good then"

"That's all well and good but won't anybody spot us drilling in through the ceiling?" John asked

"Not if we take out the server first. See, because the energon throughout the whole base is constantly flowing in one big circle, the chain-reaction from igniting the energon in the dampening filters has to go the long way round to reach the processing plant. If we time it right; shoot out the server at the same time we break through the rock into the chamber, we should have about an hour to get in, count and confirm how many humans are still human, open up a space-bridge and teleport everyone out in one go before the chain-reaction hits the holding and birthing chambers, by that time it'll be absolute chaos and the hybrids will be too busy to chase after us"

"Shit, that's some rescue mission!" Epps stated offhand

"If Skywarp and I combine our teleportation devices to work in sync it could be possible" Jetfire interjected

"And your sure it could work?" the Major asked

"Yeah, if we plan the timing right, what do you think?" Darren looked up at Optimus

"An excellent idea, but what about the Incept Code?" he asked

"That, is the other half of the challenge we're gonna have to take care of first..." Darren turned serious as he typed on the laptop; the diagram of the complex shifted to one side and another, much larger and much more complex diagram popped up next to it.

"Whoa, is that some kinda coral? Or a brain or somethin'?" one of the NEST troops thought aloud.

"That. Is the net: the entire net, everywhere across cyberspace via the network of satellite and ground-based servers and every single computer across the globe, everything from home computers, portable terminals and hand-held notebooks to top secret military AI-controlled number-crunching hard-drives. All this, is the online world as you know it. And this..." Darren gestured to the diagram, trying to add some dramatic emphasis, clicking another button on the laptop, a large portion of the diagram lit up in red, "...Is the Incept Code itself"

"Holy shit, that's how big it really is?" Batou gawked at the diagram

"The military network, the offices of home and foreign affairs, even the other public security sectors; their all there man" Glen shook his head

"It looks like a giant tree, is that where it originated from?" Morri pointed to the base of the diagram. Indeed the whole map of the net was structured much like a giant tree with hundreds of thousands of branches stemming out from the central 'trunk', with a large section of the Incept Code's path stemmed out from the middle of the base, 'infecting' the surrounding programmes like a parasitic fungus. "Yep, that's where the Spark Eater implanted it, and part of its mind along with it. It looks like Swiftshot's data on its telepathic ability wasn't far off the mark compared to what I've found; there's a lot of numbers and figures in the system's regulation software that makes no sense, that are too erratic to suggest the manipulation of a super-class Cybertronian hacker in the usual conventional means. If this thing's using its telepathy to control the Incept Code alone, then like Ravage say's it's pretty damn powerful, which means we won't be able to get within a physical mile of it without it sensing us and either making us turn on each other or simply turning our brains into jell-o"

"Hence the need to take out the Incept Code first" Lennox stated

"Exactly, and that's not going to be so straightforward. The launch of the Incept Code's viral signal will go down in two separate stages; first off the antenna tower is raised and activated, sending out a 'trapper' signal that ensnares all the satellites in orbit by hacking them and cancelling their programming, but NOT uploading the Incept Code itself; because the virus is transmitted via trans-electro nanites, the antenna needs time to fully power up so as to transmit the nanites all over the globe. Once the antenna is fully charged, the signal is transmitted to the satellites and the nanites begin multiplying at an unbelievable rate, within less than ten minutes every satellite across the globe will be under the Spark Eaters control, and everyone who's cyberized will be ghost-hacked and brainwashed in less than an hour, everything from simple brain augmentations to full-body cyborgs will be susceptible, and nothing, not even the vaccine will be able to stop it" Darren explained

"How long does the antenna need to charge?" Optimus asked

"As soon as it's raised and it's deflector shield activated, twenty four hours"

"Can't we launch the vaccine beforehand and simply eradicate it now? We've got the map to where it's originating from so it should be pretty straightforward enough to do?" Kubota suggested

"So did I, until I checked over the details of the vaccine's programming and discovered a pretty big snag" Darren brought up another diagram, "This here is the Incept Code's base hubs, the online centres from the where the virus will control the net; as you can see it has not one but seven separate control hubs, so if one goes down another can instantly take its place, making it impossible to hack into and because of all the corresponding and interconnecting programmes that work in unison with the hubs, this whole virus is basically one huge machine with hundreds and hundreds of cogs. As such, the vaccine is basically a monkey-wrench; throw it in the right place and whole machine stalls, and this little hub here is that right place..." He pointed to the centre of the diagram, "-This is the Achilles heel of the whole operation, it's the central processing and regulation hub; this is the part that connects all seven hubs together and enables them work in sync, take it out and the hubs data-process programming falls apart, in turn creating a domino effect that reaches down through all of the systems within the Black Lotuses control"

"So what's the snag?"

"The snag. And this is where the bad news starts comes in; the vaccine is incomplete. I checked and double-checked it over and there's a crucial piece of data that makes up the kill-code that'll illuminate the nanites that's not there, and I can't fill it in because the sequence's were preset to a specific sequence of code that only the vaccine's programmer would've known, and-, I have no idea where it could be. That, and even when fully complete, the vaccine will only work once it detects the trapper signal" Darren replied in a less than positive tone as he brought up a diagram of the vaccine, and indeed, highlighted in red was the empty space where the rest of the vaccine's data sequence should be; the mood of the room dropped from cautious optimism, to a sense of defeat.

"...Why would Swiftshot leave an incomplete vaccine?" Becca thought aloud

"Autobot sensitive data protection 101: assume nothing is safe and nothing in your possession is safe; the best way to safely transfer data without the enemy getting one up on you, is to transfer the basics but leave out the most crucial parts, and leave a clue, or clues, for your contact to fill in the gap with. Something only they would be able to successfully guess at" Deathshot replied, everyone glanced at one another in confusion.

"That's kind of a stretch don't you think?" Togusa looked up at him in amazement

"Not when your buddies are trained and programmed to the same standards as you; as you humans like to say, 'great minds think alike'" the Autobot sniper commented

"Yeah, but we cyborgs don't 'programme' each other to quite the same standard..." Batou replied, "Still, if we were the ones who were meant to find the vaccine, then where would our clues be hiding?" he pondered aloud, "More crucially if they're clues only we can guess at, then that means there must be something hidden somewhere in all the stuff we've already got, or something we've already seen" Morri finished for him.

"A good point; but putting a pin in that theory for later, I get the feeling the bad news doesn't just stop there does it?" the Major asked

"Not really; another big snag is we don't know where the base is, there's no topographical references to the volcano, the land around it or any other geographical features that could tell us where it is; most likely another critical clue left out in case the hybrids found the cube...but there's a much, much bigger problem here..." Darren frowned in seriousness, "When we shoot out that server, and in turn trigger the chain-reaction that'll awaken the volcano; it's going to be way more than just one great big almighty eruption. The pressure from the ripples will force the magma upwards with such force, that not only will it destroy the base, but it'll rip the top of the volcano off like a cola/mentos bomb and blast its way into several of the larger empty chambers near the surface, thereby exploding outwards onto the ground around the volcano's base. Coupled with all the energon in the processing plant below we're going to trigger the biggest non-nuclear explosion in human history, anything within a two mile radius of the volcano will sink into the lava and be burnt away. If there's a village, town or city nearby, we're gonna need to evacuate beforehand, and I mean real quickly. Cuz from this moment on, we're really gonna be working on borrowed time" he explained gravely

"Why?

"...Because, the last snag I found, was that this cube wasn't a storage device; it's a signal receiver..."

Silence

"You mean someone's been in contact with that thing the whole time?" the chief asked incredulously.

"Only up until we found it; the receiver had a cut-off switch wired up to the lock, and when Jazz opened it, it automatically sent out a kill-signal that stopped the transmitter from sending out any more data. Whoever made this thing has been updating it at regular intervals of once every three hundred and sixty five days, every year exactly" Darren gestured to the cube

"Is there any way to trace where the signal came from?" Kubota asked

"I can try, the signal may not be transmitting anymore but the receiver might have a directional detector that could give us a broad idea what direction it came from"

"It's worth a try: but if the signal's stopped sending any more data that mean's it can't tell us when the hybrids will be raising that tower" Jazz stated

"Exactly, for all we know it could be anywhere from next month to tomorrow, maybe even the next few minutes; either way, the one thing the data did point out was that their very close to being ready to go on the attack" Darren replied

"In that case I'll send out a red alert to the GSDA and other military forces, if they're going to make their move soon we have to be ready to move at a moment's notice, I'll also put out an emergency warning to the GSDA's AI and Intelligence regulation network, telling them to be ready to cut the military networks server hardlines in case the Black Lotus try to take us down from the inside out" Kubota stated

"That'll certainly buy us some time if they go on the offence online again" the Major nodded in agreement

"So, we got all the facts, but do we go with the kid's plan? I mean, if this volcanic explosion's going decimate everything within a two mile radius, is the destroying of the base worth the casualties that'll result from this? Plus all the ash that'll be sent up into the air and come down in the fallout will cause great problems further field" one NEST troop dubiously pointed out; everyone looked at one another in concern.

"A very good point, and it's duly noted-" Darren replied before a look of frustration came over him, "But didn't you hear what I just said?" he exclaimed angrily, "The virus that tower's gonna send out will hack into every cyberized person across the planet! And not just hack them, it'll wipe out every trace of the persons they were; every memory, every thought, every feeling and every little detail that pertains to their individuality will wiped out and rendered into a zombie clone of a vast telepathic entity hell-bent on creating hell on earth!...Okay, let's say for the sake of the argument, that by some unbelievable miracle we somehow defeat the Black Lotus and the Spark Eater without triggering the volcano, what about the repercussions?"

"Repercussions?"

"The repercussions that'll arise from all this! If the base is still left intact when this is all over it'll just be an invitation for a new shit load of evil to spring up! That complex is filled with technology that can convert carbon-based cellular organisms into DNA-based computerized organisms; don't you think, for one minute that technology like that in the hands of, say, terrorists, military black-ops, corrupt corporate industries, or any other insidious individuals you care to imagine, might not be construed as just little bit DANGEROUS!" he fumed, "If we leave that place intact this whole shitty mess will start all over again! Even if the GSDA bury it, put a perimeter fence around it and post guards at the front door, the fact that it's still there means others will learn of it in time, and if the wrong people start getting ideas and figure they'll want a piece of that nightmare; there'll be no end to it! And worse, if that technology finds its way into society and becomes a part of the criminal underworld the escalation will be unrelenting! They use big guns, the police get bigger one, they start using body armour, the police start using armour-piercing rounds, it'll never stop!..." he ranted, finally stopping to inhale a deep breath, and breathing out a cleansing sigh, Darren looked back at the soldier with a calmer, but serious look in his eyes while everyone looked and listened in silence; "...We never asked for this; we didn't ask the Allspark to drop outta the sky onto our world, we didn't ask to get involved with an alien war and the people of this universe sure as hell didn't ask for that ship to fall through a rift in space and time and end up on this earth...Up until two years ago we were living in a pacifist's dream of everyday life, up until last month the people of this earth were living peacefully, and living their lives as they wanted to; and then one day, we all woke up and we had to say goodbye...It's bad enough we've caused enough collateral damage, even if we were the ones trying to fix the problem, but to leave everyone here to pick up the pieces and deal with a nightmare they never deserved in the first place? That's no better than what Megatron wanted to do to us...That base has to be destroyed, it's the only way we can guarantee everyone in this world will have a future, at least one that'll still be in their reach...Don't you think, after all Section 9 have done for us, we at least owe them that much?"

The soldier didn't reply, and as a moment of reflection on the young hacker's words passed the mood in the hanger began to level out.

"I think, for now we should concentrate on figuring out the missing code to the vaccine and where the Black Lotus base is; if there really were clues left for us, then we better make a start on finding them" Mikaela suggested

"Agreed, gather all you have found and go over it again in detail, look for anything that might suggest something pertaining to the vaccine and the whereabouts of the complex, excellent work Darren. This meeting is adjourned" Prime stated before he turned to leave, followed by the other bots and humans as they chatted amongst themselves. As Darren shut down his laptop down and deactivated the cube's holoform projector, he saw Trailbreaker, Sam, Ishikawa and Morri had stayed behind, noticing the looks of concern in their eyes/optics; he had a good idea why they were still here.

"I'm okay, really; a guy can make a heartfelt speech without having to get all teary-eyed you know" he stated

"True, but don't forget, you not the only one to have a take on all this" Trailbreaker replied, Darren stopped what he was doing and glanced over his shoulder.

"...If you think I don't appreciate what you guys have done for us, I'm not saying that at all" his tone softened as he approached Trailbreaker, the black mech kneeled down to his level; "These last two years have been fun, and we've done some pretty cool things together. It's just-...*sigh*" he hesitated

"What is it?" his guardian asked softly

"...I never thought it would come back to haunt me..." he replied listlessly

"What?"

"My hack into the Pentagon, the one thing that got me involved in all this in the first place...You know, when Banachek offered that job as an alternative to Juvie I honestly couldn't believe my luck; I thought it was God's way of saying 'Darren, I love you buddy', and I was so hyped up in my own teenage self-righteous crap that I never stopped to consider any possible downsides to the whole thing. Or life for that matter, I mean yeah I've had my share of family and high-school grief, who hasn't? But I never truly appreciated just how deep the levels of darkness can sink, and the worst part, when you give the wrong people the right incentive to get what they want, the whole fucking thing just doesn't stop" he sighed as he leaned his forehead against his guardian's arm.

"And you realize just how hard it is what being a decent human being's really about. That's a hard lesson for a kid your age to grasp, and not the kind that talking about will help, you gotta learn first-hand what it means to know the difference between right and wrong" Ishikawa offered

"But that's just it; it's one thing to know right and wrong, but what about the difference between what's right and what's easy? You don't appreciate just how profound that is until it happens to you personally, and when it does get harder, you reach a point where you're not sure if everything you've done counts for anything, and trying to tell yourself that it all counts regardless starts to feel pointless" the teen hacker sighed heavily

"I can relate, but I can tell you none of this has been pointless; we may not have had a choice in staying out of this war, but we did choose to take a stand; I did, and actually ended it by killing our universe's biggest badass and taking away the reason the war started in the first place; no more Allspark no more war, and everyone here was no different. I mean, the Major and Section 9 could've chosen to run us outta town but they didn't" Sam offered

"We knew what the stakes were from the very start kid; even if you weren't involved we still would've had to take care of it ourselves; that's our job, and don't point out the obvious because I know the alternatives just as well as you do. We may not have fancy alien tech to back us up, but we're Section 9; we practically invented playing dirty in cybernetic warfare" Ishikawa stated, Darren blinked, the tone in the veteran hacker's voice told him not to challenge that; with an uncertain but easy sense of relief, Darren pushed himself up and stood straight.

"Okay, but what I said before, about owing you guys; I meant that; considering this whole thing and what you did for us, anything less just won't do"

"I know...In our line of work, it's best to keep your slate clean and not delay paying any outstanding debts, things like that have a way of becoming a monkey on your back; but after this is over, the chief will kick your asses if you try to foot the bill" Ishikawa smiled, to which Darren couldn't help but smile.

"I think I prefer a kick in the ass than spending Sunday dinner with my cousins, God knows I get enough grief from them as it is" he thought aloud

"At least Aramaki will give you a running start" Trailbreaker grinned, to which the others chuckled.

Meanwhile, outside the hanger...

"It's quite a plan; do you think it'll work?" Lennox asked offhand

"If we co-ordinate our movements correctly I believe it can be done, it is not the first time we have taken on an enemy base that size and not walked away in one piece" Prime replied confidently

"That's true, but these aren't Decepticons we're taking on, they were humans, shouldn't that be an issue too?" Ultra Magnus asked

"We've taken these hybrids on more than once, trust me Magnus there was nothin' to suggest the humans they once were are still alive inside...Although, there was this one I came across the other day before Section 9's HQ came down: check this out..." Jazz sent the bots a data-burst of the hybrid he caught the other day...

"_I know you can still hear me; I want you to tell me, who are you?" _

"_What do you care? You'll only kill me anyway!" _

"_Maybe, But I'm more interested in what you are and where you came from"_

"_Why's that so important all of a sudden? It not like you're going to win, so why delay your death like this?"_

"_Why do you bother to keep trying? We fought your buddies last week and offlined a fair few, now tell me! Who and what are you?"_

"_...Who am I? I'm one of the Black Lotus; we're salvation of humanity, the future that all cyborgs will eventually embrace and the annihilation of all organic humans across the face of the planet"_

"_And what are you?"_

"_I told you! I'm Dreadnought! One of the Decepticons most dangerous warriors, and soon to be your executioner!"_

"_...What?..." _

"_...Huh? Wh-what did I say?"_

"_Make your mind up! Are you a Decepticon or not?" _

"_...Wh-what's a Decepticon?..."_

"That is certainly interesting" Prime frowned

"Indeed, quite interesting..." Ravage growled, through their bond, his brothers could sense his mind ticking over; something about data-burst had really gotten his attention, but what?

"...SIR!...sir!..." up ahead Kubota's aid came running out of the nearby control tower with a piece of paper in hand and a panicked look on his face, the Autobots gazed down as he weaved between their feet and handed Kubota the half-crumpled paper before stopping to catch his breath.

"What's wrong?" Kubota demanded

"This just came in from central command, they need you back at HQ right now!" he panted, the look on the Intelligence officer's face turned to a look of surprise, and then annoyance as he read the paper over before scrunching it up and throwing it away, storming off past the bots with a look of mild anger "I'm sorry but I have to go" he huffed.

"What's wrong?" Aramaki called after him

"It's the Americans, they're demanding the Autobot's surrender themselves into their custody!" he called back, the chief frowned in concern; 'that's one complication we really don't need' he thought in distain as a deep grumble left his throat.

"Should we go with him?" Tom asked in concern

"Unless our involvement is required otherwise, it's best to carry on our work here" the chief replied as he walked off to the base's control tower building.

An hour later:

"...Anything at all? Flash-backs? Ghosts? Poltergeists?" Miles asked

"...*sigh*, Sorry guys but I'm not getting anything, just the same 'residual energies' I sensed before, nothing new I'm afraid" Matti sighed as she put the photo album down and took a swig of her coffee.

"Well, considering our run of good luck the other day it was worth a try" Danny shrugged

"For sure, but even if the clues we need are here, we've just about ruled out every possible item they could be hidden in" Matti offered

"Every item in sight that is; just because the clues can't be seen by plain sight doesn't mean they may not be there in another form" Aoi offered as he typed away on a spare laptop.

"You mean like; something that's out of place, that wouldn't be that way unless it was for a specific reason?" Morri offered

"That's one way of looking at it, or, disguising a clue as something so mundane and overlooked that you'd probably walk past it a thousand times and not be consciously aware of its presence" he suggested

"So stuff like pictures on the walls of your house, or fire-hydrants in the street; you know they're there but you're not paying attention to them" Miles thought aloud

"Exactly..." Morri replied, stopping to look around the hanger, the kids all looked at the various items that Darren and the other hackers managed to save from the dive room before the Section 9 HQ building collapsed, as well as their own possessions scattered around the hanger. What could be out of place or overlooked? Everything was here, and nothing had been forgotten, so what was the most unlikely thing they hadn't thought of? "But the question is; what?" she shrugged

"Maybe it's not something to do with any of the stuff here, maybe it's some to do with us is another context?" Tom offered

"Perhaps; But if it's-...whoa..." Darren frowned as he leaned in closer to his laptop.

"What? What'd you find?" Miles eagerly asked as he and everyone gathered round the teen hacker

"The schematics to a possessor chip of some kind; it was hidden in part of the encryption code under a D-level coding sequence, I didn't see it the first time round cuz I thought the sequence's for that level were for the auxiliary security programming" Darren replied as he scrolled down the said file

"Ah! Of course" Miles beamed; the girls took one look at him and deadpanned

"You have no idea what he just said don't you?" Matti glanced at him with that knowing look, the kind that said: 'you're not fooling me'

"Hey, just thought I'd sound smart for once" he shrugged, the girls facepalmed

"Being smart and sounding are two different things dumbass!" Matti reprimanded

"I've been telling him that years" Sam deadpanned from where he stood across the hanger cleaning Mikaela's tools, to which Miles rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Anyway..." Darren rolled his eyes, "From the looks of it the chip's a performance-booster for a CPU function of some kind; the software design's pretty complex but it looks easy enough to assemble; if the rest were here I might have a good idea what this is"

"If the rest of it were here?" Mikaela echoed

"The file's only fifty percent complete, and from the looks of the data alignment it almost looks like it was spilt straight down the middle" Darren quirked an eyebrow

"And you can't get anything else form it?" Miles asked

"Just the file title: White Point Yin" Darren sighed

"White Point Yin?" Aoi quirked an eyebrow, "There's a file here in the E-package titled: White Point Yang"

"Yin and Yang? Hang on a sec-" Darren asked as he reached across to Aoi's laptop and plugged in his USB plug; within seconds the two hackers had the files up on their screens, and both blinked as the two halves automatically joined together into one file.

"Auto-sync software?" Tom thought aloud

"Yeah...but what is it?" Morri asked as she gazed at the two laptops

"I don't know, I've never seen a CPU chip like this before..." Darren stared at the schematics

"Wow, that's a first: the bot's top human techy finally finds a piece of tech he doesn't know about" Miles blinked

"I didn't say I don't know what it is-" Darren deadpanned, "I just don't know what a chip like this could be used for; whatever it is it, it can boost a CPU's power-outage by over thirty percent without burning the micro-circuit's power dampeners; process binary data twice as fast as before, and enhance the central-systems alignment cortex by over ten percent. Whatever this is, it's seriously powerful"

"That's because it needs to be" Ravage purred; the kids jumped out of their skins as they did a double take on the giant panther standing behind them.

"Geez man! How many times can you get a kick outta that same old routine?" Miles reprimanded. "As many times as you can be taken by surprise; that little instance of shock to your awareness is so delicious" he grinned as he leaned over Darren's head for a better look; "Well, this is certainly unique, I haven't seen one of these in eons" he purred

"You know what it is?" Aoi asked, "Its a White-Point enhancer chip, specifically designed to enhance a telepath's power tenfold; Soundwave promised he'd install one for me when he finally got his claws on the right components to make it, never got round to it thought" Ravage replied

"No way, it enhances telepathy?" Matti gawked

"Clear that cheery little dilution out of your mind child: it only works on Cybertronians" Ravage deadpanned

"Oh"

"Then no prizes for guessing which telepath this was left for; if the Spark Eater's powerfully telepathic your gonna need some serious brain power of your own to take him on dude!" Miles grinned

"For Sure, but I'll consult Prime on this first" the panther stepped back

"What? Since when have you needed anyone's approval to do your job? If the Spark Eater finds us out and he tries to take over our minds, you might be the only one who can stop him!" Ashley blinked

"True, but considering our past, the other bots won't be so comfortable with the idea of a powerful telepathically enhanced ex-Decepticon amid their ranks" he replied

"That's bull! They saw your data-burst as well as the other bots when you all gave your reports; they know you haven't gotten up to anything!" Mikaela protested; glancing out the doors of the hanger Ravage noticed the older bots talking among themselves; Ironhide caught a glimpse of the panther's one optic shining from within the hanger and returned a particular look of distain.

"As true as that may be, it's not that simple child; don't forget, we've been enemies far longer than we've been allies, and our past rivalry won't simply be wiped away just because I saved our lives more than once" he growled.

"Well Swiftshot's 'guide', or whoever left those schematics, wouldn't have left them for us to find unless it was for something important, and considering you're the only Cybertronian telepath we know there's no question that chip's meant for you" Ashley offered; glancing down at him with a doubtful look in his one red optic, Ravage was about to say something else when Batou came running up to the hanger and screeched to a halt.

"Batou? What's wrong?" Matti called out as she and the other abandoned the laptops and rushed to the door.

"The Intelligence Department just received new intel; the UN's negotiations with the Americans have broken down and the Pentagon's sent new orders to the fleet; they're going to launch an attack on the air base if the GSDA's doesn't turn you guys over!" he frowned, everyone glanced at one another in alarm.

"What did the PM say?" Morri demanded

"She's already tried to talk to the AE's Secretary of Defence directly but no one's picking up the line; as far as their concerned they want what they came for, we've got forty five minutes before the Eisenhower and Truman launch their fighter's" Batou replied

"Seriously? What it's not bad enough they got their arse's whipped last time now their asking for a serious wailing on?" Ashley growled as he cracked his knuckles, "Too right man! They wanna piece of us we're gonna deck their asses!" Miles concurred with equal annoyance.

"Easy you two..." Prime's commanding tone drew everyone's attention, "Batou, is there any way to ask the Americans if we can meet their fleet commanders in person? There has to be a way we can defuse this situation without resorting to combat" he asked; Batou stared up at the Autobot leader dumbfounded, he wanted to point out that the American's weren't in the mood to talk, but something about that commanding yet peaceful aura of his told him that he wasn't kidding. Despite having barley known the bot twenty four hours, Batou had been both impressed and in awe at Optimus; his ability to be heard and obeyed without question coupled with his capacity to be fair and open-mined were qualities that were seldom seen in his fellow (and former) military comrades, aside from the chief and the Major there had been very few others that had even compared to Optimus's strength and grace of character; it wasn't hard to see why the kids spoke fondly of him, and as he passed a sigh of uneasy tenseness, Batou found he couldn't argue with him.

"...I don't know Optimus; they haven't been answering anyone since they showed up in the bay" Batou replied frankly

"I find it hard to believe that they would rush head-long into a fight without first appreciating the reality of the steaks their willing to chance; are they aware of the situation between us and Black Lotus?" Prime asked

"Considering they learnt of the hybrid's back-hack into the military's network, as well as being shown firsthand that the CIA had been compromised, my guess is they want to 'take care of the problem' before it gets worse, even if means this country and its people get in the way; and the fact their being politically arrogant about it doesn't help"

"What about those two CIA agents Watanabi and Sato? Are they still under house arrest at the American embassy?" Morri interjected.

"You think talking to those two pricks is gonna solve anything?" Ashley asked incredulously.

"They're CIA, they may have been compromised but they're the only one who might be able to call off the attack; besides, I'd be surprised if they didn't want to help considering the whole of humanity's survival is at stake" the brunette pointed out, to which the boys nodded in agreement.

"Good point..." Batou realized, "Okay, we'll do it your way" he looked back up at Prime

"Call the CIA agents and tell them I want to speak with them; one way or another, I will not let this stand-off distract everyone from the true danger at hand and the American's have to realize that they are in just as much danger as we are; if we can reach a truce at the very least, it will prevent casualties resulting from their eagerness to engage with us" Prime stated

"Good, let's go and-Hey!" Ashley dashed off to find his guardian, but Prime gently grabbed him by the waist and put him back by his cousin's side

"No, I need you all to remain here; this is a matter for diplomacy to resolve, and taking into account your last encounter with the American fleet I do not want to run the risk of you becoming emotionally compromised" the Autobot leader stated, Ashley and Miles were both about to blow a fuse when Jazz was quick to step in, "Hey Listen guys he's right! Getting riled over what happened last time won't help anyone, just let Prime do his thing and hang back!" he said as he gently held them back with both hands, unable to argue back at the Autobot leader, or anyone else, both Miles and Ashley stormed off back to the hanger fuming.

"They'll be fine, leave them burn their anger off" Ravage purred

"Unless there are any other issues here to address, I will go back to the New Port and to the Niihama Naval base, tell the fleet commanders I will be awaiting them there. Ultra Magnus, Ironhide, your both with me; Jazz, you and Elita are both in charge here until I return" Optimus stated before he transformed into his altmode, followed by Ironhide and Ultra Magnus, "Let's roll!" he ordered, and the three of them drove off towards the base's main entrance, and out towards the main superhighway leading back to New Port.

"You think he'll be successful?" Matti asked

"Matti, this is Optimus Prime we're talking about, what's NOT to take seriously about him? He's the kinda guy who can walk into a room, not say or do anything and you automatically know your nowhere near as awesome as he his!" Glen grinned

"I better tell the chief what's up, with the national emergency legislation local restriction provision back in place we're having to keep in touch the old fashion way" Batou said before he started walking back to the base's main building

"Hey! Old fashion's not that old! We're still thirty years your elders remember?" Glen called back

"So? What now?" Sam peeped up from behind

"Now we wait, and hope that charm of his pays off" Ravage snorted, "In the meantime, you need to see what Darren and Aoi discovered" Ravage walked back into the hanger.

As the others followed the panther, something caught Morri's eye across the airstrip, somthing shining and darting among the trees in the woods beyond; quietly changing direction and activating her BSHB, she silently hovered across the vast open space to the perimeter fence and gained a little height to get a better view. Scanning the surrounding undergrowth and treetops, she frowned, wondering what it could have been. Then, something else caught her attention, a faint and distant tinkling sound, like a set of wind chimes blowing in the wind; activating her force field, a small blue ball of energy materialized in her palm, ready to fire as she hovered over the fence and followed the sound into the woods. Wandering some one hundred or so yards from the perimiter, the sound seemed to be coming from a single source that sounded like it was moving fast in between the trees, one second it seemed to be within ten meters of her, the next it sounded to be twice the distance, but the undergrowth wasn't disturbed or rustled the way it would if a wild animal were moving through it. Becoming slightly concerned, Morri was about to gather more speed when she suddenly jumped at the sight of the stranger standing before her, he was dressed all in black with dark sunglasses, and had the palest pastiest skin she'd ever seen; a cold flair of alarm shot down her back as her force field faired up, but before she could even throw up her defencive shield the stranger moved at lightning fast speed and chopped her hard in the ribs with the side of his hand. In the brief second that she saw his hand recoil, Morri blinked at the sight of the small syringe clasped between his fingers and thumb; looking down and pulling up her T-shirt, she gasped at the sight of the small puncture hole where the needle had gone in.

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU INJECT IN ME?" she lashed out, firing a blast of energy, but the stranger was quick to dodge her attack and the blast ended up splitting a nearby tree down the middle; the stranger jumped high up onto the branch of another tree and coolly took off his shades and smiled, revealing his glowing red optics and silver shark-like teeth. Morri tried to power-up to fire another blast, but like a candle flame being snuffed out her BSHB's force field dissipated and fizzled out, sending her into a panic.

"...Welcome sister, your friends will be here soon..." he said in a raspy electronic voice, and leapt away from branch to branch, disappearing into the treetops. Stunned for a brief split second, Morri looked back down at the needle puncture, the surrounding skin was red-ish, but nothing immediately suggested anything harmful had been injected, but even so, it could be something very harmful that probably didn't show immediately.

'It must have cut out the BHSH!' she panicked as she scrambled back up onto her feet and burst into a sprint, making a bee-line for the fence...

...But no sooner had she cleared fifteen meters, something made her stop, a strange warm but intense 'butterflies in the stomach' sensation that seemed to creep its way all around her abdomen and up into her chest and down her limbs, turning into a warm tingling sensation; looking down at her hands, she noticed something was off about her wrists, they looked paler than usual and the ligaments seemed to protrude a little more; but as she looked closer, she realised to her horror that they was silver metal cables under the skin. Suddenly, her clothes felt like they were shrinking as they grew tighter and tighter around her, but as she glanced up at her surroundings, she panicked when she realized she was actually growing taller and taller...

"What the fuck?-" She yelled as she tried to run back to the fence but found her legs went floppy and gave out underniether her, her shoes ripped apart as her feet grew longer and her whole skin started to feel tight and uncomfortable. The butterflies in her stomach grew more and more as her clothes started to rip apart, and in a short burst of pain her skin began to rip apart and burst off too. And what she saw made her scream in horror...

Instead of muscle, blood vessels and bone were smooth sleek metal plates of white armour, as the skin of her right arm burst off, in its place was the slender arm and clawed hand of a femme and as more skin burst off the new protoform beneath pushed it's way up and filled out the previously organic form as more and more armour sprouted out over various parts of her new anatomy, pulsating with every growth spurt. Scrambling to try and reach the fence, Morri clenched her eyes tightly as something uncomfortable pushed down from underneath her eyelids, as the discomfort past she cautiously opened her eyes but found everything was tinted slightly blue and the sight of Cybertronian glyphs and diagnostic graphs suddenly flashing in her field of vision made her tumble backwards in shock. Swallowing hard, she looked down and saw that her feet had grown out to become digigrade legs, she yelled when she saw her toes curl up, melt together and extend out to become a set of four long sharp talons on each foot, while on her head she could feel dozens strange things growing out from her scalp and wriggling about like snakes. Finally, as the last of the skin fell to the ground, she got to her knees, panting in shock, and looked down at her new form. A painful moment of realization passed as she realized what had happened, and as the memory of the hybrid foetus in the glass specimen jar flashed through her mind, she swallowed hard and breathed deep, but her breath didn't come out through her newly formed mouth plates, instead it came out through a set of gill-like vents on the back of her sides and freaked her, but forcing her fear down she got it together and pushed her panic to one side.

'L-looks like it finally stopped...' she thought with a slight ounce of relief; but realized she spoke too soon as another new sensation grabbed her attention, this time in her shoulder blades and near the base of her spine. She pitched forward as something hard pushed up against the inside of her back, trying to burst out like a water-filled balloon, it got harder and harder until she could hear the plates of armour on her back begin to creek and squeak from the strain as the sensation began to grow more and more uncomfortable, almost to the point of pain. Finally she yelped as her back ripped open and four huge metal structures uncurled and straightened out like a pair of newly emerged butterflies wings; the larger of the two hardened into a pair of swallow-shaped jet wings, and the smaller two were long tail fins with tapered points (much like Deathshot's own wing design but much sleeker); on her back more metal emerged out and formed into a set of four cylindrical jet engines and a set of air intakes on the back of her shoulders. As the discomfort finally faded, she fell flat on her front under the weight on her back.

"Christ they're heavy!-" she exclaimed, but blinked in alarm "Holy shit! My voice! I sounds like-" she clasped her neck, realizing her voice was slightly deeper and had an electronic ring to it, "...Fuck...". Gathering her hands underneath her, she pushed up hard and managed to sit up straight; looking down and around, she wondered how to try and stand up when the sound of the others running through the trees and calling her name grabbed her attention, and a whole new fear sprung up in the front of her mind and spread like wild-fire.

'FUCK! What the hell do I do? What do I-, what do I tell them-, how can I-, They can't see me like this!...SHIT What do I do?'

As she fell into an all-out horrified panic she tried to scramble away, but with her heavy wings and engines it was like trying to crawl on her belly through soft sand with a heap of scuba diving equipment strapped to her back, it was awkward and felt unnatural, and through her distress she barely paid attention to Ravage as he came bounding through the undergrowth and stopped in front of her, teeth bared and claws unsheathed...

'SHIT! HE DOESN'T RECOGNISE ME!' her mind screamed in a blind panic, her face plates contorted into a look of absolute fear and her optics began to fill with tears, but Ravage suddenly jerked back in shock as if he'd been punched on the nose; staring at her dumbly, he came closer and sniffed at her face, and did a double take...

"MORRI?" he exclaimed

And at that, she fainted, and everything went black...

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I had fun writing the end of this chapter ;D R&R Please!


	70. Chapter 69: Well, This Is Differant I

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

Caution: Strong swearing here and there; and full-on robot le sexy time: *nudge nudge, wink wink* ;D don't like sex scenes? Feel free to skip to the end, I won't mind )

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SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 69: WELL, THIS IS DIFFERANT I: LEMONS INTO LEMONADE

*Blip*

**:STATUS: ALL SYSTEMS FUCTIIONING AT 100%: NO SOFTWARE CONFLICTS DETECTED: NO HARDWARE DAMAGE DETECTED: SYSTEM MODE NOW ACTIVATED:**

'Wh-what?...what was that?'

For a moment the darkness was comforting, being wrapped in numbness felt almost a relief compared to before; she wished it could stay this way, at least for a little while, but as the darkness began to thin out and her conscious self began to stir, the sounds of familiar voices whispering around her sent a new flare of alarm through her...

"I think she's comin' round!" she heard Danny hiss

"Her systems are stable, but I fear her reaction could send her into stasis lock again; Mikaela, get the sedative ready just in case..." Ratchet said in a hushed tone

'Systems? Stasis lock? What's he-' but as she struggled to make sense of what the Autobot medic was saying, the memory of what happened before suddenly flashed through her mind with painful clarity...

The stranger

The syringe

The transformation

'...Oh god...I remember...'

She wanted to let it all go, drift back off to sleep and fall back into that dark comfortable place between consciousness and dreaming, wanting to hold onto what she had before but could no longer be; but as her sleep slipped away and was replaced by the sense of waking and awareness, she kept her eyes closed and her whole body still. Commanding her fingers to flex, she felt them move alright, but they didn't feel so 'loose' and flexible as they normally would, more like they were stiff and were weighted down a little; and as she felt a small slow breath inhale through her nose, she didn't feel it come out, instead she felt a small waft of warm air on her sides as she exhaled out...

'...So it's true, it really did happen...' she despaired as she felt her eyes well up with hot tears, as they fell down her face she felt a soft finger run along her cheek in a smooth gentle motion, wiping them away.

"She's crying?" she heard Tom whisper

"Because she knows it wasn't a dream; let her mind steady herself first and she will awaken when she's ready..." Ravage softly purred, from the sound of it, he must be right next to her ear.

'...Steady myself?' she pondered. Turning her mind inward and pushing the immediate fear away, she recalled a simple meditation technique she'd learnt a long time ago; so, figuratively sitting herself down in the lotus position, she tried to steady her thoughts and focus on the reality of the situation at hand.

'Okay, it's always best to get the bad stuff out of the way first; so, what are the downsides to this?...' she thought as she racked her mind to try and focus all she had come to know about her Cybertronian friends, and how the essence of their lives and what they were now applied to her;

'...Well, I'm going to practically live forever with my age staying practically the same for the next ten thousand or so years. My family and friends will die long before I do and I won't be able to do anything about it...' her sad thoughts despaired, and in a brief second that felt like an eternity she envisioned her family back home, saw how they aged and withered, and finally were gone forever; a wave of sadness and despair swept over her and when she felt like it couldn't grow any deeper, a sense of realization came from somewhere further down, 'True, they will live and die much faster than me now; but I know them in and out, they're not the kind to let misery and depression rule their lives. They'll go through life strong and ballsy regardless of whether I'm in the picture or not, as long as their together they'll be okay...' another thought pointed out, and with a fresh wave of tears the sadness ebbed away until it was tolerable, and a sense of heavy peace took its place. 'Okay, next downside: I won't be able to do any of the things a regular human girl can; no shopping, no chocolate, no college, no hanging out with my friends...no boys!' her thoughts panicked, 'Oh come on! It's not like I'm dead! Okay so I won't be able to do any of the things a human can, but that doesn't mean I can't discover new ways to have fun as a Transformer right?...after all, I have always wondered what the transformation sequence is like as an experience, what energon tastes like? Being able to see at eye-level with the guys? ...that's not so bad right? Plus, I never needed a man to give me satisfaction in my life!' her thoughts reasoned, 'I suppose not, but still; what about more Decepticons showing up on earth? I'm no soldier!" she thought in slight alarm, 'Oh right, and the last month's worth of action hasn't counted because?...', 'fair point, well I guess I can at least learn how to fire a wrist-gun straight' her thoughts deadpanned. '...Even so, this'll work both ways you know; even if I grow to be comfortable with my new 'self', what about my family? The idea of their daughter/grand-daughter/niece/cousin suddenly becoming a giant robotic alien isn't going to sit comfortably...Aw crap, Uncle Johnny's gonna go ape-shit over this, blaming himself for not keeping me safe enough and-, Uh! I don't even wanna guess at how mum will take it! She nearly flipped out when she first met D, so how's she-...Waitwaitwait! I getting too wound up!...' she steadied her thoughts, '...Alright, so it's not going be easy, but I'm NOT going to lie to them and hide away with the Autobots while they think I'm dead, that's not fair; I knew the risks when I got involved in all this, I may not have fully appreciated the depth of it when it first started out but it was still my choice and they can't hold that over the guys and blame them for this: it is what it is, and we'll just have to figure out our way around it and move on...' she reassured herself. 'But how long will that take? I know we've encountered hardships as a family before but this is a whole new category in its own class...even if they don't blame themselves or the guys for this, there could that sense of knowing that I'd never be able do any of the things I do with them as a family anymore: Sunday dinners, Christmas, birthdays, summer holidays on the boat, camping in the forest; my room; bloody hell I won't be able to sleep in my own bed anymore!' she realized, moping for a moment before finding her resolve again , '...But wait a minute: it's one thing to be worrying about what's going to happen, but how can I know for sure what may or may not happen? After all, while mum nearly flipped out over seeing D for the first time she did finally get used to him, and that was only because I encouraged him to help her with up-keeping the garden, help hang the washing out and make sure the rabbits didn't attack Grand-dad Briggs's veggie patch; perhaps there's an 'easing into' solution for this too, but what?...' another thought pointed out, but as she looked over all the different possibilities, one conclusion stood out above the rest, '...This may be an awkward situation but maybe I'm making a mountain out of a molehill? Perhaps it's a case of being smart and turning lemons into lemonade? And that maybe this could work out some way by itself? Most things in life usually seem to do so...I guess it's going to have to be a case of taking each day as it comes, being strong and there for each other, and not looking for problems...' she concluded. 'Alright, that's the folks taken care of, now what about everything else?' her thoughts turned outwards, 'Same principle I guess, after all, no one said life was fair; eventful and interesting for sure, but fair isn't the way of life as a whole...I may not be human in body anymore, but I'm still me and I still have my karma, whatever else happens that will never change...' she reminded herself; although she knew it and held her usual sense of courage to it, some part of her wanted to argue back and drag her back down into despair; she sensed this was most likely going to be the first of many 'back-of-the-mind' doubts that'll shadow her for the foreseeable future and beyond, but regardless, she pushed it to the back of her mind and concentrated on the here and now, and wondered what other complications there were to sort out here...

"When's she gonna wake up?" she heard Ashley whisper, his voice lased with worry, she felt her heart clench in her chest.

"I think we won't have to wait long" Ravage smirked

'Well, no time like the present I guess...' she pondered as she allowed herself to shift slightly on one side, letting them know she was coming around, 'like Grandma always says; gird your loins grit your teeth and get to it...Jesus I'd wish she'd say else' she sighed mentally as she cautiously opened one eye, and then the other, and was relieved to see Deathshot gazing down at her with that soft loving smile of his. To one side she saw Ratchet, Bumblebee, Jetfire and Optimus all gazing down at her with mixed looks and Mikaela, Sam, Tom, Ashley, Danny and her uncle John standing on the opposite side, all looking bewildered and distraught. For a moment no one moved or spoke, unsure what to say; as their agonized looks met hers, she felt her heart (spark now, she reminded herself) sink down some more as a look of regret came over her new features.

"...I look a little different don't I?" she offered a small weak smile in an attempt to break the ice; it seemed to work somewhat as everyone relaxed a little.

"That's a bloody understatement" her uncle chuckled weakly

"This is going to sound totally stupid, but-, how do you feel?" Tom asked cautiously

"...To be honest, not as bad as I was as I was a second ago" she replied frankly, her new voice sounding strange in her head as she spoke.

"All things considering; I knew you were good at 'keeping it together', but your mental discipline is well tuned and excircized" Ravage grinned as he sat up next to the side of her head; looking up to meet his one optic she shot him a glair.

"You were in my head again?" she deadpanned in annoyance

"Against my better judgement, it was the only way we could check on your mental state" Ratchet shot his own glair at the panther, "Purely to make sure you weren't going to have a psychotic break at seeing your-, um?...uh?" Sam hesitated

"Its okay Sam, I kinda already had my little break-down" she replied listlessly

"You did?..." Danny stared at her dumbly

"Well, it's kinda complicated but basically I woke up, realized what happened earlier wasn't a dream and so took a minute to steady myself and come to terms with my situation...does that sound strange?" she replied nervously, with an honest look of relief in his steel blue eyes, her uncle approached her face as softly placed his hand on her cheek; she hadn't realized how big she was until now as he stood next to her and looked so small, and his hand felt like a ghostly sliver of warm softness against her cheek as he stroked her affectionate. "Considering its you sweetheart, not at all" he smiled, she lifted up her hand and brought it up to try and hug him, but the sight of those long slender claws made her stop, worried she would accidently cut him; reading the look on her face Deathshot knew what she was thinking.

"Don't worry, you won't hurt anyone" he gently placed his hand on hers, "They're not that sharp, they only cut if you use force" he reassured her; swallowing hard she slowly brought her hand down and ever so gently ran the tips of her claws over John's arms; he smiled as he reached up to pat the tips, "See? Not sharp at all" he reassured, breathing a sigh of relief, she lifted her hand to get a good look at the armour.

"It's weird; it feels like my old hand, but heavier, as if I got hundreds of tiny little lead weight belts strapped all over" she thought aloud as she flexed her long clawed fingers.

"I expect that's an inevitable side-effect of the 'transformation'; going from a lightweight carbon based form to a heavy silicone based one is going to present a whole new set of challenges in terms of 'adjusting'" Ratchet stated, the look of dubious concern never left his optics.

"Yeah I figured as much..." she sighed, "Oh! Did you get the pretender?" she asked as she suddenly remembered her attacker, "Unfortunately no, he was long gone by the time we found you..." Prime replied as he kneeled down next to her with a look of concern in his optics "Morri, I'm so very sorry for this" he sighed, "*sigh* don't beat yourself over it Optimus, I shouldn't have left the base" she stopped him, "I want to assure you that when this is over and we finally return home, we will take care of you and attend to your needs, you have my word this will not be treated lightly" he assured her, "Thanks, but promise me one thing-" she asked, he nodded, "Don't tell my family I'm dead, I couldn't bear the thought of letting them think I'm gone, and having to stay away from them" she pleaded, the Autobot leader blinked, glanced over at Sam and Mikaela, and sighed heavily, "...Morri, before we left to come and find you all we informed your family, as well as the Witwicky's, The Ainslie's, the Waineright, Mikaela's father and the Lancaster's" he stated, "WHAT!" Sam exclaimed in a mild panic, Mikaela was equally taken aback but said nothing as the Autobot leader continued, "I am sorry I didn't inform you all sooner, but one of the terms of our alliance with the government was that, if you were offlined or went missing, your creator/families would be informed, and since we didn't know how the circumstances of this situation would transpire we had to be prepared in case our worst fears were confirmed...I'm afraid, this particular 'development' will be unavoidable; but how you choose to tell them is something I will leave up to you" he spoke softly, for moment Morri hesitated, she hadn't been expecting that, but she understood the reason why, and nodded both in thanks and understanding.

"...Okay...Well, I'll worry about that when we come to it; in the meantime though, I'd rather concentrate on 'adjusting'. Help me up please" she reached up 'bloody hell my arms are long!' she thought as she saw how long they were now, Deathshot and Ratchet both took an arm and helped her sit up straight; all at once the weight of her back tried to pull her back down, and she teetered back and forth like a rocking horse, she jerked her head forward and brought her weight forward onto her aft. Her eyes (optics, she reminded herself again) practically bulged out of her head as she gazed down at her new form...

She had to be as big as Deathshot or Jetfire, since the humans looked so small compared to her and she was more or less at eye-level with her guardian (even though they were both sitting on the floor); her body and armour were smooth, sleek and elegantly proportioned (her breast plates in particular were much more defined compared to what they had previously been), the edges were curved yet blunt, and shaped more like muscles than overlapping plates of metal; she was dazzling white with strips of pale sky blue running up her sides, her wings, tailfins and air intakes were completely sky blue while her engines were a pale pewter grey, bringing her hands up to her face she gingerly ran her fingers all over, feeling her new features and trying to get a mental image of her new face.

"Here, try this" Bumblebee stepped over, knelt down and turned sideways, letting his door-wing face her so she could see her reflection in the glass window; she stared in both surprise and relief. Her face was very human-like, in fact, it was still HER face, but there were no visible lines that denoted the face plates were visible as her face and neck was completely covered by a layer of pure white nanite-skin, complete with a nose, azure blue coloured lips with a turquoise iridescence, and a radiant pair of shining blue optics that looked like they were twinkling. Her helm was crowned with a beautiful silver tiara-shaped structure with four diamond shaped blue lights set in the centre, and turning her head to one side, she saw she had a whole bunch of long white and silver tapered 'dreadlocks' each about four to five metres long. She jumped when she saw one of them twitch and nearly fell back over again when they all twitched in synchronization; "Whoa! What're those?" she gasped, "Their your interceptor cables" Deathshot smiled, "Interceptor cables? Like the ones in your wrists and neck?", "the same, it's just your format design's included them on your helm; don't worry, I teach you how to use them" he assured her, grabbing one of them, she blinked when she realized it could actually feel her hand, as well as anything else they touched. But turning her attention back to the rest of her body, she gawked at how long her new digigrade legs were, the talons on her toes looked like they could slice through thick metal as she flexed them back and forth.

"...What happened to all the little graphs and stuff? When I was 'transforming' all these little graphs and numbers suddenly started flashing through my field of vision" she asked as she realized everything was still tinted pale blue, but the tiny Cybertronian glyphs and grafts were gone. "Your visaul systems display? Yes I turned it off so as not to let it panic you again; until you're ready to give it a try" Ratchet offered

"Right; are my legs working okay? Only I couldn't run before" she bent her knees up a little. "Well what did you expect? Your muscles were changing from elastic protein structures to metal cables; you should be fine now" Ravage purred as he circled around her, "Okay, help me up..." she asked as she brought her legs underneath her and positioned her feet, "You lot better give her some room" Jetfire glanced down at the humans, all of who ran to the nearby wall of the hanger as Morri shifted her weight forward and used the motion to stand up, like a rubber band pinging off a ruler, the ligament cables in her legs suddenly let out a burst of strength and she (rather ungracefully) leapt up like a frog, crashed her head through the hanger roof, and nearly landed face first on the floor with Prime and Jetfire catching her just in time while Ravage laughed in delight and the humans gawked up at the hole. "Whoa there! Your legs are much stronger than what you were used to! You need to be more subtle and take it slow!" Jetfire instructed as she straightened up. "Right..." she hissed as she rubbed her helm, "This going to take a while..." she stated as she hung onto Deathshot for support.

The next forty five minutes were spent wobbling, stumbling, pin-wheeling, nearly falling over and trying to avoid tripping over her talons as Morri learnt to walk all over again; with her feet permanently on the ground and her heels acting as a second set of knees, it felt so awkward walking, but the more she got the feel for it, the more she associated it to walking in spring-loaded high heel stilettos (which if such a thing were to exist, would no doubt be a challenge to master). In addition both Deathshot and Jetfire demonstrated how to correctly shift and displace her weight from side to side so as to avoid falling over with each step, how to bend down to reach the ground without falling forward, and how to fold her wings and tail fins back and properly retract her talons; all the while the humans safely watched from Bumblebee and Optimus's shoulders, cheering her on with words of encouragement when she lost her balance, all the while the tapered cables on her head weren't helping as they swayed and squirmed around her face and neck like an octopuses tentacles; but she wasn't going to quit, and the more she nearly fell over the more determined she became to get this right, almost to point she became stubborn about it. Finally, when she at last got a sense for her new centre of gravity, she began to walk in wider circles with much better balance and coordination, she broke into a light jog and didn't fall over, and as she run from one end of the hanger to the other, she couldn't help but break out into a skip.

"YES! I finally got it!" she fist-pumped, "Very well done youngling, now that you can safely move around, I think it is time the others came back in" Prime suggested, "Oh, yeah of course-" her enthusiasm quickly dropped and was replaced by a sense of focus as she readied herself to meet the other Autobots and humans. "Hey..." her uncle beckoned her over, "Will you be alright?" he asked from where he sat on Deathshot's shoulder; "I think so, yeah" she smiled, Ashley took a leap and landed on her shoulder, followed by the other two while Prime gently placed Sam and Mikaela down on the ground, "I have to admit, it's kinda weird sitting on your shoulder" Ashley said offhand, "Well if it's anything its weird seeing you so small and sitting on my shoulder" Morri offered, "Look on the bright side, at least you don't have to worry about being stepped on anymore" he suggested, "Oh yeah your right!" she perked up. At the opposite end of the hanger Prime opened the doors and silently gestured for the others to enter; it suddenly felt like the first day at secondary school all over again and waiting for to the first class of the day to start, 'this is stupid! I know the guys and everyone else, what the hell am I worried about?' she mentally fretted, "Hey, you'll be fine, I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere..." Deathshot softly whispered in her audio, her tenseness eased a little, and as everyone approached, she stepped forward and offered a small smile.

"Well, this is certainly different huh?" she started

"Different? Damn femme you look-OW!" Thundercracker whacked Skywarp upside the helm with a particularly loud clang, and as every set of optics in the hanger sent him a reprimanding glair, he instantly changed his tune; "Uh- I mean uh-, well, yes, different is the word, considering you were over five feet tall not two hours ago..." he offered in a more polite tone.

"Yeah, it's certainly weird seeing all of you at this height-" she regarded the Autobots, "And even weirder seeing all of you down there" she gazed down at the humans.

"I'll say! Damn girl how the hell are you feelin'?" Epps gawked up at her, finding it strange to see her human face on a robotic body. "Surprisingly okay, considering" she casually shrugged, unable to offer anything else, "What did it feel like?" Miles asked in morbid fascination, "Actually, not really painful, more like butterflies in the stomach for the most part" she replied with a weirded-out frown, "Butterflies in the stomach? You gotta be kidding me!" Lennox couldn't help but smirk, "Wish I was; believe me, the only painful part was the wings sprouting out" Morri deadpanned. "For ssssure, but they sure look good on you!" Lazerbeak grinned as he watched her upside down from the hanger's rafters, "ind-d-d-d-deed!" Frenzy beamed as he skittered around her feet, getting a good look at her; "Yessss, ssssso much prettier" Buzzsaw concurred from where he perched next to his brother, "Have you picked out an altmode yet?" Chromia asked, "Uh, no I don't think so?" Morri blinked.

"Great! Lose the wings and scan mine! Being a seeker's way overrated! You'd look twice as nice in a land-based form!" Sideswipe suggested eagerly, Morri blinked, "No! Keep the wings and scan mine! Flying's way better than driving!" Skywarp objected, she stared at him surprise, and was about to reply when the red Lambo beat her to it, "A fine looking femme like that miles up from the ground where no one can see her? Pit no!" he objected as he stepped up and glared the taller seeking dead in the optics, "So she can drive side by side with a hot dog like you? I don't think so!" the black and purple seeker snapped as he glared down Sideswipe's grill, Morri stared as the two mech's in mild alarm, unsure what to do; "Well you're certainly no improvement! You've got a glitch for a CPU!", "Like your any better! You take running leaps at seekers in full flight! You're as glitched as they come!", "I've been telling him that for centuries" Sunstreaker deadpanned with sour look on his face; "See, even your pipsqueak brother agrees with me!" Skywarp proudly pointed out, "PIPSQUEAK!" the golden warrior hollered in booming voice; at that every human in the hanger dashed out and every bot took a step back, knowing full well what was coming, even Morri was quick to hide behind Deathshot's wide frame and folded wings, but Ratchet was quick to move as he produced three wrenches from his subspaces and threw them at the mech's helms, hitting them dead on with such force that they fell over on their sides. "Visiting hours are over! The patient needs her rest and you three slaggers are no help!" he bellowed, the three of them were about to protest when they each saw the look in Deathshot's optic and instantly shut up and hurried out the hanger, "The same goes for the rest of you! OUT! Before anyone else has any bright ideas!" he grumbled; knowing the wrath of old 'Doc Hatchet' no one argued and quickly left, "Call me if you want flying lessons!" Skywarp called out eagerly from the other side of the hanger door, quickly followed by another loud clang. Once the hanger was silent again, Morri broke into a fit of laughter.

"What's so funny?" he smirked

"Those two! Of all the things that could've happened they start fighting over me-" she giggled as she leaned against him to steady herself, but blinked in horror when she realized who she was laughing over, "Oh God! The hot dogs have a crush on me?" she exclaimed in horror, the drones and her cousins fell about themselves in stitches, trying to hold on and avoid falling off her shoulders as they flopped about while she shot them all a look. "Do you little glitch-heads want to be reformatted into toasters?..." Ratchet growled; all the drones promptly stopped laughing and bolted out, and as the others calmed down Morri was left feeling like her theory on how to approach her new life had been thrown out the window.

"When we go home, I'm staying in England, and I don't care if I have to build my own hanger" she huffed

"You could always move into the one next to mine? Primus knows that old air base has got enough hangers as it is" Deathshot offered; a low grumble escaped Morri's vocalizer as she couldn't be asked to reply and simply took a moment to vent her frustration.

"I better go and see to those two; Morri, Deathshot will be your teacher for today, I wish you good luck" Prime said he turned to leave, "Good luck?" she echoed, quickly dropping the attitude; "With the rest of your 'adjusting'; we've still got much to do, and you can't do it on an empty tank" Ratchet stated as he grabbed a cube of energon from a small stack standing in the corner and placed it in her hand, looking down at the pink glowing fluid Morri remembered the first time she saw what the effects of raw energon had on a living organism when she saw Hound accidently dropped a cactus into his cube; the tracker managed to quickly fished it out, only to see it had completely carbonized into a black shrivelled lump that turned to ash in his hand; the thought of it made her queasy ever since. "What're you worried about? You can drink that stuff without burning your lips now" Ashley pointed out, "True..." she nodded as she gingerly held the cube to her lips, she could smell the strong electric ozone wafting off, and cautiously took a tiny sip; the effect was instant as that one little drop fizzled and crackled in her mouth with a distinctive flavour, taking another larger sip, she blinked as she felt an explosion of bubbles in her mouth, throat and neck, "Whoa! That's tingly!" she grinned, "What does it taste like?" Danny perked up, "Like lime Pepsi and warheads mixed together! I can feel it fizzing in my throat!" she chuckled as she downed the cube in one go; she stopped and stared at her abdomen in slight bewilderment as the intense fizzling and bubbling sensation in her tank tickled her insides a little before sending a wave of warm energy out and up and down her whole body in pulses, "Whoa, that felt weird!" she giggled before Ratchet handed her another, and after three more cubes he hid the stash away.

"Alright, that should set you up for the rest of the day, now to business; I turned off your visual systems disply because we didn't know how'd you react; now that your comfortable with yourself you first need to learn how to use it before you do anything" the medic stated as he produced a small long tweezer-like took from his subspace and gestured for her to sit on the floor; "Okay?" she replied. She felt him tap something on the side of her helm and felt a small 'click' in her head; her dreadlock-cables squirmed around, as if reacting to her sense of nonplussed uncertainty, "That's one of your maintenance access panels I just opened, try to control your cables!" he pushed them out the way, "Sorry! I don't know if I can" she winced slightly, "You'll learn, trust me; alright, now I'm going to activate your visual systems display and set it to voice command for the time being, ready?", "As I'll ever be" she tensed; in an instant her field of vision filled with lines of Cybertronian glyphs and tiny diagnostic grafts and charts, despite being able to read and speak good Cybertronian it was all whizzing about too fast for her to read, and most of it looked more like something that would be found on a mathematicians blackboard; though she didn't panic or flinch away the mixed look of confusion and alarm was evident in her optics. "Say, 'clear vision field'" Ratchet ordered, "Clear vision field?" she replied, and instantly the display was gone, "Okay, at the top and bottom of your field of vision there should be two streams of text scrolling right to left" he stated, "yes I see them" she nodded "Okay, the one at the top is your basic systems functions, i.e. spark pulse, CPU systems levels, temperature level and control, ventilation, energon intake levels and sensory detection levels. The one at the bottom does the same but for your altmode, and currently it should be saying 'altmode not yet scanned'", "Yep", "The streams are both colour coded, as long as they're both green and read 100% then you shouldn't be in my med-bay, because that means nothing's wrong and your healthy", But if they turn yellow, orange or red than I do need to be in the med bay?", "Correct, now, say 'system's diagnostic scan activate'", Uh- system's diagnostic activate?", at that, a small circular graft appeared with a bar chart in the centre, "Now say 'primary server uplink status'", "primary sever uplink stasis?...it says it's 100% fully operational" she replied, "Good, then you're ready to go, anything else you need Deathshot will fill you in on the blanks, now shoo! Go out and get some fresh air in your vents" he grumbled as he closed the panel on her helm and let her stand back up and together they left with her family still on her shoulders. "Prime's just data-burst me, there's a hanger we can go behind to get some privacy, and stay out of the hot dogs line of sight" he smiled, "Thank god" she sighed with great relief.

The hanger was some distance away, practically at the other end of the airstrip; but Morri took the time to enjoy the fact that she could now cover fifty yards in a handful of strides, and along the way Deathshot explained all the different voice commands for her optical display; as they finally reached their destination the sniper placed her uncle back down on the ground while Morri set her cousins back down before turning to face her guardian.

"Okay, ready?" he smirked

"Considering it's you, you bet!" she eagerly bounced

"Alright; first the data burst..." he grinned; suddenly, in a blink a whole load of Cybertronian text flashed across her sight before she felt a hard pounding in the front of her helm, her cables cured up in discomfort while she held her hands to her helm.

"Whoa! That didn't feel so good" she blinked

"The first time never usually is; that one was just to 'break the ice' so to speak, the rest should come more smoothly now..." he assured her, and as another load of data flashed through her optics, the pounding in her helm subsided to a steady bearable throbbing, "Better?", "Yes, much; but still feels weird though..."

"And it's about to get weirder..." he grinned as he cut off the uplink, "Say, 'scan mode activate' and look straight at me"

"Scan mode activate-WHOA! What the-" a pair of electric blue light beams shot out of her optics, and suddenly her vision was filled with electric blue as she saw her guardian reach out and gently grabbed her arms to steady her, "Don't panic! Your alright, your optics are scanning me for your altmode" he reassured her, "Y-your altmode?" she looked at him, unable to close her optics as they scanned him by themselves and her vision filled with details and schematics of his altmode; when a line read: scan complete, she shut her optics and the two beams of light cut out; her head throbbed as the new data downloaded itself into her CPU and all of a sudden the armour on her body began to shift and move about. Some plates retracted back into her body as different ones sprouted in their place, until within seconds her new form's armour plating structure resembled that of her guardians, only slimmer and feminine, complete with a pale pink cockpit canopy.

"Whoa, that's seriously wicked" Ashley grinned wildly

"Ready?" Deathshot caught her gaze as she stared up him, taken aback by what just happened.

"D-...thank you" she breathed as a smile of affection crossed her metallic lips

"It's alright, now, let's see how well your wings hold you up..." he smiled as he stepped back and transformed, "say 'activate transform to altmode'". Gazing at his altmode, the butterflies in her stomach/tank returned, but this time they were for her rising excitement and anticipation; stepping away for some more space she let a nervous but excited smile cross her face as she repeated "Activate transform to altmode". She gasped in shock as she felt her whole body pull itself apart and rearrange itself, being completely powerless to stop it, and unable to speak; the change from humanoid to machine was undoubtedly the strangest, most bizarre sensation she'd ever experienced, nothing else even came close to comparing to it as she felt her insides and extremities move around and lock into new places and positions, becoming a whole new and different form, and when the final product stood still on the ground, she was left feeling both shocked, weirded-out, and a little dizzy, but still excited; as her sense of balance readjusted to her new centre of gravity, and the mental image of herself strangely changed too, she realized her entire field of vision was now a giant 3D holoform projection, complete with the little scrolling streams of data at the top and bottom, with no optics to see with she realized this was the only way to view the world in this form.

"Holy crap! You look awesome!" Ashley exclaimed

"I'll take your word for it, considering I haven't got a mirror to look in-" she figuratively blinked, "Wait-, how the hell am I talking?"

"Internal vocalizer and external sound systems" Deathshot replied, the smile in his voice was unmistakable, "Those data-bursts I sent are your new flight control software, activate them and you'll be able to do anything with ease in you new form" he stated, going on what he said, she found the data-burst he gave her and activated it; within less than seven seconds her mind was filled with information that virtually came out of nowhere, and the more she learnt how to fly, the more she envisioned the limits of her imagination expanding further and further until she knew she do anything in the air, and no horizon was left to see in her mind's eye.

"**Ready?" **

"**Hell yeah!" **she fired up her hover engines, pushed off the ground, tilted upwards; and with one blast of her main boosters took off like a bat out of hell until she was a mere speck in the sky, leaving her guardian to play catch-up as he took after her.

"She's never gonna come down now" Tom stated with a grin

"Not for a long while yet" Ashley concurred

"Come on let's leave them to it...anyone hungry?" John asked

The hour's melted away in carefree abandonment and the passage time lost all meaning as the two jets cruised through the endless blue sky, they could've been up there since the beginning of eternity for all anyone knew, because they certainly looked like they belonged there as they flew side by side in playful contentment.

Never in her life had anything felt so free as this, so powerful, fast, nimble and sleek as her jet form cut through the air like a samurai's katana, she could feel the wind slipping over her wings like satin and the endless horizon all around her; it made her spirit sing with a joy she'd never known before, and never wanted to let go. Morri was happy up here, the ease and comfort of it all made her feel like she had always known this, as if she had forgotten it for the longest time and had finally rediscovered it. She smiled inwardly in bliss as she felt her spark flutter in her spark chamber, as if it too had a little set of wings and was souring with her; Deathshot knew it too as his uplink to her relayed what she was feeling and it too filled him with such joy, knowing she was so very happy, up here, with him.

For most of the day the two of them did nothing else but fly, anywhere and everywhere the jet-stream carried them; in the lower atmosphere they cruised over mountains, forests, valleys, cities and vast endless oceans, taking in the vast beauty of the earth below them; in the mid atmosphere they played hide and seek among towering cumulonimbus, arched up and down through thick fog banks like dolphins on the waves, whipped through a set of altostratus letting the cold ice crystals tingle their wings; and in the upper atmosphere they raced each other on the jet stream, across the southern hemisphere, until finally they reached the Antarctic, and the vast endless white of the south pole. As they circled around the pole's magnetic flux, the Aurora Australis danced across the sky in radiant arch's and curtains of green and pink; as they passed through the lights the ion in their engines reacted, leaving long spiralling trails of blue, purple, and yellow as they climbed higher and higher until finally they cleared the atmosphere and cut their boosters. Deathshot transformed back to mechmode and drifted over to Morri's side, reaching and grabbing her nose cone to steady her, he gently stroked one hand over her cockpit.

"This, is one place you have to be in femme-mode to see..." he smiled as he drifted away a little, allowing her the room to transform back to her humanoid self; the transition back to her femme mode was much easier, and she felt more comfortable for it, having her legs and arms back was a relief. But she didn't pay attention to them or anything as the sight before them took her breath away...

Far down below was practically half the earth, they were so high up that the curvature of the planet was clearly visible, with the oceans landmasses and clouds tightly hugging the surface while above them the atmosphere was a blue halo that phased into the black of space above; less than two or so hundred feet below them satellites cruised by, their antenna and dishes pointed downwards and well out of their range, while overhead the endless inky blackness of outer space enveloped their vision. The Moon was so huge at this height, so big in fact that Morri could clearly make out the numerous craters and features of its silvery grey surface, and the stars beyond. Never in her life had she seen so many, and so brightly too, without the earth's atmosphere to filter their light, they shone more clearly than she'd ever seen before. Words couldn't describe what her spark was feeling, and as energon tears welled up in her eyes, she drifted over to Deathshot and wrapped her arms around him as she cried into his chest.

"...Thank you..." she sobbed, "...Thank you for this..." she looked up at him with the happiest, most loving look her twinkling optics could give; wrapping his hands around her waist he pulled her in for a hug, "I was planning to take you up here when we were supposed to go on that camping trip, and with everything that's happened I kinda had to put it on the 'back shelf'; until now that is..." he smiled in a soft hushed voice as he brought one hand up to wipe away her tears, she blinked when she noticed her tears had turned into little electric blue crystal droplets, "Wh-, what's this?" she smiled as she grabbed one between her claws, "They've frozen solid, we're in outer space, the temperature is absolute zero up here-" he chuckled; "Then how come we're not frozen too?" she smiled softly as she blinked away the rest of her tears, "Because we're built to withstand the vacuum and cold void of space..." he gazed down at her with a soft look in his one optic as he softly pulled her closer, "...And, sometimes, having someone you love can keep your spark warm..." he whispered as she felt the warmth of the spark in his chest pulsate outwards, sending out warm pleasurable waves of heat; gazing up at him, Morri felt her own spark begin to throb and flutter, steadily the cold of space faded away as the two of them became wrapped in each other's heat, and the look in his optic told her he felt her spark throbbing too. Feeling his engine's pulsate so close, it sent a little shiver up her spine, making her gasp ever so softly, and as he cupped her face in his hand and leaned in a little closer, she gently placed one hand on his chest and leaned back a little...

"What're we doing?" she breathed as the smile faded from her lips.

"Maybe, what our sparks have been telling us for a long time..." he whispered back as he met her gaze with an honest look, "...I love you Morri, I have for a long time, and you know that. Whatever else happens, wherever life sees fit to lead us, I want you to know you'll always be that special human femme who took a chance on me, and helped me to find my way back to the light of life again...I never thought I could ever love again, until you came into my life..." he stroked her face, hearing those words made her spark flutter some more, and even the 'butterflies in the stomach' returned to tickle her tank (which by now was starting to annoy her somewhat), urging her to give into her instincts, but she kept them in check as she passed a soft sigh through her vents.

"...I love you too; but is it too soon? Are we rushing this a little?" she asked apprehensively as she leaned back against his chest plates, letting his spark's warm pulses wash over her.

"Maybe? I don't know, love is a strange thing, and it doesn't let us choose who we fall in love with..." was all he could offer as he softly hugged her.

"True enough, and I can't deny I don't care for you the way anyone else has...Mum once told me that 'the right one' is the guy who makes your heart, mind and gut instincts agree in unison that he's the one for you. And when I first met you something deep down told me to stick around you, even though I didn't understand why? And over the last two years I got to know you I slowly began to realize that I was right about you...Even if being two different alien species was the only factor that kept us only as close friends" she replied as her smile slowly returned; gazing into her optics and seeing that she'd made her mind up, now it was Deathshot's turn to hesitate slightly; he wanted to be with her, he wanted to always be there at her side, and as he tried to hold back the build-up of energy in his spark chamber, he tried to keep his mind focused on the subject at hand.

"You mean-, ...Are you sure? I mean, I can wait; I'll always wait for you" he asked nervously, she looked up at him with those dazzling optics, and leaned in close as she softly wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I know you will. But on the rare occasion, patience can be overrated; and besides, at least I know the hot dogs won't be an issue, at the very least I can always send Ashley to prank them" she smirked with a cheeky look in her optics, to which he couldn't help but chuckle.

"I know, Your too good for them anyway" he smiled, "Indeed, and I wouldn't mind having you for a boyfriend, so long as it makes these damn butterflies go away..." she whispered as she closed her optics and leaned in to kiss him; from out of her helm her dreadlock-cables extended to over twice their length and slithered their way around him, feeling him all over and exploring every curve of his armour plating, their tactile responses sent waves of pleasure though her as they stroked and caressed him. Deathshot found he enjoyed the cables soft touch too as he returned the kiss, and wrapped his arms around her waist again holding her closer and a little tighter as the cables sent pleasurable shivers up his spine.

"Perhaps..." he broke off the kiss, but kept holding her close, "Maybe more than a boyfriend?" he whispered as he stroked the back plates under her folded wings.

"Marriage? Okay now we're really getting ahead of ourselves" she smirked as one of her cables teased at his chest plates

"In a way, but I was thinking something more, like a bond..." he breathed as he finally let go of the restraint on his spark and let it's more potent waves wash over her; Morri gasped softly and her cables spiralled and curled up as ripples of pure pleasure washed though her insides and made her spark spin around and round with giddy ecstasy, urging her to surrender, and to reach out and join to become one with the source of that pleasure; opening her optics she looked back up at him as she tried to catch her breath.

"Spark-bond?..." she breathed, "For Cybertronian sex that was intense..." she smiled contently, but the devilish look of mischief in Deathshot's optic made her drop the smile and stare at him nonplussed surprise.

"Actually, that was the foreplay. This, is the sex..." he smiled as he brought up his hands and pulled apart his chest plates to reveal his spark chamber beneath; there, on the front of the hexagonal shaped chamber a little complex shutter opened up to reveal the pulsating blue spark inside; being exposed to it face to face, Morri could feel the full strength of his spark's intense waves as they practically oozes over her like electric honey. Looking down at her own chest plates she tried to figure out how to open them when Deathshot softly placed his hand on her chest, slipped his fingers down the seam of where her two 'breast' plates joined together, and gently teased them open; as her own spark chamber was exposed to the open, Morri felt her spark throb harder as it practically pressed up to the opening and she gasped for breath.

"If this is the sex, will the orgasm kill me?" she breathed as her spark urged her to give in to her passion.

"I highly doubt it, but don't be too surprised if you can't feel your wings afterwards..." he smiled, and leaned into kiss her; as their lips softly locked together and their spark chamber's came into contact, a white light burst forth from the point of contact and Morri lost herself as her mind spun with satisfaction as wave after wave of pure raw ecstasy thrusted into her spark, and swirled around it like thick cream; she let a moan of pleasure escape as she felt her spark take on a mind of its own, feeling it practically leap out of its chamber and join with the object of its affection, pulling it closer and swimming all around it like an eel in a hole. Deathshot was no different as he drew in breath and clenched his dental plates as another wave of ecstasy made him pull Morri closer, he shivered as her Dreadlock-cables slithered and squirmed all over him, reaching for his more sensitive areas and caressing them smoothly, electing a small moan from his lips, that gave her more pleasure as she held onto him with her claws, and drew him in as another thrust of energy washed over her. After a minute or so of intensity, the waves finally levelled out and in their place a new wave of energy came forth, but this time it was different, more softer and more easy on their sparks; like a flood gate opening up, a whole surge of different emotions came to the surface and settled down around their sparks until finally they could both feel their sparks beating in sync with each other.

"...The bond is made..." he panted as he leaned in to kiss her on the neck plate, "Talk about getting your money's worth..." she grinned in satisfaction as three of her cables snaked their way down his waist to his groin and slipped under his crouch plates, there she felt something smooth round and very soft tucked away; a wicked grin crossed her lips as her cables wrapped around it and lightly gave it a squeeze, Deathshot's optic flew open as he winced slightly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, is that too much?" she smiled, the look in her optics told him what she had found, and her interest had been piqued; obliging her with a playful grin, he directed her gaze down and sideways, being careful not to break their connection, and opening his crouch plates up, revealed a short length of thick silver cable with a snake head-shaped end.

"You've been keeping secrets..." she panted, "you didn't tell me about that little feature" she grinned

"For good reason, I didn't want you or the other femmes getting ideas" he panted

"Too late now...I know it's not like the organic version, but what does it do?" she panted before another wave of energy made her shiver

"It's my main interface cable, and it's quite sensitive; especially to-" he shivered and inhaled sharply as her cables caressed it, "-Touch!" he gasped. Slipping her hands down to open up her crotch plates, Morri looked down and smiled when she saw a cable port, one that looked just the right size for what she had in mind.

"...Still think Cybertronian sex is less physically demanding than human sex? You've had your fun, now I want mine..." she grinned as she brought her legs up and saddled him, seductively stroking the side of her hip against his. With a content smirk Deathshot obliged and activated his cable, tensing up as it snaked its way into her, Morri inhaled sharply and tensed up hard as a more physical wave of pleasure came up from below, and made her thrust her hips back and forth in a steady rhythm; Deathshot slipped his hands down onto her aft plates and held onto her as each thrust sent sharp waves of ecstasy along his cable and throughout his lower half while her dreadlock-cables continued to caress and stroke his sensitive parts, in turn he made his cable retract back and forth, heightening her own pleasure as she panted and moaned with each thrust. Time fell away as the couple stayed locked in each other's embrace until finally they had no more energy left to extend and exhaustion took over their bodies; after retracting his main interface cable back up into its compartment, Deathshot steadied Morri as he gently pushed away, and with an electric crack that made them both flinch, the physical contact between their sparks was severed and their chest plates both slid back into place over their spark chambers. The severing felt like a sharp split second ping of pins and needles, but as it subsided, Morri could sense something in her mind that wasn't hers, a warm gentle presence that stroked her thoughts with feelings of kindness and reassurance, and a strength that made her feel twice as strong as before.

"Do you feel it?..." Deathshot smiled as he regained his breath

"...I think so; is that you in mind?" she smiled as she hugged him

"Yes, and you in me...that was, something else..." he breathed as he closed his optics and completely went slack, through their spark bond she could sense his fatigue making him slip into a light recharge; it made her tired too, so closing her optics, she held onto him and together they drifted through space, happy in each other's embrace.

"...When do you think we should get back to the base?" she spoke softly

"Not just yet, I'll wait until I can feel my wings again" he smiled and fell into recharge

"...Me too" she smirked, "I'll wait until I can feel my legs..." she whispered, and also fell into recharge.

7:26pm:

Optimus kept his optics trained on the horizon as two familiar Cybertronian jets steadily descended down and transformed into their humanoid forms just before they touched the ground; as they walked up to him, he could see Morri had a big smile spread across her face while Deathshot looked pretty content himself.

"I trust your 'adjustment' has gone smoothly?" Optimus quirked an optic ridge

"Oh yes, very; everything's in shape and I'm good with myself!" Morri grinned

"Indeed, she's adapted to her new body quite well. But I must recommend she be allowed to refuel and recharge now, it's been a long day and we've still got some more 'fine-tuning' to do tomorrow" Deathshot concurred with an approving nod.

"Very well, in that case I bid you both good-night..." Optimus nodded and walked off back towards the hanger, but as he glanced over his shoulder and saw the two flyers walk side by side, a small smile tugged at the corner of his lip plates when he saw them holding hands as they walked away to the hanger that had been allocated for the flyers.

The next morning:

"Okay, so what about your new name?" Becca asked

"New name?" Morri blinked

"Well yeah, now that you're rollin' with the guys you now need a Cybertronian name" Becky reasoned

"Actually I'm keeping my name, it's the one I was born with and its part of who I am"

"Fair enough, but at least pick out a code-name you can use for when you're off the base; you know, so no one will suspect who you are? Besides, calling a thirty foot femme 'Morri' is gonna sound more than a little bit peculiar to a slagger like Starscream; he maybe evil but he's not dumb, he'll realize something's up eventually" Rumble reasoned as he sat atop her helm.

"A good point, but just out of curiosity, why not Morri? There's certainly plenty of bots and cons alike with odd names; I mean Starscream?, no offence but where did that come from?" Morri pondered aloud as she slowly walked along the side of the airstrip with the Waineright twins sitting on her left shoulder.

"Cybertron didn't have any native ssseas or oceansssss, and your name isss an ancient human name for 'sssssea wave" Lazerbeak replied as he glanced sideways from where he was perched on her right shoulder.

"Oh I see...Okay, well let's think; I can fly, I'm white and pale blue, have an altmode that vaguely resembles a swallow in terms of wing design, and can hack into computer with my 'dreadlocks'. There's got to be something there to work with" she thought aloud

"Oh! What about Bluewind?" Becca suggested

"Uh, nah, not really enough blue" Morri shrugged

"Good point, what about Snowwind?" Becky suggested

"Whipwind?" Rumble piped in

"Deathwind?" Lazerbeak chirped

"No wind, it sounds too gassy; and Deathwind is too similar to Deathshot, I'm not sniper, nor am I the type who wants to rush to kill someone, even if their trying to kill me, I know that makes no sense to you guys but that's just my philosophy on war: so no names beginning with Death alright?" Morri stated

"Your right, it does make no sense" Rumble deadpanned

"What about Jewelwing?" Becca suggested

"Jewelwing...Jewelwing?...mmm, doesn't quite fall off the tongue right"

"Whiteclaw?"

"Mmm maybe if I was some type of cat-drone, it doesn't quite fit with the whole flying thing"

"Hmm, what about Sapphire?" Becky proposed

"Sapphire?" Morri glanced at her

"Yeah! What about Sapphirewing!" Becca suggested

"Or Sapphirestar!" Rumble suggested

"Or even SSSappirestrike!" Lazerbeak added

"No, just Sapphire; it's short-ish, it's simple and it suits my eyes!" Morri perked up, "It's brilliant!"

"Good call!" Becky grinned in satisfaction

"Aww! I was going to suggest Barrelroll" Rumble flopped down on her tiara-helm

"Barrelroll?..." Morri blinked as she stopped and looked down at her figure, "...Maybe when I was human that would've been appropriate, now I look like the poster-girl for one those fitness work-out regime DVD's they sell on the shopping channels. I'm not complaining but God know I'm certainly not going to miss that four-layered triple chocolate butter-cream cake that's been hanging on my hips for the last six years" she deadpanned

"What about all the other junk food we stuffed down before we fell through the rift?" Becky asked

"Oh..."Morri dropped her gaze in regret, "Now I'm seriously depressed; I loved stuffed-crust pepperoni pizza with mushrooms. I will never again get to taste its cheesy meaty gooey deliciousness" she moped

"Oh sorry" Becky winced and promptly dropped the subject; Rumble skittered down off her helm and sat himself down on his brother's back with a sly twinkle in his red optics.

"Sssooo?..." he grabbed her attention, "When are you going to tell everyone the good news?" he grinned, "What?" Morri hissed, trying to keep her voice low.

"Oh yeah! When are you gonna tell everyone that you and D-man are a 'happy couple' now?" Becca grinned; Morri was about to demand where they heard it from, when a certain telepathic panther came to mind, making her sigh in exasperation. "D and I talked last night, we're gonna wait until we get home to tell everyone; and that means none of you go spilling the beans before then! Understand?" she gave them each a sharp glair.

"Relax relax, we haven't told anyone! And Ratchet certainly doesn't know!" Rumble grinned

"And that's how it'll stay until this whole thing is over!..." she glared

"Alright, you have our word...so what was it like?" the drone asked in morbid fascination

"That. Is none of your business" Morri glared sharply down at him

"But what does it feel like to share your mind with someone?" Becky asked eagerly; at that moment Morri smiled as she felt the gentle tug of her sparkmate at the other end of the bond, letting her know he was nearby. "...It's, the most amazing thing ever; there's no way to really describe how a connection that goes so deep can feel so...wonderful..." she thought aloud as she looked across the airstrip but couldn't see him anywhere; although she knew he wasn't around, she knew he was smiling.

"So what do you think lies ahead for you too? Kids maybe?" Becca asked

"Yeah! Jay-jay could have a little cousin to play with!" Becky perked up

"I don't know about that; kids are a big thing, and I was kinda hopping to make the most of my time while I'm still young you know? Go travelling, do important things, and other stuff you only get to do once; stuff like that takes time and commitment, and I won't be able to do it all if we got kids to see to" Morri reasoned

"When are you going to it through your helm that you'll be young for the nexxxt ten thoussssend years at leassst?" Lazerbeak deadpanned; Morri facepalmed as the girls giggled.

"Seriously, you've got like TONS of time now! You can still do all that stuff and have a family!" Rumble bounced up and down.

"I don't know..." Morri pondered, "...Who knows? Life is a strange and weird thing; maybe it'll take us places we never expect to find, we'll just have wait and see, but for now, I'm getting acquainted with the new me..." she smiled with confidence as she felt her spark-mate stroke her spark with reassurance, and slowly started walking back towards the hanger.

* * *

"IT'S NO USE! Its grip on her is so tight that I can't go near the fragger without getting shut out!" Ravage growled with Ire as he paced back and forth, his claws scrapping the ground with every step.

"What if we try bringing her round artificially? A combination of adrenaline and-"

"NO! THAT WON'T WORK! If we wake her up all we'll have is the body, an empty shell! We need to force that creature out of her before it completely consumes her psyche! And we're wasting time just standing around like this!" the panther hissed

"But nothing else will work! There's no other way to reach her!" Ratchet snapped back in equal frustration and anger

"Yes there is! I can get to her and snap the connection it's made, but I can't do that, UNLESS YOU MAKE ME THAT SLAGGIN' CHIP!" he roared

"And have you turn her against us while you're at it? Never!" Ironhide spat

"He won't do that!" Deathshot sternly interjected, both mech's blinked, "Wh-what?" Ironhide did a double take. "...As guardian, it's part of my responsibility to assess any possible danger that presents a threat to the well-being and safety of my charges; I'll admit I was dubious when Ravage first approached Ashley and yes I did have my concerns when he started grow friendly with him and his cousins, but after careful analysis and consideration of the events of this past month, I deem that he has since proven that his intentions are no longer based on his past misconduct and actions!" the sniper firmly stated, the other bots were about to object when Prime shot them all a look; the subject was NOT up for debate, not for now at least. As he bent down and beckoned the panther to him, Prime looked him square in the optic, as if he were boring into the very core of his spark, though he wasn't a telepath, Ravage knew all too well this bot was no fool, and didn't suffer fools gladly. For a longest moment that seemed to stretch into an eternity, Ravage calmed himself and relaxed, he knew his intentions were honest and thus had nothing to be scared of as Prime kept his sharp powerful gaze locked with his, never looking in any other direction as he searched for what he what he was expecting to find; and after a while, having apparently not found it, he heaved a heavy sigh and leaned down lower until he was right up in the panther's face.

"...Despite everything that has gone between us in the past, I am willing to put that all behind us this day and 'wipe the slate clean' for the sake of our young friend, and the future of this earth, as well as ours..." he stated in a deep stern tone; the whole hanger did a double take, but he pay attention. "...If you say you can do this; cut the link the creature has established and bring her mind back intact and unharmed; you will have earned my respect. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes" Ravage bowed his head submissively.

"Very well, Ratchet, begin assembling the chip-" Prime ordered

"Actually, that won't be necessary. I've already assembled the required micro-circuits, Mikaela has completed the shell components and Darren, Glen and Frenzy have nearly completed the software assembly" Deathshot stated.

"WHAT? You went behind my back and-"

"-While I appreciate your experience and expertise in the field of micro-circuitry repairs and assembly, with all due respect sir I HAVE been manipulating micro-circuitry and nanite technology far longer than you! If you were left to construct the chip yourself it have taken exactly thirty minutes, once Mikaela had all the parts she needed it took her less than ten and will take her a further two minutes to install it in Ravage's CPU; time is of the essence here and I will NOT wait around while that creature is in her mind consuming everything she is! Not while she's MY charge! You can detain me later for deliberately deceiving you sir, but right now, the best option we have is Ravage, and if you all put aside what went on before in the past and see the logic for what it truly is, you will see this is our ONLY option! So I suggest you stop wasting time bickering and actually pull yourselves together and act like the Autobot's you're meant to be!" Deathshot angrily stated, Ironhide was ready to deck him when Prime stopped him. Suddenly, a knocking at the hanger door caught everyone's attention as Trailbreaker entered and Darren cautiously peeked over his guardian's shoulder.

"You guys done arguing yet?" he asked

"Are you done?" the sniper approached and let him jump into his hand

"Yes it's good to go" he handed him his favourite USB dongle, without wasting any time Deathshot opened his subspace and allowed Mikaela to climb out into his other hand and placed her down on the floor with the said chip clasped in one hand, "This won't take a minute..." she plugged the dongle in and within several seconds the circular matchbox-sized chip flashed blue and yellow, and the teen trainee medic whipped out her smaller pocket sized set on tools. Ravage obliged and bowed his head down low, allowing her to open a small panel on the back of his head.

"Ravage, if you fail-"

"I won't!" he snapped back as Mikaela got to work, glancing up for a moment she didn't miss the look on her teacher's face plates, "You can chew my ass out over this later Ratch; I was gonna do this anyway, regardless of whether Prime said so or not" she stated, the chief medic wanted to chew her out right here and there, but he knew that wasn't going to help and he heaved a frustrated sigh through his vents, he bent down over the panther, brought up one hand and transformed his index finger into a small long probe-like tool.

"If you're going to do this right, at least let me keep tabs on his CPU's systems regulator unit while you install the sligging thing!" he grumbled

"Fine, but you should know; once the chip's installed, the nanites that make up its central processing circuits will fuse it to my CPU; once it's in it can never be removed" Ravage stated

"Fine, just make sure you can find her..." Deathshot replied, "I just hope we're not too late..." he sighed as he looked across the hanger at the unconscious figure lying in Bluestreak's lap, surrounded by her family and friends as they gazed on, hoping and praying she would be alright.

* * *

R&R Please!


	71. Chapter 70: Well, This Is Differant II

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 70: WELL, THIS IS DIFFERANT II: FAMILY LIFE

The morning sun shone through the window and warmed the side of her face as she slowly woke up; with her optics still shut she smiled as she felt that familiar tug at her spark, gently teasing at her thoughts, and trying to get her to open her optics.

"What're you up to?" she smirked as she finally opened her optics, there, lying beside her with a content aura about him, Deathshot reached forward and placed a kiss on her forehead.

"Happy anniversary sweetspark" he smiled warmly

"...Twenty years; hard to believe it's been that long since we first bonded huh?" she smiled

"Indeed, it may not be long in Cybertronian terms, but it is for you" he stroked her cheek

"And I've enjoyed every minute of it..." she kissed his hand, "Now we can worry how the next twenty are going to pan out..." She replied, directing his gaze downward as she stroked her swollen belly, "You know, I still find it hard to believe that being a hybrid meant getting pregnant the old-fashioned way, I was half hoping the Cybertronian version of pregnancy would be a little easier, on account we'd only have to worry about constructing the babies bodies. But still, not having to go through the stress of mood swings has been a real treat" she added

"And how are the little ones this morning?" he smiled as he stroked her belly

"Augh! Much calmer after all that excitement last night..." she huffed, burying her head in the pillow, "The sooner they're both out of there the better!" she frowned in mock annoyance.

"You don't mean that, you've loved being pregnant" he smiled as he placed another kiss on her cheek, to which she smiled again and rested her head against his chest plate. "Being pregnant has been the best experience so far; but now that my due date is less than three weeks away my spine is really starting to creek when I bend over, it's embarrassing. Plus, I really really miss flying!" she sighed

"At least it won't be forever, and when the little ones are finally out, we can have some 'alone time' together again" he purred, seeing the devilish glint in his optic, she knew exactly what he was referring to.

"Oh?" she smirked, "...Well we'll have to be careful where we do it from now; we don't want to wake up the kids at all hours of the nights" she teased as she kissed his neck.

"Up in orbit's always a good place" he grinned

"So very true, and at least the cold of space helps my legs recover faster" she grinned as her dreadlock-cables started to extend and slither over his shoulder; but recoiled back as she blinked in surprise.

"What is it?" he asked

"Hehehe! They're both getting ready to dance again" she giggled as she rested her hands around her belly, glancing down Deathshot scanned her, and his smile grew even wider.

"They're both flexing their wings; they think their flying!" he chuckled

"No kidding, here they go-" she propped herself up on one elbow and took a deep breath as she watched her whole belly wobble and bounce as the two sparklings inside her moved and jostled around; tickling her insides while the outlines of their backs and wings pressed up through the nanite-skin of her belly as they squirmed around some more before finally settling back down and she breathed out in relief.

"I'll defiantly miss that the most..." she chuckled as she sat up and gently swung her legs over the side of the birth, "Come on, we're both up, let's get the day started" she stated as she hopped down and wandered over to the large mirror hanging on the wall. She smirked, knowing she'd hardly aged in twenty years was something she liked as she straightened her dreadlock-cables, Deathshot came over and pushed her cables out the way to place a kiss on her neck, and smiled warmly as she gave him another kiss on the cheek.

"So..." she changed the subject, "The party's at three this afternoon, did you pick up on the late RSVP's yesterday?"

"Yep, and everyone can make it; Sam might be twenty minutes late, he needs to pick the kids up from their grandparents and your parents will coming straight from Hover dam on the way here" he replied, "Brilliant, after my check-up with Ratchet I'll be out up top making sure all the prep work goes smoothly; you just keep that optic of yours on the catering, and if you see Glen in the vicinity make sure he doesn't see the mini jelly-doughnuts. The same goes for Scorpy; make sure he stays away from the high-grade or we'll never be able to catch him" she deadpanned

"Don't worry, I've already got Jolt and Cliffjumper on it, and Ironhide's kindly volunteered to guard the helium tanks for the balloons"

"Thank Primus, if Miles and Darren's kids find those tanks they'll be-"

"-I know, I know..." he smiled as he kissed her cheek and sent a wave of reassurance down their bond, "I'm on it, you just take it easy and don't strain yourself"

"Hmmm" she hummed softly, before a knock at the door drew their attention, and Mikaela stepped in

"Hey 'mommy', ol Hatchet's waiting and he's not had his morning energon yet" the woman smiled

"I'll be right there...bye love" she kissed her spark-mate on the cheek and left their quarters; bending down with her knees and offering her hand for Mikaela to hop in to, she steadily made her way down the corridor, keeping one hand on her belly to steady herself.

"So, did the twins have their little 'tank dance' this morning?" Mikaela asked eagerly

"Mmhmm" she hummed, "This time over a minute long" she replied

"Hehehe I love it when they do that!" she chuckled

"I know, they get so excited, wish I knew why though? These little dance sessions of theirs have been growing longer for a while now, I figured it must be that I'm very nearly due" she reasoned

"Could be? You should mention it to Ratchet"

"Yeah, perhaps-...oh..." she blinked

"Saphy?"

"Their starting again!" she chuckled, stopping to lean against the wall as the sparklings began their jostling again, the motion of her belly wobbling both fascinated and delighted Mikaela as she watched them move around inside their mother, after two minutes they settled down again and she passed a sigh of relief.

"Two minutes?" she quirked, "What was that? Riverdance?" she chuckled

"I don't know but they looked like they were having a ball!" Mikaela grinned

"They could be for all I know; these little 'tank dances' are one thing, but the glowing belly at night? That gets them completely wound up"

"I thought that stopped last month?"

"So did I" she deadpanned, "It happened last night just as I was going into recharge, and this time D could see it from the window; I know Ratchet explained that it's to do with the way my 'placenta' processes the energon and filters it into their bodies, but still, every time it happens they react by going around in circles, literally! Last night they wouldn't stop until gone one in the morning, and this time the light was so bright I could make them out through my nanite-skin!"

"Whoa, that kinda puts my pregnancy into prospective" Mikaela blinked

"At least you didn't have a glowing blimp and pair of restless baby flyers with wings the size of a Boeing 747 flapping around at all hours of the night and day" she frowned

"No, but the cravings were rough"

"Yeah, pickled eggs and peanut-butter with pepperoni? That certainly weirded Sam out"

"Mmhmm...So listen-" Mikaela changed the subject, "Sapphire, are you still up for that new project Wheeljack's been working on? Only, with your due date up in the next month or so he's going to postpone it until the babies are born" she asked

"Of course I'm still looking forward to it, once these little rascals are out I'll be looking forward to doing something else, being grounded for eight and half months certainly drives you up the walls; though, I'm still not entirely sure if he's worked out all the kinks on that device yet, seeing it blow up during the initial testing stages didn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence in the 'test subjects'" Sapphire replied

"I know what you mean!" Mikaela chuckled, "Don't worry, he's long since taken care of that problem, the rest will simply be recording the data to see how it performs" she replied, "Well fine, so long as Sunstreaker doesn't go giving the volunteers any ideas; they've got enough to worry about as it is, what with the test runs and all"

"I know, but their professionals, their trained to be ready for that kinda thing; which is more than I can say for my lot" the woman deadpanned

"Oh yeah! I meant to ask, how're the new rookies working out?"

"*sigh* I think Barkly and Cassidy are the only ones who went through puberty-" she grumbled, "Spellman's a wiseass who thinks he knows how to do my job better than me, Freeman tries to palm off the idea that because he's good looking he shouldn't have to help clean up and fill in the reports, Peters is just lazy, and that little runt Jenkins tries to pull rank at every opportunity and loves to highlight the fact that he plus three generations of his family were Marines and I'm 'just' a civilian and therefore not 'qualified' to be in such a high-level secure facility" she air quoted, and folding her arms in a huff.

"So? I take it that's four more write offs?" Sapphire cautiously asked with a slight wince

"...I don't know..." Mikaela sighed, "Despite being a major hot dog Peters might have some positional, so long as he can go more than ten minutes without looking at himself in every reflective surface, as for the rest, I'll be handing in my recommendations to Prime at the end of the week. I'm sick of NEST picking out these so called 'mechanical engineering' pros to be trained as medics for the guys; these people are not 'people-persons', two thirds of them don't even get the concept of good bedside manner, they think it's all about popping the hood and seeing what's out of place. I just think it'll be easier to pick out some doctors and train them in basic mechanics; at least they'll be easier going with the attitude towards Ratchet"

"Well I have to say; Jenkins didn't strike me as very committed anyway, even if he does know how to assemble a whole Rolls Royce engine from scratch...At least he's assigned off the base for today, so you won't have to put up with his attitude during the party" Sapphire offered

"That. I have been looking for to all month" she smiled, "Will everyone be able to make it?"

"Yep, and even mum and dad are coming" Sapphire smiled as she thought of her human parents

"That's great, and it's so nice seeing them again after so long" Mikaela smiled

"I know, what with me being pregnant I couldn't fly them over this year; and I don't think dad's quite forgiven D for that little incident with the Bentley"

"He's still mad at him over that? But that was like three years ago!"

"I know, but you know what men are like" Sapphire chuckled; as she rounded a corner Jazz nearly bumped into her.

"Yo Saphy! Happy anniversary babe!" he smirked as he handed her a large cube-shaped present wrapped in silver wrapping paper and blue ribbon (a lot of silver wrapping paper and quite a few meters of ribbon).

"Aww Thanks Jazzy!" she stepped sideways and kissed him on the cheek plate, "I told you we didn't want much" she playfully swatted his shoulder, "Well then it's a good thing cuz it ain't for you, it's for the kids" he beamed, "be seein' ya later preggers!" he waved and carried on his way.

"How lovely" Sapphire thought aloud as she placed Mikaela up on her shoulder and carried the gift with both hands, "Oh! That reminds me! I've got your anniversary gift waiting in my office!"She beamed, "Please tell me it's not another baby monitor? I've received three of those already" the femme deadpanned. "Nope, something better, and much cuter" she winked. Sapphire carried on walking along until she reached the central hub of the base, various bots said good morning, and one or two stared at her round figure as they passed by, although all the bots had been aware of her 'unique hybrid anatomy' for many years now, the sight of a femme with two sparklings growing inside her was both a subject of fascination and morbid curiosity. Being the only human/Cybertronian hybrid was a fact that Sapphire had gotten used to years ago, and now it wasn't a subject that bothered her anymore, if anything she'd embraced more of her robotic side these two decades and all the doubts and concerns she'd had before on the issue gradually disappeared (though she did still retain a lot of her human quirks and mannerisms). Meeting her for the first time, one would think she was a Cybertronian through and through, she had gotten used to it that much that no one would suspect she'd been human once, even abandoning her human name in favour of adopting her code-name, to which everyone had known her by for years now; even most of the humans at NEST, save a handful, were truly aware of her background. After her scan and check-up with Ratchet and Mikaela, Sapphire made her way to the rec room to pick up a cube of energon and onward to the elevators to go up to the surface of the underground base, where the anniversary party was being set up. The drinks bar, buffet stands, tables and chairs had been set up for the human guests in one hanger while in the next hanger along a bar had been set up for the bots, complete with high-grade energon processors and bowls of mini energon cube 'candies'; in the larger hanger opposite, two dance floors had been set up, one was on the ground for the bots and the other was raised up for the humans so they could dance without fear of being accidently stepped on and at the end was a bot-sized set of turntables (no doubt Jazz would be putting on quite a performance later).

As soon as she was satisfied everything was running smoothly and to schedule, she left the Autobots and humans to their own devices and gently strolled out to edge of the open desert that lied between the perimeter fence and the airstrip; folding out her wings halfway, she let the warm morning wind blow over them, remembering the joy of flying, and promising herself that she would be up in that endless blue sky again soon; as her spark fluttered with excitement at the thought of being airborne again, her sparklings too sensed their mother's joy and made her belly bounce with excitement as they flexed their still-developing wings. Sapphire clutched her belly and stoked the sparklings soothingly as they pressed up against the nanite-skin underneath, trying to reach for the sky outside.

"Calm down you two! You'll be out soon enough, and you'll both be souring up there with us before you know it..." she promised in a hushed voice; but no avail as she sensed their restlessness and they continued to squirm and jostle about inside her, trying desperately to fly. At the other end of their bond, she could sense her spark-mate smiling, knowing he was feeling their joy too, and sent warm ripples of reassurance down the bond; which seemed to calm the sparklings down as they both stopped their fidgeting and settled back down to sleep. Sighing with relief, Sapphire sent her thanks to him and carried on walking until she came to the end of the row of hangers; stopping just before the edge of the desert, something moved out the corner of her optic...

A shadow on the ground, the right size and shape to suggest it was a human, moved away as the stranger walked around the corner of the hanger...

"Hello?" Sapphire called out

"...You must wake up..." a faint horse voice replied, so faint in fact that her audios almost didn't pick it up.

"Hello? Is someone there?" she called out again

"...Wake. Up..." the voice replied; walking around the corner to see who it was, Sapphire froze in shock. It was a human standing with his back facing her, but the left side of his shoulder had thee deep gouges running down to his legs and he had a serious injury to the back of his head while blood slowly trickled out and pooled around his bare feet; she wasted no time in walking over and carefully picking him up.

"Oh Primus! Hang on! I'll get you down to the med-" but when she turned him round to face her, she froze with fear at the sight of his face; his eyes had been gouged out leaving two empty orbital sockets with blood pouring out...

"WAKE UP!" he screamed

* * *

She gasped sharply as her optics flew open

"Sapphire!" Deathshot rushed to her side and held her hand; she looked around, a little taken aback to find herself lying on a birth in the med-bay's recovery unit, but then she remembered why she was there, and sat back with a sigh of relief as she felt Deathshot's spark send out warm pulses of comfort to east her tension.

"Ahh...I remember now..." she smiled listlessly,

"What was it?" he asked in concern

"Huh?"

"While you were coming round, I sensed something scared you; what was it?" he stroked her hand, racking her processor to try and remember; Sapphire let out a deep sigh and shook her head. "Must have been a memory glitch; but don't worry, I don't think it was anything too bad..." she smiled, looking down at her now slim figure and noticing the line of fused metal where her abdomen had been opened and welded up.

"I take it the procedure okay?" she gazed up at him, "I know Ratchet said it would be quick and smooth with very little risk, but I still worried for you" he kissed her on the forehead, "I could tell, your spark's like an ambulance siren in full blast; even being put into stasis lock doesn't drown your worry out" she smirked as she tried to sit upright but found she was still woozy from the effects of coming out of stasis lock; clicking one of the buttons on the wall nearby, the top half of the birth steadily came up until she was in a more comfortable passion to see him properly.

"And the sparklings?" she asked eagerly; Deathshot was about to answer when something else grabbed his attention, and made his face light up like the sun; from out of another room at the end of the unit, Ratchet came up carrying two bundles of giant blankets in each arm and as he came closer, the tiny squeaks and cries of two newborn sparklings made their mother's head snap round and gasp in happy excitement.

"Congratulation, it's a mech and a femme..." Ratchet smiled as he carefully handed one to Sapphire and the other to Deathshot; pulling back the blankets, her optics swelled up with tears as she gazed at her son and daughter. The anatomical taints of their mother's former human physiology was more than evident in their forms; for both newborns were completely covered in nanite-skin, save for the arrangement of tiny armour platelets on their backs, shoulders, arms, legs, feet, and the round helm-like structures covering their heads, they looked more human than Cybertronian. When the little femme lazily opened her daffodil-yellow optics and gazed up at her parents for the first time, she giggled with delight; she was pale rose pink with candy pink strips running up her sides, just like her mother, and as she yawned and stretched out her rose pink wings, her tiny blunt white claws reached up for her mother, trying to be closer to her. The noise woke up her brother and he too giggled at the sight of his father; he was much darker than his sister, with rich midnight blue armour and sky blue wings, a pale silver/pewter face, neck and belly and charcoal grey claws on his hands and feet. As her tears ran down her face, Sapphire couldn't stop smiling as her little ones giggled and reached up for her; through their spark-bond she could feel her mate's emotions welling up in his spark as he kissed his son on the forehead; he wasn't overly sentimental, so she knew he would shed no tears, instead she felt the ripples of happiness and joy flow through their bond and out through her optics as she cried. After a while the little twins both fell off to sleep and Deathshot placed his son in his mother's lap next to his sister, wiping the tears away and clearing her face, Sapphire carefully leaned over and kissed her spark-mate on the lips, sending him waves of warmth, kindness and thanks down their bond.

"Thank you for giving me this moment..." she whispered softly, being careful not to wake the twins up

"...Thank you for giving me this moment" he repeated as he gazed warmly into her optics; looking back down, Sapphire gently stroked the sides of their chubby little cheeks and they both turned their heads into her palms, chirping in blissful content, knowing she was there, and she was with them.

"Have you finally thought up some names?" he smiled as he stroked his son's wings.

"...I have..." she smiled, "...Calibre and Harmony"

"Calibre and Harmony..." he smiled, "...Perfect" he whispered and leaned down to kiss them both on the forehead, "Welcome, my little sweetsparks..." she whispered; feeling her optics grow heavy again, Sapphire felt her fatigue begin to creep back, so carefully placing the sparklings on her breast plates, she laid her head back down on the pillow and Deathshot lowered the birth until it was horizontal again, enabling her to recharge more easily.

"Your energy's low, go and get yourself a cube of the pink stuff, we won't be going anywhere for a little yet" she smiled

"Okay, I'll be back to check on you all later..." he smiled, kissing her on the forehead before quietly walking out of the unit; once he was out of sight, Sapphire turned her gaze back to her son and daughter, and smiled in content as she slowly drifted off into recharge, listening to her spark as it sang a happy lullaby.

When she woke up later, Sapphire noticed how dark it was outside; no moon was out tonight, the clock on the wall opposite her birth said 11:36pm.

'Eight hours?...Huh, must have been more tired than I thought...' she thought offhand, glancing back down at her chest she smiled at the sleeping forms of her sparklings; carefully easing them off her chest and placing them on the birth with their blankets tucked up, Sapphire took the opportunity to sit up and stretch the stiffness out of her joints; hopping down off the birth, her legs wobbled a little but held her up as she took a few steps forward to stretch and loosen up. Glancing round the empty unit, she realized how quiet it was, turning up the decibel-range of her audios, she couldn't even hear any bots in any of the neighbouring rooms next door, or even anyone walking down the corridors beyond; aside from the characteristic rustlings and movements of the humans, the whole wing of the base was practically empty, not even Ratchet was in his office across from the unit in the central med-bay. But then, it was night time, and everyone was either recharging or on the 'graveyard shift'. Reaching down the spark-bond, Sapphire sighed with relief to find her mate recharging on the other end, and gently pulled away to let him rest. Glancing over at her sparkling, and seeing they were still fast asleep, Sapphire silently strode down the row of births, and peered in through the huge window of the office that was situated next the unit's main entrance; looking around inside, she notice the desk had been left in quite a state, the three computer monitors had been left on, dozens of data-pads, various tools and other peculiar medical devices littered the desk, and two cubes of energon sat forgotten on the windowsill, still half full with energon.

'Ratchet's seriously going to have to consider getting one of Wheeljack's cleaner droids' she shook her head at the mess, looking up at the human's office desks that sat atop one of the many human access platforms, she saw two of Mikaela's rookies slumped over their desks fast asleep, 'you two will be in trouble if she catches you asleep on the job' Sapphire smirked cheekily as she turned to head back to the birth. But suddenly, all the lights and other electrical equipment in the place went out followed by a small muffled explosion.

'Wheeljack...' her thoughts deadpanned; she turned round, expecting her sparklings to be woken by the noise, but after half a minute she sighed with relief; suddenly, the three monitors in the office switched on, and a single line of text scrolled across each one...

: YOU ARE IN DANGER! :

"Hmm?" she glanced at the screens as more words scrolled across the monitors.

: YOU HAVE TO GET OUT! :

: WAKE UP NOW! :

"Wake Up?"

"...Rrrrrruagh..."

Sapphire froze as she realized the growl was coming from behind her; spinning round and aiming her wrist guns, she gasped in shock at the sight of the black shapeless figure...and its black empty orbital sockets...

* * *

"Mmhmm?" she groaned as she opened one optic, and then the other, and sighed with relief as she rubbed her face, trying to wake herself up; but found herself being soothed back into recharge as she felt her spark-mate's energy's massaging her tense mind.

"You've been dreaming again..." she heard him purr as she felt his strong arms slip around her waist, and his lips caress her neck from behind

"Must be another glitch; my humanity went away a long time ago..." she whispered listlessly

"Then why do your glitches scare you?" he hugged her tighter

"Who knows? Maybe that human girl deep down is still reminding me that we're one and the same being. I still remember my human life, but it feels so much like a dream now...Was I really her?" she whispered impassively

"Of course you were" he kissed her on the cheek, "And you were just as beautiful then as you are now"

"You always say that" she smiled

"And it never gets old..." he kissed her again; at that moment the door to their quarters burst open and a pair of bouncy sparklings came tumbling in.

"MUM! DAD! TIME TO GET UP!" they both chimed in excitement, "Today's the day!" Calibre bounced up and down

"Already?" his father joked

"Come on you guys! We've been waiting for this day like, forever!" Harmony wined

"I dunno, we don't want to arrive at the med bay too early, you know what your uncle Hatchet's like when he's not had his morning energon; maybe another ten minutes recharge..." the sniper teased

"DAAAD!" they both whined

"Oh all right, if we must" he smiled, sitting up and hopping off the birth, followed by their mother; the two sparklings bounced around their parents in impatient eager zealousness, tugging and pulling at their wings and tailfins and telling them to hurry up as their parents downed their morning cubes of energon.

"Did you have three extra cubes this morning?" their mother asked

"YES!" they both chimes

"Did you remember to wash in between your wing flaps?"

"YES!"

"And did you remember to clean around your exhaust ports?"

"...YES!"

"Back to the wash racks, and make sure you use the cleaning solution or we won't go" their father ordered impassively, huffing in frustration the two twins stormed off back to the wash racks in the room next to their parent's quarters.

"Nice to know that poker face of yours hasn't lost its touch" Sapphire smirked as she took a swig of her cube, Deathshot blinked

"Hmm" he smirked

"What?" she smiled

"I just think it's a little ironic; not fifteen minutes ago you woke up wondering if you'd lost your humanity, when you keep using little offhand human mannerisms like the one just now" he pointed out

"I guess it's out of habit more than anything these days" she shrugged before turning serious "But seriously; its more how I feel. I've been what I am for so long now that, many years ago I felt my humanity doesn't really have a place in my life anymore, so in a sense I let it go and went with my new life; being more Cybertronian than human has been more practical to everything I've done as appose to what might have happened if I had done things the 'human way', so to speak. After all, there are many things humans can do that we can't, and vice versa"

"True, but don't you miss your old life in some way?" he asked; Sapphire dropped her gaze for a moment as she searched her thought for an answer.

"To be honest?..." she looked back up at him in a frank way, "While I know my life had been a happy one, and I had no real qualms with myself; It really feels more like a dream when I try to look back on that time, that somehow I died and became a different person, and these memories that are in my CPU are stolen data from someone else's life. Maybe it's a long term effect of being a hybrid? Maybe being a mother for the better part of ten years has consciously forced my focus away from those memories? I don't know...And without wanting to sound too negative, is it really important? I mean, if in other five, ten, fifteen or twenty years I forget I was that girl, it's not going to matter because she won't be there anymore...she hasn't been there with me for over twenty five years now"

"...I hope that's not the case..." Deathshot dropped his gaze "I loved her, true we couldn't be together like we are now, but I still loved her as a very dear friend, she was kind, strong, loyal, and embraced life in such way very few of her own kind dared to do; she saw in me, the love that I had buried down in my spark many lifetimes ago, and unlike anyone else before, she brought that love in me out of the dark and made me realize that life is so very precious, and so worth living for if you're willing to reach out and embrace it..." he mused with a small smile, for a moment Sapphire was silent as she studied the look in his optic; putting his cube down, he slipped his hands around her waist and pulled her close until he was gazing down upon her. "...Don't forget, our children are part human too, being a hybrid part of your 'leftover' human DNA is within them, and they've know this since they were very young; they've known they've always been different from the other sparklings and when the time comes their going want to know the truth about where they come from, where they REALLY come from. And to forget your old life so lightly, will undoubtedly cause unnecessary strife for all concerned. I'm not saying you're a bad mother, anything but; but all I'm saying is, it probably wouldn't hurt to at least try to remember your human life as you lived it, and not refer to your human half in the third person. You may not feel like you were that girl thirty years ago, but are both Morwenna Briggs and Sapphire..." he kissed her on the forehead, "...And when, one day you wake up, and you realize she's gone forever; please promise to tell me? So I can say goodbye, because I will miss her so very much" he said in a hushed voice, she leaned up and gently kissed him on the lips.

"I promise..." she whispered. Their quite moment alone was abruptly interrupted by the twins as they stormed back into the living room, and grimaced at the sight of their parents

"BLAUGH! Were you guys kissing on the lips again?" Calibre frowned

"Yes, and in the privacy of our own quarters we're allowed to kiss" their father replied as he let their mother go

"Your quarters are in THERE! This!-" he waved his arms around "Is the family room! You know? The room we do family things in! Emphasis on the family part? Meaning all of us and not just you two?" he sarcastically pointed out.

"Don't be sarcastic Calibre..." Sapphire casually reminded him as she bend down and kissed him on the forehead, "So, if your both finally ready, let's go" she smiled, and the twin flyers were out the door faster than a turbofox and bouncing down the corridors all the way to the med-bay with their parents in tow. After ten years of waiting, growing and being inpatient, the day had finally come for the twins to choose their altmode's and learn how to transform and fly. After their final check-up with Ratchet, both Calibre and Harmony were taken outside to the hangers where a collection of the latest stealth-fighter jets were waiting for them; like a couple of kids in a newly opened candy store, they were spoilt for choice as they laid their optics on the assortment of different aircraft; after nearly an hour of choosing and painful procrastination, the twins finally chose their favourite modals. Following their parent's instructions, they learnt how to scan them, transform, and before their mother or father could even catch up to them, were up in the sky in a flash, and the rest of the day was spent both trying to rein them in and trying to teach them how to fly straight as they (literally) flew circles around their parents. The hours ebbed away and before long the sun was steadily descending towards the horizon as dusk slowly shrouded the desert in twilight; and the family of four made their way back to the base, no sooner had the twins transformed back into their femme and mech modes, they collapsed against each other with exhaustion, too tired to walk let alone stand up straight. Fortunately their parents both picked them up and carried them all the way back to their quarters, and by the time they placed them on their births they were both deep in recharge; after folding their wings back and tucking them in, both Sapphire and Deathshot retreated into their quarters and flopped down on the birth, tired and exhausted from all the fun of today's action.

"Aauugh..." Deathshot moaned as he folded back his tired wings, "I never thought anyone could fly like that, especially not a pair of sparklings..." he sighed as he turned to face her

"*sigh* It was so much easier when we could carry them in our cockpits and we only had to worry about their wings being strapped in right" Sapphire breathed

"Yeah, I certainly wouldn't mind them staying that age forever" he smirked

"A second chance perhaps?" she quirked an optic ridge

"I wouldn't mind..." he chuckled, but stopped when he felt a playful tug at their bond, and he saw the delighted look in her dazzling optics.

"Say, would you mind just scanning my left tail-fin joint please? I think I got some sand in there and my internal scanners are a little glitchy tonight" she smiled, curious as to what she was up to, Deathshot didn't ask why and obliged her request; scanning over her tailfins he saw nothing was wrong, but when his left optic scanner fell on her abdomen, his one optic widened at the sight of the tiny life growing inside her.

"Is that-..." he was at a loss for words as his smile grew wider

"Yes, yes it is!" she beamed, reaching over to hug him

"Wha-, but when? When did we-"

"On come on! Don't tell me you forgot our 'quality time' on Sunday night; remember? While the twins were watching movies with Jay-jay? I did kinda get a little carried away..." she winked;

"...Oh...Oh I certainly remember that" he grinned with satisfaction when the memory of the said event came to mind. Hugging her again, the couple sat together in each other's embrace for a while as they let they're sparks wrap each other's in warmth and tenderness.

"You up for another ten years of days like today?" Deathshot whispered

"Well, the earth's not in ruins so we must have gotten something right" she grinned as she slowly fell into recharge.

8 months later:

Life couldn't get any better than this, surrounded by family and friends, with a loving spark-mate, two beautiful sparklings and a third one on the way; Sapphire was as happy and content as a femme could be as she sat on her favourite resting boulder, bathed in the warm light of the setting sun, watching her spark-mate and sparklings soar through the air playing hide and seek among the clouds. She smiled and drew in a deep breath as she felt the little sparkling inside her flex its wings and wobbled about, trying to join the rest of its family up in the sky.

"Don't worry" Sapphire cooed softly as she stroked her swollen belly, "You'll get your chance, just like your brother and sitter...", but like it's siblings, this little one was impatient too, and wouldn't stop as it continued to shift and move around, tickling the femme's insides which delighted her to no end, and sensing the happiness in her spark, only made it move around more, "Your going to be really restless, I can tell" she chuckled as she steadied her wobbling belly.

As Calibre and Deathshot both swooped down and came up again for a barrel roll, Sapphire spotted someone off in the desert walking among the dunes towards her, keeping her optics trained on the human, as she came closer she could see she had long brunette hair and was dressed in civilian clothing. "Is she one of Jay-jay's friends?" the femme thought offhand, Primus knows the young femme had enough to start her own club; but as the young human got closer, she disappeared down the side of a dune, a few minutes later she emerged up the other side about fifty yards away. But when Sapphire focused her optics on her face to identify her, she frowned in confusion...

"...Wait a minute... isn't that -"

* * *

"Mmm...Silvershot?"

"Morning mum! Did you recharge okay?" her youngest daughter chirped as she kissed her on the nose and hopped off the birth.

"Morning sweetspark; is your father around?" Sapphire stretched as she got off the birth

"Oh, he got called away early this morning, something about the North Koreans getting up to something else again?" the young femme shrugged

"Again? That's the third time in as many months he's had to go over there to sort them out" her mother thought aloud as she stepped over to the mirror to straighten out her dreadlock-cables, "Oh! I'll do your back ones!" her daughter smiled, "Oh, thank you sweetspark..." she smiled as she sat down on the bench to let her daughter straighten out her back-most cables.

"So, I was thinking; can I go to Tranquillity tonight? There's this motor show on at the new Veedex Plaza and I heard they got some sweet-looking car models on display! Jay-Jay, Harmony, Goldbug and Melody are all going, so can I go too?" the young femme asked eagerly

"Silvershot your eighteen years old, I trust you to be responsible when you out among the humans" her mother smiled, but the bright and bubbly look in her daughter's optics faded

"What's wrong my love?"

"...I wish you wouldn't refer to them like that; you used to be one of them too you know..." she sighed, passing a heavy sigh of her own, Sapphire dropped her gaze from the mirror and let her shoulder's sag.

"So your father keeps reminding me, as does everyone else when they see fit..." she turned sideways and gently clasped one of her daughter's hands, "But I honestly can't remember anymore, as far I know I've always been a Cybertronian and nothing else before that, sometimes I can't help but think everyone's taken leave of their processors and I'm the only sane one around here" she sighed

"But we are part human mum, our hybridized PBF codes and residual human DNA prove that"

"I know, I haven't forgotten that; but-" she stood up and stroked her daughter's face, "...We've been over this before a hundred times before; the past is behind us and there's no use going back over what's already happened, regardless of whether it's in our memories or not. My life, regardless of where I came from, is my life, and I have neither regrets nor doubts about who I am. I'm your mother, your teacher and guardian, and I love you no matter what" she kissed her on the head, "Perhaps, if I really was a human, I'd like to think I was one of the good ones" she smiled, but her daughter's optics told her she wasn't wholly sure of her mother's words.

"There is one question though, I never even thought of 'till now..." Silvershot mused aloud

"Which is?"

"Do you, like the idea that you were a human once? Even if you don't remember being one, do you at least imagine what it must be like to live as one?" she asked

"Hmm, that's a tricky one..." she mused offhand, "I do love humans; they can be so embracing of life's better qualities; but imagining myself as one? Can't say I can see myself being over five feet tall, or running around on those funny little legs all day" she chuckled, her daughter sighed and dropped the subject, and reached up to kiss her mother on the cheek.

"Love you mum" she smiled weakly before she walked off back to her quarters.

"Oh! If you're going out tonight be sure to pick out a nice outfit for your holoform disguise!" her mother called after her.

"Yeah mum!" she waved over her shoulder.

As she watched her daughter disappear into her quarters, Sapphire glanced at her human-like reflection in the mirror and frowned in confusion.

"...Was I really a human once?..." she asked herself, trying to reach back to that tiny place she knew had been there in her mind once, but no longer seemed to stand out among the thoughts and memories of who she was now. It had been so many years since the last of her humanity faded away and all that was left was Sapphire, one of the most Autobot's most beautiful and deadliest femmes. She couldn't complain, being able to raise a family had been the best experience of her life; but as her mind rolled back to the first twenty years before the onlining of her eldest children, she thought of all the things she and her spark-mate did together, and how, she had once been a very...excited, almost giddy kind of femme as they travelled the earth together, fought and destroyed the last of the Decepticon forces side by side, and even help secure a peace agreement between the Autobots and human's United Nations. She put it down to her youth, to her zealousness and free spirit, but when she tried to think back to the time before then...nothing, not even a single residual sub-conscious memory. In the very back of her consciousness she'd made up her mind that she must have been a Cybertronian from the start, that somehow she's fallen victim to an accident/incident of some kind and all her memories from her sparkling-hood up until those first twenty years had been erased from her central memory banks; as fanciful and extraordinary as the idea of being a human once was, as far as she and the sum of her life was concerned, humans weren't a part of the equation.

"...A nice concept, but sadly a fantasy..." she thought aloud, and proceeded out of her quarters to start the day's work. After a day patrolling the skies over the Eastern seaboard and carrying out security checks on one of NEST's many sister bases in Canada, she finally arrived back home, and back into her quarters with Deathshot already lying on their birth.

"Hey, I missed over New York" he greeted her as she hopped onto the birth.

"Mmm, had to skip the midday refuelling, the protocol checks up at Montreal couldn't wait" she replied as she kissed him on the cheek.

"Couldn't be helped I guess, which is more than I can say for my mission" he sighed.

"...They didn't try to shoot another missile at you did they?" she asked in mild alarm.

"Nah, you know me, I can out-fly a missile any day...I just hate it when there's that one individual whose watched way too many war films and has too many ideas about how to blow stuff up; and you have to do things the hard way to get the message through to him that he's seriously out-sized and out-gunned...I'm just thankful no one died this time" he thought aloud

"Even so, I did feel your anger earlier, that one human really had you riled"

"Yeah, but he's going to be spending the next fifteen years in jail and he's not my problem any more...Good-night sweetspark" he leaned over to kiss her on the cheek and reached up to turn the lights off, "Good night my love" she whispered back, and turned on her side before falling into recharge.

* * *

"MORRI!" Ravage called out

"WHERE ARE YOU? ANSWER ME CHILD!" he called out again, letting his roar echo through the darkness, until finally he sensed a disturbance in the darkness ahead.

"RAVAGE? Is that you?" Morri called back, picking up the pace he followed the echo of her voice until he was right in front of her, reaching out through the pitch blackness she grasped the side of his neck and didn't let go.

"Oh god you have no idea how happy I am to see you again!" she hugged his neck, "Listen, I've been-"

"-I know"

"...You know?" she blinked in surprise

"Yes, I know how you got trapped and how to get you out"

"That's great but-...it's not that simple, I'm-"

"I know, I've seen for myself, and suffice to say I'm surprised you managed to hide yourself away here, of all places; how did you get here without alerting the creature to your presence?"

"Oh, they helped..." Morri gestured to the near-shapeless shadowy figures standing nearby, sniffing the air; Ravage could tell there were many here, and they smelt like humans.

"They want to help me get out too, but as much as we tried together we're just not strong enough, and every time we got close we got pushed back and the whole 'experience maze' skipped time again, it's already happened four times and the more we try the more 'I' get pushed out!" she explained

"It's true, I tried to warn 'her' the second time, but he pushed me away..." one of the shadows spoke in a horse voice.

"She has to get out, and get out now! If she's pushed down any further, she'll become lost to its power forever!" another shadow spoke

"...I know, I've already seen for myself the 'illusion' that's been woven around this child's consciousness; if you're willing to help her, will you all do as I say and follow my instructions without question?" he called over the shadows; they all voiced their agreements

"Now Morri..." he turned to face her, "I can get you out of here, but I can't do it alone; I'm going to need your help...I know you're not keen on me peeking into your thoughts, but this time I must do more than peek..." he explained, the serious tone in his voice held her attention, but she could sense this didn't bode well.

"...What do you have in mind?" she frowned

"Through the creature's manipulation of your 'awareness', the 'illusion' has made you become 'distant' from your mind and sub-conscious" he explained

"I know, that's why I'm down here while the rest of me is up through there..." she pointed up to a tiny bright white light that was hovering some hundred feet above them; "He's trying to split me right in half so the conscious 'me' will be wanting to stay in that fantasy world he's created forever...I want to wake up, I want HER to wake up and remember me, but I don't know what to do" she frowned in frustration.

"Your-, you want to keep her?" Ravage blinked,

"I-..." Morri hesitated, "I don't know, that part of me is so thickly wrapped up in that 'illusion' that I don't know what'll happen if we just pull 'her' out like a thorn. She's part of me Ravage, and I don't know what the risks will be if we wake up in the same body as separate beings" she anxiously pondered.

"An astute observation, but it's not what you think" he replied

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Like I said before, I've already seen the 'illusion' and know what it is; and suffice to say, she's not a split personality of you, she never was; she's actually a sophisticated memory construct, nothing more than a husk of artificial consciousness that's basically designed to keep you subdued and 'under the surface'...and in its rush to try and ensnare you, the creature has overlooked one very vulnerable flaw, one that you can take advantage of yourself"

"...Okay...but what is it?"

"Simplicity dear child..." he grinned, "The one thing that will enable you to reach her is one thing you both have in common together, the one person you both care for most, and therein lies the flaw; because it's the one element both our species can be capable of, and can go great lengths to protect and keep alive"

Morri stopped and looked at him bemused, but as she considered his words, it finally clicked, and she realized where the way out of this place was and where it lied out of her reach. "...I get it...I get it..." she nodded, "If you guys can give me another leg up there, I can probably get to where I need to go" she gestured to the light above them, "but what about him? If he realizes I'm out I don't know what'll happen?"

"You leave the decoying to me, I can hold the creature off, you just concentrate on what you need to do" he stated, "But remember, don't be quick to rush, just-, let yourself remember you, and the rest of you will come back to the surface in no time. But you better brace yourself, it's going to be quite a ride back home" he grinned

"It's gonna do a real number on me isn't it?" she deadpanned with a frown

"That depends on whether you're willing to 'roll with the punches' and accept the fact that what's happened has happened; that you spent a whole other life trapped in your head, but the fact that you now have over thirty eight years worth of memories doesn't mean it wasn't real because 'she' believed they were real. After all, it's better to be insane and know it, than to be sane and have doubts about yourself"

"Auugh!" she sighed listlessly in annoyance

"Look on the bright side though; I've provided some 'padding' to cushion your fall when you finally return, and when you do finally wake up, your family will be waiting for you...now come, we must get started; you ready?"

"I've been ready for thirty eight years, let's just get on with it" she huffed and watched as the panther bounded away into the darkness, disappearing completely from sight.

"Is he always like that?" one of the shadows asked

"Unfortunately yes, he likes to think it's his charm...Okay, can you help me up?" she asked. All around her the shadows massed together into a long serpent-like creature and picked her up by the waist in their coils, and carried her up next to the white light; loosening their grip, the shadow-serpent looked down at her silently as she climbed out of the coils.

"I won't forget you guys, I promise" she said

"Thank you; just make sure you destroy him when you finally get the chance...now, it's time for you to go home..." they all said in unison, and raising their tail, picked Morri up and threw her into the light.

It was like landing in a bath of warm honey, as Morri became enveloped into the light she felt strange as her whole body felt softer, looser, even wobbly; looking down she blinked as she watched herself melt and dissolve into a thick blue goo-ish liquid-like jelly, free of form and shape she swirled around, trying to move upwards. 'Well this is certainly going on my 'weird-shit-I've-experienced' list' her thoughts deadpanned as she continued upwards, until finally she saw what she was looking for, latched onto it, and 'oozed' her way in, becoming enveloped in an even brighter light..

"Sorry Saphy, but it's time to wake up" were her last words before she disappeared into the light.

* * *

Surreal much? All will become clear soon...Oh! & don't forget to R&R Please! ;)


	72. Chapter 71: Self Awakening

A/N: For this chapter, I thought I'd just remind everyone how I do my grammer, this chapter's a bit of mind-warper (literally in Morri's case!) so I hope it helps! ;D

'thoughts/mental speach' (or telepathy in Ravage's case)

"normal speach"

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

Caution: Strong swearing here and there

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 71: SELF AWAKENING & SAFE PASSAGE 

The sound of heavy rain on the window was the first thing she noticed as she stirred on the birth; opening her optics, she saw the dark grey skies and huffed, frowning in disappointment.

"It's not that bad..." Deathshot smiled as he stretched out and kissed her on the cheek, "You used to love flying in the rain"

"Did I really?" she sarcastically replied

'Yes you did'

"...I did, didn't I?" she smiled with a spaced out look in her optics

"Huh?" Deathshot blinked

"What's up?" she asked, noticing the sudden look of bemusement in his one optic, "...Uh? Nothing, its just-...you haven't enjoyed flying in the rain in over thirty years?...Are you okay?"

She stared at him for a moment trying to figure out what just happened, before sighing and waving it off.

"Must have been a glitch; I always seem to get them in the mornings" she rolled on her back; smiling and placing a kiss on her forehead, Deathshot affectionately stroked the side of her air-intake, "Probably need to update your internal systems regulator? You missed last month's scheduled update anyway" he suggested

"Did I? Wow, I didn't think my CPU would be falling to pieces at my age" she huffed in a deadpan tone

"...What's up?" he asked in concern, reaching down their bond, he sensed her spark was somewhat...different, as if something had happed but she wasn't consciously aware of it herself; as he sent warm waves of soothing calmness down their bond, he blinked when he sensed her spark react with excitement, as if she hadn't seen him in so many years. "...You feel...different, this morning; are you sure you're okay?" he asked again. She frowned as she searched her feelings and mind for an answer; she didn't feel different, but at the same time she couldn't help but feel that there was something off.

"...Maybe it couldn't hurt to update my systems..." she thought aloud as she sat upright, "Maybe you've just been stretching yourself too much this last week; update your systems then take the day to relax and unwind" he landed another kiss on her cheek, "And don't worry, all glitches go away sooner or later" he smiled as he swung his legs over the side of the birth and hopped off; following him out of the quarters she couldn't help but smile as she felt the warmth of his spark fill her chamber with soothing waves of ease.

"Yeah, good thing it's my day off anyway" she smiled

"Hey, maybe tonight we can catch a movie?" he slipped an arm around her shoulder

"That would be lovely" she sighed in contentment as they walked along towards the rec room

'Indeed it would, but unfortunately, I don't intend staying around 'till then'

The morning passed by uneventfully at a snail's pace, after updating her systems and grabbing a cube of energon Sapphire had spent most of her time in the rec room sitting and contemplating on anything that came to mind; work, the children, practicing on the firing range, practicing aerial-combat manoeuvres...humans. ..As she watched a couple of off-duty NEST troops chatting with Silvershot and Jazz, Sapphire's thoughts went back to yesterday morning, and her musings on the (supposed) absence of her memory; as her mind turned inwards and her thoughts pondered on the subject of what her life was like before she could remember, a strange sense of distant familiarity came to mind as she watched them...

'I used to talk to the guys like that, sitting on their shoulders always offered the best view, and they knew they weren't going to accidently step on you'

"...Where did that come from?" She blinked, looking around, she saw no one was sitting near her, and Jazz and Silvershot were at the opposite end of the room; waving it off as another random glitch, Sapphire downed her cube, waved her daughter and Jazz goodbye and left the rec room for the surface level of the base; she needed to fly, and just get out for a while. Taking a running leap out of the door, she transformed and was souring up in the sky within minutes; as she continued to climb higher and higher, the feeling of the wind slipping over her wings sent a rush of refreshing satisfaction through her systems, and as she dodged in and out of the rain clouds, the heavy rain splashing and vaporizing against her jet mode sent a tingling feeling through her wings and tail fins.

"Wow, I can't believe I forgot I enjoyed this!" she smiled inwardly to herself.

'You know what else I enjoyed? Splashing in puddles!'

Dropping downwards below the clouds, Sapphire saw a lake far down below, and made a beeline for its nearest edge; transforming and taking a few steps towards the water's edge, she glanced down at the numerous deep puddles in the ground, and with a childish grin spread across her face she jumped around like a giddy sparkling, splashing and kicking the water up and sinking her toes into the muddy earth.

"How did I forget this?" she chuckled

Forgot?

Sapphire stopped and stood frozen on the spot; "...Forgot? ...How-" she stared off into space, realizing what she just said she frantically searched her thoughts to try and find where the memory came from, but nothing came to mind; after running a quick internal scan of her systems she found nothing was wrong with her CPU, so where had that notion come from? Looking around at her footprints in the mud, she frowned when she saw how dirty her feet were; she didn't want to wait until she was back at base to clean up, so she steadily waded out into the lake until she was ankle-deep in the water, there she reached down and splashed the water over her feet and talons and let the mud run off. When she was finally done she straightened up and was about to transform when she noticed the view out over the lake...

'Ah swimming in the summer rain, there's nothing like it!'

The blue-ish grey rainclouds had given everything a vague shade of blue as the rain continued to pour down, in the distance the hills were green lush and covered with flowers while the edge of the lake was surrounded by trees reeds and lily pads, and the lake itself was a deep shade of jade green. As she gazed at the scenic view, something deep down in her spark told her she'd been here before; that this was...had been, part of her. Looking down at the water, there was something about that shade of green that made it look so beautiful, so tranquil and calm...and inviting too; gingerly stepping forward she slowly waded out into the lake, further and further until she was up to her shoulders and the rest of her was hidden beneath the green waters. As she looked over the water's surface, at the countless ripples from the raindrops, there was something about being at optic-level with the water that felt...natural, it felt nice being here, surrounded by all the organic elements and the weather, she felt like part of her spark was-...had been at one with this place once, as if it had come from here and had been placed in her spark chamber a lifetime ago.

"Where is this coming from? ...I've never been here before?" she thought aloud

'You HAVE been here before, a very long time ago; remember?'

"Huh?..." she looked around; scanning the shoreline she found no one was there.

'You used to love being in the water, you grew up with it'

A cold flare of alarm shot up her spine as she stared into space. Realizing the voice was coming from within her helm, "...Is someone there? ..." she asked nervously

'Yes, me'

"Me who?"

'Well, in a way I'm part of you'

"..Part of me? ...Wh-what are you?"

'I'm the part of you that you've forgotten, the part that's been pushed away for the last thirty years'

"Thirty years? But I don't-"

'I know, and it's okay if you don't completely understand how or why; hell I don't completely grasp it all myself, I'm still a little 'hazy on the details' as it is, but I finally found my way back to the surface, so to speak, so I can talk with you. And before you ask, no your CPU's not malfunctioning nor are you experiencing a massive processor glitch; and you have my word I'm not going to hurt you in any way, in fact, I'm actually here to help us both'

"Help? Help with what?"

"Well, it's really kinda complicated; I can't exactly put it into words and it's really more a 'go with your gut-instinct' sort of thing'. To be frank it's really one of those things you sort out as you go along, in a sense"

"That's not particularly helpful" Sapphire frowned

'I know, and if I could tell you anymore I really would; but as it is, all I can say is that things aren't exactly as they seem'

"How so?"

'Well, for starters; don't you think it's a little peculiar that you've got an ORGANIC voice in your head that sounds very similar if not almost exactly like yours?'

For a moment Sapphire stopped, and her optics bulged out of her helm when she realized the voice was EXACTLY like hers...

"Oh Primus!-" her spark clenched in her chest

'Alright alright don't panic!... Just take a deep breath and try to steady yourself; that was freaky I know, but it was kinda necessary'

"Necessary for what? What are you and what to you want from me?"

'...'

"Answer me!"

'I-...I want to but I can't. It'll only hurt you too much...'

Sapphire paused; sensing the concern in the strange female voice, she tried to calm herself and asked in an easier tone "What will hurt me? ...Is it something to do with my blank memory?"

'Yes, but I can't tell you too much'

"...Alright, well what can you tell me? If you're really a part of me, who and what are you?"

'I'm the part of you that came from before your life now. Those twenty years before Calibre and Harmony were born, what do you remember?'

"...I remember, I was young, excited and wanting to experience everything; I wanted to explore, fly, fight, and even venture into outer space"

'Good memory, now answer me this; if you're really a Cybertronian, why do you have no memories of Cybertron?

"Because I was onlined and raised here on earth, by my human parents and Deathshot was my guardian"

'Your right, in a way, but you weren't onlined as a Cybertronian...'

Sapphire frowned

'...Sapphire, you're a human/Cybertronian hybrid, you have both human DNA and Cybertronian PBF codes within every mechanized cell of your body; your spark chamber is shaped like a human heart, your CPU is shaped like, and even has the Gyri and Sulci folds of a human brain, and the rest of your internal mechanisms are similar in form and function to human organs too, you even have a synthetic uterus and are able to become pregnant like a human. Even with current nanite technology, creating a human/Cybertronian hybrid with DNA and PBF's stably fused together is nowhere even near being possible; don't you think that if it were, Wheeljack, Ratchet, or even the Decepticons wouldn't have tried it already?'

"Yes, but I-...I was..." Sapphire hesitated

'Also; why, back during those first twenty years, were you so excited to experience everything all the time? You weren't a sparkling back then, so where did all that 'eager' excitement come from? Plus, do you remember your human parents? Do you remember their names? The names of your uncles, aunts and cousins? Do remember where you were raised? Or even what you used to do for fun? ...'

"..."

A long uneasy silence passed as Sapphire franticly searched her mind for an answer; on the one hand she didn't want to believe this strange human voice, for all she knew it could've been a sophisticated virus that had slipped under her firewalls and had infected her processor. But on the other hand, there was something about her words that gave her a sense of self doubt; reaching down inside her processor she racked and rummaged through her memories; looking for something, anything to try and give her some level of reassurance that she knew something of herself from way back then. But the more she realized she had no memories from that time, the more her spark began to squeeze in her chest as fear began to bubble up at the back of her mind.

'...You don't have to be sacred; the reason you can't remember anything is because-, well...you were, very 'different', both figuratively and literally. A very long time ago you had another life, and it was a very good and happy one; but then, one day something happened and you changed, we changed, and our lives were never the same after that. But I can still remember, we had such fun when we realized all the wonderful and exciting things we could do in our new 'form', we did things we never knew we could do, things we could only imagine were now within our grasp, and we loved every minute of it, and all the time the one bot we loved more than anyone else was there all the way, and he even became our spark-mate'

"You love Deathshot too?'

'We love Deathshot, and we even loved being pregnant and raising Harmony and Calibre together; but over time, you slowly let me slip away, little by little every day becoming distant and almost alien in a sense, until the only place I could ever reach you was in your recharge, through your dreams...'

Sapphire blinked in realization as something in the back of her mind clicked in place and she suddenly put two and two together.

'...And even in that quiet time of the night you failed to acknowledge me in your mind, as part of your consciousness and the essence of everything that you are as an individual, and where you came from; and then one morning you woke up, and I found I couldn't reach you anymore. I was in darkness; watching your life pan out and not being able to be part of you anymore, was a sad and lonely way to exist; being a ghost in a shell, unable to whisper to you, was by far the hardest of all...' the voice told her in a sombre tone.

"...I'm-..." Sapphire couldn't find the right words as she felt her spark clench and tears well up in her optics, "...I'm so sorry"

'It's okay, I'm not angry or disappointed at you; I'm just happy that you know I'm still here' the voice smiled warmly

"...So..." she wiped her tears away, "...What are you really?"

'In a sense, I'm the 'base' and you're the 'superstructure', everything that your persona and mind are comprised of originally came from me; once we were one and same individual, but as you gradually lost touch with me your sub-conscious mind created a 'template' on which to base your thoughts and memories, so as not to fracture our psyche, and part of that template left me out'

"But why now? Why have you decided to reveal yourself after all these years?"

'Well it wasn't that simple; I needed you to remember something of our former life; like I said before it's a 'go with your gut-instinct' kind of thing, and when you remembered how we used to loved splashing in puddles in the rain, it was the guiding light I need to find my way back to you. Memories like those can't be forced out; they come out when they come out because of instinct'

"Okay, but if my true self and all the memories I had from before have been buried all this time, then what am I now?"

'...Essentially? Someone with no shadow, or a shadow without its master? It depends how you view the situation, but basically, having your memories blacked out is not a good thing; we can't go forward in life without knowing where we come from, but that being said your life is as near-perfect as its going to get. You have a guy who loves you to bits, three beautiful kids, and your job takes you everywhere across the world, your happy and I'm even happier for you...but, with me being the foundation of you we're not meant to be separate like this, I'm your past, your my present and future, and now that you know I'm still here being a voice in your head isn't exactly convenient'

"No I suppose not. So what will you do? Give me back my memories?"

'Hey, remember what I said about memories?'

"They come out when they come out"

'Exactly, if you want to remember your going to have to take this slowly; but to fully realize what you are I have some important questions to ask later, for now let's just-, go for a fly and chill for a while. I'm in no rush, plus, I'll remind you why we loved flying so much'

"Okay, but one other thing...since when did I enjoy swimming?"

'That. You'll realize in time; trust me'

After wading out of the lake Sapphire transformed and took off, souring up above the rainclouds and into the endless blue of the sky, she began to feel a sense of exhilaration and discovery, as if she had never flown in her life before; the sensation of the wind slipping over her wings and the encompassment of the endless horizon filled her with a joy she hadn't known in a very long time; climbing up higher until she finally caught the jet stream, she felt her spark soar with happiness as she sped through the atmosphere.

"Did I really use to enjoy flying this much?" Sapphire smiled with content

'We didn't have wings to start with, so yeah!' the voice concurred in equal delight. After hours of flying around in carefree abandonment, Sapphire soon made her way back to the base and smiled when she saw her spark-mate waiting for her on the tarmac.

"D!" she squealed in delight as she transformed and flung her arms around his neck

"Hi, I see your feeling much better now; where've you been all day? I felt you go as far away a Hawaii" he gazed down at her

"Ah, I've just be having some fun up in the clouds; I'm famished! You want to go and get a cube of the pink stuff with me?" she smiled

"Okay..." he blinked in surprise, "But are you sure okay?" he quirked an optic ridge

"Of course! Why shouldn't I be?"

"Well it's just-, you haven't called energon 'the pink stuff' in a very long time" he smirked

"Considering it's me, is that so weird?" she grinned, feeling her new sense of rediscovery down their bond, the sniper couldn't help but let his spark flutter.

"...No..." Deathshot smiled warmly, "It's not..." he hugged her; Sapphire's smile grew as she felt his spark pulsate in delight, as if he hadn't seen her in the longest time; "Come on, I'm hungry" she slipped her hand into his and lead back down into the base where they headed straight to the rec room.

"Mmmm..." Sapphire hummed in content as she sipped her energon, and savoured its fizzy bubbly taste as it slipped down her throat.

'Ah just as I remember, taste's just like-'

"-Lime Pepsi and warheads" she smiled

"Huh?"

"Like lime Pepsi and warheads, remember? When I first tried it out?"

"...Yes, you did" Deathshot smiled, "What else do you remember?"

"Well, you were right, I do love flying in the rain; I also remembered that I love splashing in puddles, swimming, flying on the jet stream. Just a lot of little things really...including..." she leaned in closer to him, "...our 'first time'" she smiled with a devilish look in her optics as she sent waves of passion and pleasure down their bond.

"Oh, our first time huh?" he grinned, "And what do you remember about that?"

"Well, I'm still a little hazy on the details..." she leaned in even closer until she was right up to his face, "...How about we sneak back to our quarters and, you help give me the, proper 'stimulation' to remember? ..." she whispered seductively as she let her dreadlock-cables extend out, slip down his waist and tease at his crotch plates.

"You know? I think I can help you with that..." he grinned as he downed the last of his cube and followed her out of the rec room, slipping his hand around her waist and down onto her aft as they walked back to their quarters, and before she closed the door, Sapphire hung their 'do not disturb' sign out on the door's keypad.

3 Hours later:

'That. Was so satisfying...' the voice happily breathed in exhaustion

"It always is; I find it amazing how he always has the stamina for it" Sapphire whispered as she closed her crotch plates; "Hmmm?" Deathshot listlessly stirred on his side of the birth, "Nothing sweetspark, you go back to sleep, I won't be far away" she smiled, and the sniper went out like a light as the femme quietly slipped of the birth and tip-toed into the living room, quietly shutting the door behind her.

'Thanks for that, it felt nice to feel his touch again'

"Me too, we haven't had a good 'play time' like that in a while now; it's nice to unwind like that" Sapphire whispered as she sat down on the giant bot-sized couch

'Indeed, but then; we never needed to be intimate to show how much we loved each other, before this'

"...Really? What was it like before?"

'...Ours was a different kind of love; one that stemmed from finding comfort and reassurance, and discovering that life can move on after suffering so much pain and loss...I'm surprised you don't remember that; but then, there's still so much you don't remember...'

"...Tell me, what was I before I was-, what I am now?" Sapphire dropped her gaze, for a moment the voice didn't reply...

'...You really don't know? You haven't-...figured it out yet?'

"...No, I don't think so?"

An unease pause passed, and Sapphire began to wonder if the voice had gone away, but as she heard a small listless sigh echo through her mind, she readied herself for whatever was coming next...

'...You know those important questions I said I was going to ask later?'

"Yes?"

'I think now is later enough...'

"...Okay, I'm ready"

'Alright; first off, how did we defeat the Spark Eater?'

'Spark Eater?" Sapphire echoed in confusion

'The Spark Eater, do you remember who we defeated it? How we got back home?...Do you remember the Major? Batou? Togusa? The rest of Section 9? Do you remember all the fights and things we did with those guys and how we helped each other along the way?...Do you remember the day we became a transformer? How we transformed in those woods by the airbase and how we adjusted to our new body that same day?'

"Transformed? But-" as her mind spun in confusion, Sapphire sensed something else stirring in the back of her mind before it exploded outward through her psyche; images flashed through the front of her mind as a whole surge of memories came to the surface, memories of another life that she realized were her own...

The DRD

The alternate universe

The Cyborg police unit and their chief

The Decepticons and the mystery behind their appearance in their world

The kidnappers stealing children away in the night

The truth behind the Black Lotus

The fight in the city and the towers falling to the ground

The seer Matti and the hacker Aoi

The American fleet

The kidnapped village and the deserted temple in the bamboo forest

The hybrid in the specimen jar, and the cube with Swiftshot's revelation hidden inside

The destruction of the Section 9 building

Finally being reunited with the rest of the bots

And the stranger in the woods, injecting her with something that turned her into a-

Sapphire gasped suddenly as she felt her spark spin too fast with shock as her mind was now filled with clear memories of everything that had happened before, "I-I was-...I'd been turned into a-, Oh God! How did I forget? Why did I forget!" she breathed in alarm as her mind spun and rolled around in a mix of emotions as the room began to feel like it was closing in on her.

'Because now we come to the painful part; you didn't lose your memories because of the passage of time, they were suppressed on purpose to keep me out. I'm your humanity; I was the girl that became Sapphire; the illusion that was spun around me to keep me from knowing that the Spark Eater had captured my mind...'

Sapphire shuddered as another set of memories came to mind...

Endless blackness stretching as far as the eye could see and being suffocated by horrible slimy crawling things with sliver teeth and red eyes.

The shadows reaching out to help her, enabling her to escape her would-be killer's grasp and leading her to a place of safety and secrecy

The silhouette of a giant black creature-like figure looming overhead, covered in black slime and fractured armour plates, and sniffing the air looking for her

'...Now I need you to tell me...what was my name?'

"Y-Your name?"

'No, YOUR name, your true name, what was it?'

"...My name..." she stared off into space as she searched through the memories, and slowly a collection of particular thoughts and memories began to come together like a pattern, forming a line of faces that she'd known all her life and knew by heart..

Tom

Danny

Ashley

Her mother and father

Her Grandparents

Her uncles, aunts and other cousins

Her best friends

Her guardian Deathshot

"...My name...it's...it's..."

They flashed through her mind with smiling faces and warm embraces, but the one thing they all had in common, was that they kept calling her...

"...Morri"

The femme gasped in alarm as she felt her mind explode and fuse to be one with all the memories of her former self as the whole room disappeared into a fog that was illuminated by a radiant white light. As she stood alone in the middle of a vast empty space, the sound of footsteps drew her attention down and she saw her true self, her human self, smiling up at her with that understanding gaze everyone knew her for.

"...So it was never true, wasn't it?" she sighed as she knelt down to be closer to her

"I'm so sorry, but I'm afraid not..." Morri placed a hand on her leg, Sapphire held out her hand for her to step into and stood back up, bringing her closer to her face, "...It was a very happy dream to be sure, and I loved it as much as you did; but you now know why we can't stay here like this. There's way too much at stake, and way too much to lose" Morri continued as she stroked the side of her clawed thumb

"I know; I am you, I've always been you, and I'm sorry that I let myself become so lost...I know this sounds redundant, but what will happen to-"

"-Calibre, Harmony and Silvershot?" Morri anticipated with a smile, "Their as much my children as they are yours, they'll always be part of us, part of me; and I promise when I get home I'll find a way to remember them...and as for D? The real Deathshot? He's waiting for us right now, wondering and worrying if we'll be okay" Morri replied

"...Will you remember me?" Sapphire asked

"Of course I will silly! How the hell could I forget being a transformer for nearly forty years? It's been a blast but-, now it's time to wake up and say goodbye, for now at least; remember, goodbyes aren't forever. I'm sure I'll come across you in my dreams again sometime, and when I do I'll soar up with you through that endless blue sky, above the earth and beneath the stars..."

"I'd like that..." Sapphire smiled, and kissed her on the top of her head

"Me too, and thank you for being understanding"

"It's okay...now-" she changed the subject, "Where are we? How the slag do we get out of here?"

"The first part's easy, we're in a sort of 'psychically-constructed hiding place', away from out of that creature's reach; Ravage is keeping him distracted but he doesn't know your gone yet and it'll only be a matter of time before he figures that out, but actually getting out? That-" Morri hesitated as she rubbed the back of her head in unease, "...Is kinda complicated; look, we're basically one and the same mind that's been partially separated but not completely split, okay?"

"I follow, so we need to get back together somehow?"

"Not just get back together; we need to 'merge'"

"Merge?"

"Yeah, back into a single individual again; we won't be losing either of our memories so we'll basically go back to what I was before"

"And me? What about me?" Sapphire asked in mild alarm, Morri looked up at her and sighed

"...Do you believe you'll see me again?" she asked calmly, Sapphire paused as she considered the young humans words, and as she thought about the sum of her life and all that had happened over the years, both as a human and a transformer, she soon arrived at the only answer she knew to be true.

"Yes...I do" she smiled

"Then you'll be okay" Morri smiled. Far overhead a hollow rush of air caught both their attention, and all around the pure white light began to fade slightly while in the far off distance the deep rubble of some kind of creature growling echoed through the fog.

"We're running short on time; we're gonna have to move I'm afraid" Morri stood up in the femme's hand, "Okay, so how do we 'merge?'" she asked

"You let me worry about that, you just keep thinking of that blue sky, and I'll be there again when I next dream...Oh, and Saphy?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks for being me...now hold on, this is gonna get real weird!" the young brunette smiled, and without warning took a dive off the femme's hand and plunged into her chest, melding into her armour like a water droplet falling into a bucket of water; her feet were the last thing she saw disappear before she felt her optics grow heavy, and fell into a deep recharge, dreaming of the being up in the endless blue sky with her family at her side, flying on and on until they were tiny specs on the horizon.

'Good bye Sapphire' Morri whispered as she watched her fly away...

The giant femme stood there unconscious for moment before she woke up and looked down at herself, "Okay, I'm back, now what?" Morri asked offhand as she wondered what to do. Her answer soon came when her whole body began to shrink; growing smaller and smaller until she was just over five foot six inches tall, her wings, tail-fins, engines and air in-take shrank and melted into her back, her armour melted into her body and her digigrade legs grew shorter until she was standing on the balls of her feet and heels again, her talons and claws grew shorter and blunter to become fingers and toes and the dreadlock-cables on her helm turned brown with a bronze sheen before splitting into hundreds of long strands of wavy hair; the tiara-structure on her head melted back into her head until her cranium was rounded and her optics reseeded back up under her eyelids, leaving a pair of dark brown eyes in their place, all over her body the still-melting armour and nanite-skin gave way to flesh as it grew pinker, peachier and slightly tanned in colour as hair follicles appeared and tiny fine hairs grew out, the folds in the skin around her joints appeared and tiny blood vessels and capillaries could been seen under the thinner areas of skin. When the reverse-transformation was complete, Morri blinked and found herself fully clothed in her favourite cowl-neck top, jeans and blue Converse seekers.

"Well, that was a lot easier compared the first time" she sighed with relief

"Indeed, and I hate to say it but you do look better for it" Ravage purred as he walked out of the fog and sniffed her over.

"Still think I look better in metal huh?" she smirked

"White and blue are definitely your colours my dear; and it has to be said, if it had all been real, you would've made a fine Cybertronian..." he grinned, "But now that your whole again your aura is certainly looking healthier, and now that the important part is done, we need to get out"

"About time too, so how are we going to do that?" she glanced at him as she looked around the white fog

"It knows the way I came in, so we're going to have to return 'the long way round'; this 'hiding place' I constructed for you should buy us some time to get a head start, but that won't be enough, it knows your 'psychic scent' so I'll have to camouflage you to mask it"

Okay, how'll you do that?"

"With the help of your new friends of course, they came back to help me as soon as you made contact with your 'other half', and so I've been busy helping them, so they can help get you out..." the panther grinned as he directed her gaze forward; from out of the fog a whole pack of large dog-like creatures came trotting up and stopped before the panther, but instead of fur their entire bodies were covered in thick black slime that had an indigo iridescence, it looked like latex as it was shiny and glossy, but it also squirmed, moved about and dripped off their bodies, leaving long slimy trails behind them as they walked; the sight of their larges jaws filled with silver teeth didn't do much for Morri's sense of confidence, but the sight of their shining white eyes made her relax as she recognized the human-like gaze in them. "...Guys?" she asked cautiously, all at once the creatures yelled and wagged their tails in excitement, but a stiff growl from the panther's vocalizers promptly silenced them.

"What the hell happened to them?" she asked offhand as she scanned her eyes over them, apprehensive to approach.

"Their human forms were insufficient for my plan, so I reshaped them into a pack of those creatures that attacked you before; they have the same scent, thus they won't be found out so easily"

"Reshaped? How? I know your telepathic ability's strong but-"

"Ah you're forgetting, in this place my ability can let me do anything I wish; including transforming one entity into another..." he purred with a sly grin; Morri frowned as she realized what he was implying.

"I'm not going to like this am I?" she deadpanned

"Oh come now my dear, your one of my favourite humans, I wouldn't do anything to hurt you and it's not like I'll be changing or manipulating anything in your mind, conscious, sub-conscious or psyche; your one of the few who's earned that privilege, No I'll simply be changing your outward appearance, besides, you're form needs to be pliable and easy to reshape at a moment's notice, where we're going it'll be far too dangerous for you to go as you are. And anyway, just because we're in a risky position doesn't mean we can't have some fun along the way; after all, there's no better way to feel alive than when your almost dead" Ravage purred in a sugary-sweet tone.

"...Fair enough" Morri huffed in frustration

"Oh don't be like that, you'll enjoy it"

"That. I highly doubt" she deadpanned, and Ravage grinned with titillation as his optic glowed white, "Whoa, when could your optic glow-HEY! Wait!-" Morri didn't have time to protest as the slime-dogs ran up to her, jumped up and began licking her all over with glee, she tried to gently push them down but found she got covered more and more in their shiny black slime. "WHOA!"Her eyes widened as the slime suddenly took on a life of its own and began to grow in mass and cover her completely all over; inside she could feel her insides swelling and wobbling about like water balloons and jelly (though she'd never admit it, it did feel kind of nice in a way), and looking down she saw her whole body dissolving and melting, becoming one with the black ooze. "Aw shit!" she cursed as she felt her whole body finally collapse and splodge down in one big black gooey mess before squirming and moving about as it reformed into a quadruped-shaped mass, and reshaped itself to become one of the slime-dogs; the rest of the pack licked their new friend in delight as they brushed up against her and sniffed over her new look, transferring more slime onto her in the process.

"There, now wasn't that fun?" Ravage grinned

"For you perhaps, for me that was just plain weird!" she shot him a glair as she wobbled about on her new legs, taking a few shaky stepped forward.

"Oh don't be like that, it felt good and you know it" he teased as he playfully swatted his paw over her head, "Now come, we have to leave..." he stated as he trotted away with the pack in tow, Morri found she could actually move well on all fours and stayed next the panther's side as they walked along. Gradually the white began to fade into darkness, and before long they all came to edge of the 'hiding place' and stood before a vast empty desert like space that rose and down with black sand dunes while overhead the sky was black with swirls of purple, red and yellow, and various black winged creatures flew about, shrieking and wailing as the wind carried them up high.

"Follow me, and keep your voice low; it's not nearby but it could pick us out if we're not careful..." Ravage said as he crossed over the threshold of the 'hiding place', and led the way across the jet-black sand; "What about you? You stand out too much" Morri trotted alongside him, "I've already masked my presence, only you and the others here can see me" he growled in a hushed tone; "How long before we get back?" she whispered, "The passage of time on this plane of existence is inconsequential, all that matters is that I have you and that we're going back, now come..." he replied, as he picked up the pace a bit.

Indeed, time didn't seem to exist here as Morri found she'd lost count of the minutes they'd been walking, for all she knew they could have been walking for hours, days, maybe even weeks; but she pushed her concerns out of the way as she concentrated on the situation at hand. Staying next to Ravage's side the pack of slime-dogs stayed close to their charge as they wandered over the dunes, flats and empty river beds until they came to a tall forest of black bare leafless trees, their branches were twisted and knurled as if they were diseased and their bark looked more like half burnt charcoal. The further they went in the darker and more foreboding it became; glancing around, Morri could make out strange animals moving through the undergrowth, twisted and deformed as they walked on rickety unstable legs, some even crawled on their bellies as they craned their heads up towards the sky. Morri blinked when she saw how colourful the sky was, here it was filled with stars of every imaginable colour and nebular clouds of pink, purple and blue with tints of gold swirled around the tops of the trees.

"Whoa, why's the sky so bright here? Back there it was just black, purple, red and yellow" she whispered as she wagged her tail.

"That's not the sky, it's the edge of the astral void" he replied

"The astral void?"

"It was well known to the Primes on Cybertron, it's the dimension they used to pass through to reach wherever they wanted to go in time and space; it's a dimension that exists between and beyond all alternate realities, a whole universe comprised of energy and not matter, a place where only the most experienced and powerful telepaths could reach out to and not be hindered. You should consider yourself lucky; you're the first human to actually see it in person" he purred, "Wow..." she smiled as she gazed at all the different colours.

"Wait!" Ravage snapped as he turned sharply and gazed back down the way they had just come, "What-" Morri was about to ask when a hollow-sounding breeze blew through the tops and the trees, and the distant echo of a bellowing roar began to grow louder and clearer; the slime-dogs pressed their ears flat against their heads in worry and began to whine as they crowded closer to their charge.

"What is that?"

"My decoy has been found out! RUN!" the panther ordered as he took off deeper into the forest with the pack hot on his heels.

"I don't understand! I thought you said the decoy will by us sometime?" Morri panted as she chased after the drone

"It has, but we really need to pick up the pace now!" Ravage growled as he ran hell for leather down the now steadily inclining charcoal grey forest floor, leaping over fallen trees gullies and boulders and zigzagging between the more tightly packed trees as the roar behind them seemed to be gaining momentum. "He's not behind us is he?" Morri nervously panted, "Not yet, but it's not happy that's for sure!" the panther growled; they kept running on until they screeched to halt at the edge of a deep gorge, the bottom of which was shrouded in pitch blackness. "Whoa! What now?" Morri panted as she looked down into the deep blackness, being careful not to let her gooey paws make her slip. "We hide down there, JUMP!" he ordered as he leapt off and disappeared silently down into the darkness; staring in disbelief, Morri looked all around for any sign of him, "I don't see him do you?" she asked the other slime-dogs, but they were no better to guess at his fate than she was as they nervously looked around for him. "Don't worry! You'll be alright! Just jump!" his voice echoed up from far down below, "Are you sure?" she called back, "Yes! Just do it!" he barked, and throwing caution to the wind, Morri nervously leaped off the edge, followed by the rest of the pack. They fell quite a distance, becoming enveloped in pitch blackness (yet somehow still being able to vaguely see) and enjoying the sensation of falling before landing on the ground in one big almighty SPLAT!

The whole pack, including Morri were as flat as pancakes, nothing but a load of flat black gooey splat stains on the hard ground. 'Wow! That could have been a hell of a lot more painful!' Morri thought offhand in relief as her mass gathered itself back together and reformed back into its canine shape, the rest of the pack followed suit as Ravage came trotting up from out of the dark.

"I told you we'd have some fun along the way" he grinned

"That was fun?" she exclaimed, "...Well, it wasn't painful and I didn't die; but you still could have warned us!"

"And where's the fun in that?" he grinned

"You're a real bastard you know that?" she sarcastically deadpanned as she shot him a glair

"...No time for sweet talk, we've got to hide-" Ravage turned serious as the top of the gorge began to howl with the wind picking up seed, "Follow me!" he ran off again; Morri and pack followed him along until they came to a wide river, but instead of water it was made up of more black slime that was flowing at a steady pace. Ravage dived in head first and disappeared from sight. 'Dive in! It'll hide you from the creature!' she heard his voice growl in her mind, leaping in with the pack in tow Morri waded out into the slimy black ooze, to her surprise she found she could move well through it, though it was more likely because she was already made of the stuff; the slime-dog pack gathered tightly around her, as if to form a shield as they watched the sky overhead turn pitch black and the distant sound of scrams and howls could be heard fast approaching on the wind.

'Stay silent' he heard him whisper and ducked her down low in the slime.

Far above them, as the sound grew louder and nearer a whole mass of screams, wailing, howling, moaning and sobbing could be heard, all mixed together as a giant black shadow with glowing red eyes sped over the gorge, accompanied by hundreds of thousands of ghost-like humanoid figures of varying size and shape, some looked like Cybertronians while the rest looked like humans. The giant shadow itself was enormous, bigger even than the supersized fused Demolisher clones she'd seen during the downtown fight in New Port, but it was so black that she couldn't make any details or features as it passed over the gorge a second time around. After circling around and not finding what it was looking for, the shadow and its ghoulish entourage drifted back the way it came and little by little the gorge grew silent again.

'...Don't worry, it's gone now...' she heard the panther whisper telepathically, rearing her head up from the slime, Morri and the rest of the pack looked up and around and wagged their tails with relief.

"Ravage, was that...the Spark Eater?" she dared to asked

'Yes' he sighed

"...Shit..." A cold shiver ran through her gooey form as she swallowed hard, "...If that's what it's like here in this psychic place I don't want to try and imagine what it's looks like back in the waking world!" she shivered with dread, 'In all likelihood probably not very different; we have to keep moving forward, this river will take us where we need to go, I'll be nearby' he replied

"Alright, but I might take a while, I kinda got stuck" she panted as she tried to wade through the thick goo, but found part of her form had fused with the slime and was being carried down the river uncontrollably. 'Easily amended...' the panther purred, all at once she could feel his deep purring through the slime, it was so soothing and relaxing, but within seconds she felt her body change again, this time she felt her neck back and tail growing longer and more flexible while at the same time her legs melted off her body and her head became more triangular; looking back at herself, her eyes bulged out when she realized she was now a giant python, and looking around she saw the rest of the pack where now giant snakes too. '...Better?' Ravage smirked, "Considering pythons can swim, yes I suppose it'll do" she replied politely, determined not to let him have the satisfaction of her frustration this time. For another unknown length of time Morri and the serpents slithered over and through the black slime river, moving at a surprisingly quick pace as they traversed over rocks, slipped over water/slime falls and stayed close together as the gorge opened out into a valley, full of more dead trees and strange creatures that dwelled within its dense branches. Suddenly, a wolf's howl rose up over the valley ridge and a pack of more black slime creatures, this time wolves, came bounding into the valley, noticing their glowing red eyes Morri instantly recognized them.

"Ravage! It's those creatures that tried to get me before! The ones that dragged me down here!" she panicked, 'Quick! Get to the opposite bank! I'll slow them down!' he stated as Morri swam over to the left-side riverbank, no sooner had she and the other snakes slithered up onto the hard ground their bodies instantly morphed back to their canine forms, and they wasted no time in scrambling up the steep valley wall, trying to reach the top as the red-eyed slime-wolves leapt across the river to try and reach them; thick black tentacles shot out of the river's inky blackness and pulled them down to their doom, a couple missed the tentacles and landed on the shore, to which several members of the slime-dog pack turned back, and with ferocious growls and baring their sharp teeth attacked the wolves and dragged them into the river while the rest of the pack stuck close to Morri as they continued to run upwards. When they finally reached the top of the valley slope Morri looked back down and saw most of the wolf pack was still at the river, trying desperately to cross while the river itself continued to try and snatch them and pull them in; a loud growl made her jump as several more wolves came running out from the trees, the slime-dog pack surrounded her and bared their silver teeth with a vicious growl. But the wolf pack's alpha stepped forward undaunted and with one bellowing growl silenced them, it stepped over and sniffed Morri all over as she stood there frozen on the spot. 'It thinks you're one of them, your scent is too well disguised for it to tell the difference' Ravage whispered; finally the alpha slime-wolf, satisfied this creature was one of its own kind, craned its head up and howled long and loud; the wolves down in the valley stopped their assault and made their way back up into the trees while the rest of the pack followed their alpha as it disappeared back up into the forest. The slime-dogs wagged their tails with relief as they licked Morri over, trying to get the scent of the wolf off her and she sighed with relief when she saw Ravage appear from out of the forest.

"You alright?" he asked in concern

"I am now, just what the hell are they? Some poor victims that the Spark Eater turned into minions?" she panted

"Actually, their one of the many inhabitants of this plane; they feed off any unfortunate minds that accidently lose their way in the astral void and are unfortunate enough to fall down here; the Spark Eater figured dumping you here was the best way to get rid of you, instead, it's the best way to get you out" he thought aloud

"No kidding" Morri sighed

"We have to keep moving, we can follow the river from up here; we're almost-"

SSSHHHRRAAAAIIIIIEEEEK!

They looked overhead as a giant black robotic dragon-like creature swooped down and reached out its talons, the Panther shoved Morri up into the trees, making the creature miss its target by mere inches.

"WHAT THE HELL!" she yelped, "another inhabitant of this place?"

"No! That's one of the Spark Eaters! MOVE IT!" he barked as they all took off up into the forest, "Head down the slope and follow the river! I'll catch up when I can!" Ravage called over as he veered off to the right and U-turned back the way he came; Morri and the rest of the pack didn't dare look back as the sound of gun and cannon-fire rang echoed through the trees; as the dragon swooped down low again, a flume of purple fire blasted out of its mouth and exploded on the ground, uprooting trees and throwing up dirt and rocks. The pack turned sharply, narrowly missing the hot flames, 'Holy Crap! I hope I don't melt in this body!' Morri panicked as she missed another two fire-blasts from the giant winged terror. As the creature aimed for another blast, Ravage aimed his hip cannons straight up and fired, hitting the creature dead on in the neck and decapitating it, the creature's chest plates exploded before it fell to the ground and continued to pursue them by crawling on its wings and feet. "That thing's got no head and it's still chasing us!" Morri gawked as she caught a quick glance at the giant headless reptile as it gained on them. "Technically you can't 'die' here! At least not in the traditional sense of the word! Now move it!" Ravage barked as he picked up the pace.

"Scatter out and confuse it!" he ordered as he headed into the trees, Morri and the other slime-dogs followed suit as they scattered out amongst the dense trees, the creature veered sharply to one side as it went after one of the other slime-dogs, upon realizing the strategy was working, the said dog lured it away over the edge of a ridge, but within seconds the forest lit up with bright purple flames, followed by a shrill yelp as the headless dragon resumed its chase, choosing yet another dog to chase after as it too lure it back the way they came.

"Shouldn't we help them?" Morri called over as they gained more and more distance; "No! They knew what the risks would be when they decided to help you, their doing their job so I can do mine!" Ravage called back. The trees began to thin out and became smaller as they carried on running, as soon as they could no longer hear the dragon they slowed down and trotted on until they came to a tall chain-link fence with coils of barbed wire running along the top; looking though the fence Morri gasped when she recognized where they were.

"We're back at the Toshima Airbase?"

"Yes, and over there's the hanger where your body's waiting" Ravage smirked as he sat back on his hind legs and jumped over the fence; Morri looked at the fence, and closing her eyes, oozed through the diamond-shaped holes and came out the other side in one piece, followed by the three remaining slime-dogs.

"I don't understand, how can this be here if we're in another dimension?" she pondered aloud

"Ask Darren about 'string theory', he'll fill you in on it later, right now we're-..." Ravage stopped, and craned his head up to sniff the air as a low growl escaped out through his teeth

"What now?" Morri looked all around

"IT'S HERE!" Ravage growled venomously as a huge swirling mass of darkness materialized in front of them and blocked their way to the hangers, a low moaning rose up on the wind as the giant form of the shadow with red eyes appeared and gazed down at them; Morri froze as she saw the entity in its entirety. The only thing that really came to mind by way of a description was 'giant Cybertronian zombie' as the horrifying figure looked like it had literally been to the pit and back. It's pitch-black armour was broken, dented, warped with some parts missing, wires and circuits hung out of its disembowelled torso and half its body was decayed with rust; black slime oozed out from in between its joints in thick gelatinous quantities, forming swirling tendrils that tried to reach out and grab them as its optics burned like red hot coals. But set between its cracked and warped chest plates was a black swirling hole of pure darkness, surrounded by a deep purple halo that was whispering with thousands and thousands of voices.

"...The Spark Eater..." Morri breathed in dread as she and the three other slime-dogs backed up behind Ravage; but as she looked up and down its whole body, she could see hundreds of dead people trying to claw their way out of the cracks in its armour, some fell out and disappeared into thin air while some ripped at the wires, circuits and loose pieces of armour hanging about its giant form and tossed them away; the whole entity was being destroyed from the inside out, and it didn't appear to notice what was going on.

'YOU THINK YOU TAKE ME ON, INSIGNIFICANT INSCECTS?' The entity's voice hoarsely rasped through their minds like fingernails on a blackboard in a deep monotone, making them recoil in extreme discomfort.

"Considering your present state I can finish you off right here and now!" the panther threatened as the blades on his mace flicked out and the cannons on his hips aimed up at the giant. But the Spark Eater's optics flashed and suddenly the guns on the panther's hips imploded with a sharp CRACK! With his legs half destroyed, Ravage fell to the ground and couldn't get back up, but he kept up his defence and pushed himself up with a low threatening grow as he swung his tail around dangerously.

"FOOLS; YOU HAVE ONLY DELAYED YOUR ENEVITABLE DEATHS, BY RESISTING ME YOU CONDEMN YOUR FRIENDS TO A SLOW AND PAINFUL DEATH, BUT IF YOU JOIN ME I WILL SPARE THEM"

"FRAG OFF BACK TO THE PIT!" the panther spat

"YOU HAVE SEALED YOUR FATE..." the giant bent down to grab them, Morri inhaled sharply to scream, when-

At the last possible second a great blinding white light lit up the darkness and blinded everyone/thing present, Morri shielded her eyes with one paw, but realized that it was her hand again as she felt all the black slime on her body turn hard and fall off her like ashes, the three slime-dogs exploded into ash and in their place were three humanoid shadows that shielded themselves away from the light. The Spark Eater moaned in an agonizing howl as the light burnt its armour and scorched out its optics, making it shield its face away as it tried to retreat back into the darkness; only Morri and Ravage were left unaffected as they cautiously glanced up at the light and gawked in surprise; there, was the glowing white silhouette of a bot holding a staff of some kind, and hovering over its head was the source of the light, a vast pure white orb that glowed with all the intensity of the sun and sparkled with every colour imaginable as its crystalline surface reflected hundreds upon thousands of Cybertronian glyphs. As the light grew more and more intense a huge ring of vines broke out from underneath the tarmac and encircled them as both as they reached up for the light; the brunette and the drone both shielded their faces as the light encompassed them, and before they passed out, Ravage held on enough to hear the stranger say...

"...You've done well brave ones, now it is time for you to back, and end this..."

* * *

Poor Morri, she puts up with so much when Ravage is in a good mood LOLZ XD don't forget to R&R on the way out please! ;D


	73. Chapter 72: The Turning Point

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

Caution: Strong swearing here and there

Additional Disclaimer: Matti belongs to JillTheCrazy1

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 72: THE TURNING POINT

She gasped as her awareness flared to life, air filled her lungs as she felt her heart and blood pumping and the tactile sensation of her skin coming alive; as if it had been asleep for a lifetime. With a tired listless moan she opened her heavy eyes, and frowned in bemusement.

"Miles, why the hell are you wearing tin foil on your head?" Morri quirked an eyebrow

"Your back!" Ashley smiled as he reached down to hold her in a tight hug, quickly followed by Tom, Danny, the Waineright sisters, Annabelle and Jay-jay as her uncle John scooped them up in one big bear-hug; Morri was taken aback slightly before her mind clinked back in place and she realized what was going on, and what had gone on inside her, overhead she heard the collective sighs of relief as she noticed Prime and several of the other Autobots standing or sitting down nearby; right away she knew they'd been watching over her this whole time.

"Alright alright! Geez will you guys give her a chance to breath?" Mikaela reprimanded as she lightly pushed them off, Morri sat up and instantly felt giant metal fingers carefully wrap around her waist, craning her head up, she smiled as Deathshot brought her up to his face for a 'cheek hug'.

"Hey, there's my favourite mech..." she grinned as she returned the hug, stroking the edge of his nose plates; the pain and worry left his optic as he gazed down at her with that loving heart-felt look, and she knew this time it was the real thing, not a dream or an illusion, "...It's alright, I'm okay now, see?"

"Okay, I'm just so glad to have you back..." he simply replied; glancing back over her shoulder, she saw Ratchet crouching down next to an unconscious Ravage, slumped on one side with his optic shut and surrounded by his brothers as they looked on in a mix of relief and worry. "Oh God Ravage!" Morri slipped out of her guardian's grip and landed in his lap, hopped off from in between his legs and rushed to the panther's side; "Don't worry, he's just in recharge, overworking his new upgrade like that before he had a chance to properly boot it up strained his CPU's data processing functions to much too fast, he'll be fine when he wakes up" Ratchet assured her as he scanned the drone.

"Upgrade?" she echoed

"The White-Pointer chip? Remember?" Mikaela interjected

"...It works?" Morri gazed at her in astonishment as she remembered the discovery of the said chip.

"I built it in ten minutes, didn't exactly have time to test it" she offered sheepishly

"...Well, it worked alright; he found me and brought me back in one piece" Morri smiled as she stroked the side of his head, "for the most part anyways" she deadpanned under her breath. "How long was I out?" she glanced up at Optimus

"Nearly two hours" the Major replied as she and the other agents made themselves known, "You really had us all worried kiddo; as soon as Ravage sensed that pretender out in the woods he made a beeline for you, we found you unconscious near the fence and right away he knew something was in your head" Batou interjected.

'So the pretender was real' Morri thought offhand in surprise, "Not just anything, it was the Spark Eater" she added

"What?"

"The Spark Eater?"

"You actually saw it?"

"Saw it? It was standing right in front of us! Right before-" Morri hesitated as she remembered the giant glowing white orb

"Before what?" her uncle asked

"...Uh?" She shook her head, willing the on-surge of memories to stop as she tried to get her thoughts back in order, "...Okay, let's rewind and go back to the beginning a sec-..." she stood up and turned to face the whole hanger.

* * *

35 minutes later:

"...And at that point I lost consciousness, and the next second I wake up back here with all you guys looming overhead" she finished

"Seriously? Thirty eight years in the span of just two hours? Man that's trippin'!" Glen gazed at her in surprised stupor

"I know, I'm still getting my head round that one" Morri answered offhand

"Morri, when that 'glowing white orb' appeared, did you see who the stranger was?" Prime asked

"Sorry, it was too bright, I couldn't see his face; but he had a staff in one hand, and, I think, an ornate-looking helm of some kind" she frowned as she thought back to the last instant before she woke up

"A staff? An ornate helm? Hmmm, doesn't ring any bells..." Jetfire pondered aloud as he stroked the long spokes that made up his 'beard'

"What about the Spark Eater? What did that look like?" Epps asked

"Like hell. Literally like hell..." Morri grimaced in dread as she remembered the sight of that terrible entity, "It looked more dead than alive! It's armour was cracked rusted and beaten up, it had this black slime oozing out of its joints, and in between the cracks of its armour there were hundreds and hundreds of people trying to crawl their way out, most of them were just ripping the giant's circuits and armour to pieces; the whole thing was being wreaked from the inside out..." she thought aloud before she turned serious; "I don't know what Ravage must have sensed when he first encountered it, but to be honest I think it looked wounded, like it was on its last legs and was barely able to stand" she added

"...Swiftshot did say that the Spark Eater's telepathic functions were diminishing because of its excessive memory overload; perhaps after all this time it's finally at its weakest point and can no longer sustain its power at its fullest? After all, if it was as powerful as it was on Prarex 9 all those centuries ago it would've had no problem ensnaring all our minds in one go, but instead it only went after Morri" Trailbreaker thought aloud

"A good theory but it's no guarantee the Spark Eater's completely defenceless; it must have been able to only go after her because it can't sustain its telepathy over long distance with so many unknown minds, if we were all nearer to its lair, it would probably have little trouble ensnaring all of us more efficiently" Rumble interjected

"So like Darren said, you're saying that even if we find the complex this thing's hiding in, there could be the risk that it could snatch our brains before we have a chance to do anything?" Lennox glanced at the drone in disbelief

"Quite posssssibly" Lazerbeak hissed softly

"Oh well that's just great..." Epps deadpanned sarcastically

"But don't you remember what else Swiftshot said?" Deathshot interjected, "The Spark Eater uploaded part of its mind to the net's continual base-line hub; It's a known fact among many Autobot intelligence agents and spies that prolonged exposure to a data-based network system can compromise certain processing units within the CPU, forcing the base-line systems to shut down some functions and units and boost the performance percentage of others, leaving the CPU at risk from glitching, power fluctuations in the systems-stability, and even complete CPU failure. Hypothetically speaking it's the same principle as a big whale in deep water, it's possible that the Spark Eater's power and control has grown as much as it has because the binary-based system of the net is able to support such a large network of online CPU functions, including its telepathic functions that have steamed from it's being online for so long"

"But if the whale get's beached it get's crushed under its own weight" Sam thought aloud

"Exactly, I think that must be part of the reason why it's created an 'updated' version of the Incept Code, it won't be just a means of finding more minds to consume, the virus is also a crutch to enable it to fully extend its power right across the world; that's why the vaccine is specifically designed to take out the viruses central processing and regulation hub, we knock the Incept Code out and the Spark Eater will be severely crippled, since it's telepathy has grown accustom to functioning online, it would be fairly weak if it was forced to use it offline" Darren added

"If that's the case, and the Spark Eater I saw was its 'astral projection', then it must be really weak if it was unable to 'sustain' itself while outside of its physical body...But then, that would mean that all those people must have been all the minds it's consumed over the years, and he's finally losing control of them. But then that doesn't jive with what Swiftshot said about it being able to consume the minds of other beings and absorbing all their memories, consciousness and psyche" Morri pondered aloud

"It may have absorbed them but perhaps it never fused with them" Rumble stated

"What do you mean? Aren't absorbing and fusing basically the same thing?" Tom shrugged

"In telepathic terms no; when you made contact with your 'other self' and you both 'fused' back together you felt the shift in your thoughts and memories, did you not?" the drone asked

"...Yes" Morri replied cautiously

"If you had both been separate individuals, a fusion would have resulted in the 'birth' of an entirely new individual, one that was neither Morri nor Sapphire, a femme that possessed the memories and thought processes of both, but who had the individuality of mind and psyche to live as neither one or other, but as her own. But since Sapphire was a memory construct created to suppress you, her true 'self' was never totally split from you, and that's why when you fused together, all her memories became like a dream; even now that life you lead as one of us feels distant, doesn't it?"

"...Yeah, it does feel more like a dream now" she sighed

"All those minds, when it consumed them, should've created and recreated the Spark Eater again and again, creating a new form of individuality within it's being; it's absorbed the minds and their memories into its own mind but hasn't fused them to create its own individuality; why?" Aoi interjected, Rumble nodded in agreement; everyone stopped to ponder the question for a moment.

"Perhaps? ..." John thought aloud, "...It's not a case of because it didn't want to fuse with them, but because it couldn't to begin with?"

"Hm? I don't follow?" Batou frowned

"The night before Section 9 HQ was attacked me and Ravage were up on the roof talking and he mentioned something that went like: 'The human mind is nothing like a Cybertronian mind, it can think and function on a number of levels that suits the individual's requirements, and what is needed of the individual's abilities in order to do what they do'. Compared to that a Cybertronian mind is limited by what their processors are specifically designed for; when you look at Swiftshot's data and the account she gave of how that thing came into 'being' compared to what happened on that planet where it originally came from, the Spark Eater started off life as a Cybertronian, even after it took a human host to house both itself and the Dark Spark, it endeavoured to make itself into a Cybertronian again, and from then on its modus-operandi, means and function has essentially been following the latter of what a Cybertronian would do; despite the fact that it took in so much knowledge from all those human minds, it probably couldn't fuse with them because they were so contrastingly different in terms of dynamics of thought processes, and adaptation of the psyche's ability to go to extreme lengths when placed under pressure. Ultimately it 'nit-picked' its prey, took only what it wanted and left the rest alone; so if all those minds are still 'individual' and are trapped within the Spark Eater itself, then the reason it's power could be failing is because they may be all trying to get out" he hypothesized

"So, the Spark Eater couldn't absorb human minds because it underestimated how different they are to Cybertronian minds? Man's that's some serious hypothesis!" one of the Tachikoma's interjected

"Crazy as it sounds it does fit in with what I saw during the attack on Section 9's crib; that one hybrid who couldn't remember who he was, if that was a human mind sitting alongside a Decepticon mind inside the same helm, then the Spark Eaters power is fractured to the point it's filtered down to all the hybrids under its mental control, and when confronted with their other 'other personality', they suffer complete CPU failure as a result" Jazz commented

"And it's the only one that explains what I saw before we were saved by that glowing orb" Morri added.

"...Going on that, is it possible that this mysterious 'guide' who been helping us isn't in fact one individual, but is many? If the Spark Eater's been losing its grip because all those human minds are crippling it from the inside out, could it be possible that some escaped without it knowing and have been secretly aiding us in everything we've done thus far? I know it's a stretch considering the nets only been around so long, but it could explain the E-package Aoi received, as well as all that other stuff we came across" Sam proposed

"But what about the 'vision' I had the night before the attack on New Port? I don't have any brain augmentations so ghost hacking me's out of the question; plus what about all that other stuff that went down the day before? That was so completely random I doubt anyone would've guessed all that stuff that had been left for you guys, could've been found by any other means if it had been left in those places so many years ago? Even before the net existed?" Matti pointed out from where she sat on Bumblebee's knee

"Oh, yeah right" Sam scratched the back of his neck

"All good and plausible hypotheses, but with no evidence to support either one at the present time, I'm afraid we must assume that our quarry is still a highly dangerous threat as such and must be prepared for anything; the fact that he was able to ensnare one of us is evidence in itself of his telepathic capabilities, and while the plan to destroy the Incept Code and his base of operations will stop his threat of conquest once and for all, we must find a way, and plan a strategy which will enable us to fight him on even ground, without the threat of telepathic manipulation" Prime interjected

"How do we do that?" Lennox asked

"With the White-Point chip installed in his CPU, Ravage will no doubt have gleaned much from his encounter with the Spark Eater; when he awakes we will learn what we can, and from there we will plan our next move. For now, let him rest; you too Morri, you take it easy until you are feeling better" Prime stated as he turned to walk out the hanger

"Feeling better? But I'm not-" she protested, but saw his attention was already focused on the other bots as they gathered around him to talk, "Uhg!" she huffed, folding her arms in annoyance, "-Hey wait a sec! Weren't you supposed to meet up with the heads of the American fleet?" she grabbed his attention.

"I was, and I haven't forgotten about them..." he turned back around to face her, "But after Ravage found you behind the perimeter fence Ratchet called me back immediately to oversee your situation; I called ahead to the Intelligence Department and they are currently in negotiations with the fleet's commanders, they said they should expect a reply by three o' clock this afternoon" he replied before steadily pacing off.

* * *

1 Hour later:

"...So this is where you've been hiding?" Batou smiled as he climbed up the last few ruts of the metal ladder.

"Hm, can't say I'm one for company when I need to clear my head..." Morri shrugged, "But considering it's you, I don't mind" she smirked as the ex-ranger sat himself near the edge of the hanger roof with his feet hanging over the side.

"...So, are you feeling any better?" he asked offhand

"In terms of getting over what happened? Can't say there wasn't really anything to get over with to begin with, considering I feel the same as I did before I was 'ensnared'; the only thing in terms of fear, I would have to say was when I first saw the creature when we were travailing back through that dark place, I was so scared he'd find us" she thought aloud as she watched the clouds pass by overhead, "...But I suppose, the only real thing that I found 'hurt' me, was watching the latter part of my 'other life' pan out and I wasn't completely in control; it was like, sitting in a little dark room watching the world through a really big window, I knew what was going on and I knew who I was, but I didn't have a say in anything anymore, not until I made contact with myself again, and even that wasn't as traumatic as I was expecting it to be"

"Maybe it was because Sapphire was never totally separate from you? When you were out and Ravage first sensed that something was wrong, he kept saying over and over 'she's half and half but still whole'. Did he mean that Sapphire was another personality?"

"You mean like multiple personality disorder?" she asked, he nodded, "I've heard of that particular mental disorder, and I don't think it was because of that; MPD, from what I know, stems from systematic and brutal abuse that's so traumatic, both mentally and emotionally, that the mind splits the individuals identity so as to preserve their sanity...In the beginning, for the first twenty years I was in control, I remembered everything I was and was still very human even though I'd been turned into a Cybertronian, and I loved every day of it. But after Calibre and Harmony were born-...I don't know, something happened over the years and I slowly began losing myself; maybe that was when the Spark Eater really tried to pull me towards it? I don't know; the fact that my perception of time had been totally screwed up might have had something to do with it, after all it's always the little things that happen over a long period of time that amount to the more worse things in life, like a leaky pipe that drips day in and day out, and you never really notice it until one day it bursts and the whole kitchen floor's flooded...It wasn't until Silvershot came along that the Spark Eater made its move and shoved me out; I would've died in that dark place if those 'others' hadn't helped me"

"But why didn't he completely split you in half? If he was as weak as everyone suspects, why didn't he make his move while he had the chance?"

"Good point, and it presents another problem we don't have a clear picture of yet; either he's still unaware of his crippling power and his 'condition' is affecting his mental faculties in such a way that he can't see, or, is aware of what's happening and he's trying desperately to find a way to fix the problem. At this point I'm starting to find it hard to believe that he's not completely aware of what going on around him; if his mind and telepathy are mostly functional on an online system now he must have figured out that those of us without brain augmentation or cyberbrain's are now all but completely unreachable to him" Morri frowned in thought

"You mean he suddenly realized that you and the others are basically 'black spots' on his telepathic radar?" Batou quirked an eyebrow

"Possibly? I don't know I'm not telepathic, but if he's not been consciously aware of everything up till' this point than maybe he really is at his weakest point, and all it'll take is one more shove to send him over the edge"

"But the question now is, if he's aware that the odds are now in our favour will it make him more dangerous and unpredictable? If he were human it wouldn't be hard to guess what his next move would be; when desperate people are backed into a corner they know there's only so many options open to them, and only so many outcomes likely to come of it"

"But that's just it..." Morri sighed as she sat upright and glanced over at him, "This is an enemy none of us have ever faced before, not human and not even wholly Cybertronian in a sense; I know we knew that when we first found that out but I didn't appreciate just what that meant until now. After seeing the Spark Eater first hand, I'm pretty sure when we do finally have to face him things are not going to be as straight forward as we'd hoped, or wished to be...either way, however this goes down, nothing's ever going to be the same after this"

"That's another thing that concerns me..." Batou dropped his gaze, "Ever since this whole mess kicked off we knew nothing was ever going to be the same after this was over; but the way things are shaping up I don't think it's gonna be long now before the whole world discovers what's really been going on; the Americans knowing is one thing, but when the whole truth finally comes out and everyone learns of the Autobots and the Spark Eater; how are they gonna face the fact that for the past couple of hundred years an alien entity has been using the children of Japan as 'raw material' to create an army that would conquer the world and wipe us all out...What's sane about that? How can anyone get their heads around something like that?"

"Who said sanity was part of this equation?" Morri shrugged, "I'm still amazed we all haven't totally lost our own sanity over this never mind how the rest of the world will react. Chances are a large percentage of the masses aren't going to believe it and won't want to, and the parents of those kidnapped children whose memories were wiped won't know any better, which only makes it all the more tragic. It's gonna be one thing to come to terms with the fact that there really is intelligent life out there in the universe, but the reality that we're not as big as we believe ourselves to be, and that there are bigger and badder things lurking above us on the cosmic food-chain? That's going to open up a whole other can of worms...In any case; the truth is never to accept..." she sighed in thoughtful lament.

"It never is..." Deathshot interjected as he craned his head up to meet the gaze of the two humans. "But, having the earth come to turns with what's happened and beginning the healing process is a much more favourable choice, compared to the alternative. Besides, I thought you were feeling a little better after your experience?" he continued as he reached up, gently grabbed them by the waists and placed them on his shoulder, "I am, it's just-, it feels more surreal than anything else, compared to 'here and now', that 'other life' now feels so distant; like waking up from the longest dream imaginable, or dying and being reincarnated, either way it wasn't as horrifying as I was expecting it to be" Morri replied offhand.

"Hm..." Deathshot hummed, "Tell me, philosophically speaking, do you think the illusion was in part, of your own sub-conscious creation and the Spark Eater merely brought it to life? Or do you think the illusion was created from scratch?" the sniper pondered aloud

"Hmmm, that's a good question..." Morri replied as she dropped her gaze in thought, looking down the snipers front, she caught a quick look at his crotch plates and her mind did a U-turn...

'Holy Crap! If part of that illusion really was of my own imagination, and the sex we had was only as good as it was because I expected it to be so; then just what the hell does he keep under those plates in reality?' she thought in shock as she stared down at his groin, 'Come to think of it, what else is different in reality compared to what I might have imagined?' her mind reeled

"Hey are you okay?" Batou asked

"Huh?" Morri snapped back to reality "Oh, uh? Thought I forgot to give Jay-jay her energon this morning, just remembered it was Mikaela's turn" she replied sheepishly, knowing it wasn't true, "*sigh* guess my thoughts aren't all quite back in place yet" she rubbed the back of her neck

"Well your BSHB is reading a low energy intake in your small intestinal track, did you refuel properly at breakfast?" her guardian asked

"Only had a coffee, didn't have time to eat on account of Darren's briefing"

"Well there you go then; go to the base canteen and fill up on some real food, get your blood-sugar up" Batou suggested, Morri was about to reply when the distant rumble of jet engines caught their attention, Deathshot stopped and frowned as three dark grey fighter jets appeared from out of the clouds; the American Empire insignias on their tail fins instantly caught their attention.

"What the hell are they doing here?" Morri thought aloud as the jets steadily dropped down and began circling the base

"Dunno, but this can't be good" Batou frowned as they swooped down low, missed the tops of the hangers by twenty feet and pulled up hard with a deafening thunderous roar.

"That's just rude" Deathshot frowned

If they're here to check us out why send jets? Don't they have enough spy-satellites in orbit?" Morri asked offhand

"They do, they must be getting pretty impatient on wanting you guys to hand yourselves in" said the ex-ranger

"Like that's going to happen, if they think this little 'air show' is supposed to intimidate or impress us then they really don't know who their dealing with..." the sniper deadpanned as he watched the jets swoop down overhead again and disappeared back up into the clouds; by now the rest of the Autobots had emerged from the hangers to see what all the noise was about, while the giants and their human friends watched the three jets with curiosity, the rest of the human personnel on the base were starting to bristle with concern and agitation."Hmm...I'm starting to pick up a lot of chatter on the GSDA's comm frequencies; from the sounds of it I think the Americans are, as you say: 'at the end of their leather'" Deathshot added as he watched the jets via his left modified optics.

"End of their tether" Morri corrected.

"YO! What 'up with the air show?" Miles called over from where he sat on Jazz's shoulder.

"Dunno, the AE sent em' over" Batou shrugged

"You think they'll try anything? They gotta be insane to try and take us on again!" Sideswipe scoffed, "Looks like their posturing; last time D took' em by surprise but this time they look like they wanna show off their prowess and let us know that they ain't ta be messed with" Jazz added

"Pah! That's typical!" Jetfire grumbled

"I think it's a little more than that Jazz" Deathshot interjected

"Huh? Why?"

"Because the second jet's just broken formation and has primed his missiles to fire, he's circling back around to line up his shot" the sniper replied coolly. "WHA-Who's the target?" Batou exclaimed in alarm; as he watched the jet and intercepted the pilot's online missile guidance-systems, the sniper frowned as his left optic flashed a red warning in his field of vision.

"Me" he replied impassively as he raised one arm and aimed his wrist guns; as the jet swooped down and shot over the ground, a burst of fire under both its wings signalled the launch of the missiles as they flew out and made a beeline for the sniper. Both Batou and Morri gasped as Deathshot fired and shot the missiles head on, the blasts were far enough away that no one was in danger but the intense heat washed over flesh and metal like bad sunburn. "Whoa! My eyebrows nearly signed off!" Danny exclaimed as he clasped his hands over his face, trying to shield himself away as the heat washed over him.

"It would seem the American Empire has made its next course of action clear" Prime stated, "Ironhide, Ultra Magnas, your with me; Jetfire, teleport us to the Niihama Naval Base, we'll try to defuse this before it has a chance to escalate". "Mind if we come too? This might get dicey, and I have a feeling the Prime Minister will be in a less than patient mood to deal with the fleet commanders" the chief asked, "Any help will be greatly appreciated Chief Aramaki; the rest of you remain here and fend off those jets, but under no circumstances engage them in combat; Jazz, you and Elita are both in charge until we return" Prime replied as he offered his hand to the chief and the Major; "What do we do if more of their buddies show up?" Jazz asked, "Keep them at bay, hack into their comm frequencies and try negotiate with them if necessary, but whatever happens do not harm them; even under these circumstances they must see that we mean them no harm" Prime stated, "Uh? Considering what happened the last time we encountered the American's, don't you think it's a little late for that?" Togusa asked offhand in dumbfounded astonishment, the NEST team members glanced at one another in confusion as they realized the bazaar 'reverse-role' nature of the situation, being (for all intents and purposes) the 'bad-guys' in this world was a peculiar thing. "As dire as this situation is, we must do what we can; time is no longer a commodity we can afford to spend at our leisure, and right now, we must spend every minute available trying to get the American's to stand down, and to call a truce between them and the GSDA...Jetfire, If you please?" Prime looked over at the ancient seeker who obliged with an affirmative nod, and raised his hands as white sparks and bolts of energy began to crackle around him, the bots and humans, "Until we return, stay sharp and stand firm!" Prime ordered as the air around them rushed inwards and they disappeared in a white explosion of light, when the dust cleared and the empty space on the ground confirmed they had teleported away, the remaining humans and bots were left glancing at one another in a mix of concern and dubious doubt.

"Okay, what now?" Miles looked around; the three jets circling back around in the distance grabbed everyone's attention as they flied in formation straight towards the airbase again. The bots and humans glanced around as the airbase suddenly came alive with feverous activity, three ASDF jets from the other hangers were wheeled out and the base's ground crews were scrambling to prep them for takeoff.

"Should we help them see our 'uninvited guests' off?" Deathshot asked

"Keep an optic on them from the ground for now, but if things get dicey? Just go on up and show 'em how ta play 'flyer-tag'; that oughta show em' who's in charge" the first lieutenant grinned, "In the meantime you guys get back in the hanger and get back to finding that missing code and the location to that base, we've got things covered out here" he reassured the humans, with affirmative nods they took off back into the hanger where Ravage was still recharging and got back to the task at hand.

"Okay, where were we?" Darren said offhand as he sat back down at his laptop and began typing away

"Trying to save the world?" Glen said offhand, Darren looked over at him and sighed in exasperation.

"...Hey, Where's dad?" Ashley glanced around the hanger while the Marines glanced at each other with a subtle knowing look, and smirked.

* * *

The air was thick with tension...

So thick that one would probably be able to cut it with a butter knife

Across the desk CIA agent's Watanabi and Sato sat cool and still as they looked up at the Prime Minister in brittle defiance; but their calm exteriors betrayed their awkwardness and discomfort as her hardened steel gaze drilled into them with all the fury and wrath of any female; at her side, Kubota and his superiors, along several other high-ranking members of the military forces stood with equal looks of distain, frustration and ire as they gazed down upon them, while all around the room the PM's security detail stood ready to move at a second's notice. No one, not least the Prime Minister herself was in the mood to be messed with, or led around by the nose with (now) invalid excuses and half truths; the agents were stuck between a large rock and an even harder place and they both knew it. Despite the circumstances of their last meeting with the PM and the revelation that one of their own agents was an alien double-agent, Watanabi and Sato stubbornly refused to co-operate and call the fleet's commanders; for what reason/reasons the CIA had to gain from at this point no one knew, and as the minutes ticked by and the situation grew more and more dire, so the PM and her military advisors were starting to lose their patience.

"Gentlemen, what exactly do you or your superiors back in Washington think you're going to gain from this by remaining silent? Right now you're stuck in a very deep hole and not even your diplomatic immunity will be able to save your necks from this!" the head of the Intelligence department growled through his teeth

"Oh please..." Watanabi sneered with a content smirk, "We wouldn't even be within a thousand miles of here if we knew we were in dire straits; you're the ones who're digging yourselves into a hole, and by now I'd say you've pretty much thrown the shovels out. This whole mess was your fault right from the very beginning, and if you'd had turned the 'Autobots' over to us sooner, we'd all be better off"

"We both know that's a bunch of bull!" one of the generals scowled, "And if you think that little sortie you sent out is going to scare the Autobots into submission your seriously out of your mind!"

"Well, if they really are as intelligent as they're supposed to be they know they won't be able to take on the most powerful ships in the American Empire's Naval fleet; as fast and 'all powerful' as they think they are, at the end of the day their just fancy tin cans with chips in their heads" Sato smiled as he sat back in his chair.

"You wouldn't dare say that if you saw them up close for yourself..." Kubota frowned in ire

BROOOM!

A blinding explosion of white light flashed outside the window and a sharp set of vibrations shook the building and blew out the windows; within a heartbeat the PM's security team tightened their protective circle around the group, aiming their guns at the window as they tried to usher them out of the room. But when the PM saw what was standing outside the window looking in at them, she stopped and stood her ground...

"WAIT!-" she exclaimed sharply, the security team halted and glanced at her in stunned surprise, "-Look..." she pointed to the window; the military advisors stared in wide eyed surprise while the two CIA agents gawked in stunned shock as two glowing blue optics stared at them.

"Prime Minister Kayabuki?" a deep basso voice asked in a polite yet assertive tone

"Y-Yes?" she replied as she stepped towards the window and leaned out to get a better look at the Autobot; craning her head up, the PM was met with four HUGE bots, recognising their faces from the intelligence reports on the Autobot rescue party, she immediately straightened up, "Ah, you must be Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots?" she addressed him

"I am, and please, forgive our intrusion be we really need to speak with the CIA agents Suzuki Sato and Tanaka Watanabi" Prime asked politely asked; upon hearing their names the agents flew up out of their chairs, bolted for the door and ran as fast as they could to try and get away. The PM frowned as she turned around and was about to order her guards to chase after them when a shout and the sound of a scuffle on the other side of the door drew everyone's attention; a series of knocks, bangs and curses followed as the door burst open and in strode a tall broad-shouldered Royal Marine with a hardened scowl on his face, dragging the two agents in by the scruffs of their necks he threw them head-first to the floor before the desk.

"You idiots have got a lotta nerve to chicken out at a time like this!" he growled in a broad Yorkshire accent as he reached for the gun in his holster at held it close at the agents picked themselves back up.

"WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE-" Sato was about to chew him out when he suddenly saw the gun barrel pointed at his forehead and froze like a rabbit in the headlights.

"Me? I'm the guy who's gonna put you little bitches in the hurt locker if you don't listen to what we have to say" he growled in a threatening tone.

"You seriously think-"

"I think someone ought to start digging a pair graves out the back, cuz if your gonna play it like that, this is going to be a very short meeting" he interrupted as he pulled back the hammer on the gun.

"Easy, we do need them alive" chief Aramaki interrupted as he and the Major both climbed in through the window and approached the group

"Chief Aramaki? Why am I not surprised your here" one of the head's of the Intelligence Department deadpanned

"Forgive our dramatic entrance but we really need to talk" he replied assertively

"And not before time, we've been trying to reason with these guys for the past half hour after we saw their little sortie take off for Toshima; we didn't think you guys would take kindly to that" Kubota looked over at Optimus as he stepped closer to the window , "Underestimating us is a bad move in any case, but this is not the time for bickering, we came here to try to reason with you two; to ask you to call your superiors and convince them to call off the attack. A new development regarding our common enemy has arisen, and I'm afraid being enemies is no longer an option" he stated, everyone blinked in surprise and glanced at one another in dire concern.

"A new development?" the PM echoed

* * *

"You think they'll try to shoot out the hanger?" Matti asked in concern as she watched the three jets whizz by overhead

"If they know what's good for' em they wouldn't dare" Ashley retorted as five ASDF jets chased after their quarry.

"This is getting ridiculous! We've scanned through all this stuff here and even checked out ourselves for clues but nothing's jumping out!" Bluestreak huffed in annoyance as he scanned another sheet of paper from one of the files that had been in the trunks.

"Oh god, you don't think we missed something when we checked out Shirakawa and the temple do you?" Danny realized in grave concern

"I doubt it, we were looking for anything and practically everything; if there was something that even slightly hinted to all this we would've seen it" Morri replied

"Plus I would've sensed something if it was hidden in the form of a 'signature'; Cybertronian aura energy is nothing like human energy, it's so much more potent and alien in nature, if there was anything else in that temple I would've known about it" Matti interjected as she helped Mikaela go through another pile of documents.

"Wait a sec..." Morri frowned, "The woodblock paintings we found in the cellar of that house! We haven't checked those out yet!" she got up and rushed to find the black lacquer chest that was hiding under some of the other files, pulled it out, flipped it open, carefully removed the paintings and placed them all close together on the floor; standing back up and broadly looking over the collection, she frowned as she studied the pictures and what they depicted, looking for anything that might hint to or stand out as a clue.

"Wow, whoever painted these didn't do us much justice in terms of our looks" Cliffjumper said offhand as he gazed down from behind.

"That's because they were painted long before the concept of mechanics ever came about; the artist who saw these beings didn't know what they were looking at, they'd never seen an internal combustion engine let alone a giant autonomous robotic organism from another planet before, so they depicted them in the only forms they knew best, that they were familiar with" Aoi interjected from where he sat nearby with his laptop at hand.

"...Familiar?..." Morri pondered offhand, "...Wait a minute..."

"What?" Matti asked eagerly

"These paintings..." Morri knelt down for a closer look, "They all seem depict the same mountain range in the background, look..." she pointed to the paintings, as the others leaned in for a closer look, sure enough they all noticed the same row of three mountains depicted in the painting's scenery; "Your right, they are the same, but none of the prints say where it is" Batou offered as he scanned the pictures; "Maybe not, but it's the same three mountains from different angles, plus the overall layout of the surrounding forests and valleys is the same too" Morri replied. "But this could be anywhere, plus these prints were created well over two hundred years ago, the mountains plus the surrounding land must've changed dramatically by now" Tom interjected, "That maybe so, but it could be a good starting point!" Batou's Tachikoma interjected as it picked up one of the prints in its claw, followed by its sisters, "We'll scan these and see if there's any resemblance to any of Japans native mountains, we can use our satellite's scanner-scope to cross-reference topographical images of the land and see if we get any hits!" the tank squeaked eagerly as it's eye-dome scanned over the prints. "A good idea, but keep in mind the results may not turn out 100%, these are woodblock paintings not ordinance survey maps" Tom reminded them, "We know, but we gotta at least try!" the think tank squeaked as it went silent and its animated avatar popped up on one of the other laptop screens.

"If these Autobots were out and about some couple' o hundred years ago, why didn't they stick around to try and dispose of the Spark Eater for good? And why didn't Swiftshot say anything about it in her message? I know you can only reveal so much intel before running the risk of the enemy picking up your trail, but still-" Chromia thought aloud as she picked up one of the prints for a closer look.

"You know, I'm beginning to think there's such a thing as being too cryptic about this kinda stuff..." Darren huffed as he analysed the holographic map of the Black Lotus base, "Maybe Swiftshot got too paranoid about the hybrids finding her out and went overboard on all this 'breadcrumb' clues and stuff? Cuz God only knows this holoform make no sense as it is! I mean, why did-..." the look of frustration on Darren's face suddenly faded to an unreadable look of bewilderment as he stared at the holoform in a trance-like state, the others glanced over in confusion as he leaned in to look at a particular part of the holoform.

"...Wait a minute..." he breathed in realization

"What?" Trailbreaker asked

"This layout; it isn't just the layout of the base, its one section of a much larger map, look..." he tapped his finger on a tiny little display window at the bottom of the base layout and in an instance the whole diagram 'zoomed out' until the base was a small diagram in one corner while the rest of the holoform revealed a whole other collection of empty magma chambers, and two other dormant volcano pipes. "Why did Swiftshot go the trouble of recording the underground layout of another two neighbouring volcanoes, yet she didn't included the topographical layout of the land on top?" Darren pointed out as he tapped another Cybertronian icon on his laptop and the holoform 'enlarged' to display both the base and the other volcanoes in one large image.

"She wanted us to work it out backwards" Batou realized

"Well, if this is the ground-based hanger here, and it's gotta be only, what? Seventy feet high at the most?..." Sam pointed to the said section of the holoform, "Then the volcano pipe in which the antennae tower is stored looks to be about five hundred feet taller" he pointed to the said tower; "Five hundred and thirty six feet above taller" Aoi corrected, "The mountain is over five hundred feet tall? How high up do the other dormant volcanoes go?" Morri asked. "Let's see, if we use the ground-based hanger as a height reference..." Darren typed in the commands to his laptop and compared the layout's schematics, "Okay, this one over here is over six hundred and fifty feet while this one way over here is taller at over eight hundred and forty feet" he read aloud. "Plus, they're both lying alongside our mountain at opposite sides, making a row of three" Aoi added. "That'll certainly narrow our search down!" the Tachikoma icons interjected, "Yeah but we don't know how high above sea level the ground-based hanger is, without that we don't know just how tall the mountain range really is" Togusa pointed out, "Oh. Yeah" Batou's Tachikoma sank down on its legs in disappointment; Not necessarily..." Skywarp interjected as he leaned in for a closer look, "This holoform's got primary time-space quantum co-ordinates included in the schematics, if you filter out the image and put the binary code through a Type-45 systems pin-pointer programme, you should get more than what's actually being displayed" the seeker offered offhand. Curious, Darren did as he suggested and within less than a minute the holoform changed to display what looked like a whole mass of Cybertronian numbers and equations all joined up together at certain points, forming a giant structure of inter-connected shapes and 'pillars'. "Whoa, good call" Darren smiled while the other bots stared at the seeker in bewilderment, "What? I know some things, I didn't spend all those centuries hanging around cons like Soundwave for nothing you know" he shrugged casually, "And look, teleportation co-ordinates!" he pointed to one small section of the holoform. "Hm? According to these numbers the ground-based hanger's two hundred feet above sea-level" Jetfire frowned at the numbers, "WooHoo! That means we gotta reference to the mountain range's real height! We'll start cross-referencing immediately! The Tachikoma icons bounced up and down on the laptop screens.

"Finally, it's about time we got a good lead" Matti smiled in relief

"Wait a minute; these co-ordinates, these are the-"

"Too late..." a weak growl drew everyone's attention down to the floor to where Ravage was slowly stirring from his recharge

"Ravage?" Ashley looked over in a mix of joy and relief

"WE'RE TOO LATE! The Spark Eater! It's-GHA!" the panther angrily roared as he tried to scramble to his feet, but found he was still too weak and fell back down onto his side with a loud clang, Ratchet was at his side in a spark-beat scanning him over. "You shouldn't have got up so fast! Your still too-" Ravage instantly shut him up with a hard swipe to the leg, leaving a set of scratch marks in the medic's armour, Springer and Warpath both aimed their cannons at the drone but Ratchet held up his hand to block their line of fire. "It's just a scratch!" he snapped at them both, "Rav what's wrong?" Ashley asked in alarm; doing a double take as his mind snapped back to here and now, Ravage looked around the hanger and sighed in exhaustion as his brother's optics widened in alarm.

"Brother, don't tell us its-"

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid so, we're too late..." the panther sighed bitterly

"What? What's happened?" Sam demanded

"We're out of time: before we blacked out in the astral void the Spark Eater tried to force its way into my mind, at the last possible moment we were face to face I forced it back, but through its wavering telepathic defences I saw its desperation, and it knew what I had seen; and knew what it had to do next" he explained

"Knew what it had to do next? What the slag's that supposed to mean?" Warpath demanded

"IT KNOWS WE'VE GOT THE MEAN'S TO DISTROY IT! THE TOWER'S GOING UP RIGHT NOW!" Ravage roared in ire, the hanger fell silent

"Wh-what?" Sam did a double take at the panther

"Hey everyone! We found the mountains! It's the San-nin Shimai mountain range!" Batou's (online) Tachikoma squeaked in a panic.

"WHAT?-"

BRRROOOOOMMM!

The whole hanger stood still in silence as the wave of thunder echoed through the sky, making the hanger's metal structure vibrate; outside the human air crews stopped what they were doing and all looked over in the same direction, all standing in silent shock; the whole group rushed out to see what was going on, but it didn't take them long to find the cause of everyone's disbelief...

Far in the distance, the top of the central peak of the San-nin Shimai mountains was smoking with thick black clouds that rose up on the wind. Another, more powerful explosion blew the top of the mountain off in a blaze of blood-red light, and in its place a HUGE jet-black structure slowly rose up and unfurled like a spiny Christmas-tree worm, except it's 'feathers' looked more like giant spindle-like claws, spider's legs and teeth as it set into place, all the while a steady rumble shook the ground and made the air vibrate with energy as a blue aura flared up around the threatening structure...

"...Oh my God..." was all Sam could utter as the top of the tower began to thrum louder and unfold like a clawed hand, until suddenly a vivid red light shot upwards, piercing the clouds like a sword with an ear-splitting scream, all the way up through the blue atmosphere until it hit the satellite that was orbiting right above it; within seconds several other beams of red light shot out from the doomed device and struck its neighbours dead on their receiver dishes...

On the ground, everyone everywhere watched as the sky itself looked like it was being ensnared by a giant net made up of red light, covering every last inch of the planet's atmosphere and staining the clouds pinkish-red until it disappeared beyond the horizon, becoming a blood-red haze in the far-off distance; everywhere across cyberspace the countless screams and cries of those who were still trapped online (who'd used satellite-based servers) began to filter through all the computers that were being used by non-cyberized humans, growing from thousands to millions within mere minutes until it became a screeching white-noise that bored into the ears and minds of those who could still hear it, for many it was like listening to the waiting room for hell, even Deathshot couldn't believe what he was hearing, it was so unreal, and yet so horrifying. Across the city, Prime and his bots, along with the humans watched as the red net covered the whole sky.

"Good God..." Kubota breathed in disbelief as he and everyone watched the horizon turn red, but amidst the rising panic and confusion, Prime stood still and calm as he frowned up at the lights.

"Gentleman, I believe our business here is concluded, we need to get back to Toshima right away" he stated

* * *

R&R Please!


	74. Chapter 73: The Beginning Of The End

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

Caution: Strong swearing here and there, and possibly some graphic death scenes elsewhere

Additional Disclaimer: Matti belongs to JillTheCrazy1

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 73: THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

"The tower-, HOLY SHIT THAT'S THE TOWER?" Glen panicked

"That thing's friggin' HUGE! How the hell are we supposed to bring it down?" Matti gawked at the distant sinister-looking structure; everyone else was equally taken aback as a moment of panic began to flare up.

"Okay before everyone goes off their rocker, what the hell do we do?" Ashley demanded, grabbing everyone's attention; Jazz frowned a moment, thinking all his options and choices through before he knelt down next to Darren and caught the teenager's eye with a serious look; "The briefing you gave this morning on how to take out the base and rescue the humans, will it work?" he asked frankly, Darren dropped his gaze as he considered what he said explained in the briefing earlier, and looked back up at the first lieutenant with a look of flustered confidence, "Yes, yes I believe it will"

"In that case we need prepare for the mission, and we need Prime 'Hide and Magnus back here right now; in the meantime everyone gear up and be ready move out within fifteen minutes! Pack ammo, gear, weapons, anything we can afford to take pack up and bring along! Togusa, go get your spark-mate, younglings and the other families, Bumblebee, Hound, Hot Rod, Cliffjumper, Bluestreak, Chromia, you'll be their rides in case we have to move out of here. The rest of you be ready to-"

"Uh Elita? I don't wish to interrupt, but I think we'll be moving outta here sooner than expected!" Tom pointed to several black jets fast approaching the base; seeing they weren't any of the American Empire's aircraft, the bots fired up their weapons as four of the jets transformed into hybrid soldiers and charged along the airstrip, Warpath, Deathshot and Elita took out the attackers with several clean shots but at that moment the forest on the other side of the perimeter fence erupted with hybrids as they burst from out of the tree-line like a stampeding herd of elephants, completely destroying the fence and charging across the main runway, cracking the tarmac beneath their clawed feet. But when they trod on the grassy verge between the runways, the ground suddenly caved in and the whole attack force stumbled down into a deep pit; much to everyone's surprise.

"When you need a secure base of operations, you can never have enough tunnels and holes around the perimeter" Scorponok chirped with sly satisfaction, but everyone's attention was soon drawn back to the other hybrid flyers, who by now had been joined by ten others as they circled above the base and came down again for another attack; but from behind them the three American fighter jets charged overhead and fired their missiles on them, taking out nine of the hybrids, who went down in flames and crashed into the forest with several loud explosions. Wondering just how many there were, Morri activated her BSHB and flew some sixty feet above the airbase for a good look...

"Oh good God..." was all she could utter as she gazed towards the distant hills west of the base; there she saw a long line of ground-based hybrids charging down the highway, metallic humanoid and animistic creatures of every size and shape knocking and crashing every vehicle out of their path, how many there were she couldn't be sure, but certainly enough to attack in force and not go down easily. Further in the distance she could barely make out one of the many (more larger) emergency evacuation camps, the highway headed straight towards it.

"WHAT DO YOU SEE?" Batou called up

"It's the hybrids! Their heading straight for the evac-camp west of here!" she called back. Looking back towards the camp, she saw a mass of black objects on the northern-most valleys heading south; straining to sharpen her focus, she stared in disbelief as she realized they were more hybrids, hundreds of them, all heading towards the city and it's outlining suburbs.

"This is it..." she gasped as she dropped back down to the ground, "There's hundreds of them heading towards the city and other camps, the GSDA forces are in place like Kobuta said but I don't know how they'll hold up with that many hybrids coming all at once" she said to Elita; the femme commander turned her gaze away as she considered what to do next.

"We are gonna go an' help them right?" Bluestreak asked

"But we can't abandon the airbase! The humans will need some serious back-up if more of those flyers show up!" Hound interjected

"...One moment please..." Elita said before opening up her comm-line, **"Prime, are you there?"**

"**Sorry Elita but we're a little busy right now! The Black Lotuses Antenna Tower went up and the hybrids are back in force, trying to attack the Naval base!" **Ironhide stated, the sounds of an ongoing battle in the background got her attention**.**

"**Where's Prime?"**

"**WHERE DO YOU THINK?"**

* * *

"Ultra Magnus! Cover the left flank and give those exo-suit units some cover!" Prime ordered as he took a running leap and decapitated two hybrid attackers with his wrist-mounted swords, before activating his cannons and wiping out a whole line of hybrids who barely had a chance to fire off their rounds at the human soldiers across the dock, one of the HAW206 tanks fired off three more rounds at three larger attackers, blowing the top-half of their bodies off in an explosion of fire, metal and energon/blood plasma.

"The tanks on the west side of the base are in place and the front of the complex is secure; the Prime Minister and her staff are on their way to the GSDA's central command centre, and Jetfire managed to teleport the Major back to the base, what do we do now?..." Ironhide stated as he ran up to Prime, firing his cannons at several more hybrids who'd managed to blast their way through the perimeter wall. "By the way, Elita called, Toshima's under attack and Morri's seen even more of the slaggers making their way to the camps outside the city, what do we do now?" he asked; "We hold off the enemy here, at least until the humans have the tactical advantage of their base back" Prime replied as he took out another hybrid. "What about the flyers?" Ultra Magnus called over, "Jetfire has them covered, as well as the Jigabachi's" Prime pointed up to the sky as Jetfire thundered overhead, his axe blades leaving a trail of red/orange fire as they cut through every hybrid-flyer in their path, while a formation of Jigabachi's attack helicopters took out the flyers perching on the nearby buildings.

"HAHAHA! RUN! RUN FROM ME AND DESPAIR YOU COWARDS! FOR I AM-" Jetfire's zealousness was abruptly cut short as the sight of hundreds of flyer-hybrids fast approaching the city made him drop his arms to his side. "...Oh slag..." was all he could say. "Oh well, time to really bring the rain!" he straightened up, powered up his axe and charged head-long into the nearest formation. Down on the ground the human soldiers watched as the sky lit up with flames and smoke while a long loud battle-cry bellowed through the city, echoing through the skyscrapers like thunder. "Jesus! We're just bugs compared to them" one of the soldiers breathed in awe, "Maybe, but just be thankful their on our side!" his commanding officer barked as he fired at another charging hybrid.

* * *

"Where're we going daddy?" Mizuki asked as her father placed her in Bluestreak's backseat and strapped her in.

"I don't know yet sweetie, but you need to be strapped in just in case we need to go in a hurry, look after mommy and Haru okay?" he assured her before placing a kiss on her head, "I will" she replied as Togusa shut the door and let Bluestreak pull away and make his way towards the base's main entrance. "Okay, that's your family taken care of, what do need me to do now?" Matti asked as she helped Tai and his mother into Cliffjumper's back seats, "You're going with Chromia" Batou stated as the cobalt blue Lotus Elise pulled up alongside the ex-ranger and opened her back-seat door. "What? No way! I'm not going anywhere!" Matti protested angrily, "You're going and that's that! We don't know how crazy this shit's gonna get and I don't want you where your gonna get hurt, or worse!" Batou reprimanded, but his sister didn't back down as she stomped over to him, "After all the crazy shit I've been through do you seriously think I'm just gonna leave you and everyone? No one in this team has let me down so I ain't gonna let them down!" she spat back; Batou was about to chew her out when Matti's expression dropped as the Major placed a hand on her shoulder.

"...Your loyalty is well noted, and after everything that's happened you've certainly proven your worth to this team; but with all due respect Miss Walsh, unless you have any experience in hand-to-hand combat, handling fire-arms, or class-D or higher anti-cyber-terrorism training you're only going to slow us down. Things are going to start heating up and we can't afford to put anyone's lives at risk, it's the reason we brought you into protective custody in the first place remember?" she pointed out in her usual calm tone; taking a moment to consider the Major's words, Matti heaved a heavy sigh and let her temper slip away, "I may not be able to do any of that fancy 'anti-cybercrime' stuff like you, but I can shoot a handgun straight" she replied, "How well?" the Major quirked an eyebrow, "I can shoot ten coke cans off a wall at a distance" she replied confidently, "...It'll suffice, if things get dicey don't stop or hesitate, even for a second; if you see one of those things coming at you, shoot first then run..." the Major replied as she took out her spare handgun, along with three full clips and placed them in her hands "...Got it?" the Major stated assertively, "Got it" Matti replied, not quite believing what just happened as the female commander paced off, "Wow, didn't see that coming" Batou (figuratively) blinked in surprise, "I know, I was half expecting her to take your side" Matti blinked, "Wait a sec, how did she get back so fast?" she suddenly realized, "Teleport remember? Jetfire zapped her back here not two minutes ago; didn't you see him come in from the other side of the hanger?" Bumblebee asked as he walked by, "Guess I missed that" Batou thought aloud, "Listen-" Matti brought his attention back to the subject at hand, "Just be careful okay? And don't get your ass shot off or mom'll kill you" she added as she climbed into Chromia, "Hey I'll be fine, don't forget I got steel plates in my ass" he grinned before his expression turned serious again, "But seriously, you be careful too okay? This time the kid gloves are off and its go-time, it's gonna get ugly" he warned, "I know, but I'm still gonna do my part and look after everyone else. See ya later Boss-man" she smiled before Chromia shut her door and went off to join Bluestreak. "You okay?" John asked as he loaded a fresh clip into his handgun and stashed away in its holster, "Yeah, as soon as I know she and the others have some distance between here and those things I'll rest a little easier..." Batou sighed as he adjusted one of the straps on his black and dark grey combat gear, "So what's the game plan?" he called over to Jazz.

"We're gonna go an' defend that camp across from the highway, there're civilians in that place who're gonna need protecting; we talked with our 'security detail-'" he thumbed over to the tank units across the tarmac "And their commander's agreed to help defend this place in case more of those creeps show up!"

"It's not a case of 'if', its inevitable; those hybrids are everywhere and are heading straight for the camps and city!" Ravage growled as he trotted out of the hanger with Ashley on his back, "Can you really sense all their minds?" Arcee asked sceptically, "THEIR minds? The only minds in their helms are that of the Spark Eater's, they're not individual but rather a hive mind, one consciousness spread through thousands of forms" he added, "How many?" Elita asked, "I'm not sure exactly, the Spark Eater is keeping that secret for now, but there are defiantly enough that this is going to be one very long day" the panther deadpanned, "What about the humans? With the net down everyone'll be in a panic" the Major asked, "That's a grave understatement, for the most part all the humans are mostly confused, but that's going to change very quickly unless we don't haul our afts outta here!"

"Okay, SADDLE UP AND MOVE OUT!" the Major barked, and without wasting another minute everyone was out of the base and heading towards the highway; **"If we're gonna have any success in uploading the vaccine when it's complete, we're gonna need something with some serious voltage"** Darren said over the open comm in his guardian's radio while he continued his work on the vaccine via Trailbreaker's inbuilt dash-board laptops. **"I have a couple of places in the city that have some adequate hard-drives stashed away, their well hidden so we shouldn't be found out so easily" **Aoi replied via Hot Rod's radio, **"That's all well an' good but do any of them have enough processing power to access the military's network?" **Danny asked, **"Please; I'm not one to boast, but accessing Class-A networks is one of my forte's"** the hacker smiled, **"Good, cuz we're gonna...oh God..."**, **"What?"**, **"Look...", **Glen pointed out the window, up ahead the highway was full of hybrids speeding down all six lanes in a long line that seemed to stretch back all the way to the distant valleys and foothills, like a line of army ants on the march; and further ahead the telltale explosions and blasts of gunfire, tank blasts and mortar rounds dotted the land around the evac-camp as the GSAD tried to keep the enemy at bay. Though it looked like no hybrid had broken the front lines yet, from the way the creatures were gathering strength in their numbers that could change very soon.

'Slag, I hate when the panther's right' Sunstreaker mentally grumbled to himself.

* * *

"SHIT! Is that the last of them?" one of the human solders glanced around cautiously, before the giant black seeker landed on the ground with a booming thud, cracking the concrete under his talons as he powered down his axe, "Yep, that should do it!" Jetfire thought aloud as he surveyed his handiwork. All around the whole dockside was covered with the remains of flyer-hybrids who'd fallen before the ancient seeker's blade; arms, legs, helms, torsos, wings, tailfins and bits and pieces of engine parts all littered the concrete dockside, breakwaters, parade grounds, and some even floated on the calm flat jade-green sea before they sank to the bottom of the bay; as the solders emerged from their makeshift foxholes and surveyed the sheer number of dead hybrids, an uneasy sense of relief spread through the place as the Autobot leader and his team regrouped. "Excellent work Autobots, the base is finally secure" Prime stated as he looked around, "Do we go join the others? They're gonna need back-up if the Spark Eater's forces are going on the attack" Ironhide asked, looking out to sea, Prime opened his comm to every scrambled frequency going through the airwaves, and could hear the rising panic and frantic alarm in all the humans voices; especially all the crews of the American fleet, who had all watched Jetfire's impressive (and horrifying) attack on the hybrid-flyers. "It would be the prudent course of action, but first I want to be sure the humans have the situation under control" he stated

"We do now, thanks to you..." a voice directed his attention downwards, to where one of the human soldiers was standing behind him; "We just got a communiqué from the GSDA's central command, the four of you need to come to the GSDA's central command centre immediately; the rest of your team has been summoned too and will be waiting for you there. Also, the JMSDF is sending additional ships to counteract the enemy forces here in the city, our back-up's less than ten minutes away, you can go" he stated

"Very well, which way is it to the command centre?" Prime asked

* * *

"THIS IS SHIT! There's just too many of them!" Tom called out across the scorched earth

"Too many? There's not enough!" Sunstreaker grinned as he and his brother skated close to the evac-camp's perimeter fence, slicing hybrids as they twisted, turned and leapt through the enemy's wave of attack; Warpath blasted the larger hybrids while Deathshot sniped as many as he could from up in the clouds while everyone else held the GSDA's front line: bots on point laying down the frontal assault, humans providing cover-fire from the rear, with the acceptation of the kids providing shields with their BSHB's.

"For a super evil all-knowing soul-sucking bastard who's got the sum total of the con's knowledge in his head the Spark Eater sure ain't big on strategy! They're just trying to dog-pile us! They ain't really got a game-plan here!" Ashley called over to the NEST and Marine troops, "Your right, they're just using brute force to try and break through! Their right flank is completely open!" Lennox bellowed, to which both Thundercracker and Skywarp swooped down and laid down a hail of bullets and energon-plasma flairs; the attack forced the hybrids to fall back to the left of the battlefield, and right into Section 9's path who wiped the rest of the attack force out with grenade launchers and heavy machine gun fire. As the hybrids lay dead/dying across the burnt and scorched ground, the Autobots looked over the bodies, shooting any that twitched, groaned, or displayed any other signs of lingering life. The human forces took a moment to regroup and catch their breath as they surveyed the metallic carnage.

"That takes care of them" one GSDA troop sighed with relief

"For now, but more of them will come" John frowned

"Without our satellite to survey the situation we just don't know what's gonna come next!" Batou's Tachikoma sighed in exasperation.

"That's a bitch..." Ashley concurred before he did a double take at the tank, "Hang on a sec, don't you guys work from a server that's in a satellite up in orbit?" he asked, "Oh yeah, about that; after our predecessors sacrificed themselves to save everyone on Dejima and Nagasaki, the Major had mister Asuda, our 'father', create new AI's for us, with a secondary set of AI neural chips that are kept in a back-up server, so in case our satellite server was compromised for any reason, we'd be able to continue functioning!" Batou's Tachikoma explained sheepishly, "So that explains why you guys are still okay" Tom thought aloud, "Yeah, but having to abandon our satellite like that was so scary! I swear when that beam came for us and tried to delete us like a common spam-virus I thought we were all goners!" one of the other think tanks panicked.

"Yeah? Well we'll ALL be goners at this rate if we don't get the satellites back online!" one of the GSDA unit commanders commented offline

"Look buddy I don't know if you noticed but there's-"

"Uh guys?..." Sam pointed to the distant hillsides, standing on the top of which, another much larger hybrid attack force came charging down, this time with both flanks covered by larger, more imposing hybrid's whose arms and hands were configured into large cannons.

"SHIT! BACK TO YOUR POSITIONS!" John bellowed as everyone took aim and braced themselves for the next wave of fighting; but as the enemy came within a hundred yards, a sharp distant whistling-sound caught Deathshot's attention, and he turned in time to see what was making it.

"MISSILES INCOMING!" he shouted down, the kids threw up their protective shields just as the missiles struck the ground and blasted the entire hybrid attack force away, though the shields held up, the immense force of the blast made the shields wobble as the kids nearly lost their footing, and although the force fields protected everyone from the fire, the intense heat could still be felt. When the blasts dissipated, the fire and smoke cleared to reveal a blackened patch of earth the size of ten football fields with the mangled and half-melted remains of the enemy scattered everywhere; several black Oniyama helicopters came into hover, as they touched down the side of the nearest chopper opened up and two familiar-looking special-ops soldiers in black combat gear and white face masks jumped out, followed by a military man in a grey suit, tan trench coat, black beret and shades.

"What the hell are they doing here?" Batou frowned as the stranger approached and saluted, "Major Kusanagi, under direct orders from the generals of the combined armed forces you and your team have been ordered to go to the GSDA central command centre immediately" he stated sharply, "You too-" he turned to the Autobots, "Your leader's being summoned to the command centre as we speak".

"For what reason? We won't abandon these guys here! The people on the other side of that fence will all be wiped out if we don't stay and protect them!" Lennox gestured to the perimeter fence behind him; the stranger approached him, took off his shades and looked him square in the eye.

"It ain't just this place that's under attack, those bastards are hitting everyone everywhere in and around the city; we're here as your back-up and the Prime Minister requested you all specifically, so I suggest you get going. We got things covered here so don't worry" he said as he signalled to the other choppers to land; from out the choppers more soldiers abseiled down, followed by several black armed exo-suit units who took up positions by the tank units.

"...You sure?" Jazz asked dubiously

"Do you have to ask?" the stranger frowned up at him

"Heh, I guess not" he smiled

"Consider this an apology for our little mix-up when we first met; had we known back then what we know now, I can assure you it would never had gone down at all" he replied

"I know; you guys take care of yourselves you hear?" Jazz waved goodbye

"Seriously? You do know who your talking to?" the stranger quirked an eyebrow

"Hey, just bein' polite" the first lieutenant shrugged, "Skywarp! Teleport us to the Prime Minister's residence!" he ordered, the black and purple seeker dropped down as white energy blots crackled around his whole body and wings, and within seconds the entire Autobot team disappeared in a flash of white light. Leaving the remaining GSDA and Umibozu troops in a state of awe and amazement.

"Whoa..."

"You think they stop this?" one of the troops thought aloud

"...If anyone has a chance of stopping all this, they do; now fall into position!" the Umibozu commander barked.

* * *

Twenty blocks over from the Niihama naval base, the Prime Minister's residence was buzzing with activity as GSDA tanks, armed exo-suits, auto-cannons, and various other types of armoured vehicles and troops took up positions around the building's perimeter while Jigabachi's patrolled the skies overhead. As Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus and Ironhide rolled up to the front of the building Jetfire landed next to them, the soldiers at the gate aimed their weapons, but quickly stood down and let the bots enter after a discreet call from their superiors told them to let them pass; once in the centre of the complex the bots were waved to a large set of hanger-type doors at the far end of the main building, inside the rest of the Autobot team, NEST, Royal Marines and Section 9 were waiting for them, along with the Prime Minister herself and the all the heads of the combined Japanese military forces, along with a couple of other special forces-type units he didn't recognize. Behind them several large monitors had been set up, all displaying different views of various fire-fights between the hybrid army and the GSDA forces. After transforming back to mechmode and approaching everyone, Prime saw the grave looks of concern on their faces/face plates didn't bode well.

"Thank you for coming at such short notice Optimus, I heard the fight back at the naval base got pretty rough" the Prime Minister greeted him

"Bah! It was barely even a scuffle!" Jetfire waved off, "To you it may be a play-ground fight but it's barely been five minutes and we're already getting our asses kicked by those 'hybrids' out there!" one of the general's snapped, one of the other generals held up his hand to stop him and approached the Autobot leader. "The intel you provided on the Incept Code was correct on all points: as soon as that antenna tower appeared and shot that beam up into the sky we lost every satellite in orbit, right now everyone everywhere across the world is blind in the air and the only information we've got coming in is from the spy-drones and unmanned attack helicopters we got running around out there" he said in a calmer tone.

"On that point: the spy drones we sent to check out the tower sent back these images not two minutes ago..." Kobuta gestured to one of the monitors; the four images on the screen showed the mountain which the tower was standing on, and around its base and steep valley walls tens of hundreds of hybrids were pouring out of a giant set of doors in the mountains rock face, one on the ground and one some hundred feet further up where dozens of flyer-hybrids took to the air. "They've been coming out thick and fast since the tower went up, but considering the speed of the attacks it's likely they were already out before then: we estimate about three hundred have already emerged and that number is likely to double within the next hour. The GSDA units we posted around the emergency evacuation camps have already encountered the enemy and are holding them off for now. But they won't be able to hold off the main attack force once they clear the mountain passes and valleys leading out of there" he continued

"We tried to launch long-range missiles to intercept them but with all the satellites down we've lost the advantage of GPS tracking and pinpointing, our only option is the Guided Missile Destroyers that are coming in from west, they lunched a stand-alone missile at that thing, but like you said it's protected by some kind of force field, and we can't fire on the hybrid army because the only missiles that can be fired without satellite guidance are the ones armed with laser-guided systems; and we don't have anyone on the ground near that mountain with a laser pointer in hand" another of the general's added.

"In addition, the American fleet have just come under attack from more of those things, like us their holding up for now but it'll probably get ugly soon enough. We just got word from the fleet commanders that their preparing their amphibious assault units to land in and around the city to provide back-up for our more stretched units, they should be here in less than thirty minutes; and that's if they can survive the hybrids aerial attack" one of the Intelligence agents interjected nervously. "And to minimize the risk of being hacked again we cut all our main servers and primary outgoing online links, as of five minutes ago the entire GSDA network is down and inaccessible from the outside; but fortunately we had a contingency plan in place for just such an event, and currently we have only primary comm-frequency relays and digital signal scramblers in place for our troops out in the field, plus auxiliary servers fitted with one-way data filters and twenty-layer dummy barriers; I can assure you nothing's going to be creeping around our systems without us knowing about it; we're not going to be caught with our pants down a second time round" Kobuta added.

"In the centre of this complex, about fifty feet down from ground-level, there's a highly secure fortified bunker which acts as the GSDA's primary command centre during times of nation-wide emergency. Though our access to the net is limited, you're welcome to whatever resources you require" the Prime Minister.

"You certainly haven't wasted any time, considering the limited amount of technology at your disposal, you are a most capable leader" Prime commented as he scanned his optics over the monitors, "...Is there a map of the entire Niihama bay area and its surrounding terrain?" he asked

"Sorted, D? You there mate?" Ashley asked over his BSHB's inbuilt comm

"**I hear you"** his guardian replied

"Prime needs a map down here"

"**Someone activate their holoform projector down there please?"**

"Sure thing!" Hound replied as his optics flashed and a huge ten by ten meter square hologram of the entire Niihama bay and its surrounding mountainous landscape appeared a meter off the floor; everyone crowded around it and watched at the various little coloured highlights steadily moved across the diagram.

"I take it the red blips are the hybrids?" Lennox asked

"**You would be correct, and the yellow are all human"** Deathshot replied over Jazz's sound-speaker

"Damn, how in the hell are we supposed to take down all of them?" Epps breathed at the sheer number of red dots littered across certain parts of the diagram; as he studied the diagram carefully, Prime's expression went from unreadable to concerned as the hybrid army advanced on the city.

"What are we going to do? There's gonna be over six hundred of those things in the next hour, and possibly nine hundred by mid-afternoon; we're gonna be overrun by sunset at that rate" John's second-in-command said offhand.

"We're going to need reinforcements; and some seriously heavy firepower" Prime stated

"Well we can ask the American's for a spare nuke, we know three of their nuclear submarines are lurking off the far west and eastern sides of the bay, and one about eighty miles out behind their Frigates; with the Japanese miracle at our disposal the damage can be limited-" one of the generals said offhand

"No, the use of a nuclear weapon is far too dangerous, even if the Japanese miracle limits the radiation output of the fallout; the initial blast will create far too many casualties..." Prime replied, "We must send for to the remaining Autobots back in our world; we need them to come immediately, and bring Omega Supreme with them" he stated, the other Autobots nodded in agreement, but a collective wave of gasps went around the NEST troops and Marines.

"Seriously Prime? I know this shit's real bad but people are gonna freak big-time when they see THAT guy!" Epps glanced up the Autobot leader dubiously; "Yeah, don't you think the American's out in the bay won't be tempted to fire on him thinking he might be a super-sized hybrid?" John asked

"Not unless we keep them informed of the situation" Prime assured them, "We're going to need all the help we can get, and only an Autobot like Omega Supreme can keep an army of this size at bay and give us the chance we need to go on the offence"

"Speaking of which, with that new chip in your helm did you sense anything that might be able to help us in all this? Surly you must have sensed something of the Spark Eater when you and Morri encountered it in that 'other place'?" Jetfire asked Ravage, all eyes and optics fell on the panther as he dropped his gaze in thought.

"...More than I care to assume, and certainly half of what I had already assumed to be true" he growled

"Meaning?" Ironhide asked dubiously

"This battle could swing in our favour, but at the same time it could easily descend into the pit..." he replied, the hint of concern in his voice didn't escape Prime's notice as everyone glanced at one another; "We already had an idea that the Spark Eater's telepathic power has been waning for some time, and per Swiftshot's data we know the Spark Eater had put a great strain on its power by extending its telepathic range online; but I never imaging that it could go the other way too" he explained

"The other way? I don't follow" asked Sam

"Instead of slowly losing its strength through stretching its power over vast areas of the net, the Spark Eater has actually grown too powerful; the amount of data in its processor, coupled with the sheer number of 'absorbed' minds and ghosts all trying to claw their way out, have inadvertently caused the entity's psyche to crack and fracture under the strain. It's no longer 'one' Spark Eater, but many, and their all vying for control of the host 'personality', if can still be called that"

"So all the people whose minds and ghosts it consumed over the years, they really weren't merged with it after all" Aoi realized

"No, if anything they were merely sucked out of their bodies and placed into a 'processing prison' that the Spark Eater created from the Dark Sparks own energies; but now that there are so many, the prison's bars are finally weakening and it'll only be a matter of time before they all break loose. But that's beside the point, with the entity's mind fractured into many 'personalities' it's telepathic control is now dangerously unstable; as a result it's mind and conscious self are nearly all but destroyed, and what sentience it has left is slowly diminishing. In a strange way it's actually 'devolving', soon it will be nothing more than a primitive beast" Ravage explained

"Is that why the hybrids put up such a lousy fight? Cuz they certainly weren't that disorganized when we fought them in the city weeks ago" Becca asked offhand

"They were never truly individual let alone still 'human' in any capacity; the Spark Eater's always used them as extensions of its mind: to be its optics, audios and hands where it couldn't be, what 'individuality' they had was merely the remnants of the human sparks that occupied those bodies. I see that now, and they were only as smart as the Spark Eater itself, their waning intelligence and capacity to think by themselves has nearly all but gone; now they're all no more smarter than rabid turbo-rats that have had their muzzles removed and aimed at their prey" the panther growled. "So technically we've got a hell of a tactical advantage over them; we can outmanoeuvre, outsmart and outthink them, hell why don't we just let Miles take care of them all, even he can beat them in one move!" Ashley interjected, to which Miles was about to reply but Ravage beat him to it; "Yes we have the advantage of 'brains over brawn'" he replied.

"That may be so but we'll be outnumbered by the day's end!" one of the generals interjected

"With all due respect, number's don't win battles" one of the intelligence agents replied

"No but they do help; the Spark Eater is running on instinct now, it's churning out its minions and throwing wave after wave of attack, trying and exhaust and thin us out, our greatest advantage in all this is that its capacity to learn from its mistakes is diminished, thus we can use the same tactics repeatedly with the certainty that it won't catch on to what we we're up to any time soon" Ravage replied. "What about the risk of telepathic interception? If we attempt the infiltrate that base will it sense our presence?" Prime asked, to which the panter hesitated slightly "...I can't tell you that there's a chance it won't; when we encountered the entity in the astral void there was a brief moment when I was able to probe its mind. That's when I learnt of the true extent of its 'devolution' and realized that this isn't going to be so simple; it doesn't even acknowledge the fact that the odds are no longer in its favour never mind that it's not consciously aware of the fact that it's growing dumber and deader by the hour. Whatever strategy it deploys to try and defend itself, it's likely to be one of brute force and sheers numbers, not strategy or cunning" he explained.

"You said that the Spark Eater's telepathic control is dangerously unstable, does that mean he can't intercept our minds like he did with me?" Morri asked

"Alas dear child, it was his attempt to try and brainwash you that was his undoing; trying to overthrow and reshape a conscious mind like yours takes great time, effort and strength, and he spent up what remaining strength he had on you rather than save it for controlling the hybrids with a little more smarts. Because you were able to break free from his 'illusion' of your own accord, he realized just how weak he truly is. The Spark Eater no longer has the strength to telepathically intercept anyone in the real world, but it does still hold a lot of power on the net; its telepathy is still functioning only because of its grip on the net's base-line hub and the power it holds within, and that is it's weakness now. If we try to infiltrate the base there's a chance he won't be able to sense us telepathically, but it's not a guarantee that he won't be aware of us in other ways...Since realizing its diminishing state of mind, the Spark Eater is probably now more dangerous than when it's mind was intact, even now I can still sense its raw energies rippling across the void" the panther warned.

"You're still in contact with it!" Morri gasped

"No, not directly, but since I awoke I'm now acutely aware of its presence in this world" he assured her.

"What can you sense?" Prime asked

"...Nothing and everything; with all its 'multiple personalities' trying to vie for control its sense of self is all over the place, but more than anything they're all afraid, angry, and more dangerous in a state of panic...but something else too..." Ravage pressed his ears flat against his head in agitation, and a low growl escaped his metal lips, "...the Dark Spark; with the Spark Eater's control over its own being nearly all but gone the Dark Spark has evolved into a parasite, feeding off its host's body and consuming it from the inside out...while not possessing a consciousness of its own, the Dark Spark is just as dangerous if not more so; either way, they both need to be destroyed" he growled.

"But if it's so weak why is it launching the Incept Code at all? If it knows the end is near why bother trying to overthrow the world when you're not going to be there to rule it?" Darren asked

"Because while the 'original' Spark Eater's true self may be dyeing, all the other 'personalities' within it will become dominant once the Incept Code goes all over the net; and these other 'selves' are much more animalistic in their nature, more raw, more predacious..."

"Predacious?" Glen swallowed hard

"...Long ago, when the Spark Eater was whole and still in control of its abilities and faculties, it wanted only to replace humanity with machines, to build a new Cybertron, one that only it could control. But these 'other creatures'? If the Incept Code is allowed to go global cyberspace will become their new feeding ground, and every human that attempts to dive into the net will be nothing but a fat seal-pup, ripe for the 'sharks' to pick off: believe me when I tell you, it's not going to be a disaster, it's going to be carnage..." Ravage growled; a tense moment of silent dread passed as everyone glanced at one another and Prime hummed in deep concern and thought.

"...Okay, so the Spark Eater's mind, or what's left of it at least, is more or less still intact correct?" Darren asked, "Correct" Ravage nodded, "So? While its 'dominant' personality is alive it's keeping the other personalities suppressed for the time being, and stopping them from using its telepathy at the same time?" he hypothesized; "Its telepathic power is still bound to its dominant mind, once the life-energies in that mind have dissipated and 'died', the energies that comprise the driving force of its telepathy matrix will be without a 'host mind'; though it's unclear at this point it's likely that the other personalities will fight for control; a telepathy matrix can only be wielded by one mind at a time. Without a host mind providing control and stability, the energies within the matrix will ripple across all the energies of the Earth, and fracture the 'base' structure of the net itself. Essentially, the net will crack and fracture into nothingness; becoming an empty black void, and everyone on it will be nothing more than wandering 'ghosts' neither alive nor dead and unable to get back to their bodies at all, essentially, it will become the worst form of 'hell' anyone can imagine"

"Whoa..." Miles breathed

"...But, if the Spark Eater's power is mainly limited to the net now, maybe we could distract it online while we sneak into its base? The vaccine may not be ready yet but we still have time before the Incept Code's viral signal goes global, we could throw some multi-layer attack barriers, firewalls and chimera viruses at it!" Glen pointed out. "That could work, I can't 'see' much but I know the Spark Eater's attention isn't focused primarily on controlling the hybrids, all it wants more than anything is for that signal to overthrow the net" Ravage concurred.

"The tower went up two hours ago that leaves us twenty two hours to get to the base, get the humans out, shoot out the servers in that other shaft thus blowing up the base via its own energon supply, and getting away before the volcano inside the mountain is triggered; in addition to stopping an army of mindless Cybertronian/human hybrid zombies giving everyone in New Port a first-hand experience in pest-control. Yeah that does sound like a cinch" Sam sarcastically deadpanned.

"Hey we all know this isn't going to be easy Witwicky!" Hailey retorted

"I know that!" He retorted back, "I'm just saying, even with the GSDA holding the hybrids back, the situation is a lot more complicated than that; they may not be smart but there will be hundreds of them by the end of the day. Even if we safely get everyone in those stasis chambers out and back here to New Port, they're still gonna be in danger" he pointed out.

"I agree..." Prime grabbed their attention, "Which is why we will not all intercept the base at once; this situation is indeed too large for us to take on as a whole. Our strengths and talents will be of much more proficient use if applied in other more strategic ways"

"So what's the plan?" the Major asked

"We will split into four main teams; Jetfire, you will lead Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Chromia, Arcee, Trailbreaker, Skywarp, Ravage and Scorponok on the mission to free the human captives from the enemy base, you will also take Section 9, the Royal Marines and NEST. Morri, Tom, Sam, any other time I would ask you all to remain here for your own safety; but in this instance the team may require the use of your BSHB's shields; Deathshot and Bluestreak, you will find and set up a hide-site within proximity to the enemy base and provide sniper-cover for the team in case they have to come out via the cavern entrance. Darren, you will stay here with Glen, Danny, Rumble, Frenzy and Aoi and provide online assistance and support from the command centre; your tasks are to complete the vaccine and deploy it when ready, as well as provide any assistance where needed. Elita, you will lead Ratchet, Ultra Magnas, Hot Rod, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Lazerbeak and Buzzsaw, and protect the GSDA central command centre, though our enemy may no longer understand the strategic value of this place, it must be protected at all costs if the GSDA forces are to stand any chance of survival. Mikaela, Miles, Ashley, Hailey, Becca and Becky, you will stay here with Elita's team and provide assistance where needed, as well as protection for Jay-jay, Annabelle, Miss Walsh and the other families" Prime ordered

"What about us?" one of the other humans stepped forward; Optimus noticed his prosthetic eyes were the same design as Batou's, "Kagawa? What're you doing here?" Morri blinked in surprise as the Rangers and their commander stepped forward, "Giving you guys the opportunity to repay us; you know you were right, I did make the right choice that night, and not just for the obvious reason. I read Aramaki's reports; you guys have really stuck your necks out for all of us this past month, and it'd be rude of us not to return the favour" he smiled, to which Morri couldn't help but smile. "I'm sorry, but I don't believe we have be introduced?" Prime asked, "Commander Sho Kagawa, unit field-commander of Section 4" he saluted the Autobot leader "We volunteered to be assigned to your task force sir, whatever you need us to do, just give the word and we'll get it done" he replied, "Very well, You will help Elita-1 defend the command centre" Prime stated, "Very good sir" Kagawa saluted.

"And what about you Optimus, where will you and the rest of us be in all this?" Hound asked

"You will accompany me, Ironhide, Warpath, Jazz, Springer and Thundercracker to the rift-site; Deathshot still has in his possession the original message beacon we sent Jazz's team weeks ago, we will upload a new message and send it through the rift back to our world; though no less dangerous than all of our other tasks at hand, this is by far the most crucial, as the rift-site will soon be cut off by the advancing hybrids..." Prime gestured to the holo-diagram, on a section of the map the rift-site was highlighted, and slowly approaching it from the north, a small line of red dots moved ever closer to it.

"Holy crap! Their gonna be on that place by mid-afternoon at that rate!" Danny realized

"Which is why we must go there; not only to deliver the message, but to also close the rift" Prime stated

"Say wha?-"

"Before we set out on our rescue mission, Wheeljack discovered a way to open the rift from our side of the dimensional 'divide' without the use of a secondary DRD. Loaded in my cannon is a special round fitted with a quantum-field nullifying generator, which when fired into the rift will discharge a harmless mass of ion-charged tachyon particles that will cause the rift to collapse in on itself and be closed permanently. It's the only way can ensure no hybrids, or anyone else can come through into our universe" Prime explained

"That's a relief; we were half wondering what would happen to that thing when you eventually have to go home" Kobuta sighed

"But wait! How the hell we will get back?" Miles exclaimed in alarm

"That issue has already been taken care of, rest assured we will be able to get home; but in the meantime, we must focus on the tasks at hand..." Prime stated "You all have thirty minutes prep-time, and then we move out"

* * *

"..."

"...You can sulk all you want but it's not going change me or Optimus's mind; I prefer you stay here anyway so at least I know your safe" John said as he strapped his semi-automatic to his chest, Ashley scowled as he handed him several grenades. "Your one to talk, you don't have a BSHB to cover your arse, if anything I prefer YOU to stay here!" Ashley retorted back; John looked up at him, and through the frustration he could see his son's concern for him. Passing a regretful sigh, the Royal Marine stood up and (carefully) wrapped his arms around him in a hug (being sure none of the weapons snagged or poked him accidently). In a rare moment of understanding Ashley let go of his frustration and buried his head into his father's chest, listening to his breaths and heartbeat (being careful not to accidently snag the safety-catch on the semi-automatic).

"...Don't worry about me; I can take care of myself..." John sighed with a small smile, "And listen-" he caught his gaze and looked him in the eye; "...I don't know what's going to happen when we get there, I don't know what'll be waiting for us, and I don't know, if at all, we'll be successful...but if anything happens to me-"

"No! Dad-"

"-No Ashley listen-" John put one hand on his shoulder and one hand softly on the side of his face'; Ashley hadn't realized just how big his father's hands were, how they practically covered his entire shoulder and the whole side of his head as he held him steadily, "...If anything happens to me, I want you to be there for our family: I want you to be there for your mum, your cousins, your Grandparents, aunts, uncles; everyone. I want you to look after them, care for them, and love them every day, through thick and thin, even when you argue and fallout, I still want you love them no matter what. This is so much bigger than anything we've had to face, and I don't know what'll happen; we all have to be prepared for anything, even if that means we fail"

"But you won't fail" Ashley replied, his confident tone masking the hint of worry in his voice.

"How do you know that?" he asked softly

"...Because you're my dad, you never fail..." was all Ashley found he could say. With a proud smile John hugged him tighter and stroked his fingers through his hair, breathing deep, and remembering his scent...for this could be the last time he would ever have with him...

"Hey..." a soft voice grabbed their attention, "We'll be moving out in five minutes" Batou said, John softly let go and handed Ashley his spear, "Look after your cousins you hear? And listen to Elita, she's in charge okay?"

"Okay..." Ashley said, "Bye dad" he offered a small smile, "...See ya later soldier" he father smiled as he turned and left the room.

"Don't worry..." Batou caught his attention, "We'll bring him back, I promise" Batou offered, "Nah, he'll be the one dragging your arse back, I guarantee" Ashley replied, "Well, however this turns out, one of us will be buying the drinks" Batou smirked; "Yeah, you" the pre-teen smirked, "See you afterwards mate", "You too kid..." Batou smiled as they both left the room and went on through back into the building's main complex; there the Autobot team, their human friends and many other human military personnel were waiting as the finishing touches were applied to the designated teams.

"Okay, the message beacon's good to go" Deathshot said as he retracted his interceptor cables and handed the cylindrical device to Prime, who stashed it away in his sub-space, "And Darren's, here's that 'emergency kit' you asked for" he handed the young hacker a set of silver canisters, "Thanks..." he turned his attention back to Jetfire's team, "Alright guys, all the intel from the data-cube you need has been uploaded to your processors, cyber-brains and hand-held's directly; floor plans of the base, schematics, location trackers, the whole works; you won't get lost once you're in that place" Darren said as he typed something on his hand-held computer. "We've both recalibrated our teleportation matrixes to the same frequencies; we'll be able to teleport a maximum of a hundred and fifty humans at a time straight back here" Jetfire added, gesturing to Skywarp, "Good, because we've just managed to round up all the doctors and medics we can spare, they'll be on stand-by for when the first wave of victims arrive" Kobuta said.

"Stand firm boy" Ravage whispered in Ashley's ear, the twelve year old glanced sideways at the panther and stroked the side of his jaw, "Take care of dad and Batou okay? And everyone else too yeah?" he asked softly, "I'll make sure they don't enjoy themselves too much..." he smirked; "One way or another, this ends today; now fall in, and show those creatures what your truly made of, make your father and I proud" he smiled with a sly grin; "I will...you give' em hell down there" Ashley smirked as he patted him goodbye, "And then some" Ravage replied as he took his place by Jetfire's side. "Hey..." Morri and Tom caught his attention as they approached, "Stay outta trouble okay?" Tom smirked, "Only if you stay outta trouble first" Ashley grinned, "See ya later trouble" Morri smiled as they hugged, "Hey don't forget your favourite ginger-snap!" Danny protested as he squeezed in, the cousins laughed as they said their goodbyes, while behind Bumblebee's legs, another goodbye was taking place.

"Promise you won't get yourself killed?" Mikaela asked Sam as she brought him in for a hug. "Hey come on..." Sam gazed down into her bright blue eyes, "After all the crazy shit we've been through this month I don't think near-death-experiences are really my thing anymore" he grinned, trying to feign his nervousness for eagerness, Mikaela wasn't buying it, but she didn't mind; she knew Sam, and knew he wasn't one to chicken out so likely (at least, not when the circumstances called for it). "Yeah but this isn't Mission City; you got lucky that one time" she pointed out, "Yeah, I got lucky" Sam shrugged, "...But it's not gonna change the fact that this whole things is going down the way it is; Prime needs me to a job and I'm gonna do it, and I'll have Bee to cover me so don't worry; I'm covered I'm cool, no problem" he assured her. "So, I take it your low self-esteem still at an all-time high?" she asked "Hell yeah, why else do you think I'm wearing in my D-Day shirt?" he gestured to his hoodie, the same one he'd worn that day in Mission City two years ago; "I still can't believe you kept that thing let alone bring it on our 'camping trip'; you do know there are still blood-stain's in it?" she grimaced, "Hey blood-stains lend to its character you know, it's like my Super Bowl jersey, I survived in this thing" he replied. "Uh Sam? It's nearly time" Bumblebee said in a hushed tone, "Okay buddy one more minute..." Sam waved off, "Look, before we came here; after that day in Mission city I just wanted a normal life you know? I wanted things to go back to the way they were before, but now-" he hesitated, "...What?" she asked curiously, "...I don't think normal's really my thing anymore" he replied frankly, for a moment he was surprised at his own words, as if that wasn't (quite) the usual Sam Witwicky talking, "Is that really such a bad thing?" Mikaela asked, "...At the expense of being happy, I don't think so. Besides, if Miles can pull off being himself off every day and not be embarrassed at anything he says or does, I don't think my chances can be any worse" he shrugged. "Hm, Sam Witwicky I do believe you have achieved some infinitesimal speck of enlightenment" Mikaela teased, "Really? Well in that case I better make the most of it, cuz knowing my genetics chances are it'll probably go out the window in the next ten minutes" he smiled, "Yeah, you do that" she smiled as she leaned in closer and placed a lingering kiss on his lips, "I'll come back to you, I promise" he said, "I'll be waiting" she promised as he straightened up and climbed into Bumblebee's waiting hand, "See you later Mikaela, take care youngling" the young scout smiled as he stood back up, "Yo! See ya later bros!" Miles glanced up at them. "Bye Miles; don't go overboard on the overkill you hear!" Sam called back. "You take of yourself lil' buddy" Jazz smiled down at the blond teen, "Ah come on Jazz, this is me your talking to" Miles grinned, "I know, so make sure you leave some hybrid zombies for the others okay?", "Can't promise anything" he patted him on the lag, "Me neither, so just watch your back and everyone else's yeah?"; "Yeah, later dude" Miles waved him goodbye.

"See ya later buddy..." Darren and his guardian bro-fisted, "Take care you hear?". "Hey, I'll be fine, you just give that fragger the pit" Trailbreaker smiled, "When this is over and we finally get home, we'll drift-race the Macy brothers over Dirt creek, just you, me and then those two pricks yeah?" Darren smirked, "That would be wonderful" he guardian smiled as he stood back up.

"Don't you dare get yourself killed okay?-" Hailey stroked the side of Bluestreak's face plates while her younger sisters stroked and kissed the other side, "Cuz who else am I supposed to drive?" she kissed him on the cheek plate, "And who else will I have in my driver's seat? Or back seats for that matter? Or to pick out a new paint job? New air freshener? Help me with my flat tires, or-", "Blue" Hailey got his attention; "Oh, yeah..." he (figuratively) blushed "Gotta try and cut down on the rambling when we get back" he offered a small smile, "I don't care if you bore me to tears, I'll always want to hear your voice" she smiled, "That would be something" the twins smiled; "Take care girls, an' I'll see you three later" he waved good bye.

"Prime, we've had a last minute change of plans, I've assigned fifteen of my guys to say here and take care of the victims when they come through" Will said. "And I've assigned Ishikawa to help Darren and the others, and Togusa to be with Mikaela's team" the Major added

"Vary well..." Prime nodded, "Jetfire, as soon as our mission objective at the rift-site is complete we will make our way to the Spark Eater's mountain base to provide back-up. The hybrids are using the southern mountain roads and passes to get to the city; we will use the laser target designators that the GSDA have provided us to guide the long-range missiles to their targets and render those routes impassable. Hopefully we will buy the GSDA enough time to gain some ground, and put some distance between the hybrids and the evac-camps..." Prime said as he placed his hands on his hip-plates, and gazed his optics over the group, grabbing everyone's attention; especially the humans...

"...For many of you this is a huge undertaking, much larger than anything you have ever undertaken before in your lives; if you are scared, or have doubts, don't be ashamed to acknowledge them...I know the revelations that have transpired over the last few days have been both daunting, and unimaginable. But know this; fate rarely calls upon us at a moment of our choosing, but when it comes we can either choose to stand and face it, our lay down and surrender; the choices we deny are just as important as the ones we choose, every action and inaction has a consequence, and it is through the inactions of those that have come before us, that we find ourselves here today, standing our ground before an enemy that is virtually as infinite as the net itself, and insidious beyond belief...Remember, this battle will not be won by how many enemies we kill, but by how many lives we can save: by the number of families we protect, by the number of younglings we refuse to let die in vain, by the city we refuse to abandon, by the country we refuse to let stand alone in its darkest hour, and by the planet we choose to stand and defend in the name of freedom. I cannot promise you that that your lives will return to the way they were before, but we will give you back the promise of a future... It has been an honour knowing all of you, and I thank you for what you have done for us and our friends, Autobots! Transform and roll out!"

And with that, Prime transformed, connected himself up to his trailer and rolled out the door, followed closely behind by his team; Jetfire's team teleported away in a flash of white light and a thundering boom, Darren's team made their way off the command centre while Elita-1's team filed out the main doors of the complex to take their positions around the perimeter. As everyone else assumed their positions and got to work, Kagawa noticed one of the younger Rangers standing where Optimus had been, though his eyes were cybernetic, the sense of awe, wonder and reverence was plain to see shining in them.

"You gonna be okay?" Kagawa asked

"...Do you...believe he really meant all that?" soldier asked in disbelief,

"...Yes I do, and although I don't know the guy personally, I get the feeling he wouldn't have told us any of that if he didn't think we were up to the task. Those kids, I don't think they would've let him bench them even if he tried, they've been through way too much to take a back seat to all this now, not when they've all come so far; and I think he knows that, and not just because they have those fancy force-field shields to protect them...now, do you think you can do this rookie?" he asked the younger soldier.

"YES SIR!" he saluted

"Then get going already!" Kagawa ordered, and the young man was out of the door like a shot.

* * *

Yep, it's go-time! & goodbyes are always important, cuz it's gonna be a looooong day... R&R please!


	75. Chapter 74: The Mission

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

Caution: Strong swearing here and there, and possibly some graphic death scenes elsewhere.

Additional Disclaimer: Matti belongs to JillTheCrazy1

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 74: THE MISSION

It was strange, almost exciting in a way...time having no meaning, the feeling of being suspended in pure energy, and becoming a part of the fabric of time and space itself was both thrilling, and terrifying. For the bots who'd done it many times over during the course of the Allspark wars it wasn't anything new; but for the humans it was an experience unlike any other: a high that went beyond the physical and a rush more potent that adrenaline. Perhaps then it was best that the experience lasted only but a slit second, for Sam was sure that if he'd stayed suspended in this 'liquid lightning' any longer, his heart would probably give out. As the blinding white light of Jetfire and Skywarp's teleportation sequence disappeared, the scene rapidly changed to that of a forest perched on a steep rocky slope overlooking a deep winding valley.

"Okay, that's Bluestreak in place; Deathshot throw up some cover!" Jetfire barked; without skipping a beat, a black prism-shaped rod tipped with a hexagonal device rose up some ten meters from in between the sniper's shoulder-plates and began humming softly before a small flash of purple light pulsated from the tip and a semi-transparent field of energy went up and enveloped the whole team in a giant dome of energy; much like the giant holo-projector that kept the first safe-house hidden from sight. Acting on well-tuned instinct, the Autobots, Section 9 team, Royal Marines & NEST troops all aimed their guns out into the forest, checking every blind spot and looking/scanning for any sign of the enemy; after a tense few minutes of silent listening, Jetfire gestured for them to stand down.

"Very good, we've gone undetected" the ancient seeker said in a hushed tone; at that moment several formations of flyer-hybrids shot overhead, making a beeline for the south.

"Only just" Tom gulped

"Head up to the top of the ridge, the mountain should be straight ahead; all of you stay close together, this holoform cover is only good for a radius of forty feet" Jetfire stated, and together the team moved in formation up the steep slope; navigating the rocky ground, thick vegetation and dangerously slippery cliff-face's was tough going, but not for this lot, and within half an hour they were up at the very top of the valley. On the other side of the ridge, another, much wider valley was spread over some distance, and on the other side of it stood the mountain wherein the Spark Eater's base was hidden. Atop the mountains peak however, the giant antenna tower towered high over everything else like a giant shadow without a master. Now that they were this close, they could make out all the more intricate details on the structure's surface; the jet black metal glistened in the sun with a vivid violet iridescence, the more central support 'pillars' for the central shaft were lined with long columns of Cybertronian glyphs while the outspread 'claws' on the top thrummed rhythmically as the seemingly endless red beam of light towered endlessly upward into the sky. On the ground the mountain's peak was lined with more 'claws' and 'upside-down spider legs'-like structures that were emitting a pale blue aura all around the tower; in a strange, almost instinctive way, the whole thing felt just as evil as it looked as a strange low, almost inaudible growling sound emanated from the tower's central shaft, as if it were a predator waiting for the kill.

"Whoa, that just reeks of bad karma" Sam grimaced as he gazed up at the tower.

"Like Dali on acid I'd say..." Morri concurred, to which several of the troops nodded in agreement "...Uh Ravage? If those hybrids are as dumb as you suggest, would they not know how to use their scanners anymore?" Morri asked nervously as she stood frozen on the opposite side of the ridge, staring down into the valley.

"Technically no, I sense they still know how to use their weapons but something as complex as a scanner is now beyond their understanding. Why?..." Ravage asked as he paced over to ledge next to her, and saw what had caught her attention, "...Ah. I see..." he gazed down into the valley. All along the valley floor and part of the mountain slope, hundreds of hybrids were swarming like insects from out of a huge rectangular hanger-size door at the very base of the mountain; per Darren's intel there was another door some hundred feet up above the ground, from out of which dozens of flyer-hybrids flew out and headed south. Some distance away, at the far eastern end of the valley the hybrids made their way onto the main highway that cut through the mountains; the main route that connected New Port and its surrounding towns and villages to the north.

"So, that's their main route to the city; we'll let Darren's team and the GSDA take care of them" Jetfire frowned

"I see the cavern entrance; down there, in that gully" Scorponok pointed with his claw to a small ravine in the forest that was practically right below them at the very bottom of the valley slope.

"You mean the cavern entrance that's got hybrids crawling all around it?" Chromia pointed out; sure enough there was a large group of hybrids wandering around the ravine, seemingly looking for something.

"Do you think they know it's there?" Will thought aloud

"I wouldn't put it past the Spark Eater to be at least aware that we're attempting something; it may be losing its sentience and sanity but it's not out of options yet" Ravage replied in a serious tone

"Can you sense it? And if so what's it got in mind?" John asked

"...It's silent, as if waiting for something to happen. But I get the impression its attention is focused on something else; I daren't probe it, not when we're be so close. If it senses me nearby no amount of telepathic 'scent masking' will be able to shield us from its awareness. Though it can't telepathically attack us directly, it could still forward its army to find us, and that would be most inconvenient" the panther replied. Jetfire gazed all over the valley, carefully studying the hybrids and the layout of the landscape before he turned his attention back to the group.

"Alright, here's the plan; Skywarp and I will teleport us all directly into the magma chamber directly above the top-most stasis chamber, from there we'll dig our way down to the chamber ceiling. Deathshot, you'll fly Pazu and Boma over to the north side of the mountain and locate that auxiliary server shaft; according to Darren's intel the shaft should be approximately fifty feet from the edge of the tower's deflector shield; there doesn't appear to be any guards but even so, exercise extreme caution and don't draw any attention. Remember, stealth is the one element we can't afford to lose; if you encounter any trouble be swift, fast and silent. Now, according to the intel each stasis chamber holds up to three hundred humans, there are five chambers plus two smaller chambers next to the birthing chambers which hold fifty each. We have one hour to break in, hack into the system via the computers and lock down the stasis chambers, from there we open all the stasis pods and teleport all the humans back to the Prime Minister's residence before the volcano goes active.

"Five chambers with three hundred humans in each one; that should be one thousand and fifty victims, give or take if all the chambers are full" the Major pointed out

"Which means ten teleportation sequences in total if that's the case; fortunately that should only take about twenty minutes if we don't hang around" Skywarp said offhand.

"Exactly; when the volcano goes up we'll make our escape on the final return teleport sequence; Deathshot, you, Bluestreak Pazu and Boma will have to make your escape and meet up with us back at the command centre; once we're down there our comms will be useless, that tower's emitting way too much energy interference for them to work properly. Getting all those humans out of their stasis pods and into the centre of each chamber for a safe teleport sequence will be the real time consumer. So, you humans and the Tachikoma's will handle the victims while every bot guards the doors and make sure the hybrids stay out, both online and offline. Part of our weaponry includes this multi-layered mask array-" Jetfire produced a small red USB stick from his subspace, "Which when inserted into the system will make the enemy believe nothing's happened; but there's always room for error, so Ravage, we'll need you to keep a 'psychic optic' on the situation. The second the Spark Eater is aware something's off, try something, anything that'll buy us time to get out with all the victims alive" he stated to which the panther nodded discreetly. "So unless there are any other questions; synchronize your chronometers to fourteen hundred hours...Ready? One, two-"

"Set!" everyone replied in unison as they set their watches

"Right, let's get going; see you three afterwards" Jetfire nodded to Deathshot as he stashed the two humans away into his cockpit; the two seekers held up their hands as white energy began to discharge all around the group and in a blinding explosion of white light the seekers and their team teleported away, at the exact same moment Deathshot disengaged his holoform projector and activated his stealth mode, disappearing into the air, just as the hybrids dumbly glanced up at the top of the ridge; but upon not seeing nothing, went back to making their way towards the highway.

Deep down under the valley, in a huge underground cavern the size of a small cathedral and comprised of pumice and other igneous rock with a tunnel right at the far end that led up to the surface, Jetfire's team reappeared; the brilliant white light of energy being to only brief source of light throughout the entire cavern before everyone turned on their flash-lights and headlights"

Is this it?" Batou's Tachikoma thought aloud

"Yes. This is it; Scorponok-"

"Right, give me a few seconds..." the scorpion replied as he bowed his head down low and started emitting a shrill buzzing that was his ground-penetrating sonar, within a minute he scuttled around the cavern floor, seemingly closing in on a particular patch of pumice and circling around it with great interest like a hound sniffing out a quail.

"...This is it. I can see the top of the chamber, and the energon lines beneath; hold on..." he said as he spun his claws and jumped head-first into the rock, a tall plume of rock, ash and dust sprayed up into the musty air as the scorpion-drone burrowed down, creating a hole wide enough for Jetfire to go through. As he stopped and the dust settled back down, the team gazed down into the hole, a smooth yet patterned surface of metal lay at the bottom this a slight thrumming emanating from beneath.

"Good, Arcee, if you please" the ancient seeker gestured to the metal cover as Arcee circled around the hole and activated her laser cutters, Hot Rod and Bumblebee both activated the magnetic generators in their wrists and grabbed the huge circular chunk of metal before it had a chance to fall and placed it to one side. A metre or so down was a nest of cables, wires and a mix of human and Cybertronian devices all snaking along in a singular direction, and beneath them the outline of the energon lines could be seen glowing through the wires, lighting up the cavern in an eerie pink-ish glow. Pushing the wires all to one side, Jetfire found a small consol and promptly plugged in the small red USB stick, all at once the consol seemed to take on a life of its own as a series of red numbers flashed across the tiny monitor before in bleeped a green: system access complete.

"Two minutes till two o' clock; Pazu and Boma should've set off the detonators by now" Tom said offhand

"Darren said there should be a shockwave passing through all the energon lines the moment the dampening filters explode. Now listen; Kusanagi, Briggs, Lennox, we'll drop down first and you three lead on after we've established a perimeter and laid down some cover-fire, stay on our legs and stay down, at least until we've pushed the hybrids back into the birthing chambers; got it?" Jetfire stated; "Got it" the three team leaders replied, "You three younglings will stay here until we call for you, you'll provide shields for the victims in case the hybrids break through; the victims safety if paramount so don't worry about the rest of us" Jetfire glanced down at the human youngsters, "We know, just watch your backs okay?" Morri nodded, "Ravage, stay here and monitor the situation; Arcee, Cliffjumper, Trailbreaker, Bumblebee, Chromia you'll drop down with me, the two of you remain here as back-up..." the black seeker glanced at Scorponok and Skywarp before gazing down at the energon lines, "...Any second now..." he whispered to himself; Sam glanced down at his watch and looked on in tense anticipation as the second hand ticked towards the twelve...

...10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1-

A bright flash of vivid pale pink shot through the energon lines like lightning, followed by a sharp vibration that shook the wires and cables in their places.

"Was that it?" Saito asked

"That was it; drop the rest of the ceiling and move!" Jetfire whispered, and without hesitation Arcee cut away the wires and cables, being sure to leave the consol intact as the rest of the ceiling fell away, and below them was...

Darkness

The bots stared down into the pitch black, scanning around for any sign of trouble, but none could be found...In fact, nothing else could be found either, no hybrids, no sign of activity; nothing...

"This doesn't look good" the Major frowned

"Agreed, something's seriously off" John concurred

"Ravage?" Jetfire glanced at the panther, whose optic glowed brightly as he psychically scanned the gloom.

"Nothing's down there, not even a human" he replied

"You mean we came all this way for nothing?" Sam hissed

"There's more than one way to shield a mind from a telepath Witwicky; it reeks of human down there, still very fresh too" the panther replied as he sniffed the air.

"Then we go, move it!" Jetfire ordered as he and the assigned bots followed him down into the darkness and landed on the floor with a set of resounding clangs that echoed around the (seemingly) large extended space; the entire place was completely dark, except for rows upon rows of green lights that seemed to be coming from the walls. As the bots optics and headlights cut through the gloom and scanned the whole space, they saw the chamber was over a hundred feet high by eighty feet across, and had to probably have been well over two to three hundred metres long; lining the walls from floor to ceiling were hexagonal columns that formed a honeycomb of coffin-sized cells, the front of each cell had a large console displaying the bio-signs of their contents, and labelled at the top of each consol monitor were the words: subject stasis: online, displayed in a green light. Glancing around, every monitor was green.

"Their all here" Trailbreaker gasped at the sight of all the stasis pods.

"Okay you three, its all clear" Jetfire waved the human teams down; the Major lead her team down first, being cyborgs she, Batou and the Tachikoma's all landed on their feet flawlessly while Trailbreaker caught Saito in one hand and placed him on the floor, Captain Briggs and Major Lennox followed suit as the bots caught them and placed them into their formations on the floor.

"Spread out and search the place, stay on your tires and check everywhere; something's defiantly up..." Jetfire ordered as he lead the formation into the darkness.

* * *

Meanwhile, Back at the Prime Minister residence:

"You know, it's real weird" Miles said offhand as he looked out across the city, the distant sound of gunfire, tank fire and mortar fire echoed through the cityscape.

"What is?" Togusa asked as he loaded a fresh set of rounds into his favourite revolver.

"One time, after me an' Sam got into a fight at school, my uncle told my dad he should make me enlist, saying it would toughen me up an' make a man outta me; on the one hand the guns the action and a chance to see the world did sound pretty sweet, but the knowing I could die was like, the bummer of all bummer's. But in a strange way, being there for my bro had always been my thing you know? An' after what happened in Mission City two years ago, I started hanging out with him and the guys all the time so I could find a chance to make up for that one time I couldn't be there to cover his ass. It's not like what my uncle said; I don't go looking for trouble, I just wanna make sure my bro's okay you know?" the blonde teenager explained; behind him, Mikaela glanced up in slight surprise, for a moment the goofy happy-go-lucky attitude of his usual demeanour faded to a look of actual concern.

"You know, I never did ask..." Mikaela caught his attention as she inspected her pocket-sized tool-kit, "Where did that whole 'bros before hoes' attitude come from? At first I put it down to you two just staying tight an' the whole 'boys will be boys' thing; but now that I think about it, I get the feeling it's something a little more" she asked, Miles looked at her a moment before letting out a sigh and rubbing the back of his neck.

"Ah it ain't nothing personal Mickey; just-, well when we were in first grade Sam had this thing for Jenny Wilkins-" he explained, "Jenny Wilkins? The little blond kid with the pigtails? Wore pink all the time?" she asked as the memory of said girl came to mind, "Yeah her; Sam had a real crush on her for a long time, and one Valentine's Day he gave her a bunch of flowers and asked if she could be his date. She threw the flowers in the trash and said he was a white-trash looser; made him cry an' all. I mean, not in class we waited 'till we got back to his place, but yeah she really kicked him in the balls. Ever since then I made sure he wouldn't go through that same kinda rejection; that, and doing girl-stuff was so not on" Miles explained

"Well it was first grade, we were all kids back then our whole world only went as far as our backyards and the playground, the complications and drama of love are kinda outta our league; besides, Jenny Wilkins was a spoilt brat, she once took my Barbie doll and stomped all over it just to get back at me for winning first place in the science fair" Mikaela replied

"You won first place in the science fair? What did you do?" the blond teen asked

"I made a mini jet engine from scratch and fitted to a elongated skateboard, hoping it would revolutionize the world of skateboarding; but after the test-run ended up with the principles car blowing up and landing on top of a police patrol car I just settled for a diorama demonstrating the inner workings of a two-stroke engine" she explained sheepishly

"Holy shit! Principle Finley's car blowing up, that was YOU?" Miles stared at her in disbelief, "No fucking way! If I'd known that sooner I'd have hooked you two up years ago!" he exclaimed in excitment

"What? Why?" one of the NEST troops asked in total confusion

"Dude, if your gonna screw up, you might as well screw up in a way that leave's people asking: 'How the fuck did they do that?'. And that screw up was totally epic!" the blonde teen beamed with pride."Uh? Thanks?" Mikaela blinked, not quite sure how to reply to that.

"You know, that's a pretty good principle for most guys to live by" one of the other troops nodded in agreement; to which Mikaela rolled her eyes.

"And considering it's one of Miles's many philosophical approaches to everything in life; only a guy like him can come up with something like that and actually make it work" Epps smiled

"Hey, it worked that one time we needed to get Hardcore Eddy to his sister's wedding" Miles quipped, to which Epps's face fell flat

"You just HAD to bring that up didn't you?" he deadpanned at the teen

"Why? What happened?" Togusa smiled in curiosity

"Don't ask" Epps said flatly

"I won't go into details, but the moral of that particular incident is: don't think driving straight through a zoo will shave thirty minutes off your driving time" Mikaela deadpanned, to which Togusa's eyes flew up in surprise, "What! Seriously?" he gawked

"Hey, at least we managed to get all those monkeys and lemurs back in their cages!" Miles retorted

"Yeah, but that one sea-lion took one look at my ass and went straight for my-"

"**GUY! WE GOT INCOMING!"** Darren hollered over the comm (set to loud-speaker mode for easy communication); in the distance, a series of distant bangs and pops echoed through the skyscrapers and other tall buildings before several explosions tore apart the streets across from the perimeter fence; fortunately the whole area and outlining district surrounding the Prime Minister's residence had been evacuated a few days ago, but the flying debris and shockwaves from the explosions was enough to grab everyone's full attention and snap their focus into shape.

"Whoa!" Mile gasped

"Looks like we're about to get some company; back to your positions, and remember, if any of them break the line and get through, deal with them hard and fast!" Elita ordered as she cocked her cannon.

"Uhuhuh, that is so damn sexy" Miles stared up at her, the femme merely glanced down at him in a look of bewilderment, "Excuse me?" she asked

"Cool gun cocking and reload's always gets a male's attention on this planet-" Mikaela informed her, "Come on!" she grabbed Mile's T-shirt and dragged him inside the building with Togusa and the NEST troops close behind, just as Hailey and Matti came running up to meet them while the troops rushed to take up their positions behind the makeshift barricades.

"Okay, Mei, Mizuki and Haru are down with the other families in the command centre, Kobuta was able to put them in one of the other bunkers so their all safe; and Becca and Becky are keeping an eye on Anny and Jay-jay" Hailey said. "That's good" Togusa said with relief, "What about the access door to the command centre?" he asked, "The Ranger's have got the elevator and stairwell covered, nothing's gonna be getting through those guys anytime soon" Matti replied.

"Alright, you guys go on an' I'll join you in a minute..." Mikaela said as Togusa, Hailey and Miles slipped behind the barricades, but before Matti went through, Mikaela placed a hand on her shoulder, "Wait-, are you sure you still want to do this? I mean, we don't know what's going to happen once the fighting starts and-, I might not be able to cover you all the time" she said with concern; Matti dropped her gaze in thought for brief moment before looking her in the eye with a look of sureness about herself. "It's okay..." Matti offered a small smile, "After everything you guys have done for me, and for Batou; there's no way I can't step back and leave you guys short of one more pair of hands". "Yeah I get that, but that doesn't mean you should have to put your life on the line just for us" Mikaela pleaded, another silence followed as Matti's look turned to one of ambivalence; "...You know, before all this happened, I didn't think I had any real worth to anyone outside my family; being who I am...what I am, I didn't think I was that important...But-, having that vision, finding you guys and getting all caught up in this craziness? I'm actually more surprised at myself then at the fact there are giant alien robots from another planet here on this world; and after that day at the temple and down in the ruins of old Tokyo-...I don't think I can ever be the same person I was before because I'm not-..." she hesitated, as if afraid to say what was really on her mind, "What?" Mikaela asked softly, "...Afraid..." Matti replied, "And if I don't see this through to the end, that's just a bad as quitting and walking away; and I don't want to walk away, no matter how bad this gets. I wanna help you guys end this, whatever that means and whatever I have to do, one way or another, risking my life to put a stop to that Spark Eater is way better than the alternative" she explained, and with an understanding nod, Mikaela patted her on the back and led her through the barricade, "Well, if you're going to be sticking around, you can help me with repairs; since you don't do blood an' guts, will wires, circuitry and pumps might be more a little more tolerable?" she asked, "Alien robots guts?-" Matti considered the notion for a moment, "Yeah I think I can handle that, what do you need me to do?" she asked "Be my second pair of hands; whatever I ask I need you to do okay?", "Okay, let's do this..." Matti took a deep breath as a little spike of adrenaline rushed through her. As they made their way into one of the much larger foyers, Ratchet stood guard at the glass wall entrance while behind him the NEST troops stood ready at the large double doors behind the desk, "Better take cover, they're not far away!" Ratchet told them, the girls hurried up and went through the doors which lead into a wide corridor, at the end of which the Rangers stood guard in front of a tall reinforced door with a large set of locks and hinges. Opposite the double doors spread out on the floor, Mikaela had her emergency repair and surgery kit, as well as several canisters containing formulas of quick-repairing nanites that Deathshot had prepared for her before their departure. Looking back through the doors, the girls waited as several more explosions could be heard in the far off distance.

"Now we wait?" Matti asked in slight nervousness

"...Now we wait" Mikaela replied in equal nervousness

Down below in the GSDA central command centre, the whole place was buzzing like a hive as tech experts, tactical strategists and AI's were busy keeping track of all the available information coming in and dealing with it accordingly; in the centre of the futuristic-looking complex the heads of the military, their advisors and other officials stood around a huge circular hologram projector table that depicted the entire Niihama coastline, New Port and all its surrounding mountains and valleys, watching as the all the intel and communications filtered through the large set of several monitors above, letting everyone keep track of every skirmish and fire-fight as they unfolded. With access to the net severely limited, it was a wonder anything was coming in at all, but with some creative know-how and old fashioned ingenuity they were making it work, and up on one of the higher platforms above the central level Chief Aramaki was keeping an eye on things as Darren and his team worked feverously on their laptops, hand-held devices and assigned computers that had been put aside of them.

"Okay its two o' clock; Paz and Boma should have set off the detonators and we should be getting the first wave of victims coming through in the next twenty minutes" Aoi stated

"And we should be getting some other company pretty soon too; we've got about twenty five hybrids fast approaching this place!" Danny pointed out as the monitors showed a group of large dog-like hybrids moving fast through one of the city streets. "Where's a dog catcher when you need one" Ishikawa joked as he and Kobuta climbed up the stairs onto the platform; "What's the situation?" Aramaki asked

"All units are reporting that the frontlines are holding for now, but the hybrids numbers are continuing to grow; the American's amphibious assault units have landed and are providing good back-up for the eastern evac-camps on the far side of the bay, but the ones heading for the naval base and docks are having trouble landing, the hybrids have launched a massive aerial attack and are currently engaged in heavy fire on the fleet, as well as our own naval forces..." Ishikawa explained as they watched the monitors of the waterborne battle; "Whoa, that's like Saving Privet Ryan right there man! You know the D-Day landings? Damn that's intense!" Glen grimaced. "Already in the last fifteen minutes half the ships have been half-destroyed and so far five are starting to sink..." the intelligence officer said, a moment of tenseness and dire realization dawned on the group as they watched the grim battle play out. "...What of those still able to fight?" Aramaki asked, "They've reported that they've located the enemy base at the foot of the mountain; their preparing to launch their long range missiles to try and destroy it but we told them to hold off a little while longer and try aiming for the main route the hybrids are using to come into the city"

"Then why haven't they fired already?" Aoi asked

"It's the tower; that beam's energy output is starting to play havoc with the more sensitive hardware in the systems, the comms are barely working as it is" Kobuta replied.

"The beams output is playing havoc with the comms alright but I don't think it's the cause of the fleet's inability to fire their missiles..." Darren said as he kept his eyes glued to the screen of his laptop, working nonstop as the information scrolled across the screen; "According to Deathshot's specs the energy from the beam is only within a two mile radius and the mountain is over thirty five miles away, at this distance it should have no effect" he explained

"Than what's causing the interference?" Ishikawa asked

"Good question, and with Deathshot running silent I've got nothing coming in" he replied

"Wh-wh-whataboutthis?" Frenzy pointed to a data window on one of the monitors" the hackers all leaned in for a closer look

"Hm? What is that?

"Dunno, but it's not being emitted on the same high frequency as the beam that's for sure" Rumble peeped in

"You don't know what that is?" Aoi asked in slight disbelief

"Hey I'm a repair and diagnostics drone I don't do signal analysis" he shrugged

"ButIdo! L-l-l-let'sseewhatitis!" Frenzy stuttered as he started typing away

"...Whatever this thing is, it's defiantly up to something; question is what? ..." Darren frowned as he watched the data on his screen.

* * *

Back down in the cavern:

"Something's defiantly up here; are you sure you can't sense anything?" Morri asked

"That's just it I can't sense anything! The Spark Eater is still silent, whether it's 'listening' for us or for something or someone else is hard to determine!" Ravage growled in annoyance

"Well what CAN you tell?" Skywarp demanded

"...Hmm..." Ravage flicked his ears as his optic glowed brighter, "...It's still raw from its failed attempt at ensnaring you my dear..." he grinned at Morri, "...It's focusing its energy at something on the net, something far but at the same time quite near; whatever it is its certainly-" the panther suddenly turned his head, as if a some minuet sound had caught his attention, and flicked his ear in concern as he tried to determine what it was.

"What is it?" Morri asked in mild alarm

"...We're not alone in this chamber..." Ravage warned, a cold chill went up the human's spines as they glanced over their shoulders and back up into the cavern which seemed to stretch for some distance, going upwards and around a right-side turn which obscured their view of the rest of the underground chamber.

"The hybrids found the chamber already?" Skywarp hissed as he and Scorponok fired up their weapons in readiness.

"NO!" Ravage promptly swatted them both with his tail mace, "...It's something else..." he sniffed the air some more as he cautiously paced forward.

"Then what?" Sam asked

"I don't know; you two stay here, you three stay close" Ravage stated as he trotted up into the chamber, followed closely by the youngsters as they disappeared around the corner.

"You know, I'm beginning think he's a little too interested in the humans" Skywarp quirked an optic ridge in bewilderment

"Well what do you expect from a telepathic drone like him? They're his new hobby, new interest, and new friends; call them whatever you want he's way too intrigued to kill them, even if he was still a con I don't think he'd have dispensed with them outright. I think he'd have at least keep Ashley as a pet" Scorponok thought aloud innocently. Up in the cavern Ravage's optic was the only source of light illuminating the whole chamber, as they navigated the rocky ground they realized something was off about this part of the chamber, as if something was out of place; as they climbed up over a steep slope of rock and carefully climbed down the other side onto a much flatter area of ground, the chamber floor instantly caught their attention as a series of marks in the rocks stood out from the rest of the mineral formations.

"What the hell made those? That doesn't look like natural rock fractures" Tom said offhand

"No, they look more like claw marks" Sam said offhand as he bent down to run his fingers over the marks, "Or talons" Ravage growled as he sniffed the rocks; lighting up the chamber for a better look, Morri activated her BSHB's energy field to produce a ball of pale blue light. But the instance the orb lit up in her hand and pushed the dark right back, she gasped in alarm...

"What! What did you-" Tom and Sam leapt back up, spinning round, their eyes instantly caught sight of what had alarmed her...

A giant clawed robotic hand

"-See...shit..." Sam breathed; flicking his mace tail, Ravage slowly led the way up to the hand. At first glance it was a Cybertronian alright, a pale shade of sky blue with white tipped claws, and the smooth slender design of the armour suggested it was (possibly) a femme. As they climbed over the rocks and stood next to the imposing limb, Morri shined her light down on the rest of the giant body, and the four of them gasped in astonishment...

"No friggin way..." Sam gawked, instantly recognizing who it was...

Meanwhile: back down in the stasis chamber, things were getting tense as the Autobots and their human teammates finished their sweep of the whole place. "This isn't right the energon in those lines should be destabilizing and becoming more unstable by the minute!" Arcee pointed out.

"She's right; what if Pazu, Boma and Deathshot got delayed in detonating the server?" Batou's Tachikoma asked in a slight panic

"Then their simply delayed, that gives us more time to free the humans" Cliffjumper replied

"Even so, this chamber's supposed to be filled with hybrid guards, instead we're in a graveyard; what the hell's going on?" Lennox pondered aloud

"Good question..." Jetfire frowned

"**JETF-..-E! Jetfire-...ou...ther-"** Tom called over the scratchy comm, 'the tower must be been causing more interference than I anticipated' Jetfire thought.

"**I hear you Tom but just barely; what's wrong?" **he called back

"**We need a-..-iority one tele...-ort righ-...-ow! We got a bo-..own!"** the youngster could be barely heard over the scratchy white-noise of the interference; but Jetfire recognized the pieces of words that came through and realized in alarm what he just said...

"**What? Who's down?" **he demanded

"**You-..-ot going to-...elieve this; it's-"**

"Swiftshot..." Morri gasped as she carefully stepped over the femme's arm to get a closer look at her. True to her holoform image on the data-cube and the photograph she and Morri found, she was both impressive and attractive; a flyer approximately twenty eight feet tall with a (folded) wingspan of around twenty feet she was a mix of pale sky blue with cobalt blue and a pale silver face, neck, breast plates and abdominal plates and black arms and legs. Her helm was elegantly curved and swept back while her face was fair and smoothly shaped, the lack of any noticeable face plates indicated she possessed nanite skin, (the same as Deathshot's) while her armour design had a more organic profile with its sweeping curves and organic-like structure of the ligament cables. She boasted an impressive set of twin ion-plasma jet engines as well as a pair of wrist mounted sniper guns on each arm while her digigrade legs had a set of blunt boot-like feet (which no doubt were housing a deadly set of talons). All in all, she was quite impressive; though she had obviously seen much better days as the amount of dust and small patches of rust told them she had be lying like this for quite a long time, flopped down on her back with one hand clutched over her spark chamber, as if she'd been struck down. Carefully climbing up her torso and shifting her hand to one side, Sam could see the blackened scorched metal around the opening of her spark chamber, and inside all he could see was black; gazing up at her lifeless optics, he sighed in regret.

"She was here the whole time; all those long years and she was right above the Spark Eater's base, and he never knew she was here?" he thought aloud, wondering at the incredibility of it.

"But of all the places to take your life, why here? Why down in this dark and lonely place?" Skywarp pondered aloud

"Perhaps if we had the time to open her CPU and flick through her memory files we could glean something; but as it is, it will have to wait" Scorponok said

"Should we take her back? At least to give her a proper-, uh?..."

"The thought is touching youngling, but we have a slightly different way of 'laying our dead to rest'..." Ravage replied before taking a sniff and baring his teeth "-Ugh!" he growled in disgust

"What?" Skywarp asked

"Would you care not to stand so close to me while you're wearing that 'thing' Witwicky!" the panther growled as he sniffed the hoodie over with morbid disgust; "Hey! Do not insult the D-Day shirt okay? I wore this when I killed your former boss!" Sam snapped. "I know! I can smell the whole battle on it! The blood, the sweat, Megatron, the Allspa-" he suddenly stopped and stared at the teen in disbelief, "...The Allspark! ..." he gasped as he sniffed Sam's arm intensely.

"Yeah, in all likelihood some of the Allspark brushed its scent onto it, maybe because I was carrying it and running for my life with it?" Sam replied sarcastically

"No, you've got a shard of it caught in the threads of your shirt! Look!" the panther pointed to his elbow, turning his arm up for a better look; sure enough, a tiny inch-long sliver of the Allspark sat half tangled in the frayed threads of the hoodie, glistening like a silver jewel. "Shit! That thing's been in there the whole time?" Sam gasped as he tried to reach of it; "DON'T TOUCH IT!-" The panther snapped, to which Sam's hand froze in mid-grasp, "Don't touch it; we could use it", "Use it for what?" Tom asked in confusion, "To bring her back; her spark chamber is intact and I can smell energon is still in her system" Ravage explained, "Wha-, would that work? Would it really bring her back?" Morri asked in amazement, "Most certainly, the Allspark's power was so raw and potent that even a tiny sliver of it will do the job a hundred times over. Skywarp, open up her spark chamber; and you Witwicky, hold your arm out over the chamber..." Ravage instructed as Skywarp carefully pried apart the femme's breast plates and opened her spark chamber, revealing the glistening crystalline-like structure inside where her spark would be set; Sam positioned his arm out of the middle of the chamber and waited as Ravage reared his head, and everyone watched in anticipation.

"...Now, watch the magic happen..." he smiled with a sly toothy grin, as he pried the shard out from the threads with his fang and let it drop down into the centre of the chamber. The instant the spark hit the internal structure, a flash of pale blue energy exploded outwards all over the femmes body and she convulsed and gasped for breath as life flared back into her previously offline form. The humans were knocked off as her spark chamber slammed shut and she struggled to get up, Skywarp tried to grab her so she didn't hit her head on the wall, and she instantly calmed down at his touch. Gasping in shock, she took one look at everyone around her, staring at them in bewilderment and steadily fell unconscious again.

"Oh no! What just happened? Is she dying?" Sam demanded

"No she's not dying-"Skywarp said as he held her in his arm while scanning her, "But she's not in good shape either; she needs a medic!"

"Teleport her back Elita's team and tell Ratchet to take care of her!" Ravage ordered

"But Jetfire-"

"I'll fill him in on the details, she needs help right now! GO!" Ravage barked, and without wasting time the seeker slipped his other arm under her legs and held her close as he teleported out of the chamber.

"I hope she'll be okay" Morri breathed

* * *

Back at the GSDA central command centre:

"This is weird, it's an outgoing frequency but it's heavily layered with multiple harmonics; it's almost like a-"

BROOOM!

The whole place went into a panic as Skywarp suddenly appeared in a flash of white light on the larger lower level of the complex, holding a...another flying Autobot? Everyone scrambled out of the way as the seeker laid her on the ground and Darren's team came rushing up to him.

"SKYWARP? What the hell-"

"Quick! We need to find Ratchet! She needs help!" he pleaded

"Is that-, Swiftshot? Where the hell did you-" Danny gawked

"In the cavern we teleported into! She'd been there this whole time and when we found her Ravage found a sliver of the Allspark still on Witwicky! So we used it to bring her back to life, but she's damaged and needs repairs!" he explained in a fluster, the hackers blinked as they tried to make sense of what he just said, but concluded it would be best to leave the subject for later .

"Uh-, Okay she's alive, but why did you teleport her into here?" Darren demanded

"Wha- I couldn't bring her here and leave her up there! With all the fighting going on she could get damaged even further in the crossfire!"

"Good point" Rumble concurred, "Alright, I'll call Mikaela down here, there's no way Ratchet could squeeze down-", "I can take care of that!" Skywarp interrupted as he disappeared in another teleportation sequence, only to reappear a few seconds later with (a very cranky) Ratchet at his side

"WHAT IN PRIMUS'S NAME DO YOU THINK YOUR-" Ratchet stopped mid-rant when he saw the unconscious femme at his feet, and without skipping a beat, bend down next to her, transformed his hand into some strange device and began scanning her over. "Do I dare even ask what happened?" he demanded grouchily, "We onlined her with a fragment of the Allspark" the seeker replied. "Wha-" the medic gawked up at him, not quite believing what he just heard, "...Fill me in later; right now someone fetch me my apprentice!" he snapped, "And you! Get back to the cavern! You're supposed to be getting the humans out!" he reprimanded.

"WAIT! Before you go, I just need to run something by you, being a former con an' all-" Darren called out as he held up his hand-held computer for the seeker to look at, "We've been trying to figure out what this frequency is-" he pointed to the computer's monitor, "-It's obviously Decepticon by design but there's no records of it in my laptops classified Autobot files and Frenzy doesn't know what it is either" he explained

"Pfft! I'm not surprised; that's an old 28436 jamming frequency used to disable an enemy's weapons systems and any targeting software using electrical frequencies for power, it was useful for both above and underground, it also-...Wait a sec, why would the Spark Eater be using that frequency to jam us? Unless it already knew we were going to-" the seeker suddenly stopped in horror, realizing what he was saying and went into a panic, as did the hackers...

"HOLY SHIT!"

"IT'S A TRAP!"

"Get back to that chamber and get everyone out NOW!" the chief barked sternly

"I'm on it!" the seeker saluted and disappeared in another flash of white light. "Well? Get back to work!" Ratchet barked at the dumbfounded humans in the room before he got back to work on Swiftshot.

* * *

BROOOM! – "EVERYONE OUT! We have to get out right now!" Skywarp dashed through the stasis chamber towards the gathered humans and bots.

"Get back up in that cavern you idiot! You'll blow our cover!" Jetfire shouted as the younger seeker came running up to him

"Our cover's already blown! I just found out the Spark Eater's jamming us! That's why the comms aren't working!" he pleaded

"What-"

"IT'S A TRAP! We have to get out now or we'll-"

The lights in the ceiling suddenly switched on, and the thick reinforced doors at the far end of the room slowly opened up with dozens of angry hybrids on the other side, clawing at the metal to get their way in...

"SLAG! TAKE COVER!" Jetfire bellowed as the whole team sprung into action and began firing at the doors; up in the cavern, the sound of gun and cannon fire got the kids and drones attention.

"A jamming frequency? Why didn't I detect that?" Ravage angrily growled, "Never mind that now! Its go-time and the guys need help!" Sam exclaimed. Suddenly, a series of distant angry growls echoed through the cavern, drawing closer and closer as Scorponok came scuttling towards them at breakneck speed, "HYBRIDS IN THE TUNNLE!-" he hollered, "-And too many to fight! We need to find some cover down in there!" he panicked as he scooped up the three humans in his claws and jumped down into the stasis chamber with the panther following suit. Bumblebee, Trailbreaker and Cliffjumper caught them all in their arms and unceremoniously threw them down on the floor where they were able to crawl behind one of the many computer consoles in the chamber as the hybrids advanced on the Autobots.

"Shit! I hope Paz and Boma have set off those bloody bombs already!" Tom said offhand as he watched Arcee slice three hybrids in half with her wrist-blades; "I wouldn't be so sure..." Ravage sighed as he probed his mind outward, up to the top of the mountain; where, things had not quite gone to plan as Deathshot struggled to get the hybrids off his back and wings as they dog-piled him, while underneath him, wedged between his chest plates and a shallow pit dug out of the rocky ground, Pazu and Boma fired their semi-automatics up at the hybrids attacking from the Autobot sniper's front.

"This is taking way too long! We need to get those bombs into the shaft within the next five minutes or we'll miss our mark!" Pazu growled as he loaded a fresh clip into his gun

"I hate to say it, but at this rate that's just not going to be possible!" Deathshot grunted through his vents as one particular hybrid sank his teeth into the sniper's leg, to which Deathshot promptly kicked off.

"How the hell did they even see you coming? I thought that stealth-mode of yours is full proof?" Boma shouted up as he let loose another round of bullets at three more hybrids

"Any other time yes, but there's an old 28436 jamming frequency being emitted from the auxiliary shaft that's hitting the tower's deflector shield and creating a counter-electromagnetic flux within my ion-engines that causing the photon-deflectors in my armour to fluctuate! That's how they saw us approaching!" the sniper growled in annoyance.

"Is there any way we can still get to the shaft!" Pazu demanded as he pushed himself back, trying to evade the claws of one hybrid that was trying to dig him out; Deathshot turned his head to one side, and amidst the fray of hybrids attacking them, he could barely make out the top of the auxiliary shaft, which was now surrounded by several enormous thirty foot hybrids who guarded it like wolves protecting their kill.

"I'm sorry guys, but there's just too many of them!-" the sniper huffed as he gently picked up the two cyborgs in his hands and held them against his chest plates; "Keep your heads down! I'm getting us out of here!" he grunted. A small set of fin-like antenna rose up from under the sniper's back plates and flashed before they both sent out a thunderous wave of fire-like energy in a huge ring that went out for over a hundred feet; bouncing off the deflector shield and knocking the hybrids off his back, in turn sending them over the edge of the mountain. Quicker than a cheetah the sniper was up, fired his engines and blasted upward into the sky at a tremendous speed, dodging and evading every flyer-hybrid that swooped down on him, in his hands Pazu and Boma both clung onto his fingers for dear life as he jetted towards the eastern-most mountain and disappeared into thin air. The hybrids circled around like vultures, trying to see where he had gone, but after a while they flew upwards and headed south with the others. Near the peak of the eastern mountain, hidden in a large but well concealed cave, Bluestreak took the two exhausted humans from Deathshot's hands as he sat down to (figuratively) catch his breath while Pazu and Boma flopped down next to him, relieved to be alive, and even more relieved that they didn't fall out of his grip.

"What happened? I watched everything from up here! Why did you disengage your stealth-mode so early?" the younger gunner exclaimed

"It wasn't voluntary, there's a jamming signal being emitted from the auxiliary shaft that blew my cover!" Deathshot sent him a glair

"So you couldn't plant the bomb?" he asked in alarm

"The shaft's being guarded by those things; and there's too many of them to fend off if we go back there" Boma interjected

"But what about the mission! We can't-"

"-I'm sorry Blue-" Deathshot stopped him, "But the Spark Eater got the drop on us; and if he knows we were going to blow up the shaft, he already knows we're trying to get the humans out..." the sniper sighed in defeat, "...Until the opportunity arises, we're on our own" the sniper gazed out from the cave, and watched as the mountain peak swarmed with hybrids.

"This is Slag! We can't get back up into the cavern and we can't teleport out together cuz one of those slagger might hitch a ride! What do we do?" Cliffjumper called over as he fired on the hybrids.

"For now shut up and fight!" Jetfire hollered, "And you!-" he glared over at Skywarp", "Get back to the command centre and see if the hack-team's got anything we can use to block that jamming frequency! GO!" he ordered, without hesitation the seeker took off in a flash of white light.

* * *

"How's she lookin' Ratch? Any change?" Mikaela asked as she handed the medic one of his tools and went back to carefully pouring a small amount of nanite-infused energon onto Swiftshot's left elbow joint while Matti held the protective armour plates apart.

"Whatever she used to offline herself didn't extend out to the rest of her vital systems, but her CPU's got some damage to the upper-exterior cortex matrix, she in stasis-lock but she's stable" he replied, not even looking up as he worked.

BROOOM!

"DON'T YOU EVER KNOCK FIRST?" Ratchet glared at the black and purple seeker as he reappeared next to his side.

"Sorry, but we're getting scrapped back in that chamber! We need something to jam that frequency so we can get out in one piece!" he pleaded

"I-i-i-IknowsoImadeyouthis!-I-i-it'llworktrustme!" Frenzy ran up to him with a USB stick in one clawed hand and handed it up to Skywarp, the seeker was about to reply when suddenly the whole complex went quite. The walls, floor and ceiling began to vibrate, growing stronger and more pronounced...

"Uh...Guys..." Glen nervously pointed to the main monitor that displayed the entrance to the Prime Minister's residence; the hackers gawked at the sight of a four hundred foot high black Demolisher charging through the volley of gun, tank and cannon fire, and trampling over the perimeter fence as if it were a few pieces of thread...

"...Aw shit not again..." was all Darren found he could say before the monitor feet went dead and a massive earthquake shook the command centre in a thundering rumble, knocking everyone off the feet and sending everything flying; everyone tried to find shelter beneath the desks and consoles while Ratchet shielded Swiftshot, Mikaela and Matti with his body, several booming thuds pounded down from above as the ceiling started to crack and buckle before a giant set of claws burst through and hit the floor.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Matti gawked

"HE'S TRYING TO DIG US OUT!" Ishikawa called over the racket as the claws withdrew back up, and through the dust and rubble daylight came down from above, followed by the deafening sounds of the battle above. Skywarp teleported up to the ground-level, only to be greeted by the sight of the giant hybrid behemoth tearing up half the building while Elita and her team were climbing all over it, shooting off its armour to get to the energon lines beneath and ripping them out, sending huge arcs of blue-ish energon/blood plasma up into the air while on the ground the NEST troops and Ranger's were taking out its ligament cables with grenades. All the while the giant tried to dig out the command centre like a hound trying to dig the fox from out its hole; hardly even noticing that it had a whole attack force both on its back and around its wheels trying to kill it! Looking all over for an opening, Skywarp jetted up over its head, brandished his talons and came down on the monster's heads, gouging out its optics with one flawless move. But as the creature reacted to the sudden burst of pain, the action of its head snapping back caught the seeker unaware and his foot got caught up in the cables of its orbital socket, leaving him dangling and being thrown around like a fish caught on a line. At the same time the motion of trying to throw its weight back up onto its wheel made it loose its grip and it slid forward into the gaping crater it had made of the building's lower levels; as it thrashed and tossed about desperately trying to get out, everything went insane. Its massive claws shredded out whole floors and levels, and with them those unfortunate enough not to get out of the way in time; exposed wires and cables crackled and whipped about sending out dangerous bolts of electrical surges along the monster's body, throwing the bots off from the overload while down in the command centre Darren, Danny and Glen threw blast after blast of their BSHB's energy bolts up at the giant's face. On one of the higher levels Hailey and her sisters kept their shields up as Togusa lead Annabelle, Jay-jay and his family and the other families out of their now destroyed bunker towards the other side of the complex for a safer hiding place; but back up on the ground level, Miles and Ashley made their move...

"I'M GONNA NEED ONE FUCKING BIG PLAQUE TO MOUNT THIS BASTARD'S HEAD ON!" Miles called over as he released one huge burst of energy from his BSHB

"STUFF THE PLAQUE! I'M GETTING THIS SHIT-HEAD STUFFED! THE TAXIDERMIST'S GONNA HAVE A FUCKIN'HEART-ATTACK WHEN HE SEE'S WHAT I GOT HIM!" Ashley called at the top of his voice and he ran up the monster's back, his force field protecting him from the electric cables in the crater as they continued to spark and writhe like snakes. He lined up his spear with his line of sight; took one huge leap and came down on monster's neck, thrusting his spear down in between the metal vertebra, severing its spinal unit in go. All at once the giant went limp and steadily began to sag as it slid further and further down into the crater, until finally its whole upper half came to rest just above the command centre while Ultra Magnas took the opportunity and shot out its spark chamber; the behemoths optics went dark as it gave out one last growl and finally went dead. As the Autobots picked themselves back up and the human soldiers regrouped, they gazed up at the offline giant as Ashley came strutting down its back with his spear in hand.

"Did you-, just offline that thing in one move?"Ultra Magnus stared up at the boy, not quite believing he just saw a human youngling kill a four hundred foot opponent. "He'ssss Ravage'sss student! What did you expect?" Lazerbeak cawed as he swooped down low over the mech's helm. "Praise will have to wait, we've got more company!" Elita cocked her cannon as another wave of hybrids came charging towards them; the GSDA tank unit's volley took out the smaller ones while the larger, more formidable hybrids attacked like wild animals; "You two! get back down and check to make sure everyone in the command centre's okay; we'll take care of these guys!" Hot Rod told Miles and Ashley, "We're on it!" Miles called back as he and Ashley took off over the behemoth's back and down into the crater, climbing down its armour until they were several feet above the command centre.

"YO! Anyone still alive down there?" Miles called down

"Just barely!" Danny called out from under the giant's arm, "What the hell happened up there?"

"I sliced its neck! Don't worry its dead now; is everyone okay down there?" Ashley called down

"We're all fine but half the place is caved in, everything's still online though so we're gonna keep workin' here; Swiftshot's okay too. You might wanna get him free though" his cousin replied from under the giant's arm.

"Who?-"

"He means me! A little help would be nice!" Skywarp deadpanned as he dangled from the creature's orbital socket, Miles aimed his hand and shot a bolt of energy up at the wires, the seeker flipped around and landed on his feet, at which point about five hybrids jumped down into the crater and tried to grab the seeker's wings; Skywarp threw them off and fired point blank into their helms while Ashley and Miles threw off the others with energy blasts. Another couple of hybrids jumped down towards them, followed closely behind by the Lambo twins as they chased after them and another three hybrids came down from the opposite side and all at once the bottom of the crater became a free for all.

"What the hell's going on up there?" Ishikawa demanded as he brushed off one of the wireless keyboards

"I can't tell! Skywarp and the Lambo twins have got five hybrids on their backs, and it sounds like Miles and Ashley are coving them from in between their legs, but I can't see whose winning!" Danny informed him in a panic as the sound of metal pounding on metal rang out from the other side of the Demolisher-hybrid's arm. Three of the hybrids finally went down and the other two were in the twin's grip; "Thanks for the cover but I gotta go now! My team needs me!" the seeker said as he teleported away; as the twins finally put down the remaining two hybrids, they stopped and looked at one another in bemusement.

"Did he just say 'my team need's me'?" Sideswipe raised an optic ridge

"Must have been a glitch in your audios" Sunstreaker shrugged

"Well at least we're-...Wait a sec where's Ashley?" Miles looked all around, the twins scanned all around but the preteen was nowhere to be seen

"Where'd he go?" Sunstreaker thought aloud

"You'd don't think he-"

"Aw no!" Miles facepalmed

"Aw slag! Elita's gonna scrap us when she finds out where he went!" Sideswipe grimaced

* * *

All at once the world turned upside down; one second he was in the crater beneath the dead giant hybrid taking on more hybrids with the Lambo twins and Miles; the next second, a blinding flash of white light threw him into a spin, and he was in the middle of the biggest room he'd ever seen in his whole life. As he laid his eyes on the stasis pods, he realized right away where he was.

"Holy Crap! I'm in the-"

BRATATATATATATATATATA!

The sound of gun fire and more fighting snapped his attention to the far side of the room, where the Autobots and humans were busy pushing the hybrids back into another chamber; scrambling to his feet and taking cover behind a nearby computer console, he watched as the fight went down and through the fire smoke and fray of bodies moving about, he spotted his father...

"Dad!" he whispered

* * *

O.O...R&R please!


	76. Chapter 75: A Single Act Of Bravery

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

Caution: Strong swearing here and there, and possibly some graphic death scenes elsewhere.

Additional Disclaimer: Matti belongs to JillTheCrazy1

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 75: A SINGLE ACT OF BRAVERY 

Somewhere on the eastern outskirts of New Port:

One would admit the sight of a huge American Peterbuilt truck storming down the street followed by an entourage of similarly impressive vehicles would turn heads, even if they were somewhat classic by today's standard of vehicular design; they were still quite attractive to those who had a thing for motors. But today, they were perhaps the least most likeliest, if not the most unusual sight to be speeding down the superhighway; as soldiers and evacuees alike tried to find somewhere adequate to hide/take cover, the sight of the blue and red Peterbuilt was the only thing they poked their heads out to see at it headed out of the city, and out towards the north side of the coastal mountain range.

"**So far so good, it's pretty quiet this side of town..." **Jazz said offhand over the comm, right before a whole pack of hybrids came charging over a nearby hill and made a beeline for the highway; **"-Then again I could be wrong" **he added sheepishly. Right before they could strike Prime and his team, a hail of missiles and gunfire rained down on them from above and shredded them to pieces; overhead Springer hovered within range of the team while Thundercracker stalked the air-column higher up, keeping the flyer-hybrids at bay.

As they rolled around the base of the hill and came out onto flatter ground, the sounds of battle instantly drew their attention; over half a mile away the GSDA forces and American amphibious assault units were keeping a whole hoard of hybrids from storming one of the evac-camps; as they scanned the scene, they saw up ahead a long line of heavily armoured vehicles heading straight for the front line, no doubt to provide back-up. But as they rolled over a bridge that spanned across a wide ravine, a couple of hybrids shot out the supporting structure and the whole bridge leaned dangerously to one side, groaning with the strain before the middle cracked and fell down with a thunderous crash, the last vehicle in the line precariously began sliding backwards as the road crumbled and fell away. The soldiers and driver all got out and made a mad dash for the other side, their buddies in the other vehicles stopped to provide cover-fire and grab them as they leapt for their lives; but the youngest rookie wasn't quick enough, and with a thunderous crack the bridge slipped further down into the ravine with the pour man trapped on the one section of road still intact. Desperately, he gazed up at his buddies, knowing full well this was it, that death wasn't far off as the bridge fell away...

But at the last possible second, the soldiers all gasped in astonishment as Optimus came flying into the ravine. A huge pair of armed jet-wings carried him aloft as he swooped down and caught the young rookie as he fell from the bridge; in one flawless move the Autobot leader twisted up and landed on the edge of the road, there he gently placed the rookie on the ground and took off back to the highway without a word.

"**You just couldn't resist could you?" **Thundercracker smirked in a smarmy tone as the Autobot leader landed, shed his jet-wings and allowed it to turn back into his trailer before transforming back to his altmode, reattaching his trailer and taking point of the convoy once again.

"**Not that I agree with our 'newest addition', but we can't help every human we run into; as much I want to stop and help them fight we've lost enough time as it is just getting out of the city"** Ironhide added

"**A single act of bravery can go a long way; sometimes all it takes is that one solder to tip the balance of the fight and change the course of a battle. Those soldiers and the humans in that camp will be grateful for his service to them"** the Autobot leader spoke in his usual majestic tone.

"**Fair enough, but no more delays! We're almost at the rift-sight and those hybrids have picked up speed!"** Springer interjected

Doubling their speed and picking up the pace; the convoy made their way through the high valleys and wide ravines as the coastal mountains came into view; from there they headed north through a particularly deep gorge until they could see the rift glistening in the distance at the other end of the adjoining valley. But without warning, several flyer-hybrids attacked Thundercracker and Springer from out of the clouds, followed by several ground-based hybrids that attacked Prime and the others from the top of the gorge, landing down on them hard they tried to drag them off the road; but these bots were old pros, and enemy's like these were but an inconvenience compared to Megatron and the worst of his Decepticons. With seasoned experience and unflinching fluidity, Prime, Ironhide, Warpath, Hound and Jazz all transformed in unison, and in less than three moves all beat off the hybrids, shooting and slicing them in half before running the rest of the way; as they entered the valley they saw the GSDA special forces units that had been sent here to guard the rift were engaged in combat with at least twenty other hybrids, and several more were climbing over the valley ridges.

"Autobots! Take flank and push them back! Get them away from the rift and give the human's some cover!" Prime ordered as they charged forward; Warpath and Ironhide took the larger hybrids attacking the tank unit while Jazz and Hound took on the ones immediately near the rift. Activating his trailer to transform into its combat-deck mode, Prime grabbed his shield and energy-sword, and in hardly any time at all laid waste to half the attacking force, slicing and ramming through them as if they were cheese; but no sooner had he gotten within reach of the rift, over double the number of hybrids came charging into the valley from the road. Looking upward for any sign of their cover, he saw Thundercracker spiralling downwards before crashing into a cliff-face with three flyer-hybrids latched onto his wings while Springer had transformed back to mechmode and was currently trying to throw off one particularly big hybrid that was on his tail halfway up the valley wall. "Jazz! Cover me! I'm going to take the shot!" he called out to his first lieutenant, Jazz was on his rear soon enough as they pushed their way through to the rift, but all around them the hybrids dumbly threw themselves at the bots, trying to bring them down only to get sliced or shot; and as more and more of them surged forward and blocked their path, the more Prime realized he was being pushed back. "Don't stop! We must break through!" he called to Jazz as he went up against his back while the silver Pontiac laid down some cover-fire "Sure thing boss-bot, but I think we're seriously outgunned here!" he called back. At that point, three tanks charged forward, knocking the hybrids down and clearing a path through the fight, at the same time Thundercracker suddenly dropped down out of the air and starting shooting down the remaining hybrids as they tried to attach the two bots; "GO! NOW'S YOUR CHANCE!" the seeker called to him. In one go Prime charged forward as fast as he could towards the rift, throwing aside his sword and shield as he opened his sub-space, grabbed the message beacon, and aimed at the anomaly; but at the last minute, several more hybrids stormed past the seeker and dog-piled the Peterbuilt, pinning him down under their sheer weight. Prime aimed as one hybrid attacked his helm, and with a silent hope and prayer, he threw the beacon...

The device flew through the air; past Jazz's helm, over Thundercracker's wing and straight into the centre of the rift where it disappeared. With one hard push Prime threw off three of the attackers, fired up his wrist-mounted cannon, and fired just as one large hybrid shoved him to the ground. The shot exploded as it hit the rift and all at once the anomaly seemed to explode like a plume of water upwards into the air, turning bright green, pink and yellow before in rippled, wavered and folded in on itself before finally disappearing in a blinding explosion of multicoloured light. As soon as the rift was gone, a barrage of heavy tank and cannon fire from Warpath and Ironhide blew away the hybrids where they stood, and within minutes, the battle was over as swiftly as it had began.

"Good work Autobots, our objective here is complete" Prime stated as he picked up his weapons

"Hey, what the hell did you do?" one of the human soldiers asked as he tried to catch his breath.

"We have sent a message calling for reinforcements, and we have closed the rift forever" Prime stated

"Reinforcements? Well it's about fuckin' time!" another soldier added

"If it's not too much trouble, do you think you guys can give us some cover until we're outta here? We've got fifteen wounded and they all need medics" one of the commanding officers asked

"It's no trouble at all..." Prime nodded discreetly as he folded his weapons back into his trailer, transformed and followed the lead tank as it fell into line with the other tanks and other heavy-armoured vehicles, "Autobots! Roll out and guard the flanks!" he ordered.

* * *

At the exact same moment elsewhere:

"These slaggers are coming thick and fast! We'll be overrun soon enough!" Ravage barked across the chamber as he fired up at the hole into the cavern with Scorponok, Morri, Tom, Sam, Trailbreaker and Bumblebee at his sides shooting everything they had.

"They got us pinned down! Ain't no way we can go back!" Batou called over to the Major

"We've got to get that chamber sealed off!" the Major hollered up at Jetfire

"In that case, it's time to dig in and push back hard! Cliffjumper! Chromia! On my three and nine! The rest of you on our six!" the ancient seeker barked, and in one fast move the three of them opened fire on the hybrids, shooting nonstop, giving them no room to shoot back while the rest of the team backed them up with additional cover-fire; little by little the hybrids were pushed back into one of the birthing cambers. Spotting a set of the energon tanks near one of the 'birthing machines', Arcee fired on them, causing the energon within to explode and blow up half the machines in the chamber; the blaze exploded outward towards the doors, creating a wall of flames between the hybrids and the team, trapping them within the chamber while the hybrids retreated from the searing hot flames on the other side. "That should hold them off for now; quickly! Open up those stasis pods!" Jetfire ordered, the Major wasted no time in whipping out her dummy barrier and jacking herself into a nearby console, within seconds every stasis pod in the neighbouring chamber swung open with a resounding line of CLANG! Rushing back to get the first victims out, the humans and Tachikoma's gasped when they looked into the pods and saw...

"There ain't anyone here! Their all empty!" Will called back

"WHAT!" the Autobots rushed back in to see for themselves, and sure enough, they saw all the pods were empty.

"They were never here! According to the system all the pods in all five chambers have been empty for sometime; they recalibrated the monitors to set us up!"

"But if they recalibrated the monitors beforehand doesn't that mean-"

BROOOM!

I'm back! And I got something to block out that jamming frequency!" Skywarp grinned as he reappeared and plugged Frenzy's USB stick into one of the other consoles.

"Good, that should allow the comms to work a little better" Jetfire sighed in relief as Ravage and the others came running up; "We blasted the hole out and blocked off the cavern, but those rocks won't hold for long!" Sam called out as he run across the chamber."All right listen up! The mission is aborted! Let's get-"

Suddenly, one of the hybrids on the other side of the flames shot blindly into the chamber, missing Cliffjumper's helm by mere inches and hitting one of the birthing machines, all at once the machine flared to life and started going haywire as it started firing a beam of vivid red laser-like light, the energon tanks that sat at the top of the structure exploded, causing the machines aim to swerve in all directions, firing the beam all over the place. "WATCH IT! THAT'S A NANITE APPLICATOR! DON'T LET THE BEAM TOUCH YOU!" Jetfire bellowed as he took cover behind one of the other machines; as everyone run for cover the fire rapidly began to spread along the ceiling and to the rest of the chamber, the intense heat made the support beams above weaken and buckle, and as the humans ran to hide, part of the ceiling came down in a blaze of smoke and flames. For a second Will's heart skipped a beat, but as the Marines came charging out of the smoke and jumped for cover behind one of the consoles, suddenly...

"HEEELP! I'm trapped! SOMEONE HEEELP!" one of the Marines cried out in pain as he struggled to get out from under a steel girder that had landed on both his legs. Turning on a sixpence John rushed back, leaping over the flames and fallen debris until he reached the fallen soldier; Batou was at his side in an instant as he took one end of the girder and tried to push it off. But it was no use, the metal structure was too large to be shifted so easily and the blaze was now too dangerous for the others to reach them; everyone watched in horror as the beam changed direction and slowly shifted towards them. Unaware of the impending danger, the Marine and Section 9 agent continued to try and get their teammate out; when at that moment...

"DAAAAAD!"

All at once, time seemed to slow to a craw as everyone helplessly watched what happened...

...From behind one of the consoles Ashley bolted out like a greyhound, his legs pushing him through the intense heat as adrenaline surged through his blood with all the potency of electricity, he dodged and leapt over the flames, making a beeline for his father...

...As he spotted him through the flames, Ravage gasped in horror...

The boy

His father and Batou

The beam

He could see it coming, and with every ounce of strength in his metallic form he broke into cheetah speed; practically flying across the chamber and charging though the flames so fast they didn't have time to burn him as they licked over his armour like liquid gold. Hoping and praying he got to them first...

...But Ashley got there first...

John barely had time to register what was going on when a flash of red appeared at the edge of his peripheral vision, followed by Ashley's face as he felt a small hand push him back hard, followed by Batou; and as they both landed flat on their backs, Ashley yelled as the bream hit him square on the chest. Time seemed to speed up once again as Ravage grabbed Ashley by the scruff of his neck, right before his body erupted into a blaze of scarlet-red energy-fire and silver mercury began crawling all over him, as the liquid metal hit his BSHB, half the fire turned blue and both the drone and boy disappeared in a blinding white light...

* * *

"ASHLEEEEY!" Deathshot cried out in horror as he pitched forward, clasping his temples in agony as blue energy bolts crackled around his helm; Bluestreak, Pazu and Boma jumped in shook as the Autobot sniper writhed about where he sat.

"DEATHSHOT! WHAT THE SLAG-"

"Th-the nanites!-, gotta-...try to-,...-STOP THEM!" he strained as his processor struggled like mad to reprogramme the nanites within Ashley's BSHB so they could combat the rough nanites that were threatening to transform his charge. As the Autobot gunner and agents watched on helplessly, Deathshot suddenly stopped, and looked up with a look of surprise in his one optic as it flashed red and blue...

"Wha-, what's happening?" Boma exclaimed in alarm

"There's an unknown Decepticon programme hacking the nanites...it's-...it's rebooting their programming, telling them to alter their bio-interface codes into-..." the sniper's gaze glazed over as he stared off into space, as if in a trance; "...Something else..." he breathed, the other three looked on in bewilderment as a slight look of relief came over the sniper's features.

* * *

He first thing he noticed was how numb his legs and arms felt, that dull dead-like feeling just before pins and needles kicked in; only they didn't, and as he gingerly got back up on his feet, he realized he was in a very different place; all around as far as he could see was nothing but a strange mist, illuminated by a soft, almost twilight sort of blue-ish glow; was the sun setting? Or was it rising? Or was there even a sun at all here? It was hard to tell. A small whistling noise drew his attention down to the ground, and he stared in bemusement as a circle of blue complex Cybertronian glyphs circled around his feet, from all directions around him red glyphs hovered across the ground and latched onto the blue circle, turning blue as they connected to each other; little by little the circle grew wider and larger as more and more glyphs grew in number and added to the complex arrangement. But as he read them, Ashley found he didn't know these particular glyphs, that they were a different dialect of Cybertronian.

"What do they mean? And just where the hell am I?" he thought aloud as he looked around.

"...Is this-...Am I dead?" he thought in a mild panic, a low mechanical chuckle caught his attention as Ravage appeared out of the mist; "No but you certainly gave it your best try..." he grinned before his smile dropped and was replaced with an unreadable look in his one optic.

"Huh? What do you mean? Last thing I remember I pushed dad and Batou out of the way, right before that-" he suddenly realized what had happened, and put two and two together, "...Oh, now I remember..." he stared off into space in wide-eyed realization.

"Yes, I'm afraid so" Ravage nodded

"So, where are we? The same place Morri was when the Spark Eater sucked her out of her body?" he asked in envious apprehension , "No, quite the opposite actually; I expanded the mind-link between us to create this 'half-way' point, right now your half way out of your body, and half way into mine" he explained.

"Half way into yours? Why?" Ashley asked

"Because it's the only way to save you..." Ravage sighed regretfully; Ashley stared at him in confusion as he stepped closer, and let him lay his hand on his muzzle to stroke him, "That beam that hit you was from one of the nanite applicators in the birthing chamber; it hit you with a concentration of bio-nanites that are currently coursing through your entire system-"

"Then-" he panicked, "I'm going to end like one of-", "No! That won't happen! I won't allow it and neither will your guardian!" Ravage snapped, grabbing his attention. "After we discovered that preserved hybrid specimen, Deathshot reprogrammed part of the BSHB's security settings to include a kill-mode, if the nanites within the BSHB detected any other nanites within your systems that they didn't recognize, it would instantly send out an small burst of low-charged ion particles, a sort of EMP if you will, strong enough to kill any invading nanites but low enough in power that it wouldn't harm your cellular structure or cardiac system. But it would seem the Spark Eater liked to indulge in different types of bio-nanites, and the batch that you got hit with were of hardly quality in terms of their insulation against energy spikes; instead of destroying them the BSHB has managed to stun them, and just long enough that I could intercept and reprogramme them"

"Reprogramme? Can't you just get rid of them?"

"Unfortunately no, once the transformation process has started it cannot be stopped; but it can be altered and rearranged. Because the nanites in that beam were created to Decepticon specs, they accepted my programming without altercation, and thus accepted the new commands I am currently uploading to their system...Instead of going into you I told them to go around you, and instead of transforming your organic protein cellular structure into an autonomous-robotic protoform, I told them to create an exo-skeletal protoform around you...In other words, a sort of 'hybrid-cyberbio suit'" the panther explained.

"Hybrid-cyberbio suit?" Ashley echoed in astonishment. "It was the only thing I could think of..." was all Ravage found he could say. For the first time in his life he wasn't even sure he'd made the right decision; but as Ashley stroked his jaw, a look of curiosity came over him as he looked the panther in the optic. "...So? When the process is complete, will I still be me? I mean, will I still be who I am?" he asked, Ravage blinked in slight surprise.

"...Yes" he replied, a little unsure where he was going with this...

"...Will I still remember who I am and all my memories? Will I know my family when I see them? And will I still be able to have a life?" he asked; Ravage stared at him for moment, watching as his 'telepathic sight' allowed him to see the power of his spirit deep within him push everything else aside, and focused his mind's eye on what was the most important to him...

"...Yes" he replied confidently, a glimmer of hope blossoming in his spark as he realized he may not have made the wrong choice after all...

"Then, if that's the case; I don't think I'd mind much, if I know me, and I know my dad, we'll find a way to make it work..." he smiled, "Hey! You remember that day by the lake, we were talking about something just like this!" he realized as the memory of that particular day came to mind.

"Indeed, it would seem you will have your wish; though I'd have preferred you chosen it willingly, not forced upon you like this" the panther sighed regretfully

"Hey it couldn't be helped, dad and Batou were in trouble and I had to do something" Ashley shrugged

"...You know, you could've chosen not save your creators life" Ravage thought aloud, Ashley simply looked at him and offered a small smile "Your telepathic Rav, we both know the answer to that" he replied.

"...Yes we do" Ravage smiled as he nuzzled the side of his face, "And I promise I will make this up to you, somehow..."

"It's okay...but one other thing, will it be anything like what Morri experienced?"

"No, this will be entirely different"

"Why?"

"Because this will be for real; no illusions, no tricks, not a dream to wake up from; and suffice to say, reality is differant from what we perceive in our minds, and it isn't always what we believe or wish it to be. But knowing you my student, I know you will find a way to make this work; one way or another I'll help you through this, Okay?" the panther assured him

"Okay..." Ashley nodded with a smile, "Hey, shouldn't we be getting back to help the others? We still got the Spark Eater to deal with"

"Indeed, and fortunately the nanites reprogramming is complete; all that's left to do is upload your new protoforms modal; since you're too small to be a Transformer-class, your only option will have to be a Drone-class, and since your mammalian hominid design is compatible with my panther format, you'll have to settle for mine" the panther grinned.

"Whoa, seriously? But wait-, how will that work? Won't I just be a clone of you?"

"Highly unlikely; your human format will force the nanites to significantly alter the design format to accommodate for your body underneath, that much I know. All I programmed the nanites to do, was not alter your internal systems or cellular structure in any way, whatever they do to conform to that new command remains to be seen...I've done all I can to preserve 'you', the rest you will have to do yourself; understand?" he asked, to which Ashley nodded

"Good, I expect nothing less of my student..." he smiled, "Now, are you ready?"

"I guess-...Wait-, what am I saying? I just killed a four hundred foot tall Demolisher-hybrid! Of course I'm bloody well ready!"

"Heh, then you better brace yourself, because that hybrids got nothing on what's about to happen next" the panther grinned as his one optic glowed brighter and brighter until it's light encompassed all of Ashley's vision and the preteen found himself floating in nothing but red; the circle of blue Cybertronian glyphs swirled around him, breaking up into tiny fragments and sticking to him. All around they swarmed, covering every last inch of his body until he was but a glowing blue silhouette and he felt himself being wrapped up in a snug form-fitting force, as if slipping into a skin-tight wetsuit that adhered itself to his skin, at the base of his spine he felt a throbbing sensation before a long robust tail sprouted out and grew in length; finally, a blinding flash of white light encompassed his entire vision, pulling him towards it, he didn't know why he knew, but something deep down told him he was going home...

* * *

BROOOM!"

"WHOA! WHAT THE-" Boma exclaimed in alarm as the cave was suddenly filled with humans and Autobots, all falling about each other as they scrambled to their feet and tried to regain their bearings, being careful not to trip over/step on one another. When the chaos finally subsided, everyone looked around and snapped their attention to Bumblebee, who was carrying in his arms Ravage and...something else.

"Where is he! Where's-" John panicked as Bumblebee laid them both on the cave floor; everyone gathered around as they stared down at the odd creature lying next to Ravage...

It was Ashley, or at least something with Ashley's face; it was large, about ten feet tall with a lean feline-like form, broad chest, wide shoulders, long stocky muscles, large powerful limbs, and a three meter-long spine-like tail tipped with a three pointed spear-like blade; it's entire body was comprised of smooth metal plates and inter-connecting sheaths of nanite-ligaments that had a very organic profile, more like bones and muscles than metal with nanite skin at the joints and in between the more thinner areas of armour platelets. Its hands and feet were stocky with fingers and toes tipped with large lethal looking claws, and its head was mostly human in terms of shape and structure, it's face looked like an older version of Ashley while the top of its head looked like the upper side of Ravage's helm with a pair of fangs coming down at the corners of its eyes and one small slit-like optic on the 'forehead. The temples had a set of spiky protrusions sweeping backwards that formed a set of pointed ears/audios with armour that carried on down the back of the neck forming an almost cobra-like hood; if anything it resembles more of a shaman's head-dress. All in all the creature looked like a sphinx, half human and half feline in shape and form, but whether it actually was Ashley was now the subject at hand as everyone was beside themselves, unsure what to think of it.

"What the hell is it?" Will thought aloud

"Ashley" Deathshot replied

"WHA-"

"No way!"

"How the hell did THAT happen?"

"You can't be serious!"

"It's gotta be a mistake!"

"I wish it were..." the Autobot sniper replied listlessly as he bent down next to him, unsure what to do himself, "But it is. I saw everything as the data came in via his BSHB before it went dead; the 'additional security feature' I programmed into the BSHB's only stunned the nanites, it didn't kill them as intended. So Ravage connected himself to the nanites and reprogrammed their primary function command" he explained

"Wha-, he could've killed the nanites but he allowed them to turn my boy into a hybrid!" John growled as his anger began to boil.

"No he didn't! Ashley's still human!-" the sniper was quick to correct, but the cave fell silent as everyone tried to comprehend what he just said.

"Wha-...What? What do you mean he's-"

"Scan him for yourselves! Look!" Deathshot pointed to him, the bots all activated their scanners and stared at the creature in disbelief; underneath all the armour and tissue-like circuitry the form of a human child's body could be seen, alive and intact. Deathshot activated his holoform projector so as to let the humans see for themselves. John stared up at the image blankly, unsure what to think as so many notions ran through his head; his son was alive and he was still human, but he was-...he didn't know what to describe it as, or think of it as; he looked back down at the creature as Morri and Tom both sat down beside him in equal disbelief.

"I-...I don't believe it! How is this possible?" Jetfire gasped

"Because I made so, in order to save his mind; and his life..." Ravage growled as he stirred from unconsciousness and sat up, looking down at the creature beside him, he sighed with relief "...Thank Primus he's alright".

"What the hell happened back there! One minute Batou and I are trying to get Peters out from under a piece of rubble and the next-"

"Bottom line: your son was struck by a beam of bio-nanites as he saved your life; the nanites are Decepticon tech so I reprogrammed them to form into a hybridized cyberbio-suit, basically an exo-skeletal protoform. His human body and mind is still alive and intact, but cocooned within a shell comprised of both his human, and my design formats"

"Your design format?" Morri echoed

"Well I couldn't leave him defenceless once he wakes up, plus the reprogramming wouldn't function correctly without a design format to graft to" Ravage replied

"So-...he's okay? ..." John thought aloud as his mind started to focus once again.

"...Yes, he's still your son, and he's going to be alright..." the panther assured him as he sensed the man's mind spinning with fear and confusion; "But he needs a medic, the reprogramming didn't interfere with his vital systems but the transition to this new form might have thrown his systems basic functions for a loop. His vital signs are all stable for now, but I rendered him unconscious so as to allow his body time to 'acclimatize' to the nanites within him. Plus, part of the suit is bonded to his spinal unit; there could be complications there but we won't know until we get him to Ratchet and let him do a full technical and biological analysis" he said.

"Can it be removed?" John asked

"I don't know, like I said we'll have to get him to Ratchet; if it can be removed we can't do it now, we'll have to wait until this is over, and get him back home" Ravage replied, a moment of silence past as Jetfire turned away, his gaze lingering off into space as he considered the situation, and weighted up the options open to them.

"...Is he stable enough to endure another teleport sequence?" the ancient seeker asked

"Yes" the panther simply replied

"And can you still sense the Spark Eater?"

"Yes?"

"Then in that case your orders are to return to New Port with the boy and take him to Ratchet; since you used your Decepticon programming to change those nanites you're the only one who'll be able to help him. The comms are working fine again so communication's not a problem, since the enemy already had the drop on us our priorities will have to change somewhat. Keep tabs on the Spark Eater from the city and inform us in on any new developments. And YOU!-" he turned his attention to Skywarp, who stared on helplessly like a rabbit caught in the headlights. "Why did you let him come along in the first place!"

"Hey it wasn't my fault! I went back to the command centre like you ordered and I picked up the anti-jamming virus from Frenzy; but then this Demolisher-hybrid crashed through the roof and everything went crazy! After I helped take care of him and I got outta there I got jumped by more hybrids and it got even crazier! I teleported out but I didn't even know he'd followed me until I saw him rush to save his creator from that beam! He must've been standing right underneath me the instant I teleported back! I swear I didn't know he was there!" the seeker frantically tried to explain; Jetfire's frustration deflated as he grumbled something under his breath, leaning against the cave wall as he pinched the bridge of his nose plates; a moment of silence passed as the tension in the cave was allowed to ease up before Ravage looked up the Autobot seeker.

"...Do you want me to take him with me?" he asked

"No..." he replied, everyone blinked in surprise, "...This will have to wait until afterwards. The human victims may be beyond our help now but the mission objective is still the same; we must destroy the base, but now that we can't go back in we'll have to find another way to get to that auxiliary server shaft, and suffice to say the odds aren't in our favour at the present moment-" he replied as he watched the base of the tower swarming with hybrids, "But we still have time, and we will need every member of the team available for when we make our move" Jetfire explained

"And that will be when?" Batou asked

"I believe it was John Dryden that said: Beware the fury of a patient man. We will bide our time and form a plan, one way or another we will blow up that place, but we won't rush to our deaths in the process. Skywarp, teleport Ravage, the boy and his family back to the command centre, and unless the circumstances dictate otherwise, return here immediately" Jetfire replied

"What?" John blinked in surprise

"I know that look in your optics, each of you, and I don't want you to continue on this mission if your processors aren't in the game; besides, he'll need you when he finally online's..." Jetfire gestured to Ashley. Glancing at one another, neither of the cousins nor their uncle wanted to admit it but he was right, their minds were focused on nothing but Ashley, and that would be a comprising distraction if the situation changed drastically again; with a heavy sigh John stood back up with a look of confliction about him. On the one hand his instincts were telling his to stay with his son, but on the other he knew he couldn't just abandon his men, or the rest of the team for that matter; he didn't know what to think, until his second in command placed a hand on his shoulder and grabbed his attention with an understanding look.

"It's alright boss, we got things covered here"

"...Thanks lads..." John offered a small smile, "Tyrell, you're in charge; I'll see you guys later" he said as he stood next to his niece, nephew and Ravage as Skywarp gently picked up Ashley in his arms and held him close for protection. "Come on Peters, let's get you back too" John helped the injured marine manoeuvre next to his side as his legs were both bound tightly together in thick blood-soaked bandages.

"You too Witwicky" Jetfire gestured for the teen to join them.

"What? But I'm not family! Don't get me wrong I'm just as shocked and taken aback by this as the rest of you but I don't think-"

"It's not because of Ashley Witwicky, it's because your shield won't be strong enough by itself! With the three of you combining your shields at once we had enough cover to withstand heavy cannon-fire over a fifty foot radius, now you'll only have enough cover for yourself and only one other if things heat up again. It's not worth the risk if something happens again"

"But-"

"He's right Sam-" Deathshot interjected "I can't expand the power output of the shield projector of your BSHB any further without causing collateral damage to your vital systems. As compatible as the BSHB may be to your biology, it does have it limits" he explained, with a disappointed sigh Sam dropped his gaze and didn't push the issue any further. "Hey-" Bumblebee got his attention, "It's for your own safety okay? Just-, when you get back help out where you can. We'll explain to Prime what happened, and don't worry we'll be okay" he assured him.

"Sure thing Bee..." the teen replied glumly as he patted his guardian on the leg before stepping over to Skywarp's side, "Just watch yourself yeah?"

"Yeah..." the scout replied in equal glumness as the seeker teleported away. For a moment the mood the cave dropped to a mixed sense of uncertainty and regret. To her side the Major noticed the look on Batou's face, that bitter self-blaming scowl he always wore when he believed he could've done more but didn't, that he should've been the one the beam hit.

"_Hey..."_ she opened her encrypted cybercomm frequency to him, _"...He's going to be okay; for a kid with no prosthetics he's tough"_

"_...Yeah, but how's he going to react when he wakes up?" _Batou sighed

"_Well, if his friendship with Ravage is anything to on, what do you think?" _she proposed with a small hopeful smile, to which he glanced up at her, and in the back of his mind, something about that made perfect sense.

* * *

Back at the Command Centre:

"You know, this pretty much sums up the shit-luck nature of my karma..." Darren deadpanned as he dusted off his laptop and sat on the large piece rubble that now served as his seat. All around the command centre was in shambles; rubble and dust littered all the floors of every level while a quarter of the complex's structural support beams had caved in at one end of the central level. But thankfully the architectural and engineering design of the whole place had been designed as such that it prevented it from caving in completely, and as it was, many of the computers and their corresponding systems were still up and running, despite the fact that there was now a huge fifteen foot wide hole in the ceiling, and through it part of the dead Demolisher-hybrid sat motionless, filling in most of the crater above. Except for a large gaping hole on its side that was just wide enough for the Autobot's to squeeze through while the fallen and piled up debris at the bottom of the hole acted as a make-shift ladder for the bots and humans to get in and out of the complex.

"Only worthless people blame their karma for their woes; besides, you took on that guy before didn't you?" Aoi gestured to the giant Demolisher-hybrid that was looming above their heads; one of its giant claws hung motionless amid the wiring and cables that were hanging from the now exposed power-relays in the ceiling. "Yeah...but we couldn't stop him in time..." the teen hacker replied glumly as the memory of the city-wide fight came to mind; Aoi promptly dropped the subject and went back to work. At that moment Rumble came bouncing down the crater and dropped down onto the hacker's platform.

"Hey..." Darren greeted him, "What's going on up top? It's really quietened down up there"

"The American's amphibious forces finally showed up and managed to push the hybrids back by three city blocks" he informed them, "Also, Swiftshot is safely in the new triage Ratchet set up in one of the other levels, along with all the injured humans. With the American Empire and GSDA taking care of the hybrids Elita and the others are using the armour of the Demolisher-hybrid and some of the other larger attackers for barricades and fox-hole covers. So far the triage has been safely reinforced, and their handing out armour for the tank and exo-suit units to use as shields"

"That's good; that should give us a rest from having to use our BSHB's all the time; you know? I never realized until now just how tiring it gets using them all the time" Danny added

"Yeah, but in the meantime we gotta a real problem; the mission at the enemy base to rescue the victims had to be aborted, apparently the enemy got the drop on us and set up a trap; they just called in to inform us that their staying put at Bluestreak's hide-site until they can come up with a new plan to take out the server shaft, and apparently something happened when-"

BROOOM!

"WHAT NOW!" Glen asked grudgingly as Skywarp reappeared in middle of the complex, this time with Ravage, Morri, Tom, Sam, John, and one of his men who sported a bad set of injured legs.

"Wha-, what the hell are you guys doing back here?" Ishikawa asked in amazement

"Where's Ratchet? We got a real emergency on our hand here!" Tom pleaded

"What emergency? You-" but the veteran hacker stopped when the seeker showed him and the others the odd hybrid-like creature lying unconscious in his arms; the sight of its face instantly got their attention.

"Is that-...Ashley?..." Danny gawked at his cousin in a mix of alarm and astonishment

"...Oh my God..." Glen breathed in astonishment

"Guys! Where's Ratchet?" Morri got their attention

"I'll take you to him!" Rumble scooted back up through the hole; Skywarp shifted Ashley into his left arm, and picked up the injured Marine in his right hand; the humans followed close behind as they climbed out of the hole and up the steep incline of the crater, "Holy Crap! How the hell did this go down?" Sam gasped when he saw just how huge the crater and the Demolisher-hybrid were. "Slow and clumsily" Rumble replied. After climbing several levels up the seeker, drones and humans finally reached a wide exposed corridor and walked along until they came into a large circular foyer which now served a field hospital that was buzzing with activity. In one section of the foyer a triage had been set up to process the injured that were coming in, make-shift bunks had been set up for those unable to stand on their feet, practically one half of the room served as an emergency ward, complete with surgical units for those needing urgent treatment, while the rest of the room was filled with soldiers whose injuries had been treated/stabilized, and were now waiting for an evac to take them to one of the military hospitals elsewhere in the city. After depositing the marine at the triage and carefully stepping over the humans as if he were walking on hot coals, (and likewise every human in his way scrambled to avoid his sharp talons) Skywarp gingerly followed Rumble as he made his way across the room to another tall corridor that lead through to another large foyer with more interconnecting corridors. In the centre of the room Swiftshot laid motionless on the floor, still unconscious and hooked up to a make-shift energon IV drip while Ratchet typed up something on his data-pad and Mikaela and Matti sat nearby cleaning some tools.

"What do you want now?" the medic grumbled

"We've got a 'unique' situation at hand, and I need your help" Ravage growled, the medic gazed down in confusion as Skywarp laid the strange creature on the floor.

"What is-"

"Scan for yourself and look" the panther stated, the medic activated his scanners, and stared at the creature in disbelief.

"Ratchet? ..." Mikaela and Matti both cautiously approached, their eyes flew open when they recognized Ashley's face; "...Oh my God"

"What happened?" the medic asked in a serious, yet surprisingly calm tone.

Meanwhile, back down in the command centre:

"The Major just called in again with a few more details on what happened; apparently when Skywarp went back to the stasis chamber Ashley had accidently been standing between his legs at the moment he'd teleported. From what I gather the whole thing went down so fast it was practically over in a minute; during the fight one of the nanite applicator's was activated and started going nuts, John and Batou stopped help one of the injured Marines and at the last possible second Ashley ran up and pushed them both out of the way before the beam hit him dead on, almost instantly Ravage grabbed him and somehow reprogrammed the nanites to create a kinda, 'hybrid-cyberbio-suit' around him, like a second skin. From the sounds of it I think he's still intact and still human, they said they're gonna let Ravage and Ratchet handle it" Ishikawa informed them; Danny stared at the hacker, unsure what to think.

"I should be up there with him" he blurted out

"And do what? No offence, your concern is understandable and I'm truly sorry for your cousin's current predicament, but if Ravage is the one who reprogrammed those nanites he's the only one that'll be able to remove that suit off of him; in the meantime we've a job to do here, and we need you" Aoi stated in a serious tone, for a moment Danny wasn't sure what to say, he opened his mouth but no words came out.

"Look, his dad's up there, Morri and Tom too, they'll keep a close eye on him; besides this is Ashley we're talking about, you gotta throw world war three at that kid to make him back down from anything-" Darren assured him, Danny glanced at him but the slight hint of dubiousness in his eyes told them he wasn't wholly convinced. "Listen, I'll keep the comms open and check in regularly, if anything happens you'll be the first to know okay?"

"...Okay" the red-headed teen nodded as he drew in a deep breath and sighed, "...So what do we do now in terms of the mission?"

"For now the team's in the hide-site and are okay; but the mountain's crawling with hybrids and there's too many of them in the sky to try a frontal assault, so that means we've really gotta pull all our resources together and find out what the rest of the vaccine code is on this" Darren grabbed the data-cube and plugged it into his laptop.

"But where the hell do we start? Or get back to for that matter! We exhausted every possible clue there could be as to the code's hiding place and we found diddlysquat!" Glen sighed in exasperation

"So far we found diddlysquat but I'm not sure we checked out the cube thoroughly enough" Darren said as he sat back down at his laptop and started typing again, "When Skywarp revealed the time-space quantum co-ordinates that were hiding in the cube's schematics, it got me thinking that maybe the code could be in there somewhere after all; the vaccine's codes are numbers and glyphs that follow the same cybertronian mathematical principle of 'double quantum-fractures', meaning they occur in a lineal sequence that repeats itself over and over again. All we have to do is run all the co-ordinates through a filter programme that looks for the same numeral value as the rest of the vaccine's primary codes, and hopefully we should get something"

"It's a long shot but highly plausible" Aoi thought aloud

"Ifthecode'stherewegottamakesure!" Frenzy interjected

"Alright, but where the hell do we start?" Glen grimaced as the mass of cybertronian glyphs appeared and began scrolling down the screen.

Back up in the field hospital:

"This is unbelievably unique; how in Primus's name did you reprogramme the nanites to classify human DNA as compatible design format-coding?" Ratchet said offhand as he scanned Ashley over.

"Well they are bio-nanites; they may have been originally designed and programmed to convert organic protein-based structures into autonomous robotic structures but they weren't encrypted with primary directive-only commands. Thus their software write-up could be easily altered so their primary command can be deleted and replaced with a new one, like creating a exo-skeletal protoform to encase an organic organism" Ravage replied

"So essentially it's an exo-skeleton, like a beetle or a lobster?" Matti asked

"Same principle, only humans are spinal cord-based organisms to technically it makes him an 'indo-exo-vertebrae'; I suppose would be the correct definition" the panther replied

"But can it be removed?" John asked concerningly

"That's what I've been trying assess; from what I can tell of my initial scans, his human body is superficially bonded to the suit via a triple-layer of synthetic techno-organic tissue that I'm guessing would allow freedom of movement; the only real part that's bonded to him internally is his spinal unit. There are several micro-lines of nanite relay 'nerves' connected to his spinal cord in between the first and second vertebrae, and a few lines that are connected directly to his cerebellum-unit"

"Do they pose a threat?" Morri asked

"...No" Ratchet frowned as he scanned Ashley again, "If anything the nanites are starting to mimic the cellular structure of his own brain cells, their using his human DNA formatting as a guide to link up to him without causing any alterations to the surrounding cellular structure. If these were to be removed the risk of brain damage would be very minimal"

"So we can get him out of that thing?" Tom asked

"It is possible, but we're going to have to act fast, the nanites 'organic-interface sequencing' is nearly complete; for lack of a better description we'll have to 'skin' it off him" Ratchet replied seriously

"Okay, I'll head back to the triage and grab some stuff from one of the surgeons" Morri stood back up and headed for the triage back down the corridor.

"Anaesthesia won't be necessary, if I disconnect the spinal connections first, he shouldn't feel any pain during the procedure..." Ratchet said as he gently picked Ashley up in one hand and transformed his other hand into a long probe-like tool; he turned him onto his back and gently brought the tool down over the base of his skull. But before he could do anything, a loud explosion echoed out from one of the corridors, followed by a frenzied growl and the angry rumble of an engine; Skywarp aimed his guns but two lazar-shots blasted from out of the corridor and straight through his wings, knocking him backwards against the wall with a loud CRASH!. The humans panicked when they saw a hybrid charging down the corridor and heading straight for them, Ravage fired his hip-cannons on impulse but the shots missed the hybrid's head by mere inches. As the monster dashed into the foyer John instinctively threw himself over Ashley to shield him from the impending impact while Tom, Morri, Mikaela and Sam fired up their BSHB's, time seemed to suspend itself in slow motion once again as the hybrid charged towards them...

Ashley's eyes flew open, and he let out a deep thunderous lion-like roar...

John didn't know what the hell was going on as he suddenly found himself being thrown into Ratchet's lap, as his back made contact with the medics chest plates, he gasped at the sight before him...Ashley was awake, and not just awake, he was charging straight towards the hybrid like a cheetah on all fours; as the hybrid came within several meters he jumped up off the ground, twisted through the air as four deadly metre-long claws unsheathed from his fingers, and in one single swipe he decapitated the hybrid. The creature's head flew through the air, straight over Ratchet's helm and hit Skywarp dead on the forehead, knocking him flat on his back while the hybrids body slumped over forward and slid to a stop in front of Swiftshot.

"...Shit..." Matti gawked

"...Ashley?..." John called over to him as a flair of worry went through his mind; everyone jumped back in alarm as he spun around and faced them with a feral look in his glowing red optics; still on all fours he arched his back defensively like a cat and growled dangerously. "ASHLEY IT'S US! Don't you recognize us? Don't you recognize ME?" John pleaded. Suddenly, Ashley blinked in surprise and stared at everyone in confusion, he stood back up on his hind legs and gazed at his father as if he were someone he hadn't met in a lifetime; then, he began to jerk and twitch as his whole body seemed to go into some sort of spasm, right before-

**: TECHNO-ORGANIC INTERFACE SEQUENCING COMPLETE: PRIMARY DIRECTIVE COMPLETE: ALL TRANFORMATION PROTOCALS ARE NOW DELETED: SELF-DESTRUCTION OF FIRST-GENERATION SYSTEMS INITIATED: TRANSFERANCE OF PRIMARY MOTOR-FUNCTION TO HOST-UNIT CONTROL IN 3...2...1...-**

BLIP!

Ashley's shoulders slumped and his head dropped down as he seemed to fall unconscious; for the longest most tense moment anyone had known, both the humans and the Autobots stared at him; not at all sure what just happened as he stood there motionless. Then, a low moan escaped his metallic lips as he lifted his head up and opened his eyes; everyone just kept staring, both alarmed, afraid and dumfounded.

"Mmm.?...What're you all looking at?" Ashley mumbled in deep electronic basso voice, after a moment he realized they were looking straight at him, and when he looked down and saw himself another tense silence followed before a smile crossed his lips. "Whoa, damn Ravage, you got good taste mate-" he smiled before he fell over flat on his back and fell unconscious. The rest of the Briggs family snapped back to reality and rushed to his side, along with Ratchet and Ravage who didn't waste any time scanning him.

"What. The hell. Was that?" Morri gawked

"That, I believe, was the final stage of the nanites interface sequencing..." Ravage said, his ears dropped down as a look of regret began to well up in his optic. The suit's completely bonded to him now...It-...it can't be removed..." he said in a low voice. John stared down at Ashley as the whole rush of emotions swept through him again, and this time he was at a loss at what to do. He forced himself to focus but his mind and his instincts were fighting to say otherwise. Through his telepathy Ravage could practically hear the man's paternal 'self' scream out in despair; 'this couldn't be true', 'this isn't happening', 'this isn't real', not my boy' spun around and around threatening to consume him, Ravage was about to say something, but thought of something better; and as Ashley began to come round again; John held his breath as his son looked up at him and smiled.

"Hey dad..." he smiled in a weakly as he struggled to keep his eyes open. "Hey soldier..." John smiled nervously, "How're you feeling?", "Like I just ate of aunt Izzy's soggy-oggy pasties" he grinned, to which his father and cousins burst into chuckles before a the look of confliction came over him again; "Uh-...Listen..." he struggled to form his words, "...I don't know how to say this, but-...I'm afraid something happened-"

"It's okay dad, I know" Ashley was quick to stop him, to which John stared at him in surprise...

"You know?"

"'Course I do; Ravage told me while he was reprogramming the nanites..." he mumbled, "Listen, you need to hear this before you freak out; whatever happens from here on, I don't care what I am or what I look like, just so long as I've got you and everyone else I love. I know that sounds corny but its true; and please, don't be angry at Ravage cuz he saved my life, and don't be angry at Skywarp either, if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have been able to get to you in time. And it's not your fault either; just remember I'm still me okay? And I still love you-..." he smiled, closing his eyes and slipping back into unconsciousness again.

"Ashley?" John gently shook him, trying to wake him up.

"Its alright, he's fallen unconscious again" Ratchet informed them.

"Uh? ...Could I get a little medical attention now?" Skywarp sheepishly pointed to the holes in his wings.

* * *

Somewhere south of the San-nin Shimai mountain range:

"**WHAT! He's a hybrid!"** Ironhide exclaimed in disbelief

"**No! Technically he's still human! Ravage reprogrammed the nanites to form into some kinda bio-cyber suit or somethin'; in any case he ain't a zombie-con!" **Glen corrected

"**What is Ashley's current condition?" **Prime asked

"**Don't know, last I checked he was with Ravage and doc-hatchet, he's still with 'em I think?"**

"**And what of your progression with the missing vaccine code?"**

"**Ah man, it ain't easy but we're tryin' somethin' new, hopefully we'll get somewhere this time" **

"**Very well, keep me informed of any further developments"**

"**Right on boss-bot. Oh! One other thing! With that jamming frequency now gone you should know the American fleet is gonna launch their long range missiles, I don't know yet what their targets are gonna be specifically, but I recommend gettin' off the mountain roads asap!"**

"**Don't worry, we're well away from the roads now; Prime out-" **Prime replied as he glanced down the sheer cliff-face he and his team were standing mere inches from. "Sheesh! When you take the intuitive you really take the intuitive! But then, I suppose I shouldn't have expected any less from the great Optimus Prime" Thundercracker grumbled as he dug his claws into the rocky cliff for a better grip. "Ah quit yer grumblin'! Yer only ticked off cuz you ain't allowed ta fly!" Warpath smirked. After escorting the GSDA Special Forces units out of the coastal mountain range and its adjoining valleys, Prime lead his team northwards, following the outlining hills and farmlands until they reached the outskirts of the San-nin Shimai mountain range (all the while avoiding every hybrid that passed their way). From there they abandoned the road and carried on foot for over ten miles into the forest, traversing over the valleys, ridges, gorges and ravines that cut through the land; until they finally they reached the valley which opened out to the three San-nin Shimai Mountains. Despite the fact that there were at least three dozen flyer-hybrids circling the top of the antenna tower, not once had the team been spotted, even in the more exposed areas of the forest where the tree's were spaced out they'd gone unnoticed (which was astounding due to the fact that Prime had transported his trailer in its armed flight tech-mode on his back for the entire journey; with a pair of jet wings spanning over fifty feet in length and armed with all kinds of weaponry, he wasn't exactly blending in with the surroundings). As they approached the top of the valley ridge, Prime noticed the scuff marks in the rocks were Jetfire's team had been earlier.

"We're here..." Prime said in a hushed tone as he carefully peered over the top-most rock and gazed down into the valley where the hybrids were swarming; about two kilometres to the west was the mountain where Jetfire's team were hiding, so far that mountain was largely untouched, but down below the hybrids numbers were swelling as they proceeded to make their way to the south.

"There's too many of them to charge" Hound said offhand

"And too many in the air to take on in a singular tri-formation attack" Springer frowned as his rotors twitched in uneasiness.

"**Optimus! Are you there? Please come in, over!"**

"**I'm here Kobuta, what seems to be the problem?"**

"**How far are you from the enemy base?"**

"**Approximately three kiloliters south of the base of the mountain, and five point six kilometres from the mountain Jetfire's team retreated to"**

"**Listen, you better find some cover, the American's have just launched the first wave of missiles at the enemy base and the highway running past that mountain; they should be hitting their targets any minute now"**

"**Acknowledged: over and out"**

"Now what?" Jazz asked; Prime turned to reply when the distant sound of rockets began to fill the sky, and several large missiles fast approached above the horizon; they shot over the bots heads and came screaming down on the valley in a deafening resounding BROOOM! All at once the entire valley floor and all the hybrids therein were blown away in a wave of fire that obliterated everything in its range; trees were uprooted and tossed about, rocks and dirt were thrown up leaving huge craters in their wake, and everywhere around the sounds were carried high up on the wind and heard for miles around. The hybrids, much to the bots surprise, instead of running and scattering and trying to escape the flames actually charged through the intense heat and carried on towards the highway; most of which burnt to death in the process. And instead of crying out in pain, the fire and explosions actually infuriated them, right to the point of unbridled rage as some of the larger hybrid-monsters attacked and tore apart the more smaller ones.

"Unbelievable! The missile strikes actually make them angrier!" Hound gasped as he watched the carnage unfold

"And I thought Sunny could get real pissed on a bad day!" Jazz concurred

Another two missiles came down and struck the ground entrance to the base dead on, as the explosions tore out the whole structure another three missiles struck the hanger entrance above, and in several consecutive explosions, practically a whole slice of the mountain blew out; sending out a shockwave that nearly knocked Prime and his team off their perch as they ducked for cover, and down below every hybrid within a mile was blown off their feet and incinerated by the intense heat. Up in the hide-side the humans and bots were knocked off their feet as the shockwave blew into the cave like a mini-tornado. And as quickly as it began the explosion died down to a steady forest- fire that began to spread over one side of the mountain; up the sides of the valley and everywhere to the north there was nothing but fire as the sky slowly began to darken with the rising smoke clouds.

"Well, I'd say we're done here!" Warpath grinned

"Not unless anyone wants to stick around for energon S'mores" Jazz grinned

"No, but I-..."

"What's up?" Jazz asked the ex-con seeker

"...Can you feel that?" he pointed to the ground. The whole group fell silent and stood still...

...It was minuet at first, barely even noticeable, but as they remained still, slowly they began to feel it...

The ground was vibrating; little by little it grew into a small rumble until it felt like a small earthquake. But these didn't feel like the kind of tumours produced from the unresting movement of the planet's tectonic plates; it felt like something else...almost like feet...stampeding feet, all moving together as one. Above the sounds of the forest burning, a low steady thunder began to grow, getting louder and louder as if the very mountain itself were alive...But the Autobots then realized it wasn't thunder; it was the collective roars, growls and howls of thousands of hybrids...

"...Aw man, this ain't gonna be good..." Jazz grimaced as the remains of the ground entrance to the base exploded in a mass of black metal bodies; thousands upon thousands of hybrids spilled out in a wave that filled up the valley floor and snuffed out the flames under their feet as they surged towards the highway...

"If they get through that pass and reach the city the GSDA will be outnumbered! We must close off that pass!" Prime stated as he took off along the cliff towards the edge of the valley ridge with the rest of the bots close behind, "Perhaps we won't need to, look!" Ironhide pointed to another set of incoming missiles that came shooting down through the valley and struck the sides of the cliff-faces that overhung the highway; rocks and boulders came crashing down but the hybrids quickly scrambled over them.

"Open fire on the base of the cliffs!" Prime ordered as he fired up his jet wings and took off towards the highway with Springer and Thundercracker close behind. The highway lit up with the flashes of muzzle-fire as the hybrids all fired their weapons; but Prime was quick to swoop out of the way and unleashed a barrage of cannon-fire on the cliffs as Thundercracker and Springer diverted the hybrids attention with their missiles, back up on the ridge the rest of the team fired on cliffs and highway, steadily forcing the mass of creatures to a slow to a halt. Then, one well placed shot from Warpath's tank gun struck the very base of the eastern cliffs and all at once a giant CRACK! Echoed through the valley before the whole cliff-side came sliding down and buried a whole section of the highway. Then, the opposite side of the pass cracked and rumbled before the whole end-section of the valley ridge slid down in a massive landslide, dragging half the forest down with it. As both sides of the pass came down on the hybrids another two missiles came flying in and struck part of the highway; blowing it up and sending in down into a deep ravine below, completely cutting off the pass. As he swooped upwards and levelled out, the sound of a small jet engine drew the bot's attention, and on his left wing he saw an unmanned spy-drone cruising by; no doubt it was either one of the American's or the GSDA's that had been sent to guide the missiles in, and keep an eye on them. Prime saluted, to which the spy-drone nodded its camera-head in acknowledgement and banked away and disappeared into the clouds. Looking back down at the now closed off pass, Prime saw they had stopped trying to climb up all the debris that had formed a massive barrier across the now demolished highway; instead, they had all stopped where they were and gazed up into the sky. For a moment he thought they were looking at him, but they weren't; they all looked like they were in a trance as one by one they turned back and starting heading south-west along the valley in the opposite direction.

"**That route will take them at least half a day's journey before they reach the outskirts of the city; that should give the GSDA plenty of time to gather their strength"** Ironhide stated

"**Indeed; but why do I have the feeling that something else may be going on?"** Prime thought aloud.

* * *

"COVER THE LEFT FLANK! THEIR COMING BACK AGAIN!" Commander Kagawa barked at his men as he aimed his weapon and fired; from where she stood amid the rubble Mei Nobuyoshi grabbed a grenade off one of the soldier's belt's, pulled the pin and pitched it like a baseball at the oncoming hybrid; the Ranger field commander grabbed her by the waist and pulled her behind a broken pillar as the grenade exploded, blowing the creature in half. "Nice throw honey!" Togusa called out from where he stood on the level above them, firing down at another three hybrids as they dashed past the front line. In a short amount of time the hybrids had managed to gather together and storm past American's defences, and were now swarming on the Prime Minister's residence from all sides; the GSDA and Autobots were quickly becoming out-numbered and out-gunned and were struggling just to keep the smaller hybrids out of the main complex.

"Autobots! The second they come within range fire everything!" Elita ordered as she aimed her weapon at the next wave of hybrids that were advancing towards them. But as they came within about fifty feet, the hybrids suddenly screeched to halt and gazed up at the sky; everywhere around the complex every hybrid stooped and craned their heads skywards. "Huh? What're they all staring at?" Miles thought aloud; looking up, there wasn't anything in particular that caught his attention, besides the Jigabachi's and unmanned attack helicopters there was nothing else up there. Then, as quickly as they charged, the hybrids turned around and began running back the way they came, back into the city until they were well out of range of the GSDA and American's semi-automatics and tanks. In the make-shift Autobot triage, Ravage snapped his head up in alarm as his ears pressed flat against his head and he bared teeth with a low threatening growl.

"What is it?" Ratchet asked as he welded a wire mess-dressing over Skywarp's left wing.

"Something's happening" he growled

"What?"

"The Spark Eater's recalling its army; they're backing down"

"Huh? But why?"

"I don't know..." Ravage replied in uncertainty, his optic glowing brighter as he swung his head from side to side, as if looking for something; "...Something else has grabbed its attention, it's-..." he suddenly stopped, one ear flicking around as if trying to pinpoint a particular sound. "-Stay put, I'll be back as quick as I can!" he replied as he took off down the corridor, bounded through the human triage and out into the crater and made his way down into the command centre. "The data-cube! Where is it!" he demanded, taking the hackers by surprise.

"Uh-, What?"

"Something's happening on the net, the Spark Eater's attention has turned elsewhere; and I fear it might be aware of the cube's presence with us" the panther explained. "Well we got it right here, it's not's not moved since we-" Danny was interrupted as a tiny green light started flashing on the side of the cube and a data window popped up on his laptop's monitor and started beeping. "Huh?..." the young red-head clicked the window and went wide-eyed as the data started scrolling down the screen, "Whoa, how'd that happen?".

"Whatwhatwhat?" Frenzy butted in

"It's the data-cube; its directional detector has been activated"

"What? But how's that possible? We haven't touched anything else other than the time-space quantum co-ordinates!" Glen quirked an eyebrow. "I know, but look; whatever was originally transmitting the data to the cube has switched on again; its sending a string of co-ordinates to the transmitter's location!" Danny pointed to the screen; as the numbers came up, Darren frowned, "Their co-ordinates alright, but the sequence is coming up backwards...wait a minute, I recognize this pattern..." he typed up another command on his computer, and this time a new data-window popped up with new information. "...It's an equation, or one half of it at least; is that all?"

"Nothing else is coming up..." Danny said as the green light on the cube switched off, "Whoa! It switched itself off!" he gawked at the cube.

"Whoever sent these co-ordinates turned it off; but the question is what are we meant to do with one half of an equation?" Aoi thought aloud

"I don't know, but we've been doing this shit too long to know whoever sent this didn't send it likely; they know we can do something with it" Darren replied

"Yeah but what?"

* * *

Back up in the hide-site:

"Man, it's really quietened down since those missiles took out the pass" Batou thought aloud

"What'd you think their doing? One second they're all spewing out of the mountain like angry hornets, the next, their all just standing around staring up at the sky! It's getting real creepy!" his Tachikoma squeaked with worry.

"Whatever's going on it can't be good" the Major frowned as she watched the forest fire burn the valley black; as Bumblebee leaned out of the cave for a better look, he went wide-eyed in alarm when he saw what was climbing up the mountain slope. "Uh GUYS! We've got company!" he pointed down the slope. Rushing to the mouth of the cave and seeing what had gotten his attention, the Autobots and humans went ridged when they spotted the group of hybrids climbing up the rock-face.

"SHIT!"

"They're too far away for the semi-automatics, and too steeply down for me to pick off; Deathshot, Bluestreak, Saito, this would be your department of expertise!" Jetfire glanced at the three snipers; "Eight hundred yards down at a ninety point two degree angle, not a problem" Deathshot coolly replied as he activated his sniper rifle and left optic; Bluestreak reached for his weapon as Saito prepped his long-range anti-tank sniper gun. Positioning themselves on the ledge that jutted out from the cave so they had a direct line of sight down to the hybrids, the Autobot snipers got themselves comfortable as they took aim; to his side, Deathshot noticed Saito was hesitating as he brought the gun up to his shoulder. "Are you okay?" he asked, "Yeah I'm fine, it's just-, I've not sniped without my Hawkeye since I had it implanted; and with the satellite compromised I can't link up to it" Saito frowned.

"Well you can borrow my left optic's guidance system? It should compensate just fine for the satellite; and don't worry about a repeat of the last time we linked up, with all the checks and diagnostics Darren ran there's no way anything's slipping past my defences again..." he assured the sniper; Saito looked up at him and after a brief moment of consideration, nodded in agreement. Activating his Hawkeye and aiming down at the approaching hybrids, Saito sighed with relief as he saw a tiny line of green cybertronian glyphs appear in his Hawkeye's field of vision, and all at once he could see what Deathshot was seeing through his left optic. "Better?" he asked, "Much, now let's get to work!" Saito replied as he aimed, but as he commanded his Hawkeye to calculate the distance to the target, a red warning flashed in his Hawkeye saying: Unknown coding error; apparently Deathshot saw it too as both snipers flinched away.

"What's wrong?" Bluestreak asked

"I thought you said there wouldn't be a repeat of last time!" Saito glared up at Deathshot; "It's not my systems it's your Hawkeye! There's a glitch in the software that's preventing your brain augmentation from controlling it" the Autobot was quick to correct him, Saito blinked in surprise. "You Guys! Some help here would be nice!" Bluestreak snapped as he fired off three shots, taking out three of the hybrids who fell off the cliff dead. "I'll call Ishikawa, you handle them" Saito huffed as he shouldered his gun and moved back along Deathshot's leg so he was out of the way.

"_Ishikawa? You there?"_

"_Go ahead Saito"_

"_I got a glitch in my Hawkeye's software, it must have been left over from when I linked up to Deathshot, think you can run a diagnostic and delete it?"_ Saito said as he sent the data down the line

"_I'll see what I can do; link up through set B and patch your Hawkeye through to here" _the veteran hacker replied

* * *

In the command centre, Ishikawa watched as the data came up on his screen; looking at the numbers, he sighed and typed in a new command to the computer.

"Okay Saito, your glitch should be gone in three, two, one-"

"WAIT!-" Glen cried out in a panic, nearly making the man jump out of his skin, "Whatever you do, don't delete that glitch!" he panicked as he ran up to the computer and linked up his own laptop; "What're you doing-", "Look at the number's man! They're the same kinda backwards sequence of co-ordinates that we got from the cube!" Glen pointed out as he transferred the glitch to his laptop. "What? But how the hell did we miss that? We checked and double-checked everything in both Deathshot and Saito's systems after that incident when they linked up!" Danny exclaimed in disbelief, "Because we weren't looking for it before! We thought it was a virus or some kinda fancy cybertronian hacker that took Saito's ghost and when we checked him over we only concentrated the ghost line and all its corresponding programmes, we didn't check the Hawkeye software cuz we didn't think that's where the problem was! Obviously when he was returned to his body, this hitched a ride with him!" Darren replied as he worked furiously away on his laptop deciphering the numbers and working them out in his head. "Holy crap..." he breathed in astonishment, "I think-...give me a sec..." he said as his fingers flew over the keyboard, "Oh my God! It is!" he exclaimed in excitement, "WHAT!" Danny demanded, "It's the other half of the equation! The backwards co-ordinate numbers, they correspond to the first set of co-ordinates!" Darren explained. "Okay so the equation's complete, now what?" Kubota asked as he tried to stay on track with the hackers. "I'm going on a hunch here; but I think, if we combine them together in the cube, and let the software do the calculations...we might just-". All at once the numbers on the screen flew around in the frenzy as they rearranged themselves into a dodecahedron-shaped arrangement with all the lines of glyphs and numbers connecting and inter-connecting together until finally the finished product flashed in green letters: Vaccine key-code complete: now uploading to Incept Code vaccine. And in seconds it connected itself into the 'slot' where the missing vaccine code was meant to go; it was a perfect fit.

"I don't believe it..." Darren breathed in dumfounded astonishment, "The missing code, we had it this whole time, it was right under our friggin' noses and we didn't even see it-" "HA! Unbelievable! We actually did it! We completed the vaccine!" Glen blurted out in relief and zealous joy; "Well quickly! Upload it and send it to the Incept Code!" Kobuta reminded them; "Uh-, Right! Yeah defiantly! Okay you guys, I'll handle attack barrier arrays and prime them for set A, Danny you align the code settings in the net-uplink to fifty percent, and Darren, you and I will-" Glen suddenly stopped as every monitor in the command centre turned red as warning signs started flashing and beeping: Danger: Incoming viral attack.

"Uh Guys? You remember when the Major was hacked, we found out she'd been commanded to create those AI's we couldn't figure out were for?"Danny said nervously as he studied the incoming data on his laptop.

"Yeah?" Glen replied nervously as his nerves went through the roof.

"Well I think we're just about to find out what they do" the red-head glanced around as all the tech teams and AI's in the place went into action, jacking themselves into their dive terminals and digging in as a barrage of rouge AI programmes assaulted the complex's system. Amid the chaos and madness as those who weren't jacked in ran around like headless chicken between terminals and consoles, the hackers glanced up at the holoform display of the entire Asian net, and watched in disbelief and horror as the red blips that signified the rough programmes spread out across the entire net, and started consuming all the ghost-lines that had been trapped online via the satellite-based servers.

"They're eating them...they're eating them alive..." Danny breathed in shock. "Can't we stop them?" Kubota exclaimed; "W-We can't! Look at em' man their moving way too fast along the net for anyone to catch up! Plus their multiplying faster than rabbits!" Glen panicked. In the pit of his stomach Darren felt a cold tight knot begin to wrap itself around his stomach as a terrifying realization came to mind; his gaze dropped as his mind tried to push the notion away, trying desperately to think of a better alternative, but as his thoughts worked through every option and every possible avenue of resolve, he found himself arriving at one unbelievable, and unthinkable solution.

"...There's only one thing to do..." Darren blurted out as he sat down on a flat piece of rubble and proceeded to remove his prosthetic leg.

"What're you doin'?" Glen asked

"The one thing I hoped and prayed I'd never have to do, but I must if we're to save the net and give those people any chance of survival..." Darren replied as he took his prosthetic leg, held the foot up and shook it hard; a small black USB stick with a white skull and crossbones icon stamped on the front fell out of the hollow metal pole and landed in his other hand. Glen freaked out when he saw the stick and recognized what it was.

"OH NO! NONONONONO! NO WAY IN HELL ARE YOU UPLOADIN' THAT!" he shouted

"Do you have any better suggestions? Cuz I'd really love to hear them!" Darren snapped angrily

"What is it?" Aoi frowned

"In our universe it's the cyber-apocalypse! The pentagon spent over three billion dollars huntin' down the guy who created it, eliminating any trace of it from the internet and burying it in the deepest darkest hole they could find! Only one copy of it was ever created and Darren was the only one ever able to find it!" Glen muttered as his nerves frayed at the seams. "It a super-virus called the 'Nuclear Fire Sale', originally a terrorist weapon designed to take out every major computer-controlled instillations like power supplies, transport grids, the stock markets, even some military instillations that are below 'above classified' designation. It's called the fire-sale cuz everything must go" Danny filled him in. "Ordinarily it would automatically hone in on major computer controlled instillations and shut them down, but because the internet of this version of earth is different on a number of levels, I can tweak the virus's programming to get it to do something a little different..." Darren said as he plugged the stick into his laptop and brought up the viruses data-re-write software and typed in a new set of commands. Once done, he paused as he drew in a shaky breath, sweating nervously as he stared at the entry button on the keyboard...

"...I have to ask...do you trust me? ..." he asked as the knot in his gut wrapped itself tighter.

"Hm? I don't under-"

"Aramaki this is the biggest thing I've ever done in my life! Once I press that button there's no going back! I'm willing accept the responsibility if anything goes wrong, but I need to know, do you guys trust me?" he asked desperately; looking him straight in the eye, Aramaki stepped forward and placed his hand on his shoulder. "You haven't let us down thus far; if you believe this is the only course of action left to take, then do what you must" he replied. Swallowing hard and wiping the sweat from his brow, with a silent prayer Darren reached out and pressed the entry button...

Within seconds every techy and hacker in the command centre yelled in surprise as their dive terminals went dead and they found themselves offline and back in the real world; as all the screens in the place froze every Android slumped over in their chairs or fell to the floor as if dead. Looking back up at the holoform, the entire diagram of the net began to turn black and all the red blips were frozen in place, at the same time every ghost-line turned red with the words: User Logged Out. After a tense moment, Darren, Glen and Danny sighed of relief.

"What the hell just happened?" Kobuta glanced around in confusion.

"The fire-sale froze it, and forced everyone who was still online off the net...Oh thank God it worked..." Darren nervously sighed, still afraid to totally relax.

"Froze what? The networks connected to the satellite servers?" Aramaki asked

"Not just those; the net"

"The net?"

"The net; the ENTIRE Asian net. Right now everywhere from India to Hawaii, and Northern Russia to Australia is frozen solid in cyber-space, but at the same time every ghost that was trapped has been safely forced offline and back into their own bodies, and because the entire Asian net's frozen the Spark Eater is trapped too, along with all those AI's it sent out just now...But it won't last forever, the Spark Eater will eventually find a way to dismantle the coding in the fire-sale's programming, but in the meantime it's so large it ain't gonna know where to start...For the most part it's bought us time, to keep the vaccine safe until we can upload it" Darren replied as he steadily calmed down.

"But-, without the net the Major and the others-"

"I KNOW!-" Darren snapped before realizing how riled he still was, and sighed in regret for losing his cool like that; "...I know...But the cybertronian comms will be unaffected so we can still keep in touch with them" he offered in a small voice.

"So? What do we do now?" Aoi asked

"Now, we wait, and try to think of a way to strike back" Aramaki frowned at the frozen computer screens.

* * *

This. Is THE longest chapter to date! & good grief am I knackered! *flops down in armchair* R&R please


	77. Chapter 76: And Hell Followed Him

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

Caution: Strong swearing here and there, and possibly some graphic death scenes elsewhere.

Additional Disclaimer: Matti belongs to JillTheCrazy1

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 76: -AND HELL FOLLOWED HIM...

The silence

At this early hour it was both surreal and terrifying, for it was not the kind of silence one hears in the middle a vast city; even in the stillest hour of the night a city is never truly asleep. Always buzzing with activity in one form or another, and never truly silent; which was probably why it so unnerving to hear the absence of such thriving life, and instead, to hear of the echoes of footsteps, the distant sounds of fire burning, and the hollow rushing of the wind as it blew through the skyscrapers.

On the abandoned streets and highways of New Port and amid the outskirts of the city's suburbs, the dead littered the ground; the hybrids lay where they fell, motionless as the smell of burnt metal and spilt energon wafted on the breeze and the glowing blue substance trickled from their wounds into rivulets along the ground, steadily creeping down into the drains and rivers, and eventually washing out into the sea. As for the humans, they had long since gathered up their dead; in the more privet or vacant areas of the evac-camps, the sheltered alleyways and small side-streets that were dotted around the city, even in the more discrete areas of Prime Minister's residence they had been carefully gathered and laid to rest, covered in whatever sheets or loose coverings that could be found; rows upon rows of them had staked up, mostly from the front lines and surrounding defence barricades and a number from the field hospitals that couldn't be saved in time. With the grim task came the usual notions and procedures for processing the dead; the removal of the dog-tags for identification, searching and rummaging through pockets for farewell letters to loved ones so they could be forwarded at a later date, and for those who had been blown to pieces, stepped on, slashed by giant claws or mauled by mechanical jaws and couldn't be identified by sight, samples were taken for DNA identification (though it was the surgeons from the field hospitals that pulled the short straw on that particular task, for there were very few others who had the stomach to look upon the bloody mangled remains of their comrades and not be 'put off' in some form or another; even if they didn't shy away now, there was no doubt they would have nightmares about it when this was over).

Away from the make-shift morgues; the rest of the Prime Minister's residence and command centre were as still (and spooky) as a graveyard, the tank units sat motionless, every gun and cannon was silent, and all around not a soul was to be seen. Having retreated back into the complex for a much needed breather, the solders and Autobots took the time regain their strength and waited...

...And waited...

...And waited...

And waited some more, until it became clear the hybrids weren't coming back in a hurry, but at the same time, there was that cold tense feeling in the air that kept everyone's instincts alert and wary, a feeling that whispered: this isn't over. Several floors down in one of the levels that had been ripped out by the Demolisher-hybrid, Mei stood on the edge of a ripped out corridor, gazing over at the dead behemoth that lay within the crater. She sighed as she let her thoughts ponder on the not too distant future; would the monsters come back? And if so for how long? How long could this battle go on? As her maternal instincts faired at the thought of her children being in harm's way, a familiar set of footsteps eased her worry, and as a familiar set of hands gently wrapped around her waist and held her steady, she let her shoulders relax, and she leaned against her husband while he placed a soft kiss on the side of her neck.

"Couldn't sleep?" she asked softly

"Didn't sleep; still got too much adrenaline left over" Togusa replied

"I'm surprised the kids got off, considering how tense the whole situation has been I'm amazed at Mizuki's resilience...I can't help but think back to that night when she and Annabelle ran off to find you; what the hell was going through their head's when they left the apartment?" Mei thought aloud, the tenseness in her eyes didn't escape Togusa's notice. "Believe me, when I heard what happened on the bridge that night I spent the better part of the following morning pulling my hair out...But you know? Not many if hardly any kids their age would even consider doing something like that, let alone going to such extreme lengths to try and get help...We may not always understand what goes through our kids heads, but at least we know where their hearts are in the right place" he assured her; "...I know, but it still doesn't stop that cold feeling in your stomach from rising up" she replied in small voice; a moment of silence passed between them as they gazed up at the endless net of red light-beams that spanned across the sky.

"You know, even though it' intent is not a good one, that net does look kinda beautiful...like a giant cut ruby" she smiled

"It does a bit, I suppose..." Togusa sighed ruefully.

"You worried about Kusanagi and the others?" she asked

"Kinda; I mean I know she's tough and the boss-man can take care of himself; hell they all can, it's just-, the 'not knowing' that gets me; and it's not over yet...one way, or another, we have to end this before anyone else dies"

"...Why did they do it?"

"Hm?"

"The Autobots; we only became involved because of what Mizuki, Annabelle and their friends discovered; of all the people in the entire world to be worthy of being protected so closely why us? We're not important people, I had no idea of this before I ran into that hanger and saw them for myself; so what makes us so worthy of being protected when so many others have died already?" she thought aloud in a sombre tone. "I think if it were up to them the Autobots would protect every single one of us on this planet. To them, social status, wealth and political power have no place in their lives; only life matters regardless of what form it takes, and they know the true value of life because they've seen and endured so much death in their own lives. If the subject of aliens wasn't at the heart of this and the military stepped in to take over, this would've turned out very differently"

"Differently how?"

"...Either we would've ended up having to have cyberbrain's implanted and having our memories wiped; or, we would've been made to 'disappear', most likely ending up in a couple of unmarked graves somewhere" he replied frankly, to which Mei looked at him in shock.

"What? But surly they wouldn't-"

A silent moment passed between them as the look on her husband's face told her he wasn't kidding or being dramatic; the knowing of such a possibility had weighed heavily on his mind, and it reflected itself in his forlorn hazel-brown eyes. "...Before this whole thing descended into the realm of the totally unbelievable; we were already in very dangerous territory when we were investigating Hidaka; and believe me, some of the things these military types come up with for the sake of keeping their secret's safe doesn't bare thinking about...It'll only give you nightmares" he sighed.

"Kind of a little late for that, don't you think?" she gestured to the crater, and the rest of the half-destroyed complex beyond, "There are a lot of people who're going to be having nightmares because of this" she thought aloud

"True; but nightmares are only in your head, you can wake from them and their over; if that Incept Code goes out all over the world, no one will have any nightmares to wake from because they'll already be in hell"

* * *

On the western San-nin Shimai mountain:

"Hey, come on buddy, time to get up" Batou gently shook Saito awake, "Hm? What time is it?" he asked as he rubbed his one eye, "Ten to three; another four hours before dawn" the ex-ranger replied, "It's nearly dawn already? Man I still feel like shit after having that glitch deleted from my Hawkeye" he muttered as he got up. "But at least the glitch was what we've been looking; I still can't believe you had that coding in your helm this whole time and we never even considered checking it out as a possibility" Trailbreaker added. "We didn't check it out because at the time we weren't looking for coding of that particular configuration; I have to admit, of all the places to stash it away the Hawkeye software is certainly a cleaver choice" the Major thought aloud. "And of course we didn't know sooner because you hadn't used your Hawkeye up until yesterday; the coding had been left amid the software write-up in such a way that it would be activated when you initiated the satellite uplink, and because the Hawkeye's CPU is stored in a separate partition away from your brain augmentation it didn't come up when Darren and Ishikawa ran those structural analysis's after that night we tried to link-up, and because my own processor had been compromised too I didn't detect it either" Deathshot explained.

"Do you think its Swiftshot's 'guide' who did that? I mean this guy's been having a hand in this from the very start and not in the most obvious way's either; all that stuff Matti dug up at the temple and in the ruins of old Tokyo? How the hell could anyone have known about that?" Pazu said offhand

"You know I was thinking about that earlier and I think I know what our 'guide' might be!" Bluestreak peeped in

"You do?" Trailbreaker quirked an optic ridge

"Isn't it obvious? A telepath!" the gunner grinned

"A telepath?"

"Think about it, it's makes total sense; that night when Saito had his spark snatched from out of his body? And yesterday morning when the Spark Eater attacked Morri? Both their vital signs rapidly dropped to the point they were both in stasis-lock, yet no weapon had been used nor had they suffered from any serious physical injuries that result in stasis-lock; so the only logical answer would be a telepathic 'mind-snatch'. The first time around our 'guide' must have already been with Deathshot somehow to intercept Saito when he linked up; and the second time that pretender that intercepted Morri in the woods by the airbase, the Spark Eater must have seen Morri and took her mind there and then; if the hybrids are all extensions of its mind anyway then that makes sense that it able to take her so easily. Ravage said that he sensed that something bigger was at work here than just all this; what if there's another telepath here on this earth? And not only does the Spark Eater know of his presence, but what if he's more powerful than him and knows he presents a real threat?" he hypothesized

"It does make plausible sense; but 'mind-snatching' is a very complex skill to acquire; only a very powerful telepath capable of wielding both the mental strength and psychic energy can pull it off, and even then it would take them years if not decades to master and perfect. I came across quite a few telepaths when I was with the Decepticons but I never knew anyone with that level of telepathic power; even Soundwave, for all his skill and cunning was nowhere near the level of power the Spark Eater possesses. Whoever our 'guide' is, if he is a telepath he's a very powerful one, and if he really is more powerful than the Spark Eater? Well, I've never heard of such a mech ever existing" Scorponok thought aloud

"...I have..." Jetfire spoke up from where he stood at the mouth of the cave; the bots and humans blinked in surprise.

"You have? Who?"

"...I don't know his name, just that he was one of the Priests of the Temple of Primus; from what I was told his power was unlike any other, that he was the most skilled and gifted telepath of any who'd ever lived, some say he could see into your very spark and see if it was dictated by good, or evil..." he told them. "What happened to him?" asked Bluestreak, "He died when the temple was destroyed during the first age of the war, 'disintegrated in a blinding explosion of white light' they said; if he had any successors their long since gone...But anyway, that's ancient history, the present is our current concern and I think I might have found a way to take out the tower" the black seeker replied

"You have? How?" Will asked as he rushed over to the cave's opening, followed by the other humans and bots as they stirred from their light sleep/recharge and gazed out towards the mountain (or rather the outline of the mountain that had been illuminated by the shield generator sitting on its peak).

"I've been watching and scanning the tower from some time, and found that the deflector shield isn't whole; right at the top shield's energy dissipates to allow the beam to pass through freely. The gap between the beam and the shield is far too small for guns, cannons or missiles, and the angle is too steep to attempt a sniper shot; long, mid or short range; plus the beam itself is comprised of pure neutralized plasma, the only form of energy that can sustain those nanites in the cold void of space between the satellites"

"And neutralized plasma energy is essentially a kinetic shock absorber, so anything we fire at it will simply bounce off or be absorbed into it" Arcee frowned

"Most things will, except for weapons that are comprised of kinetic energy-absorbing metals, like this..." Jetfire said as he opened his subspace and produced a twenty metre long chrome-silver javelin.

"Whoa! You got an energon-plasma javelin? Where did you get that?" Bumblebee gasped

"I pinched it off Shockwave eons ago; weapons made of kinetic energy-absorbing metals are notoriously hard to come by so I didn't waste this little beauty on that old slagger, and I knew one day it would come in handy for something like this. It's essentially a missile designed for penetrating shield deflectors and force fields; with good aim and a good arm to throw it this thing should slip through the top of that beam with ease and take out the generator on the inside of that shield; then, the shield goes down, and we take it down" the old seeker grinned with satisfaction.

"Great! So let's do it!" Will smiled

"Uh-, it's not that simple, the javelin's energy coil burnt out centuries ago; its energon processor is still intact and working so all we need is a potent source of energy to produce an equally powerful pay-load of energon-plasma. And the only powerful source of energy large enough to produce the energon-plasma we need would be something like weapons-grade plutonium or uranium" Jetfire pointed to the javelin.

"What about the Americans? Three of their nuclear subs are lurking off the coast near the bay; why not ask them if you can borrow a warhead?" Boma suggested, "Hm? The plutonium from a warhead would certainly be enough" Jetfire pondered as he stroked the long spokes that made up his metal 'beard'. "But what about the radiation? Not to mention the initial blast radius will take out everything within a ten mile radius! Besides, Optimus Prime said we can't use nukes!" one of the Tachikoma's pointed out. "That's the beauty of energon; when you render radioactive substances like plutonium or uranium into energon, the harmful radiation is neutralized but the energy contained within the atomic structure is absorbed into the energon's chemical make-up. Besides, I only need a minuet amount to create the right kind of explosion we need, I'll be back as soon as I can" Jetfire explained as he stashed the javelin back into his subspace and teleported out of the cave.

"**Did you get all that Prime?"** Deathshot asked over the open comm

"**Affirmative Deathshot; When Jetfire returns I want you, Springer and Thundercracker to lay down as much cover-fire as possible, it may be calm now but the hybrids will attack when they see you; exercise extreme caution on approach to the tower"**

"**Understood"**

* * *

Back at the Prime Minister's residence: In the Autobot triage everything was quite as Ashley slept peacefully near Swiftshot's side, covered with a simple blanket as his father watched over him; by his side his cousins plus Mikaela, Matti, Sam and Miles all slept curled up together, sharing each other's body heat to compensate for lack of any more blankets. Ratchet sat resting in his altmode, dozing but still alert enough for any emergencies that might spring up while Skywarp sat curled up on his side in front of the kids. Sporting a set of wire-mess dressings over where the lazar blasts had gone through his wings, it had been both uncomfortable and frustrating to say the least; the blasts hadn't damaged any energon lines or taken out anything vital but the wire-mesh dressings were only a temporary measure until the medic could patch up the wing plates properly; thus, he was now grounded (which, being a flyer of course, he didn't take kindly to, and had spent most of yesterday grumbling about). John sighed as he leaned back against Skywarp's arm and looked up at the white circular dome ceiling; wondering if, when this was over where his son's life would go from here? All night long the future and all its possibility's had stalked around his mind like a restless ghost; the idea of normality was certainly gone, and if there was a compensation or balance to found what would it be? And what could he do to help? Sure he was his father he would always be there for him, no question about it; but even so, all the little details of 'what if?', 'how so?', and 'maybe?' continued to bubble and flit about non-stop. His mind was so distracted that he didn't even notice Ravage silently pit-pat over and sat down next to him, a small prick from one of his shoulder spikes snapped the Marine's mind back to the here and now.

"Huh?...Oh, sorry Ravage I didn't see you there" the man sighed as he yawned and stretched.

"Nice to know I haven't lost my touch; though any other time I wouldn't be able to come within fifty yards without you realizing something's up" the panther purred in a hushed voice.

"I guess..." he shrugged, glancing down at his son as he gently stroked his cheek, "...he looks just like me back when I first enlisted" he thought aloud

"He has much of your spark within him" the panther said offhand

"Yeah, people are always saying he takes more after me then he does his mother...God how am I going to explain this her?"

"Does she know of Deathshot's guardianship over him?"

"Yeah she knows; our first meeting wasn't easy but she actually grew to like him, eventually"

"That's good: already being aware of our presence and involvement will soften it a little, but the rest will have to be up to her to confront; as will the rest the family I fear"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it; for now, he's gonna have a hard enough time confronting the reality of this"

"Hehehe! Oh I doubt that, even in his dreams I can sense his titillation at the prospect of being one of us, even if he's not a true hybrid at the genetic level the tech is still cybertronian..." the panther chuckled before he turned serious again, "...But still, I'd prefer he'd chosen this willingly, not to have had it forced upon him by the circumstances at hand...But then, when you're a telepath you don't believe in coincidence that much, and some part of me wonders if Skywarp teleporting him into the chamber right at the moment wasn't a little too convenient? That some measure of cosmic design wasn't involved in some obscure form?"

"...I have to admit the timing was 'strange'; but still, I'd have preferred that beam hit me instead"

"That's noble and understandable, but in the long run it wouldn't have done you any favours; those bio-nanites were specifically designed to interface with human younglings because the PBF codes could be integrated into a humans' DNA while they were still in a state of growth and development; when introduced to a fully developed human the process becomes unstable, and the nanite-cellular structure goes into a state of flux and eventually begin to break down and turn on the host body like a cancer...Even if you had let that beam strike you and transformed you while I saved your mind, you would only have lived for another three months at the most, and then what good would you be to your creation?"

"He'd find a way to carry on, and he'd have his life"

"He still has his life, and I know he couldn't live it without you at his side; he may be tough and resilient but deep down he's still a youngling at spark. He needs his creator; and he looks to you more than anyone. At least at such a young age he can easily adapt to his new situation, younglings can be resilient if you give them the chance to discover their own strength"

"True; and you know this because?"

"I'm the eldest of six brothers; when our creator was away on duty I had to take charge, so I know what it means to care for younglings, even if they're not your own species" Ravage replied; John looked at him and sighed as he let the subject go; and as the drone and human sat together in silence, another thought came to mind.

"...You said that he's not a true hybrid at the genetic level; does that mean the nanites haven't affected his DNA?"

"Indeed, the new primary command I gave the nanites was: maintain host-unit's DNA coding at one hundred percent; its one thing reprogramming nanites with a new command as simple as that but how they were going to go about it was another thing entirely. Fortunately it turned out alright and he survived intact, but from a cybertronian point of view he's an enigma. On the one paw, with the acceptation of the 'neural bio-nanite lines' connected to his brain via his spinal unit, internally he's a hundred percent human both genetically and biologically; and on the other he's bonded to the suit via superficial techno-organic tissues. But because the suit's PBF codes have been reprogrammed to adhere to his hominid format design, their cellular make-up is mimicking a large percentage of his own organic tissue structures so they can safely incorporate my format design without having to change his own genetic sequencing. For all intents and purposes he's a human inside a cybertronian 'cyborg suit'; not a hybrid and certainly not the traditional idea of a techno-organic" Ravage explained dubiously

"And that's bad?" John quirked an eyebrow

"For us and him, certainly not; but for those who don't appreciate what happened, and weren't there to see it for themselves, it will be a strange if not a complex truth to accept; for you see, techno-organics by definition are cybertronians who opt for organic organisms as their altmode's, they're mechanical-biology is deliberately altered to scan and fuse organic DNA and incorporate bio-components into their design format; the idea of an organic being fused to cybertronian tech is peculiar to say the least. There was a time in Cybertron's history when such a notion was scary, even bordering on 'scientific heresy', if you can believe that" the panther scoffed

"Age-old superstitions?"

"More like the idea that organic sentient beings could be our equals; long ago we believed we were gods, it makes sense that we tried to distance ourselves from the rest of the universe by instilling any form of derogatory on those we considered 'undesirable'; anything to instil fear and doubt so as to keep the so called 'purity' of Cybertron safe. And yet, when the war came and the fighting reached the point where drastic action had to be taken and radical adaptation was mandatory for survival; some of the Autobots implemented techno-organic technology as a way of fighting back. How very ironic"

"Earth's no different; we've had our share of prejudice and ignorance down the centuries, and I'm sad to say it still goes on in some parts of the world"

"Mm? What goes on in some parts of the world?" Ashley mumbled as he stirred from his sleep, John's heart skipped a beat as he scooted closer to his son side and placed a hand on the side of his face. "Hey soldier, how're you feeling?" he asked, "Better than earlier, what the hell happened? All I remember was flying through the air and-, I think, this hybrid was coming right at us and the next thing I know his head's flying off his shoulder's" Ashley squinted as his glowing red eyes adjusted to the light. "Ah, that might have been a left-over piece of battle-mode programming that got uploaded by accident; it should've been deleted by now. How do you feel?" Ravage asked

"Kinda-...okay. But are you okay dad?" Ashley asked curiously; "I'm just glad you're safe son" he sighed as he leaned down and kissed on the forehead; hearing the conversation the kids began to stir from their own sleep, and upon seeing Ashley, instantly perked up.

"Ashley!"

"Dude your okay! And lookin' totally kick-ass!"

"How do you feel?"

"Heavy, and like I'm naked-" he grimaced as he pushed himself up and sat upright; glancing down, he went wide-eyed when he saw just how large he was, "Whoa, how tall am I-, wait, is that my voice?" he held one hand to his throat as he realized his voice was deep and gravely with a distinct feline-like tone, much like Ravage's but without the sinister tone, and in a way a lot like his father's voice too, "-I sound like you, both of you" he realized. "So I noticed" his father blinked in surprise, "Think you can stand up?" Ravage asked "I think so, here help me up-" Ashley asked as the panther nudged him up off the floor, and positioned his arms and legs until he was standing all fours like a cat; twisting around to get a better look at himself, he stared at the three metre long bladed tail coming out from the base of his spine, as well as his long digigrade hind legs, long forearms and razor-sharp claws. "Whoa, I look good" he grinned, "You look huge, you've got to be at least ten feet tall" Morri said as she stood up to get a better look at him; "Seriously? I'm taller?" Ashley pushed himself up of the floor so he was standing upright; sure enough he towered over his cousin by well over five feet. "Hehehe! I'm bigger than you!" he giggled in childish delight, "Yeah, I can see" Morri deadpanned, "And stronger by the looks of it, I wonder how much I can lift-" Ashley said as he grabbed Morri by the waist and effortlessly lifted her up off the floor, "-Whoa, since when did you go on a diet? You hardly weigh anything at all!" he blinked in surprise.

"She's not lighter, you're a whole lot stronger" Ravage grinned, "He's right! Blimey your hands are so strong!" Morri gasped she held on to his forearms for support, "Cool! What else can I do?" he grinned eagerly as he put his cousin back down. "For the time being nothing-" Ratchet stated as he transformed and approached the group, "WHAT!" Ashley exclaimed, "You're confided to bed-rest for the remainder of our time in this world! We still don't know just how the nanites have affected your bio-systems and until I can run a more thorough diagnostic of your new techno-organic systems, you're not going to do anything that'll cause your new systems to expand more energy than they already have!" he stated bluntly.

"But-but I-"

"Ah-ah-ah! If if's and buts were candies and nuts then-...How does that go again?" Ratchet scratched his helm as he lost track, to which Sam face-palmed in disbelief. Ashley stared up at the medic, who was not the least bit intimidated by his venomous scowl, and after a moment he huffed in frustration, grumbling something under his breath. "You heard him, back to bed solder" his father grinned, "...I'm still bigger than you" he grumbled, "But not me" Ravage said as he stood up on his hind legs and grabbed Ashley by the scruff of his neck; "HEY!-" Ashley yelped in surprise as his arms, legs and tail suddenly curled up close to his body and he was left hanging from the panther's jaws like a kitten being carried by its mother. "What the hell!-", "You've got half of my design format remember? That includes the scruff-reflex, meaning I can do this; and don't worry about being bitten, that armour plating around your neck is thicker than Kevlar" the panther grinned as he carried Ashley over to Swiftshot and placed him in the crook of her limp arm, and jumped up on the side of her canopy to keep his optic on him from above.

"Great. I get upgraded to 'Botswana' and I'm benched before I even have a chance to try my new look out" he huffed. "It's for your own good, and I don't want to hear a peep of complaining out of you for the rest of the day okay?" his father pointed his finger assertively; "Meh" Ashley simply shrugged. "Hey it won't be forever okay? Just until we get home and doc-Hatchet has a chance to check you over properly" Morri smiled as she stepped over to him, "Eh, I suppose, but honestly I feel fine, better than fine" he shrugged, "I know, but just listen to your dad and Ratchet okay? And seriously, are you sure your okay?" she asked in concern; Ashley leaned over Swiftshot's arm and placed a kiss on her forehead, "I'm fine, really, save your worrying for everyone else yeah? Your real good at that" he smiled.

"**Danny? You there man?"** Glen came in over the open BSHB comm

"Yeah I'm here, what's up?" the red-head replied

"**Ya better get back down here man; it's the Spark Eater, I think he's starting to figure out how to take the fire-sale virus out"**

"Okay I'll be there..." Danny said as he stood back up and stretched, "You gonna be okay?" John asked, "Considering everything thus far, I'll be fine" Danny replied as he took off down the corridor, dashed through the human field hospital and out into the crater. Back down in the command centre things had quietened down since the fire-sale virus had taken effect, but as more red warning signs flashed across the screens of the central level's main computer grid, the hackers and tech support teams had started to get back to work; up on the higher level where Darren's team were based, the young hacker stared at the data scrolling across the screen, contemplating their next move.

"That sly bastard, he's dismantling the virus from the inside out by erasing the binary code" Ishikawa frowned, "But at least it'll take him time to make his way to the viruses primary encryption programme; with the level of multiple coding I put on the firewall it should take him about another six or so hours" Darren replied; "And we've got at least another seven hours before the Incept Code goes out; how're we going to upload the vaccine with the net frozen in place?" Glen asked. "The same way the Spark Eater's trying to get at us, but instead of erasing the binary code we're gonna rearrange it to create a corridor directly though to the Incept Code, we got some access gates we can modify with a data-rewriter programme to act as our 'diggers', and I've got a level-5 encrypted firewall stashed away on my laptop that'll give us some cover. Manipulating data at such a complex level is gonna take time, which fortunately we have, I'll set up a barrier array and start forwarding the programme's analysis-sectors to the fire-sale's encryption-barrier" Darren said as he sat down at the desk and started typing on his laptop.

"Uh? There's something I think you should see-" Aoi pointed to the data-cube's holoform-display of the frozen net, "I know this section here in the centre of the net is supposed to be the continual base-line hub, and this mass of red is the Spark Eater and the Incept Code, but what are these?" he pointed to a collection of tiny yellow specs within the holoform. "Huh? Those weren't there when the fire-sale went out, where the hell did they come from?" Darren blinked in surprise, "I don't know but whatever they are, their online", "What? But not possible, how can any programme come online if there's no net to come online to?" Glen argued.

"That's just it though, according to the data their not just programmes, they've got ghost lines inside them"

* * *

Energon, oil, gun smoke, blood and burning human flesh...

Those were the first smells to hit his olfactory sensors as he reappeared above the sea; as he swooped down from out of the rising smoke and clouds, Jetfire activated his night-vision, gazed down at the sight below and sighed in lament...

Across the entire expanse of Niihama bay the remains of yesterday's battle could be seen stretching out into the Pacific, half the combined American and JMSDF naval forces lay floating in ruins: of the thirty seven American Empire naval ships twenty one had been sunk, and of the thirty seven JMSDF ship twenty two had been sunk. All of which now lay half submerged as they slowly sank beneath the calm flat waters, or came to rest upon the shallow reefs at the eastern and western points of the bay, groaning and creaking like dyeing whales with their hulls ripped and blown open like mortal wounds. Amid the wreaks and floating debris the dead bobbed up and down like corks and driftwood; the flyer-hybrids, being made of metal had sunk fairly quickly, those that floated only did so because of air pockets trapped in their bodies while the humans floated effortlessly. Those who had been the water for several hours had already gone into rigor mortis and had essentially turned into statues, stiff and rigid while all around oil, diesel and aviation fuel from the sinking aircraft carriers floated on the water's surface, blackening the already dark waters and helping the fires to spread from one wreak to the other, lighting up the bay in a grungy orange glow that could be seen for miles around. As the seeker flew over the bay he scanned every wreak until he saw what he was looking for; circling over the eastern most point of the bay, he swooped down upon the exposed hull of the submarine that had run aground onto a sandbar; the huge gaping hole in its bow told of how it came to be there. As he landed he scanned for any signs of life, though when he looked across the water and saw several life-rafts with survivors inside he sighed with relief, and proceeded to open one of the missile tubes and dragged out the huge missile inside halfway out. With one hard strike of his axe he chopped the warhead off and dragged it up onto the hull where he carefully removed the outer shell and located the plutonium within the device. Carefully removing the metal ring, Jetfire produced the javelin from his subspace and opened up a small compartment on its side and gingerly slotted the plutonium ring inside, as soon as the energon within made contact with the ring the metal glowed bright blue and dissolved into the energon, all at once the outside of the javelin radiated a pale white-ish aura followed by a thrum that made it vibrate in his hand.

"Ah! That's should do the trick!" he nodded in satisfaction, but before he took off again, an idea suddenly came to mind: "Hm? I wonder if they've still got any missiles to spare?" he thought aloud as he noticed the remaining three Japanese guided missile destroyers far on the outskirts of the bay. Firing up his engines, he made a beeline for the nearest ship and gingerly landed next to the bridge; taking the crew by surprise, the humans aimed their weapons at him before an order to stand down was sent out over their cybercomms.

"Your one of the Autobots aren't you?" the captain addressed the seeker as he stood on the platform that led up to the bridge

"Indeed, and I've got a favour to ask..."

* * *

"**Okay, when Jetfire comes in for the attack, Thundercracker and I will take out the hybrids circling the top of the tower while Springer diverts the ones on the mountain top; our aim is to give Jetfire as much altitude as possible, and with those smoke clouds still rising up from the valley below he should be hidden well enough to make the climb"** Deathshot explained

"**Very well, once the tower is destroyed proceed with the mission, locate and procure that auxiliary shaft" **Prime replied

"**Acknowledged: But what about you and the others? Even with the pass closed off your still over five clicks away from us and three clicks from the mountain; plus you're fairly exposed up on that ridge"** the Autobot sniper pointed out

"**Do not concern yourself with us, just concentrate with the task at hand; the valley wall is too steep for the hybrids to climb up and the ridge is at too wide an angle for the flyers to attempt a surprise attack, until the circumstances allow otherwise we will remain here"**

"**Very well: Deathshot out-" **

BROOOM!

"Finally! What kept you?" Trailbreaker demanded as Jetfire reappeared in the middle of the cave; "Got a little sidetracked: so? You ready?" he glanced over at Deathshot, "As I'll ever be" the sniper shrugged as he stepped out onto the ledge outside the cave and fired up his engines. "Just remember, keep them downwind of the mountain, and make sure none follow me, got it?"

"Got it...**Ready on your end Springer, Thundercracker"**

"**Ready" **they both replied, "**let's do this!" **Jetfire ran and leapt out of the cavethe second Deathshot was airborne; fast approaching from the south Thundercracker and Springer both banked sharply to one side as they fell into formation with the two other Autobot flyers. As had been expected; the flyer-hybrids that were circling the tower broke away from their posts and came charging at them from above.

"Good. They've taken the bait, now get to work!" Jetfire ordered as he banked sharply to the right and disappeared into the thick smoke clouds, the red-ish orange glow of his afterburners were the last thing to be seen before he completely vanished into the blackness while the others broke formation and took on the enemy. It had barely been a minute since they took off and already Deathshot had shot down eleven hybrids, aiming and sniping them flawlessly as he slipped through the air while Thundercracker went in hard and fast; zigzagging up and down catching the smaller hybrids in his talons and then ripping their wings off. Springer used his more agile AH-64 Apache attack helicopter altmode to dodge the faster hybrids, leading them on a merry dance and then turning on a sixpence to release a barrage of bullets and missiles.

"Can you see anything?" Will asked as he tried to spot the Autobots through the blackness of the smoke and night sky. "Just barely, there's too much smoke and their moving too damn fast" Batou frowned as he watched the sky via his night-vision; "Is Jetfire anywhere in there?" one of the marine's asked, "I'm not picking him up on my-, oh wait! There he is!" Bluestreak watched the seeker via his scanners as he zigzagged up through the smoke until he was well over five thousand feet above tower and less than twenty meters from the beam. Opening his subspace and producing the javelin, Jetfire positioned it above his shoulder in readiness to strike. Carefully gauging the distance, he fired up his engines and blasted downwards, gaining more and more speed as he aimed himself at the gap between the shield and the beam.

'This day, before the sun rises, you will fall!' Jetfire thought as he tensed his arm...

...Leaned forward to throw...and then-

The side of the mountain exploded upwards in a huge plume of rocks boulders and dirt, knocking all the ground-based hybrids off and sending them over the edge as several giant winged creatures burst out of the mountain side and blasted upward towards the seeker. Realizing he was going way too fast to slow down or do anything else, Jetfire gasped in alarm as he banked away from the beam, the tip of his wing scrapped the edge of the shield as he narrowly missed the creatures and the edge of the mountain; pulling back up was like trying to push the Ark up with his back, the momentum and gravity at such a speed strained his wings and engine as he fired his afterburners downwards and circled in a wide arch back up into the sky, "OUTTA THE WAY!" he bellowed as he shot over the valley ridge, missing Optimus's helm only by inches, though he missed him the shockwave from the seeker's jets knocked the Autobot leader over backwards. As he finally slowed down and levelled out, Jetfire went wide-eyed at the sight of the creatures as they circled around towards the tower. There were six of them, all over eighty feet long and each a deformed humanoid-like dragon with four wings, long necks, tails, hollow sunken optics that looked like they barely worked, and gross snaggle-tooth jaws filled with long silver teeth. A blast of white fire shot through the head of the nearest creature and it fell like a lead weight down into the valley below; high above the silhouette of Deathshot's altmode gliding through the smoke betrayed what had just happened, and as Thundercracker swooped down on the second creature Springer fired his missiles at the third and forth; "Oh brilliant..." Jetfire deadpanned in a sour tone as he stashed the javelin away and fired up his axe.

"Holy slag! What're those things?" Hound gawked as he watched the creatures go after the flyers; "Reinforcements I'd say" Ironhide frowned as he watched Jetfire chop off one of the creature's tails; "Hot dang! That means back-up time!" Warpath grinned as he fired up his tank gun; "Wait a minute!" Prime stopped him, "What?-, Prime we-", "Something's not right, look at the beam-" Prime pointed to the tower. A deep thrum echoed through the valley as the beam started to glow brighter and more intense; flipping their scanners on and reading the energy levels being emitted, the bots all stared at the tower in disbelief.

"...Oh Primus no..."

* * *

"Okay, the attack barrier array's in place, all access gates are reading at sixty percent which'll be enough; and finally we need to-"

"**DARREN! Darren come in!"** Trailbreaker panicked over the comm

Darren blinked **"Trailbreaker? What the hell's wrong?" **he replied over the open comm

"**It's the tower! The beams energy levels have spiked by over a hundred percent! The amount of nanite activity within the tower's generator is going off the charts! At this rate of increase the tower will be fully powered within less than an hour!"**

A tense deadly silence followed as everyone in the complex froze on the spot, the second they realized what he just said the whole place went into overdrive; "Alright! All AI's report to your terminals! All teams back to your posts!" Kobuta barked as the rest of the military staff issued commands, from where he stood nearby, Aramaki watched as the hackers got to work.

"You guys got everything covered on your ends?" Darren asked with a determined frown; "Yeah, why?" Glen asked, "Because I'm taking the fire-sale offline; we're going to make run for it and head straight for the Incept Code's Alignment cog" he stated, "WHAT! But we haven't even-", "The barrier array's in place the chimera viruses are set to attack anything that doesn't have the same encryption ID codes as us and the fire-sale's software coding is set to realign the net's central systems as soon as the virus is deleted from the servers" the brunette teen glared at them dangerously, "WE CAN DO THIS!" he snapped, the hacker's looked at one another and went back to work; "Ready?" Darren asked in a calmer tone, "Ready!" they all replied. The second Darren hit the enter key on his laptop Pandora's Box opened and all hell broke loose as every screen in the complex flash red with warning signs, warning of incoming multiple viral attacks and rouge AI's that began dismantling the attack barriers as soon as they hit them, but amid the online chaos as the net faired back to life, Darren powered his way through the attack, transcending deeper and deeper into the heart of the net until the Incept Code came up on the screen.

"Man that thing's just as big on a flat screen" Glen said offhand, "And just as imposing, but it-...what?" Aoi hesitated; "What is it? What-...whoa, what the hell's going on?" Danny stared at the screen in confusion. "What's wrong?" Aramaki asked, "It's the Incept Code, there's so much energy being diverted to its central systems that the programming's overcompensating the power-load by rearranging several major systems-functions around; this thing's now more dangerous than before!" Glen gasped.

"And this shit's about to go through the roof..." Darren scowled as he typed nonstop.

* * *

Over the San-nin Shimai mountains:

"AAAGH! WILL YOU DIE ALREADY?" Jetfire bellowed in frustration as he swung his axe down on the back of the creature's neck, energon spurted out in several huge arcs as the creature roared in anger before its wings went limp and it began to fall from the sky. Firing up his engines and taking off, Jetfire set his sights on the two other creatures that were still airborne, and were proving very hard to kill as Deathshot, Thundercracker and Springer were pouring all their energy into trying to bring them down.

"SLAG! I don't recall anything this big not being able to die!" Thundercracker called over to Deathshot as he drove his talons in between the shoulder joints of the creature he was standing on; eliciting a loud ear-splitting screech. "I know they don't have any smarts, but they don't even have any basic instinctive drive to want to survive!" Deathshot called back as he shot the other creature through the head; the beast went limp and the plummeted earthwards with the sniper hopping off and headed straight for the remaining behemoth that was chasing Springer around the tower. Seeing that the remaining creature was distracted, Jetfire wasted no time in jetting up above the tower, scrapping the side of the beam with the tip of his wing as he positioned himself in midair, and with the javelin in hand, lined up for another dive.

"Now, let's try this again" he frowned as he blasted earthwards towards the top of the shield and the base of the beam...

With no one in his way he tossed the javelin; it flew through the air like a sleek blot of lighting, dead on for the shield generator below...

...But just as it came within range of the shield, a small flyer-hybrid swooped down and grabbed it out of midair; acting on impulse Jetfire twisted hard and with one swipe of his flaming axe he chopped the hybrid clean in half, but the motion of the chop sent the hybrids upper half falling away out of his reach, and with it the javelin still gripped in its clawed hand, making the seeker curse furiously as he banked away from the mountain edge and back up again. Thundercracker saw what had happened and made a dive for the javelin, which had now fallen out of the dead hybrid's hand and landed on top of the mountain peak in between a cluster of boulders. But as more flyer-hybrids emerged from the ruins of their mountain-side entrance the ex-con seeker was quickly having to pull up and away as the enemy opened fire on him, "SLAG IT!" he growled through his teeth as he shot back at them.

"Jeez this is taking too long! How much of a beating can those things take?" Bumblebee gawked in disbelief as he and the others watched the fight from the cave. "At this rate the Spark Eater's gonna gain the upper hand; time's playing to its advantage now and this could swing either way" the Major frowned; "Maybe not, look!" Cliffjumper pointed to the beam; through the thick smoke the team watched as the thrumming inside the tower began to grow lower in volume and the beam began to grow weaker as its light faded in and out of the darkness.

"The beam's weakening?" Arcee stared in disbelief

"Holy Shit...they finally uploaded the vaccine!" Batou breathed in astonishment

'Way to go guys' the Major thought to herself with a smile

* * *

Back in the command centre:

"WE'RE THROUGH! THE VACCINES UP AND RUNNING! HAHAHAHA!" Glen laughed out loud in a mix of relief and nervousness. "Yeah but don't start celebrating yet, we still got that bastard to deal with!" Ishikawa frowned as he worked furiously. "The vaccines functions are all intact, system encryptions are all in the green with no conflicts detected; man this thing works fast! The alignment cog has already been taken out" Danny replied, "That's good, now the rest of the systems are gonna start to fall apart from the inside out; our only problem now is how long we can stave off the Spark Eater's assault until the maximum amount of damage has been done, after that the guys can take care of the rest" Darren replied. While at the same time up above on the ground level: Miles watched as the distant column of red light began to flicker like a dyeing candle flame and high overhead through the smoke and clouds the endless net of red light beams began to weaken.

"GUYS! GET OUT HERE!" he called out, "WHAT! What's up?" Sam replied as he, the Autobots and other humans came rushing out of the complex; directing their gaze upwards they watched as the beam weakened. "...The beam, its losing power" Elita said offhand, but her attention was quickly diverted as Ravage gave out a low growl as he crouched low the ground in a defensive stance, his ears pressed flat against his head and his teeth bared dangerously while his optic glowed intensely.

"What's wrong?" she asked

"The Spark Eater: It knows what's going on..." he growled venomously, "How bad is it?" Sam asked, "It's running on pure rage now, every second the vaccine destroys the virus it loses its grip on the base-line hub; now it and its multiple personalities are pouring everything they've got into trying to stop it!", "Is there anything we can do?" Mikaela asked; "No, this is the hackers battle, it's all down to them now, and when they-..." the panther suddenly paused, his ears flicked up as he snapped his head up towards the sky in surprise. "Now what?" Sunstreaker frowned.

"...There's something else on the net..." he replied

Down below in the command centre:

"Bloody hell! At this rate the virus will be uploaded in less than half an hour!" Dannay exclaimed in disbelief, "But the vaccines uploaded and working! How the hell could this be happening?" Kobuta demanded; "The vaccines working alright but with the amount of power the Spark Eater's forwarding into its remaining systems the vaccines just not causing enough damage! Its encryption levels are already slowed by thirty percent!" Darren replied, "Can't we use the second barrier arrays to give it some leeway?" Danny asked. "We can't, we're already using them to keep the rouge AI's at bay, and the chimera viruses won't do much good their already down to twenty percent!" Aoi frowned, "Then what the hell are we supposed to-" Darren ranted but stopped when green safety signs flashed across all the screens in the complex.

"Sir? There's an unknown programme counteracting the rouge AI's systems!" one of the tech support team members called out from the main level below.

"Not just one, there's several-, no wait twenty...thirty, fifty? Eighty? A hundred and fifteen? There's over two hundred!" one of the other techys gawked at the screen. "Five hundred on this end!" another informed them; "And over eight hundred here! What the hell are they?" one of the team leaders gawked in astonishment.

"Holy shit! It's those blips from before, they're back!" Danny realized in surprise

"You said they had ghosts lines inside them so who the hell are they?" Aramaki asked, "Let's see-...whoa..." Darren typed away on his laptop and blinked in surprise as the results came up, "What?" Kobuta demanded, "Their ghost's alright but there's no IP for any of their dive terminals"

"What? But how's that possible? They had to jack in from somewhere!" Ishikawa exclaimed in disbelief

"I know but this is even weirder. The ghost lines are pulsating on multiple frequencies and contain an almost quantum-like linear alignments that are similar to the levels of binary alignment found in the base-line hub; but at the same time their resonating to the same frequencies that make up the electrical neural nerve-pulses of vertebrae-based organisms" Darren explained

"Meaning?"

"Whatever these things are their alive, but they're not completely human nor are they cybertronian...if I had to give a guess, I'm pretty sure these are human ghosts that have 'fused' to the net itself..." Darren replied with a hint of uncertainty.

Silence

* * *

At the same time back in the hide-site:

"Thirty minutes until the Incept Code goes out, what the pit's going on? That towers putting out three times as much power as before!" Trailbreaker exclaimed in horror as he and the others watched helplessly as the beam glowed brighter and thrummed harder than before. The mountain top was now swarming with flyer-hybrids that were chasing after the Autobot flyers nonstop; each time one passed close to the peak they tried to make a grab for the javelin that sat where it fell, but as soon as they came within reach the hybrids fought them back or chased them away. Watching all this from the ledge outside the cave, Scorponok suddenly had a plan. **"THUNDERCRACKER! Get over here and pick me up! I'm going to make a grab for that javelin, tunnel under the shield and take out that generator! And don't argue! I know what I'm doing!"** he stated and quickly cut off the comm before the seeker had a chance to argue back; "Does anyone have a grenade?" he demanded.

"What? Why?"

"I'm going to end this!" he replied as he scuttled over Batou's Tachikoma, and with a dainty click of his mandible kissed the think-tank on the side of its eye dome. "My sweetspark, our time together has been the best month of my life, and wouldn't trade it for anything; please know that I will miss you and your sisters-" he patted the tank on the claw and took the grenade Bumblebee offered to him before he shot outside and stood on the ledge. "Huh? What'd you mean?" the tank squeaked in alarm, "Lennox, if I don't survive tell Mikaela thank you for all the patch-ups, and tell Ravage he can have my burrows!" the scorpion called out as he leapt off the ledge. "WAIT!" Bumblebee, Trailbreaker and Bluestreak rushed to try and catch him, but stopped when they saw Thundercracker carrying the drone off towards the mountain. "What the hell's he doing?" Batou exclaimed in surprise; "I don't know! But I sure hope he knows what he's doing!" his think tank panicked.

"I'm only going to have one shot at this! Put me down as close to the javelin as you can, I'll take care of the rest!" Scorponok called up to Thundercracker as he used one claw to attach the grenade to one of his stinger-spokes while the seeker carried him like an over sized cat in his arms. "You sure you know what you're doin' bug?" he asked, "Only one way to find out! Now get me down there!" the scorpion pointed to the mountain. Thundercracker dodged and weaved in and out for the swarm of flyer-hybrids as he flew straight for the peak; one nearly came crashing down on his head but he was quick to barrel-roll out of the way while another two tried to grab his tailfins, but he was too fast and easily ducked out of the way. As he came within range of the peak, the seeker lowered the drone down and with one large swing threw him onto the mountainside; Scorponok spun his claws in midair and disappeared into the cliff-side in an explosion of rock and dirt, emerging some hundred feet above alongside the boulders, grabbed the javelin in both claws and quickly dashed along the rocky ground, following the perimeter of the shield until he saw the generator.

"**He's got it! He's got the Javelin!" **Bluestreak exclaimed over the open comm, snapping their helms down, the Autobot flyer watched as Scorponok started to burrow beneath the shield, **"I get it! He's going under to get to the generator"** Jetfire realized, **"Not unless those hybrids get him first!"** Deathshot pointed out as he swooped down at the oncoming hybrids that were climbing their way up towards the mountain peak. Scorponok spun his claws furiously as he cut away at the tough rock beneath the shield, the sound of the hybrids growling and snarling grew ever closer but he paid them no attention; if there was one thing he was going to do right, this was it and he had no intention of stopping for anything. As the hybrids climbed up onto the cliff edge and charged straight at him, a thunderous CRASH! Resounded around the peak as Deathshot charged headlong into the enemy like a rugby prop going in for a scrum, knocking the first wave of attackers back over the cliff and leaving him room to fire up his guns and start shooting the rest while the other three took care of the other hybrids. Prime and the others watched as amid the hubbub and fast-paced chaos of the fight Scorponok dug and clawed away at the ground until he broke through to the other side of the shield; wasting no time he dragged the javelin though the tunnel and using both claws attached to his stinger, he scuttled towards the generator and with one huge thrust he drove the javelin into the mechanism. All at once the machine started to spark and crackle while at the same time the timer on the grenade started its countdown; "ITS GONNA BLOW! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!" he cried out as he shot out of the hole and latched onto Deathshot's back, firing up their afterburners the flyers took off as the grenade exploded, sending up a huge fireball and within a minute the shield began to flicker and waver as it dissipated and fell apart like a cobweb on the wind.

"THE SHIELD'S DOWN! TAKE OUT THOSE SUPPORTS!" Jetfire bellowed as he fired down at the tower's main support pillars; the sound of another set of jet engines caught his attention as Optimus came swooping in, unleashing a barrage of missiles and lazar-fire as he circled up and around the tower. **"Aim for the central power core!"** he ordered as he turned and fired again; despite the onslaught against the tower the hybrids were now really upping their attack against them, trying to draw their attention away from the tower's central structure where the beam was being emitted.

Then, the distant shrill-whistling of missile rockets told them to make a hasty retreat as ten large missiles came down and struck the tower at its base. All at once the mountain top exploded in a fire ball that went up like a miniature nuke, engulfing half the tower and making the earth shake in a thunderous tremor. As the fire engulfed the entire peak, a long deep groaning sound echoed through the valley as the tower leaned to one side, the red beam flickered and disappeared before the base exploded out, and the huge six hundred foot structure came crashing down into the valley below, disappearing into the fire and smoke while high overhead the red net of light between all the satellites slowly flickered and dissipated, leaving the deep blue of the night sky and the faint light of the approaching dawn. As the Autobots landed at the mouth of the cave the rest of the team went wild as they cheered and hollered in victorious delight.

* * *

"Holy shit they did it! The tower's down! THE TOWER'S DOWN!" Glen exclaimed, to which everyone in the complex cheered and celebrated. "The vaccine! With the tower gone the Incept Code's nearly all but gone!" Darren exclaimed in joy as all around the complex every screen had a green sign flashing the words: Net access granted, and every dive terminal was automatically working again. Up above on the ground the rest of the Autobots and humans cheered and jumped around as they watched the endless net of red light dissipate across the sky, vanishing from where the tower had been until it disappeared beyond the horizon.

"It's gone?" Togusa breathed, "It's gone! It's actually gone!" Hailey exclaimed as she and her sisters watched from one of the exposed corridors in the crater with Annabelle, Jay-jay and Togusa's family by their sides. "Does that mean this is finally over?" Mei asked,

"Well, we...Oh no..." Becca breathed in disbelief as a look of horror came over her face.

"What?" Hailey asked, pointing to the top of the crater, Becca and the others watched in dread as the hybrids suddenly reappeared. "Back to the bunker! Hurry!" Togusa barked as they ran back into the complex. Up above, the Autobots fired up their weapons and aimed at the approaching enemy; but before they even got past the destroyed perimeter fence the hybrids stopped and stood still, they all began to shake and convulse, falling to the ground as black tumour-like growths began to sprout out from under their armour plating and burst open to reveal clusters of long slimy black tentacles and teeth-like spikes.

"Whoa! What's happening?" Miles gasped, "It's the nanites within their bodies, without the Spark Eater controlling them they've gone AWOL and are raging out of the control!" Ravage growled. The team watched in a mix of morbid horror and fascination as the hybrids began to grow bulkier and more deformed as their humanoid builds twisted and contorted until they were on all fours and looked more like tigers, wolves, bears, gorillas, even dragons; their jaws cracked as they grew wider and sprouted more teeth, while their claws grew longer and long robust tails burst out from the base of their spines. As the transformations seemed to slow down, the hybrids noticed the bots and charged in a blind rage.

"Aw man that's some sick shit right there!" Epps grimaced

"Still think your son's got it bad?" Ravage glanced sideways at John with a look in his optic; "I'm not complaining!" he replied as he cocked his gun and started firing at the beasts.

* * *

Prime and the others watched in alarm as hundreds of hybrids burst out of the mountain and into the flaming remains of the tower; through the intense heat and rising flames they poured out like a hive of angry hornets, unfazed by the fact that they were burning to death, but that didn't stop them as they continued to fill up the valley. Treading over the dead and dying as if they were stepping stones while the burning survivors continued to sprawl out; growing larger and mutating into all forms of hideously deformed beasts.

"Shit...It's like hell's spilling out!" Will gasped as they all watched in horror.

"Oh no! Look!" Arcee pointed to the hoard of mutated hybrids that were climbing up the side of the mountain, right in the direction of the auxiliary shaft.

Jetfire glanced down at Pazu and Boma, "We don't have much time! Quickly! Hand me those explosives, I'll take out the shaft myself!" he barked as the two Section 9 agents handed him the explosives.

"We'll come too; you're going to need-", "NO!" Jetfire cut the Major off, "Those flames are far too hot! You may be tough but your reinforced cyborg body can't stand those kinds of temperatures! My cybertronian alloys can take it!" he stated.

"Not without help you won't! There's still a lot of wreckage left over from the tower!" Deathshot put his hand on his shoulder to stop him, "I agree, you'll need help moving that debris aside" Optimus concurred. "Alright! Let's go already!" the seeker huffed as he took off back towards the mountain with Prime and Optimus close behind; as they approached close to the peak (or what was left of it) they spotted the auxiliary shaft that was now exposed above ground and began firing on the hybrids as they swarmed around the peak. As they touched down on the scorched ground the red-hot heat shot through the underside of their feet like plasma-fire, but they paid no attention as they set about shifting the wreckage aside and keeping the hybrids at bay.

"Primus! It's like they don't even feel the bullets go through them!" Deathshot gasped as he fired on the beasts as they charged forward in a blind rage; the bullets and plasma-fire rounds blasted tore through their bodies but they kept on coming as if nothing were happening. "Just keep them off long enough for us to get to the server!" Optimus called over as he and Jetfire lifted off and pushed aside the debris, their vents whirred loudly as they strained to keep their circuits cool through the searing heat, and as the hybrids encroached ever closer they quickened their pace. "Better hurry up!" Deathshot called out; "Got it!" Jetfire grinned as they finally found the shaft; with a powerful thrust Optimus wedged his energy sword under the shaft's protective cover and with one hard twist he popped it off like a bottle cap, but the cover was too heavy to move, so after launching several grenade rounds at the hybrids Deathshot rushed to help them. "UUUAGH! COME ON MOVE!" Jetfire growled through his dental plates as the pushed with all his might until the cover shifted and fell to one side; as Optimus pressed the activation button on the explosive's detonator, a loud growl made Deathshot turn around, right as something huge came down on his helm...

Back in the hide-site the team watched in tense dread and silence as the flames around the mountain peak grew higher and higher, "Can you see them?" the Major asked; "I don't know I see anything, the fires too-..." Bumblebee hesitated when he saw the three bots blast up from out of the flames, Jetfire broke away and dashed straight back to the cave where he jumped into the middle of the group, and before anyone could say anything the seeker teleported them all out. Over five kilometres away on the valley ridge, they reappeared and barely had time to regain their footing as they landed right next to the cliff edge; in a chaotic dash Ironhide, Warpath, Hound and Jazz rushed to grab a hold of them, scooping them up and away as the cliff crumbled away a little. As they all breathed a sigh of relief they suddenly saw Optimus come into land with Deathshot leaning on his side, right away they realized something was wrong when the Autobot sniper landed and could barely stand up straight, his knees shook as he leaned his weight against Optimus for support.

"Deathshot? What's wrong?" Batou asked worryingly, "I got careless..." the sniper replied lethargically as he turned to face him, everyone gasped when they saw the huge three ugly wounds running along the side of his helm, energon trickled out and the exposed circuits sparked and fizzled as the sniper gently covered the injury with his one free hand. "One of those things got the drop on me; brought its claws down to try and get at my optic but I dodged away at the last second, obviously not quick enough" he smiled weakly.

"The kids! Did the injury-", "No no it's oaky! The injury took out one of the processing partitions for my combat systems and part of my sniping software; the BHSH systems regulator's intact, the youngling are alright" the sniper assured him; "Thank god, I was worried that-"

"-I know, their BSHB's may be still working, but from the stress levels I'm receiving from all of them I think things have gotten pretty bad back at the command centre" the sniper grimaced as the readings from the kids BSHB's scrolled through his field of vision, all flashing red.

* * *

"HOLY MOTHER!- What the hell happened to them? It's like the Halloween horror marathon gone postal!" Hailey called over as she fired several energy blasts at the hybrids, "The Spark Eater! He's finally lost control of all the nanites!-" Morri called back as she held up her protective shield; "At least they don't know how to use their guns anymore!" Rumble said as he fired his wrist-guns at the beasts, "Yeah but getting mauled by those teeth isn't much better!" Morri frowned. At the end of the corridor part of the ceiling exploded downward as another grenade went off on the floor above, concrete, steel support beams and wires and cables crashed down on the beasts and crushed them to death in an instant.

"Anyone down there?" one of the Rangers called down through the huge hole in the ceiling

"Yes, and thanks for missing us!" Morri called back, the said soldier peered through and noticed the dead hybrids amid the debris, "Right on, you kids better get moving! There's more of those things inside-"

BROOOOM!

The Ranger didn't have time to finish as another much loader explosion shook the complex and made him fall over onto the top of the wreckage. A few meters behind where the girls and drone were standing another section of the corridor caved in, exploding downward in a cloud of dust and smoke the three of them jumped out of the way in a panic and when they looked back they nearly yelled at the sight of the dead giant dragon-like hybrid that had fallen down the hole with its hind quarters gone, most likely blasted in half by one of the multiped tanks. "Holy shit that was close!" the Ranger gawked as he scrambled back onto his feet and out of the hole; "No kidding! This fight's getting too close! It'll only be a matter of time before those things find their way to the bunker where Mei and the others are hiding!" Hailey gasped as she tried to catch her breath. "Then we gotta move them down deeper, maybe into one of the command centre's adjacent bunkers; that should offer some better cover" Morri replied as she helped the teen blond back up onto her feet, "Okay, let's move!" Rumble led the way as they took off down one of the other corridors.

Back up on the ground level the whole situation had officially gone to pot; the now giant mutant-hybrids had stormed the frontlines and had now managed to get into the complex. While they hadn't gotten much further than the first couple of rooms, foyers and corridors leading to the emergency exits the smaller hybrids had managed to find their way in and were now creating big problems for the humans and Autobots alike. The human field hospital had been hastily moved to the centre of the building where the central structure of the complex offered much more protection, (as well as more foxholes to shoot from) while Ratchet, Hot Rod and Elita-1 scrambled to get Swiftshot into another (equally large) room. In the crater where the dead Demolisher hybrid had fallen, things were just as dire as the hybrids had scrambled down through the wreckage and were now trying to get into the command centre; but not before Aramaki had lobbed a grenade up at the hole and used the resulting explosion to bar their way as well as take out the first wave of attackers, at the same time everyone in the complex used the opportunity to evacuate, leaving Darren's team the last ones to pack up and leave while the Rangers stood guard at the entrance.

"Got everything?" Danny asked the others as he packed up his laptop, external hard-drive and other essential items.

"Yep, just about ready, once we're back up top we'll plug into one of the auxiliary terminals and monitor the situation from there; the Incept Code may be gone but there're a lot of troops out there who'll need some help, they'll need eyes in the sky with those things coming after them-" Darren replied as he packed all his stuff away in his back-pack. At that moment a thundering crash echoed around the complex as the ceiling came down in a fiery explosion, one of the large support beams that held the wall in place came down on the edge of the platform, tossing the humans off like peas on a plate and sending them down with the rest of the debris onto the level below while on the opposite side the other three levels collapsed down onto the central level. No sooner had the dust cleared four giant lizard-like hybrids crashed through the now wider hole in the ceiling and spotted the humans trapped under the rubble. As the humans scrambled to get back on their feet Darren gasped in dread as the creatures lunged for them, but before he could even fire up his BSHB several loud shots rang down from the hole above and tore through the hybrids, blasting them in half. Looking up through the hole, Darren sighed with relief as Skywarp dropped through the hole and landed down in front of him. "Looks like I dropped in just in time" the seeker grinned as he carefully brushed the debris aside to free the youngster, "No kidding, you-..." Darren suddenly stopped when he saw a hand among the rubble, and instantly recognized who it belonged to.

"ARAMAKI!"

"Wha?- CHIEF!" Ishikawa gasped as he and Darren started tearing into the rubble and throwing it aside, the humans unearthed an unconscious Aramaki; a small trickle of blood ran down the side of his head as they carefully lifted him out and laid him flat on the area of floor not covered in rubble.

"Is he-"

"No, he's still alive thank God-" Ishikawa sighed with relief as he checked his pulse, "But he needs a medical help right now! SOMEONE GET A MEDIC DOWN HERE!" he barked over to the Rangers. As the sounds of the battle raged above ground, the rest of the complex began to crumble as the remaining structure steadily give out under the sheer weight of the wreckage and rubble above. "We don't have time to wait for those medics! We need to get out of here now!" Kobuta stated. Carefully manoeuvring Aramaki into one hand and plucking everyone else up off the ground and holding them in the crook of his other arm, Skywarp fired up his engines and jetted out of the hole, right as the complex caved in and sent up a cloud of dust as the rest of the crater above came crashing down to fill in the hole. The seeker touched back down at the rim of the crater and ran along the cracked tarmac, dodging the hybrids as he ducked back into the building and made his way through to the human field hospital. After leaving the Rangers, Kobuta, Ishikawa and Aramaki with the medics Skywarp rushed back out to try and find the others.

"Didn't Ratchet confide you to bed-rest?" Glen asked as he noticed the wire-mesh dressings over the seeker's wings, "Are you kidding? That old rust-bucket is too busy with the femme, besides, I'd much rather be-WHOAAAGH!" the seeker didn't watch where he was going as he suddenly found himself falling down a huge hole in the floor and landing hard on his side six floors down "FRAGGIT! MY WINGS ARGH!" he yelled as pain shot through his injuries, but a hard knock to the forehead instantly shut him up, and when he glared up to see who'd hit him he blinked in surprise when he saw Hailey scowling up at him. "No swearing in front of the kids!" she reprimanded harshly; glancing behind her, the seeker and hackers saw her sisters, Mei and her children, along with Annabelle, Jay-jay, Shiro, Ren and his little brother Ryo, Ichiro, Kenji and Taichi with Morri, Matti, Mikaela and Sam bringing up the rear. What the hell are you guys doing here? Aren't you supposed to be hiding down in the bunker?" Darren asked, "We were, until those freaks broke in and tried to eat us" Mikaela frowned, "Aren't you supposed to be with Ratchet?" Glen asked her, "I am, but with all the craziness up there we got separated, and when the bunker got wrecked I had to go help everyone get out" she informed him. "We were able to get out but the other families are still trapped on the other side of the rubble" Mei interjected, "We managed to squeeze out but our mommy's and daddy's are still stuck!" Ichiro peeped in; "At least they're in one piece, and the rubble will provide some cover for now but we need to get them out!" said Sam. "Where're you going now?" Danny asked, "We figured our safest bet would be the guys, right now the only place the hybrids haven't been able to get at is the centre of the building up on the ground floor, the rest of the place is just as good as gone" Morri replied.

"Okay, we'll help you dig them out and get them up top, after that we need to-" the sound of angry growling suddenly got Darren's attention as a pack of giant hybrids appeared at the end of the corridor and charged straight at them; acting on impulse Skywarp pushed himself up and fired his wrist-guns at the creatures, instantly taking them out. But it wasn't long before another pack appeared further down the corridor and this time there were too many to take out with a single gun; opting to take the initiative he scooped up the kids and Mei, placed them in his arms and climbed like crazy back up through the hole. As the hybrids leaped up and latched onto his tailfins with their jaws the seeker fired his engines downwards and fried the creatures to a crisp; the sudden thrust also pushed him up out of the hole, only to run into another bunch of the creatures. With both arms holding the humans he jumped over their heads (hitting his own on the ceiling in the process) and dashed down the corridor towards the central foyer where he could hear the characteristic plasma-cannon fire of Ultra Magnus's cannons. As he made a sharp turn around a corner the data-cube fell from Darren's back-pack and into the seeker's hand. Glancing down, he panicked when he saw the tiny cube slip between the gap in his clawed finger and thumb; activating the interface wires in his wrist, he plugged the cube into his hand to stop it from falling out. But as the cubes data automatically started uploading itself to his processor, a particular piece of data caught his attention.

'The white void co-ordinates!' he realized, and then an idea began to form at the back of his mind, 'Whoever our 'guide' is, that must be where he's hiding! If he really is responsible for us being involved in this mess, he better come and help, as well do some explaining!' he thought with a frown as he finally entered the foyer where Ultra Magnas and the Lambo twins were busy taking care of three huge elephant-like hybrids. "Go find some cover! I'll hold these slagger's off!" Skywarp said as he placed the humans down near one of the main doorways, "What about you?" Ryo peeped with worry laced in his eyes, Skywarp looked down at the child in surprise, no one had ever asked him that before; at least, not with genuine concern. "I-, I'll be fine, now just go!" he said as he stood back up and fired up his guns; but as he walked away, Annabelle gasped in alarm when she saw what had been snagged between two plates on the back of his shoulders. "MR FLUFFYTAIL!" she exclaimed, and dashed after the seeker through the chaos of the fight; going into a panic Mei, Mikaela and Sam took after her. Morri, Matti and the Waineright sisters tried to stop the other kids and Jay-jay chasing after them but as Sunstreaker thrusted his blade through one of the hybrids, the creature's dead body blocked their way as it crashed to the ground. As Annabelle ran up to the seeker she threw herself at his foot and refused to let go as she grasped the armour over his talons.

"I want Mr Fluffytail back! Give him back right now!" she angrily cried at the top of her lungs, "WHA!-" Skywarp gawked as he gently tried to shake her off his foot, "What're you doing! Get off! You're supposed to be hiding!" he argued as he bent down to try and pry her off with one finger while blasting another hybrid in the face with his one free hand; Mei, Mikaela, Sam and the other youngsters caught up and tried to get her to let go, pleading her to come with them. "What're you doing? Get those humans outta here!" Sideswipe ordered as he took down another hybrid.

"I'm trying! But she won't-" the seeker went wide-eyed when he looked up and saw a giant Dragon-like hybrid charging straight at them, bulldozing through the remains of the outside wall and straight for the foyer; within a second the seeker gasped as his activated his teleportation sequence; but what he didn't notice was the data-cube glowing bright green in his hand...

BROOOM!

As the behemoth crashed into the foyer, the Lambo twins synchronized their jump and thrusted their blades into its spark chamber, making it drop like a stone and skidding to a halt into the opposite wall. Morri, Matti and the Waineright sisters rushed out from the other side of the giant and looked all around for any sign of their charges.

"MEI?...ANNY? ...JAY-JAY?" Hailey called out

"KIDS?...WHERE ARE YOU!" Matti shouted; looking around, they couldn't see them or Skywarp anywhere, at that moment Togusa ran in with Ishikawa and three of the Rangers behind him.

"What's up? I heard Hailey was moving Mei and the kids up here!" he demanded

"They were here a second ago" Sideswipe glanced around in bemusement, looking to see if he could spot them while his brother looked down at the spot where Skywarp had been standing just a mere moment ago; "Yeah they were standing right next to-...", he stopped when he realized what had happened and facepalmed in disbelief, "Aw frag not again!..." he deadpanned.

"What? What happened?" Togusa asked alarm

"I think Skywarp didn't check to see if anyone was standing between his feet again" Sideswipe grimaced

"WHAT!"

* * *

R&R please!


	78. Chapter 77: The Dark Before The Dawn

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

Caution: Strong swearing here and there, and possibly some graphic death scenes elsewhere.

Additional Disclaimer: Matti belongs to JillTheCrazy1

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 77: THE DARKNESS BEFORE THE DAWN

"Wow, so that's what hell looks like?" Will thought aloud as he and the others watched the mountain and the valley burn while overhead the sky was pitch black with smoke; the howls and screeching wails of the mutant-hybrids rang out as they continued to burn to death.

"How're you feeling? Alright for one more teleport?" Jetfire asked Deathshot, "My emergency self-repair nanites have already stabilized my circuits and steamed the energon-flow from the wounds, but it's going to be at least an hour before my systems are stable enough to function again" he replied as he gently rubbed the wounds on his helm; already the nanites in his body had formed a strange silver scab-like covering over the exposed circuits and torn energon lines, and had covered part of the torn armour plating in order to start melding the plates back together.

"Well, I'd say we're done here, in an hour's time this place will be-"

KABROOOOOOOM!

The whole ridge shook violently, knocking the humans and bots off their feet and nearly sending them over the cliff, everyone scrambled to try and stay upright but the tremors grew more erratic and violent; all around them the earth thundered and cracked as rock and dirt shifted beneath their feet. They gasped in alarm when they saw the top of the mountain explode in a fireball that went hundreds of feet into the sky, followed by spouts of lava that burst upwards and splashed down the cliff-faces.

"The energon plant went critical already?" Hound exclaimed in a mild panic

"How's that possible! It's not supposed to go off for another hour!" Jetfire called over the thundering roar of the volcano, nearly tripping over the Tachikoma's.

"Darren must have miscalculated the level of power-infusion in the energon they sent through the supply lines! Clearly they were high grade!" Chromia replied; another thunderous tremor shook the valley as one whole side of the mountain cracked open and a river of lava exploded out, spilling out into the valley and destroying everything in its path while the pressure inside the volcano's pipe sent burning rocks and boulders flying up into the air and crashing down like mortar rounds. In the centre of the valley the ground began to crack and split apart as more lava erupted out and exploded out in various directions, the intense heat rose up and hit the team like a furnace door being opened, for the bots it was unpleasant but for the humans it was intolerable to the point of burning. The bots immediately scooped them up to shield them from the worst of it, but as the volcano continued to grow in size and strength so the earthquake grew more violent and unstable.

"Jetfire! Get us out of here!" Prime ordered; without wasting another second Jetfire sucked in his (figurative) gut and teleported everyone away, right as a giant lava-covered boulder came crashing down and obliterated the cliff edge.

* * *

"Where the hell-"

BROOOM!

"WHOA!-"Morri jumped out of the way when the Autobots suddenly reappeared in the middle of the foyer, "Your back! Did you-, DEATHSHOT!" she activated her BSHB and hovered up next to his head when she saw the injury on the side of his helm; "Oh my God D! What the hell happened?" she worried as she looked over the wound, "I'm alright youngling, really; just a mesh wound is all; the nanites are already doing their thing" he reassured her, "I take it things are back under control here?" he asked Ultra Magnas.

"Under control? We lost control when those hybrids turned uber mutant-freaky!" Hailey replied from where she stood on top of a pile of rubble.

"And their tactics made no sense! Just now before you guys zapped in, they all fell back and took off again!" Glen added from where he sat on a fallen piece of ceiling, trying to catch his breath. Blinking in surprise the Autobots turned around to look, and sure enough they caught a glimpse of the mutant-hybrids disappearing into the city.

"What's going on?" Arcee thought aloud in confusion.

"I'm not sure, but whatever the Spark Eater has in mind next it can't be good" Ravage interjected as he appeared from one of the half-demolished corridors

"WHAT! The Spark Eater's not dead?" Ironhide exclaimed; everyone did a double take as they stared at each other in disbelief.

"Apparently not" the panther flicked his ear in annoyance

"But-, How the pit's that even possible? We just triggered a volcano right under his aft! The whole mountain and base inside is blowing up as we speak!" Scorponok argued, snapping his claws in agitation.

"Indeed; but what you failed to realize is, that even though the Spark Eater's devolving it's not completely helpless just yet; it must have sensed your presence when you blew up the shield generator. After that it didn't take a genius to figure out what would happen next. Right now it's somewhere inside the volcano, trapped but away from the lava-flow; at least it can't access the net anymore" he offered.

"What can you sense of the Spark Eater's mind?" Optimus asked; the panther hesitated before answering, "It's strange; its sentience is barely intact but what mental faculties it has left it's using to concentrate on something else...Something to do with the data-cube; that one device is still at the core of its mind, it wants it but at the same time its scared of it" he replied with an air of uncertainty

"Scared of it?" Ultra Magnus echoed

"...Something..." Ravage glanced away as he concentrated harder, "...Something that's on it? A piece of data? ...Or something much more important, another use other than just a device to store information...Where did Skywarp teleport to?" he asked as he looked all around.

"Hm? Why'd you ask?" Thundercracker asked

"Because he teleported my family along with him! That's why!" Togusa angrily stated, Hailey placed a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him down; "Skywarp teleported off somewhere and he didn't see that Sam, Mikaela, Mei and the kids were standing in between his feet, again" she informed him with a deadpan look.

"Typical, he never did get the hang of-, Wait, what do you mean? You can't sense where he teleported off to?" Thundercracker looked down at Ravage in surprise.

"Not just that, I can't sense him anywhere, not even on the other side of the planet; wherever he and the humans are their nowhere here on earth anymore" he replied. A tense uneasy silence passed as the group tried to make sense of what he just said, and as Togusa felt his 'father-mode' beginning to go into overdrive and his panic levels subsequently rising, Morri and Hailey were quick to try and hold him steady. "What do you mean their nowhere here on earth? Surly they've got to be somewhere?" Hailey exclaimed in a mild panic.

"Well of course, and for the human's sake hopefully somewhere with oxygen and a tolerable ambient temperature" Ravage replied frankly, Arcee scowled and was about to smack him upside the helm but Prime stopped her, "Is there anything at all that might allude as to why the Spark Eater is so concerned with the data-cube? And if so might it have anything to do with where Skywarp went?" he asked.

"...There is something..." he replied, concentrating his telepathy on what he needed to learn, "The instant he teleported away the Spark Eater realized he had the cube on him, and there was something on it that sent it into a panic" the panther replied.

"Hang on, the cube slipped from my bag when he was running from those other hybrids and he grabbed a hold of it with his interface wires; if he automatically accessed it's data-memory banks that'll make my job a bit easier..." Darren interjected as he whipped out his laptop and began typing away, "When we were working on the vaccine earlier, I kept an eye on the activity-tracker in the cube's memory storage in case anything unforeseen happened and we had to back-track to see what went wrong. Although I had the cube plugged in via a USB cable I also hooked it up to the Wi-Fi on my laptop, I never disconnected it even after the vaccine was uploaded. Hopefully it should tell us what happened right up until Skywarp zapped out..." he explained.

"Geez, is there nothing you don't think of?" Will quirked an eyebrow

"To date? No, now let's see...Time-space quantum co-ordinates accessed, input of prime-number co-ordinates and grid reference, energy diversion to auxiliary systems..." he read aloud as he scrolled through the list of previous actions on the data-cube's memory, "Ah, here we are; location co-ordinates routed to teleportation systems and sequencing alignment. The last set of co-ordinates Skywarp put in was-" Darren stopped as he re-read the data, not quite believing what he was reading.

"Well? Where'd they go?" Togusa asked desperately

"...It's the white void co-ordinates..."

* * *

"WHOA! What the hell!-"

"OW! You tripped over me!"

"Sam watch it! You nearly tripped over Anny!"

"I'm okay!"

"Mimi? Mimi?"

"It's alright Jay-jay, I'm right here honey"

"I can't see anything! It's so dark!"

"Hey Careful! I almost squished you!"

"Squish me? I don't wanna be squished!"

"Where's everyone? And what was that white light!"

"Is the big scary monster still here? Is he still gonna eat us?"

"Mommy where are we? I can't see anything!"

Mei put her fingers to her mouth and whistled hard,*PHWEEEEE!* grabbing everyone's attention and bringing the panic to a halt. "Okay now listen up!" she asserted, "We're not going to panic, we're not going to run around in this pitch darkness and no one will be squishing anyone! Okay?" she glared up at Skywarp, she couldn't see him but she had a good idea where he was; "Okay" all the kids replied compliantly, and the atmosphere soon calmed down when it was clear there was no apparent danger.

"Just where the hell are we anyway? And how big is this place?" Sam thought aloud as he listened to his voice echo through the dark. Everywhere around them was nothing but pitch black, the red glow of Skywarp's optics was the only source of light and everywhere around their voices echoed far into the blackness. The air was stale and still, but breathable; wherever they were it was clear no one had been here in a very long time, if at all.

"Anyone got a light?" Mei asked offhand, Skywarp produced a small rod from his sub-space and held it over his head, as he flicked a small button on the side of the device a pale blue light cut through the darkness and in an instant the humans and seeker fell silent as they gazed up at their surroundings...

It was clear this was not a place of human creation, the room (or chamber?) was abstract in form and design; twice the length and height of a cathedral's nave aisle, and just as impressive in terms of design and structure with two rows of stout curved pillars running alongside the walls that supported tall dome-like vaulting that created huge spaces in the ceiling. Only this wasn't a place of worship, the entire room was comprised of metal, and running along the walls, around the pillars, curving along the floor and all over the ceiling were columns of cybertronian glyphs; along the walls were a row of pentagonal-shaped access panels and consoles that had a strange assortment of buttons and keyboards with hexagonal-shaped monitors. Although the air was stale there was a faint smell of energon hanging around, and as they moved about their feet stirred up a faint silvery dust that glistened in the light.

"...Whoa..." Ryo gawked as he craned his head up to encompass everything in his field of vision

"Oh my..." Mei gazed up in astonishment, "...What is this place?"

"A cybertronian ship of some kind..." Skywarp replied as he read the glyphs along the wall. "A ship?" Sam went wide-eyed.

"Like a space ship? Cuz this doesn't look like the kinda ship that floats on the water?" Kenji thought aloud

"Yeah, it's a space ship sweetie" Mikaela replied offhand; she stopped when she noticed a particular column of glyphs running up a six-sided panel on one of the pillars, "...Oh my God, Sam look at this!" she pointed to the glyphs, "What does that look like to you?" she asked; as he read the glyphs Sam suddenly realized what he was looking at. "It looks like one of the texts from S.H's schematics..." he breathed. "This isn't just a cybertronian ship, it's THE ship; the one S.H described in his journal" Mikaela explained. "...It's not just that-" Sam looked at her seriously, "Remember what Swiftshot said in her message? About being down in 'that' deep dark place?" he said, her eyes widened in realization, "Oh God, I'm such an idiot!" she facepalmed.

"What?" Annabelle asked

"The ship in S.H's journal, and the Black Solstus Deathshot told us about, they're the same ship! Darren said himself that it was trapped in a giant magma chamber! How the hell did we not see it before?" She realized.

"Like it really matters now anyway?" Skywarp shrugged, "What I don't understand is why this didn't work?" he gazed down at the data-cube in his hand. "Wha-, how did you get that? And what do you mean it 'didn't work'?" Mikaela quirked an eyebrow in dubious curiosity.

"It slipped outta the boy's bag and I grabbed it so it wouldn't fall, but my hands were kinda full already so I grabbed it with my interface wires; the cube started automatically uploading data and the white void co-ordinates were on it" he explained, "The white void co-ordinates?" Sam echoed, "Yeah, so I figured, if this 'guide' was the one who'd known about all this from the start then he'd be the one to stop it; I figured the white void co-ordinates was where he was hiding at" he surmised.

"You thought the 'guide' was at the location where the white void co-ordinates point to?" Mikaela echoed in bewilderment, "But Skywarp, by Jetfire's account it's supposed to be the end of the universe, or at least somewhere that's totally inaccessible to anyone, including teleporter's"

"I know, so why did the white void co-ordinates land us here? I don't get it?" the seeker scratched his helm.

"Maybe you got lost? My daddy always gets lost on the highway if he doesn't have a GPS map to follow" Ren peeped in; Skywarp glanced down at him with a deadpan look, "Lost? Are you kidding me? I'm a teleporter I don't need a GPS +map! All I need are quantum-based linier mathematical equation-based codes that denote specific points in time and space somewhere in the universe; open a space-bridge and poof! I'm there! It ain't rocket science fleshy" he sarcastically replied matter-of-factly, but the kids simply stared back up at him in confusion. "Uh? Quantum what?" Mizuki asked in bewilderment. "Way to go over their lil' heads 'warp" Sam rolled his eyes; "The cube's still plugged into your hand, check to see if the co-ordinates are right" Mikaela asked. "I have checked! And it's saying we're in the right place!" the seeker retorted , "Besides, even if we were to teleport back the way we came, there's no guarantee-...huh?" he looked down at the cube in surprise.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked

"An external signal just accessed the cube's central systems; its directional detector's been activated and set to tracker mode" he said as he disconnected his interface wires from the cube and held it between his finger and thumb as one side began to flash green with an arrow pointing straight ahead.

"An external signal? But that could only happen if-"

"-Someone was here on the ship with us" Mikaela realized with worry, a brief moment of tenseness came over the atmosphere as the kids glanced around in slight worry. "Someone's here? Like an alien? Or another alien robot like you guys?" Ryo glanced up at Skywarp with worry, "Swiftshot did say in her message that she and the rest of her crew retreated to their stasis pods right before the ship crashed; maybe one of them came back online and activated the signal?" the seeker suggested.

"But if they had there would've been more signs of activity here; look at all the dust on the floor, clearly no one's been up and around let alone 'here' in a very long time" Mikaela glanced down at the floor.

"True, but what if it's a trap?" Skywarp thought aloud; Sam thought carefully for a moment as he considered the situation, and everything that had led up to now; "No" he stated, "We were meant to find this cube for a reason, whoever put that thing together did it for the purpose of helping us, and it has; wherever it wants to take us now, clearly it's for something real important"

"But the question is what? And don't get me wrong but are you sure about this?" Mei asked, Sam paused a moment before answering, "...I don't know, but we made it this far so I'm gonna go with my gut on this" he stated; after a brief moment of consideration Mikaela nodded in agreement. "Alright. Skywarp can you fit the kids in your cockpit?" she asked. "Ten sparklings? Nine of which are human? I'm a two-seater not an economy-class flyer" he stated matter-of-factly; "Fair enough-" she huffed, "Sam and I will take point, you cover us from above; and Mei, you and the kids stay close okay?" she suggested, to which everyone nodded in agreement. "Fine by me, I may not be able to fly but I can still shoot" Skywarp stated as he handed the cube to Sam and readied his weapons, "Just don't go teleporting us off anywhere okay?" he glanced up at the seeker with a look. "Now, which way do we go? ..." he said to himself as he held the cube with the flashing arrow facing up. After a moment of slowly turning in a circle to ascertain the direction in which the arrow was pointing, Sam followed it along through the centre of the chamber until they came to a towering set of double doors over sixty feet high.

"Wow, those are big doors" Mizuki gawked, "Indeed, how're we going to get through?" Mei asked; Skywarp noticed the access panel on the wall and reached across to press some of the buttons, "Hm, no power, not even auxiliary..." he huffed as the consol failed to respond, "Oh well-" he shrugged as he slipped his claws in between the centre of the doors and pried them apart; the doors and their opening-mechanism groaned and screeched loudly as they steadily slid apart, rust and dust fell off like snowflakes and mist from the frame above as the seeker made the gap wide enough for his wings to fit through, all the while the humans covered their ears as the noise assaulted their hearing, little Haru cried out in protest until the seeker finally stopped. "Wow! Those're the loudest doors I ever heard!" Ichiro protested, "Yeah, and I thought our garage door was squeaky" Kenji concurred; "Whoa, it's really really really dark down there!" Ryo pointed ahead. Stepping over the threshold of the doors the group gazed up at the long tall corridor ahead of them; a low hollow rush of air echoed through the darkness, sending chills up the human's spines. "What was that?" Shiro shuddered in alarm, holding onto Mei's waist for safety. "It's just the air passing through" Mikaela assured him, "Sounds like a ghost" Annabelle said as she hid behind her legs, "Spooky no fun!" Jay-jay squeaked as she stayed close to her human babysitter. "It's alright baby, no one or anything's gonna hurt you okay?" Mikaela cooed as she gently patted her over her little wings; "Okay, stay close" Sam gulped as he lead the way and Skywarp held the glow-rod forward to light the way.

As they walked on in silence, time seemed to slip away as the humans and one seeker followed the cube, they traversed through corridors, a couple of other larger chambers filled with strange alien devices, one room that seemed to be a computer lab of some kind, and several flights of emergency stairways (the said stairways being transformer-sized and therefore quite a challenge for a fully grown human to climb let alone eight human children who were still less than half the size of an adult, plus a sparkling of the same size; fortunately Skywarp made it easier by carrying them in his hands and letting them ride on his shoulders). After an hour or so they realized the cube was leading them upwards towards the higher levels of the ship; as they carried on they noticed the layout of the ship's structure began to change slightly, more and more pipes wires and cables began to ran along the ceiling and walls, and access panels and consoles became a more frequent sight.

"Are we there yet?" Ryo whined as he brought up the rear, "My legs are tired", "Me too, this is way longer than that night we went to find daddy, and we went right across the city" Mizuki added, "Do you guys want to ride on Skywarp's shoulders again?" Mei asked, "Yes please!" the kids all replied eagerly as they looked up at the seeker with expectant looks; huffing in frustration, Skywarp bent down, carefully picked them up off the floor and arranged them on his shoulders like little toy dolls. "Just don't 'fidget' about alright?" he glared at them on either side of his head, "Only if you don't jump around too much! I couldn't get a good grip last time!" Mizuki protested, "Yeah well it's not my fault your little fleshy fingers are so weak at grasping" the seeker snorted, "I can grip just fine! And don't forget I blew up a robot who wuz twice as big as you! I can take you on any day mister!" she glared at him, "Yeah! And anyway he wuz way meaner than you; your just a big mister grouchy-pants!" Annabelle peeped in, trying to put on the meanest war-face she could muster as she glared up at the seeker defiantly (though her war-face looked more like a cute little pout than a terrifying deathly glair). As the seeker grumbled something under his breath, Mei couldn't help but be both amazed and amused at the kid's pluckiness, not least her own daughter who had virtually no fear of the giant robot at all.

"Aw come on Mizuki, it's not his fault he's a big pooty-head" Annabelle smiled

"Pooty-head?" Skywarp blinked in bewilderment, to which Mei and Mikaela couldn't help but chuckle, "You DO realize the only reason I'm being nice to you is because your guardian will use my tailfins for target practice if anything were to you?" he glared at the little honey blond with a scathing look, "Yeah, and my daddy will kick your ass to the curb if you don't behave nice to me; that means you gotta be sweet and do what I say or I'll tell on you" Annabelle added sweetly with that knowing look; the one that struck fear and ire into the heart of every rookie babysitter, the kind that said: I own your ass; but knew you couldn't do anything about. Kids could be smart if not mean like that, and Annabelle was no angle when it came to learning how to take advantage of someone less wily than her.

"Now now Anny, let's not be too mean to Skywarp, after all, he's gotta get us back remember?" Mikaela grinned, "Oh yeah" Annabelle realized. "She'll go far" Mei smirked in a hushed tone, "Tell me about it; when Hound first met her, she barely knew him but within an hour she had him eating out of her hand. She's way more bolder than her mom believes she is, I can't help but worry how Will's gonna break all this to her when we finally get home" Mikaela thought aloud. "Well one way or another she'll see what she's made off, in time; Believe me I should know" Mei offered a small smile as she held Haru closer, "But for what this has all been worth, despite all the heartache of worrying and fretting, I'm proud of Mizuki for being so brave; even though this hasn't been the ideal way of seeing it in action".

Mikaela smiled; "Yeah, she's a great kid" she looked up at Mizuki as she and Annabelle continued to argue with the seeker.

"Hey, I think we're getting closer..." Sam announced as the cube started flashing faster; the kids and seeker stopped their bickering and glanced up ahead as another set of doors blocked their way; prying them open, Skywarp strained and huffed through his vents as these doors proved to be heavier and more reinforced than the first set. When they stepped inside the sight that greeted them was quite different compared to what they had seen thus far. The chamber was enormous, shaped in a great oval-crescent layout that spanned over two hundred feet long by a hundred feet in width; the floor was separated into four levels, each of which dropped down by several metres and were connected together by three flights of stairs, on each level were computer terminals, consoles and holoform projectors all interconnected together to form four single elongated units. On the far side of the room the outward curve of the structure looked to be some kind of giant glass wall that towered up to form an oval-shaped dome over the front of the whole complex while on the top level some twenty feet away from the door, a huge throne-like chair sat atop a raised circular platform surrounded by consoles and terminals that were connected to the arms and linked up to it via a spider-web of wires, cables and other smaller devices.

"We're on the bridge" Skywarp realized as he stepped further into the room, "The Bridge?" Ryo echoed, "Yeah, it's the room from where the ship is controlled, where the captain gives his orders?" Mikaela informed him, "Is that where the captain used to sit?" Mizuki pointed to the giant chair, "I guess, it's at the top of the room, so it must be from where he oversaw the crew working on the lower levels" Mei reasoned as she stepped towards the edge of the central flight of stairs and looked down at the lower levels.

Suddenly, a faint beeping sound began to echo throughout the Bridge; "What's that?" Ren asked as he looked around for the source of the sound; "...I think it's coming from somewhere up there..." Sam thought aloud as he climbed up the side of one of the terminals for a better look and followed the sound along the top of the structure until he stood over the centre-most console that was directly facing the throne. Following his ears downwards, he scanned over the myriad of (transformer-sized) buttons and keypads until he was looking down at a tiny square hole in the centre of the console. Carefully climbing down and stepping over the keypads, he gauged the hole and realized it was the same size as the cube. "What do you see?" Mei asked, "I think I found what we were looking for" he replied, "Huh? Skywarp give us a leg-up-" Mikaela asked, and obligingly the seeker lifted the two females up onto the console. "Wow, the cube's part of this computer system?" Mikaela squatted down and ran her fingers over the edge of the hole, "What'll happen when you plug it in?" Ichiro asked, "Nothing, the ships without power so whatever'll happen will probably only be confined to the Bridge, maybe only to this one console?" Skywarp suggested, "Well whatever happens, there's no turning back now" Sam stated as he reached down to slot the cube into its hole. The second the cube came within ten inches of the slot it jumped from his hand and slotted into the hole by itself, it was a perfect fit, and all of a sudden the console faired to life as the monitors and buttons lit up in a triad of vivid blue, purple and red, and rows of cybertronian glyphs began scrolling down and across all the screens. A deep thrum rang out like a giant drum as every device on the Bridge lit up and came to life, and a even deeper vibration ran through human's bones as the entire ship started to power up; everywhere around them the humans could feel a strange static-like charge flush through the air as energon began to flow through the lines and pipes along the walls and ceiling. Now that the darkness was gone, they could see just how big the place really was...

"WHOA! That's AWESOME!" Ren beamed as he went wide-eyed at the sight of the flashing lights glyphs.

"Oh my-, this really is an alien ship!" Mei breathed in realization

"And a big one too!" Skywarp stared at the bridge in disbelief, "Look at the size of this place! It's twice the size the Nemesis! Looks more like a Decepticon ship too"

"...Your right" Sam craned his head up at the domed ceiling that towered over a hundred feet above them, "If this is the Bridge just how big is the rest of the ship?" he wondered aloud.

"HEY! Do you think we can fly it back to New Port?" Mizuki beamed in excitement.

"Well, we could-"

THUNK!-VROOOOMMMM-CLANK!-HISSSSSS!

The group jumped in alarm as the sound of a seal popping open stopped their train of thoughts; turning to the source of the sound, in the one area of the bridge still shrouded in darkness they watched a giant door-like structure unfolded like a living origami piece and thick clouds of vapour poured out and swept across the floor.

"A stasis pod!" Skywarp gasped as the sounds of tubes disconnecting and wires being ripped out could be heard from inside the chamber. A low sinister growl echoed out and sent shivers up their spines.

"That doesn't sound good! You better hide!" the seeker gulped as he plucked the kids and one sparkling off his shoulders and placed them on the ground before firing up his weapons; Sam, Mikaela and Mei jumped down off the console and led the kids around the side of the huge computer terminal where they crouched down behind a set of large cables running up the side of the device. Mikaela fired up her BSHB's force fields and threw up a bubble shield around the youngsters while Sam produced a set of glowing energy orbs in each hand, ready to fire at a moment's notice. As the vapour cleared away, a huge shadow loomed out of the chamber and stepped out onto the metal floor with a THUD! Whoever this cybertronian was, they were HUGE; and when they straightened up, the outline of their silhouette made Sam and Mikaela's blood run cold in horror, so much so that they lost control of their force field/energy orbs and the energy projections dissipated.

"...No..." Sam breathed as the stranger's glowing pair of scarlet-red optics pierced through the darkness and gazed upon him like a cat eyeing up a mouse; he knew those eyes. His mind ran a thousand miles a second as all of a sudden he was back in Mission City again, hiding amid the rubble with the Allspark in his arms while he watched Optimus fight with-

"...I killed you-, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!"

* * *

"Okay, supposing the white void co-ordinates aren't actually at the end of the universe like you thought; where else could they have gone? They've gotta be somewhere on earth if your krolnon-spectral detector is reading that they teleported somewhere within a hundred mile radius of here!" Thundercracker angrily retorted.

"But then that doesn't jive with what the cube had logged in its memory banks! The seven-zero sequence in the co-ordinates clearly indicates a point in time and space where the time-space continuum in rendered into a state of suspended flux! In other words they could be still on earth, just not on our plain of reality; it's like what I explained about string theory, they're still here in the same space, just not in the same time or reality as us" Darren protested

"So their still alive?" Togusa perked up, his tense panic subsiding a little

"Well if their still on Earth then it stands to reason they still have oxygen and haven't been fried or frozen; it doesn't matter what time, space or reality you're in, the planet your on is the planet your on, the basic elements that make it up don't change" Rumble offered

"He's right, and besides if your sparkmate can knock a bot out with bowling ball and your sparkling can blow up a hybrid with a box of fire crackers, I don't think you'll have much to worry about if they can already handle themselves in tight situation" Ravage offered his opinion, "And anyway, their the very least of our concerns right now..." he growled as his optic began glowing intensely once again.

"What now? The Spark Eater again?"

"He's coming"

"Coming?" Elita-1 echoed

"He's coming..." Ravage looked up to the sky; everyone followed his gaze upwards and saw an enormous expanse of black clouds rolling across the sky.

"Whoa, the wind's moving that ash cloud from the volcano faster than I thought" Batou said offhand.

"That's not ash; take a closer look" Ravage growled. Firing up their engines and jetting up into the air some two hundred feet above the ground, Deathshot, Jetfire and Thundercracker gazed over the cityscape towards the San-nin Shimai mountains in the distance. When they focused their optics and zoomed in on the volcano, they watched in stunned astonishment; instead of orange, red and yellow hues, the lava spouting from the top of the peak was turning lilac and purple, parts of the lava-flow seemed to be hardening and crystallizing into huge stacks of quartz-like crystals while the smoke billowing out of the pipe was growing thicker and thicker until it looked like a bottomless abyss suspended in the sky and continued to spread across the sky, moving at an unusually fast pace until it stretched beyond the horizon, blotting out the oncoming light of dawn and covering everything in absolute darkness.

"That. Can't be good" Sideswipe grimaced in wide-eye astonishment

"You think?" Sunstreaker glared at him

BROOOOOOM!-KABOOM!-BROOOOOOM!

Everyone jumped as red lightning lit up the blackness and made the air vibrate, shredding through the clouds and making it look like the whole sky was burning as it thundered in an almighty BOOOOM!, followed by orange and yellow cloud-like flames that danced through the darkness and lit up the city in a grungy orange-reddish glow. A strange gray haze began to fill the air around the distant skyscrapers and steadily reached down to the ground, but upon looking closer everyone saw it wasn't a fog or mist, but ash, thick fluffy snowflake-like clumps of the stuff slowly fell to the ground where it covered everything in a light dusting of grey and charcoal hues, and irritated the humans lungs and Autobots vents as they breathed it in.

"Oh god..." Matti breathed in horror

"I know" Batou breathed in equal worry

"No you don't understand; the scene I saw in my vision, the one of the city? This is exactly how I saw it!" she panicked

"**What else do you see?"** Prime asked the flyers

"**You're not going to believe this..."** Deathshot breathed as he watched the distant scene unfold; through the thick ash-fall and gloom of the burning clouds, the flyers watched as a huge black mass began to swell out from out of the top of the volcano like a bubble of wax in a lava-lamp, steadily it grew taller and wider and began to ripple and wobble as if something inside it was trying to get out. Then, the mass burst open in an explosion of purple lava and a giant grotesque mass of black tentacles, spines, claws, towering shards of metal, and what looked to be teeth unfolded like a bug from its cocoon, growing to an unbelievable size that seemed to dwarf the volcano three-fold, and as it's longer tentacles came close to the ground, the green of the forests and fields turned black as everything it touched died instantly.

"What the frag is THAT supposed to be!" Thundercracker gawked

"**What is it! What do you see?"** Ultra Magnas called over the comm

"**See for yourself!"** Jetfire gasped as he sent the bots a live data-burst of what he was seeing; a collective silence fell upon the group as the bots watched the optic-feed in disbelief, "What is it?" the Major demanded, filtering out the bulk of the data so as to make the upload more compatible with their cyberbrain's, Prime forwarded to images through to the Section 9 agents, who stared off into space in equal alarm. Wondering what the hell had worried them so badly; Bumblebee filled everyone else in with his holoform projector.

"What the fuck is that!" Epps grimaced as he and rest of the NEST troops watched the holoform image in dire alarm; "WHOA! Dude! Looks like Cthulhu went overboard on the steroids!" Miles gasped

"Is that-...The Spark Eater?" Morri watched the holoform and instantly recognized what it was (even though it was unrecognizable compared to what she saw in the astral void, for some reason she couldn't explain she just knew it was the same entity)

"Not anymore" Ravage replied coldly

"What the hell happened?"

"That. Is the Dark Spark; With Spark Eater finally offline, I can 'see' it for what it truly is!" he growled

"Which is?" Ironhide asked

"Nothing but an entity that has no limits anymore, not even hunger; it's killing for the sake of killing. No reason, no goal, no objective nor purpose, it wants nothing but death and only death"

"But I thought you said the Dark Spark isn't sentient?" Thundercracker retorted as he and the other two flyers landed back down.

"It's not, but it's still a living organism, if it can even be called that; I sense no instinct, no inherent drive to want to feed, breed or even survive...it's just a huge expanding-...'living nothingness'..." the panther shuddered in repulsing disgust.

"Can you sense a way by which it could be weakened? Or even killed?" Prime asked; Ravage gazed up the Autobot leader in hesitation before answering, "I-...I don't know if it can die, at all? ..."

"...Then what the hell do we do?" Togusa asked offhand. For the longest moment no one knew what to say, how to comprehend what was going now and why, and if at all there was any chance of getting the odds back in their favour? With the way things were shaping up now it was anything but good; and the one thing that came to front of their minds as they looked up at the apocalyptic sky, was that this had to be it: the end was now in sight, and the final set of events that would decide the outcome of all this.

One way or another, this was all going to end soon enough...

Optimus knew this; he'd been in this situation far too many times before to know well enough that this had to be the time to go on the offensive, to take a stand, probably his last stand and give it all he got, least the alternative would see this world burn into nothingness. Glancing over at their leader, Ironhide, Ultra Magnas, Jetfire, Springer, and all the other bots knew that look in his optics, and knew right away what his next orders might be. They all knew him too well, and even his spark-mate Elita could feel over their bond the depth of his resolve and conviction rising up and imbuing his spirit with all the strength and power of Primus himself; that same ancient power that saw them through so much darkness before, now rising to stand up for this world and its inhabitants. Glancing at Jetfire with a discreet knowing look, the ancient seeker knew right away what he was subtly asking of him; and with an ever-so-slight discreet nod, the seeker moved to his side and leaned on his walking stick.

"Well?..." the Major caught his attention, "...We've come this far, what's the plan now?"; "Yeah big guy, what's our next move?" Will asked as he and his troops waited tensely for his orders.

Passing a heavy sigh through his vents, Optimus glanced down to meet her crimson-red eyes, and gazed at her with a calm yet apologetic look in his radiant blue optics. "Our next move is to stop the Dark Spark, by any means necessary" he rumbled

"Obviously, so what's the game-plan?" Epps added, "There is no 'game-plan', not this time Epps..." he stated, the humans did a double take and looked up at him in confusion as he continued; "Your courage, selflessness and loyalty to each other has been nothing short of inspirational, and I am both honoured and proud to call you all my friends. But this world has suffered so much already, and although we have prevented one catastrophe, we must now try to stop another; all this may have come about through a tragic and unforeseen set of events that were beyond our control, but the reasons for those events happening in the first place are no less our fault than that of the Decepticons. Even by omission we are no less guilty than our enemy, and because it, this world now stands on the brink of oblivion...I am sorry, but I will not let you and the rest of humanity pay for our mistakes. I want you all to stay here and make sure the last of the injured get out safely, and to make sure Swiftshot remains safe until Wheeljack and the others come to retrieve you; as for you and your team Major Kusanagi? If we succeed in our endeavour and the Dark Spark is destroyed, this world will need your help in restoring it, someone must oversee the balance of law and order maintained, and from what I have seen I cannot think of anyone more suited for the task..." he paused, and heaved another deep regretful sigh, "...I am proud to have had the honour of serving alongside you all; I bid you farewell, and good luck..." he finished, but before anyone could say or do anything, all the bots disappeared in a flash of white light, leaving the humans bewildered before they finally realized what was going on.

On the north side of the city, the bots reappeared some two miles from the edge of the farthest suburbs; here the ground was flat and stretched out into open farmland. About five hundred metres to their left the northern superhighway lay in ruins, blown up by tanks and mortar-fire in an attempt to stop the hybrids as they stormed the city, all over the ground the remains and lifeless bodies of the hybrids lay scattered about the rubble while five half-destroyed multiped tanks lay abandoned. Straight ahead, the distant mountains and valleys turned black as the giant entity slowly moved towards the city. Looking closer, the bots watched as the bottom of the entity began to sag and droop like folds of flesh before bursting open in a black slimy mess, as the globules of ooze splashed down on the ground countless more mutant-hybrids emerged from the slime and began charging towards the city. They barely even resembled cybertronians anymore, now they were nothing but grotesque misshapen slime-covered beasts with metal shards and plates protruding out of their limbs and bodies, as if they were shrapnel that had been shot into them. It was quite a sight to behold; practically the whole pit was spilling out, it seemed almost poetic in a surreal way; being encompassed by so much darkness on such a grand scale was both terrifying, and breathtaking...

But that wasn't on their minds right now...

"Couldn't we have said goodbye?" Bluestreak asked Optimus with a look of hurt in his optics.

"Do you think they would' a let us go if we'd told what we're about to do?" Jazz sighed as he placed a hand on the gunner's shoulder and patted him softly

"...I'm gonna miss Sam, wherever he is" Bumblebee sulked

"I'll miss Darren" Trailbreaker added in equal sombreness

"Aw come on guys don't start getting sentimental, they did fine before we came along they'll do fine without us" Sunstreaker said confidently; but deep down a little twinge of regret tugged at his spark, and made him feel something he hadn't expected to feel: regret. Across the spark-bond he shared with his twin, Sideswipe smiled as his brother passed a heavy sigh, and wrapped an arm around his shoulder in reassurance.

"He's right; take comfort in the knowledge they'll be safe and well, they may be small but they're as tough as any Wreaker...They'll morn us, but they will carry on none the less" Jetfire stated as he readied his axe and took up a fighting stance

"How long before they reach us?" Hot Rod asked as he watched the slime-monster army advance over the distant valley.

"At that speed, probably less than fifty five minutes tops?" Ultra Magnas offered

"Good, plenty of time to formulate a game plan!..." Jetfire grinned, "So what's the game plan Prime?"

* * *

"Wha-, their gone?" Hailey breathed in a stunned stupor; "Our Blue, he just left? Without saying goodbye?" the Waineright twins gasped.

"How-, why?" Miles breathed

"Because they know they're not coming back" Chief Aramaki stepped out from among the rubble and approached the group, followed closely by Ishikawa. "Chief?" the Major blinked in surprise as she watched her boss approach with one arm in a sling and a large bandage wrapped around his head; "Should' a known you'd be too damn stubborn to stay in bed" Batou smirked, "What the hell happened?" Togusa asked in concern, "One of those damn hybrids crashed through the command centre and nearly landed right on top of me; as if that's hardly an excuse to stay on the bench and not see this through to the end" he stubbornly replied.

"What do you mean by 'they know they're not coming back'?" Morri demanded

"Isn't it obvious?" he quirked an eyebrow, "They intend to fight that thing, and in so doing distract it long enough for us to launch a counter offensive, or give us a head-start on a retreat; frankly I'm inclined to think the latter is not an option. But either way, we're now at the point where all bets are off; anything can happen from here on"

"Well if that's the case then let's round up everything we got and go back 'em up!" Ashley replied as he climbed out of the rubble and approached the group, "After everything we've been through together I'm not about to stand by and let them finish this by themselves!" he argued as everyone started at him in surprise; half weirded-out by the sight of a ten foot tall sphinx-like cyborg creature speaking in Ashley's voice.

"Ashley?" Epps gawked

"What happened to your voice? You sound like you again" Tom quirked an eyebrow

"Yeah it kinda just switched back. But that's not important right now; what is important is that we can't let the guys do this by themselves! I know they wanna do this to make up for the whole 'bringing the war the earth' thing, but even so, that doesn't mean we should sit let them do this alone!" he pleaded

"Yeah: I mean, their gonna need some cover-fire on their six if their goin' up against THAT!" Glen gestured to the distant Dark Spark entity, to which the kids, NEST troops and everyone else nodded and sounded their agreement.

"I don't know, Prime did say we had to stay here and keep an eye on Swiftshot..." The Major pointed out, everyone was about to object until she continued, "But then-, he didn't actually say 'I order you to stay here'; so? I suppose it could be construed as a 'friendly suggestion'?" she offered with a smirk and a knowing look in her eyes; the rest of her team instantly caught onto what she was suggesting and it didn't take the others long to realize she had already made her mind up on what she was going to do.

"So, what's the plan Major?" Batou asked, everyone listened up in anticipation as she sucked in her gut and held her head high, "...If this really is the end, we'll do it our way, Section 9 style" she smiled, "Since the satellites were freed I've had Tachikoma's handling the details, we just need to find the Autobots and take everything from there. I know we usually have a game-plan, but this time we're gonna have to make an exception and wing it"

"Fine by me, but how're we gonna get there? I don't know if we can all fly you to wherever it is they've gone?"

"Well that's what the tiltrotor's for! Plus now that we got our satellite back we know exactly where the Autobots are!" Batou's Tachikoma squeaked in delight, overhead the tiltrotor circled around the airspace over the Prime Minister's residence, and made its way down into the centre of the half destroyed complex. As everyone rushed to board the aircraft, Batou was about to go when he suddenly noticed Matti was the only one not moving; as he approached, the blank spaced out look in her eyes made him quicken his pace and as he laid his hand on her shoulder she jumped, as if being suddenly being woken up from a day-dream...

"You okay?" he asked

"...Uh?...I think so" she replied as she regained her bearings

"...What did you see this time?"

"I'm not too sure; I saw Sam, Mikaela and the others, their okay but their somewhere very big, and then-..." she looked upwards as something seemed to grab her attention, Batou looked up but saw nothing but the burning clouds, "...Something else...Don't ask me why or how but think something's gonna happen"

"But what?"

"I don't know, but I gotta see for myself, I'm coming with you"

"..."

"Don't give me that look! I've already survived being overrun by those mutant freaks I don't think a giant floating tentacle monster's gonna be much of a problem!" she stated firmly

"...Fine. You still got some rounds left?"

"About half a clip?"

"The tiltrotor always carries an auxiliary supply of ammo, come on!" he replied as he led her over to the tiltroater.

* * *

R&R Please!


	79. Chapter 78: The Last Stand

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

Caution: Strong swearing here and there, and possibly some graphic death scenes elsewhere.

Additional Disclaimer: Matti belongs to JillTheCrazy1

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 78: THE LAST STAND 

"Primus, that thing's even uglier now that it's closer to the city!" Rumble grimaced as he watched the entity float over the valley.

With every mile it covered more and more slime-monsters continued to emerge from its slimy misshapen form, dropped to the ground and ran, hobble, gallop or slithered their way to the city. At this distance through the gloom and grungy orange glow of the burning clouds the Autobots could see the Dark Spark in all its horrifying glory; as the sky seemed to grow darker and more intense, the howls and angry roars of the monster army were carried high on the wind and echoed across the towering city.

"Who's willing to bet Megatron's spark is somewhere amongst all that?" Jetfire joked

"I wouldn't be surprised if the ol' fragger's one of those creatures, Primus knows we've all cursed his spark to the pit enough times, perhaps the universe has finally seen fit to punish him for his legacy at last?" Ironhide smirked

"Perhaps, but I don't understand why the clouds are on fire like that?" Bumblebee thought aloud as he watched the 'flames' dance through the pitch black clouds.

"That's because the clouds are made up of nanites" Deathshot frowned, "When the Spark Eater finally offlined the nanites that were under its telepathic control broke free and initiated their self-preservation programming; those flames are actually energy discharges that the nanites are giving off so they don't overload their systems"

"Will they continue to spread like that?" the young scout asked

"Definitely: they'll absorb any form of energy they come into contact with in order to fuel their own growth, and multiply over and over again until there's nothing left" the sniper replied

"It that why the plants and trees are offlining every time that thing touches them?" Elita asked as she watched the Dark Spark extend its tentacles downwards and made the forests and fields turn black as it brushed against them, rotting and decaying them within seconds.

"Most definitely; that creature is made of nothing but nanites, as well as the remains of the Spark Eater and any other living thing it absorbed into its mass. Those creatures that are emerging from the entity's central body are units comprised of the nanites collective intelligence, dividing into individual bodies; every creature is its own entity now. In other words, the nanites have realized that their now free, and because of the knowledge and data they amassed through the Spark Eater over the centuries their now sentient" he replied in a regretful tone.

"But if they know their free, why do they want to wipe out the city?" Bluestreak asked in alarm

"Because they were once one with the Spark Eater, so much so that they acquired a taste for blood; all they know is insanity, their no more smarter or sentient than insecticons" Ravage replied darkly

"Mores the pity, such potential for the wanting for freedom; wasted on a mindless hunt for power and domination" Prime shook his head sombrely

"And speaking of power, it appears we'll be having some additional back-up" Ravage smirked as he pricked his ears to attention.

"Hm? What do you-" Prime was interrupted as the sound heavy machinery filled the air, and as they looked to their right and left, the bots blinked in surprise at the huge formation of multiped tanks, exo-suits and heavily armoured vehicles approaching their position, overhead the Section 9 tiltrotor flew overhead, followed by several formations of manned and unmanned Jigabachi's and several formations of Oniyama's. As the tiltrotor came into the land and its passengers stepped out, the bots had a good idea as to why they had come...

"I thought I told you to stay at the Prime Minister's residence?" Prime addressed the Major as she took point with Lennox and Briggs at her side. "You did, but we thought otherwise; you're going to need some help taking that thing down" she gestured to the Dark Spark

"What about Swiftshot! She-"

"Don't worry Ratch Aoi keepin' an eye on her and the Tachikoma's got it covered, as well as everything else" Tom interrupted the medic, "Yeah! We sent a priority one message out to all the army and naval forces that're still able to fight and told em' you guys were taking on the enemy's main attack force and seriously needed some back-up; and after all the trouble those hybrids dished out their all eager for some payback! Hooyeah!" Batou's Tachikoma fist-pumped its claw.

"Besides..."Hailey looked over at the bots, her blank expression instantly turned to a look of anger, "HOW THE HELL COULD YOU ALL JUST LEAVE WITHOUT SAYING GOODBYE! I mean, seriously! After everything we've been through together you think going off to sacrifice yourselves is going to do me or any of us any favours? Your way too precious to us! And if you think we're supposed to sit this out because we're the 'injured party' in all this, you're dead wrong! And don't you dare try to argue otherwise!" she pointed her finger threateningly. With apologetic looks the Autobots didn't say anything, they knew they weren't in a position to say otherwise, and as the humans fell into position alongside the bots, Prime mentally facepalmed himself for his earlier decision: 'If we survive this, I'm going to have to seriously reconsider how I approach this in the future' he thought with an ounce of regret, and slight embarrassment.

Miles approached his guardian and stared up at him with a deadpan look, "Seriously dude? If the whole 'martyrdom' thing is the answer to all the big epic fights you guys go up against; you really need to reconsider rethinking your strategy; like, including us?"

"*Sigh* I had a feeling about this" Jazz sheepishly replied as he rubbed the back of his neck

"I was only thinking of your best interests; for all your bravery and selflessness you are only younglings, you've still got your whole lives ahead of you, we on the other hand have lived long and hard in the field of combat and are well aware of what lies ahead, we are prepared to give our lives" Prime offered

"So are we Prime. From the moment we found out about the Spark Eater and the Black Lotus we realized this was going to get worse before it got any better, we all knew, including your kids" the Major told him, Prime stood in silence as he listened to her continue, "When we first met, I couldn't figure out how the hell a bunch of high-school kids and college freshman managed to wind-up with a team of alien robotic beings from another planet, the idea was so surreal and bazaar that not even the best science-fiction writer could've passed it off a as good plot line. But the more I watched you work together and the more I saw the qualities you brought out in each other; I realized you were all something so much more than what any one part of us could be. In you, the Autobots, these kids found themselves, found their potential and realized what they could be; and in them, you've found something that you've been missing for a very long time. I'm not a sentimental person, and I'll admit when push comes to shove I'm not afraid to step up and do whatever's necessary to get the job done right, even if that means having to do the dishonourable thing; but in the time I've come to know your team and these kids I've seen nothing but a hundred and ten percent delivered every time, even when we didn't ask for anything they still came through, and despite their own fears were there for us when we needed help...If you guys think you've reached the very end of it all and this is the only to save us, then fair enough, we won't stop you; but if you're going to sacrifice yourselves because you think these kids, or any other human can't do a better job, then you really don't know them, or what their made of!" she asserted sternly, the bots stood in impressed silence as Prime considered her logic.

"...She's got a point..." Sunstreaker interjected, to which everyone did a double-take, "...I'll admit I don't find flesh the most enduring quality of any organic, and I certainly don't have a liking for sticky human fingerprints all over my paintjob; but-...When the slag's about to hit the fan and the odds aren't lookin' good, I don't think I'd mind one of these youngling riding shotgun with me; if mean's they can get me out in one piece" he said in a somewhat (unusually) honest tone, everyone blinked in surprise, of all the bots to speak on the humans behalf Sunstreaker certainly wasn't at the top of everyone's list; but through their spark-bond Sideswipe sensed his brother's honesty, and couldn't help but smile with pride. Also sensing his honestly, Prime was surprised, and happy at the golden warrior's change of spark; in all his long years he hadn't known the warrior to be swayed towards, at the very least having a mutual respect for organics let alone sentient beings or another species, if these human youngling had brought that out in him, then maybe...there was hope?

"Very well..." he freely stated, "Tell the exo-suit units to move behind us and cover the rear, the tanks can cover our flanks while the helicopter units will take out the front-most attackers. The rest of you fall in behind to provide immediate cover-fire and shields; we will make our stand here, don't let any of those creatures break this line" he ordered, to which everyone readied their weapons and fell in behind the bots, standing in between and behind the digigrade legs of the exo-suits, the agents and troops stood sideways of the giant mecha so as to use their armour for shielding while the kids activated their BSHB's and threw up several large protective force-fields around the front line. As the bots readied their weapons the jigabachi's and Oniyama's moved into position above them and aimed their guns as the Dark Spark and its hoard cleared the top of the nearest valley, charged down the slope and dashed across the flat farmland.

"How long 'till they reach us?" Danny asked

"About thirty minutes, give or take?" Cliffjumper jumper replied

"Do you think we'll all be enough to stop that thing? It's as big as a skyscraper if not larger!" Morri pointed out, "Yeah we thought about that too, so we called the JMSDF's Guided Missile Destroyers and told them to put some long-range missiles on stand-by just in case!" Batou's Tachikoma squeaked.

"I don't think that'll be necessary" Ravage interjected

"Huh? Why?" Ultra Magnus frowned

"Remember when I said we'd be having additional back-up? Well I didn't just mean all of you showing up; not five minutes ago I sensed a familiar presence enter the planet's orbit" he grinned, realizing as to who he was referring to, Prime allowed a small smile of relief to cross his metallic lips 'Good, their finally here' he thought.

"Wha?- Who?" Miles asked. The sound of the distant monster's screeches and wails were drowned out as a deep heavy thrumming sound filled the sky and the red lightning seemed to die down as something huge moved through the clouds towards the bots position. "Oh great, what now?" Batou frowned sarcastically as he watched the strange object approach; "It kinda sounds like a giant set of ion-engines" Tom said offhand as he studied the sound carefully. Before anyone had a chance to react the whole front-line watched in astonishment as the object came into hover right next to their position and dropped from out of the clouds...

"Oh my god..." Togusa breathed as he watched the cybertronian ship come rest upon the scorched ground, demolishing the rest of the half-destroyed highway as its huge landing gear swung out from its undercarriage. Probably over ten hundred feet at its widest and well over eighteen hundred feet in length, the ship overshadowed half the landscape as it towered some five hundred feet high, with a forty foot gap between the undercarriage and the ground. The craft looked like it had seen better days as countless scratches, dents, dings, welding lines and welding-patch plating covered its exterior; amid the various hues of greys and charcoals were streaks of red and yellow, and in certain areas lines of cybertronian glyphs were etched into the metal.

"Oh shit..." Batou went wide-eyed as his cybernetic eyes tried to encompass the whole ship within his field of vision. "No kidding" Matti concurred. A loud THUD! And a HISSS! Made everyone jump as a light shone out from a section of the undercarriage and a long wide ramp lowered down. Prime smiled as a familiar bot stepped out, followed by one other bot the kids instantly recognized, along with some new faces they hadn't seen before.

"I take it my message got through the rift alright?" Prime addressed his second in command; "Indeed, we scrambled to leave immediately, we would've arrived sooner but we encountered some 'trouble' on take-off" Prowl deadpanned

"Trouble?"

"EY YO! What up! So we gonna be gettin' this party started or what!" a loud brazen voice called out, several of the bots instantly recognized who it was and winced in dread. "Oh Primus, not THOSE two!" Chromia facepalmed as the source of their grief barged their way to the front of the group. Stepping off the ship like a couple of swag kings were the shortest (and perhaps the weirdest looking) Autobots the kids had ever seen, one green, one burnt reddish-orange. A good few feet shorter than Bumblebee, the two bots looked to be twins as they both bore a striking resemblance to each other, and were a far cry from the taller, sleeker, more beautifully proportioned bots (and certainly not as good-looking); as they stared at them in weirded-out bemusement, the kids were left at a loss at what to think.

"What. Are those?" Darren thought aloud

"Dunno, but those are the ugliest bots I've ever seen!" Ashley quirked an optic ridge, one ear flicking in confusion.

"Oh my god they got teeth!" Hailey winced

"Damn ugly teeth! Last time I saw faces like that they were chewing the side of a stable door!" Glen winced

"Is that, a gold tooth?" Matti pointed to the green one, who overheard what she just said and shot her a (less than) kinky look, "Oh, lil honeyz like tha' bling huh? Don't worry sweetspark I'll protect ya!" he grinned proudly, "What! Why the pit do you always have to be the one ta save tha' femmes!" his twin exclaimed, "Cuz I'm tha' good-lookin' one that's why!" he proudly stated, "WHAT! like pit you are!" the other one swung his fist and smashed him in the face; as the two twins wrestled each other to the ground Matti instantly had the feeling she wanted to be somewhere very far away from here as she backed away to a safer distance. The rest of the bots however simply watched on with particularly sour deadpan looks, as if they'd seen this before.

"Who are those two?" Becca tapped the side of Bluestreak's foot, "The twins Skids and Mudflap, perhaps the two most biggest hornbots around, and undoubtedly the greatest pranksters after the Lambo twins" he replied in a hushed voice. "We were barely off the ground when those two commed us saying that they were en-route to the base, we were just clearing the gorge when they appeared over the southern ridge, hit the gas and sped up to catch us" Prowl informed Prime, "...And by 'catch us' I mean they jumped off the west side of the gorge and slammed straight into the front of Omega Supreme's bow; we barely had time to secure them with the graviton-tractor beams and guide them into the hold before they fell" he deadpanned

"Oh Joy, and there's me thinking this was going to be a good day to die" Jetfire sarcastically sighed

"It still is!" a gruff gravelly British accent bellowed out, Jetfire instantly perked up with excitement when he recognized who it was, "...Kup?" he cautiously called over; an older, much more ancient bot stepped off the ramp, leaning on a walking stick of his own the crotchety-looking old slagger gazed over at his friend and beamed the biggest smile he could muster; from the looks of his frame he must have a heavily-armoured vehicle as his altmode, but he certainly looked like he'd been through his fair share of battles (and enjoyed them by the looks of it) and had twice as much rust as the old seeker. "And from the looks of it, I'd say Primus is gonna get his money's worth outta us today! Hahahaha!" he cackled hoarsely; "You old slagger! Where've you been all this time? Let me guess, hunting cons in the Brokrell-Ios system? " Jetfire patted (or rather slapped) him on the back, "Not even close, we just came from the Andromeda system, been in stasis for a few cycles to save on energon; I hav' ta say we were rather surprised when we picked up Primes message...Sorry to hear about the Allspark, that was quite a shock" he dropped his gaze in an unreadable look, "What's done is done, but at least it brought the war to an end" Jetfire offered, "True enough, and I'm certainly not complaining" Kup grinned, his smile grew even broader when he saw is favourite student approach. "Kup! Your here! I can't believe this!" Hot-Rod beamed happily, "Eye' lad, and I sure as pit ain't goin' anywhere in a hurry; av' you been keepin' yer trainin' up?" he raised an optic ridge, "Of course" he stated, "Liar, but at least you still remember enough to keep your tailpipe in one piece!" Jetfire interjected, "Hey!" the young scout protested. As the other bots rushed to greet their long lost friends, the humans looked on with mixed impressions, all the while the smaller twin bots continued to fight each other.

"At this rate I'm beginning to think someone should get some energon canapés out" Hailey glanced over at the Briggs cousins.

*PHWEEEEEE!* Morri pressed her fingers to her mouth and whistled loudly, instantly grabbing the bots attention. "Look, this is all pretty jolly and what not and we'll certainly have time for tea and cake later, but in case you hadn't noticed; the Dark Spark's kinda picked up the pace!" she pointed to the oncoming entity, sure enough the giant floating mass was moving slight faster pace and its hoard of monsters were now less than three miles away.

"Uh-, right!-" Jazz quickly straightened up and addressed the rest of the humans, "Quick intro! Everyone, this is Kup, Moonracer, Beachcomber, Mirage, Smokescreen, Tracks, Blurr, Jolt, and the twins Skids and Mudflap!" he gestured to each of the bots, Kup immediately spotted the drones and aimed his weapons at them "What are THEY doing here?" he growled, the drones froze on the spot "Aw don't tell me no one informed the old codger they defected!" Sideswipe frowned, to which the old bot swung his walking stick and smacked him upside the helm, "This old codger's been at war with the cons since long before you were even sparked! And those little fraggers over there have been enough of an annoyance for one lifetime thank you very much!" he stated matter-of-factly, "I know Kup, and any other time before this last month and I would've agreed with you, but trust me, their legit now" Jetfire placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, the older bot stared at him in disbelief but said nothing as he fell into rank with the other bots, "Fine, but you owe me an explanation for this Prime!" he called over his dented shoulder-plate as his left arm transformed into a large plasma cannon. As he looked up and saw the Dark Spark approaching, his surprised gasp turned into a deadpan look of disappointment, "Meh, I've seen uglier" he shrugged.

"Okay, the reinforcements are here, now can we get back to business?" Lennox asked impatiently

"Indeed...OMEGA SUPREME?" Optimus called up at the ship

"OMEGA SUPREME ACKNOWLEDGES" a deep booming voice echoed across the landscape from out of the ship, everyone flinched as the sound vibrations went right through their frames.

"Who-"

"TRANSFORM AND DEFEND THIS LINE!" The Autobot leader commanded, a moment of silence passed as everyone waited...

"Uh? Jazz? Where is Omega Supreme? Is he still on the ship?" Miles asked in uncertainty

"Kid, Omega Supreme ain't on the ship-"

KLANK! WHIRIRIR!CLACKCLACKCLACKCLACK!

"He IS the ship!" Jazz grinned

The humans gawked as every external armour plate on the ship suddenly slotted, slid, and twisted out of place and began sliding, slotting and rearranging into new places. The kids couldn't take their eyes off the most incredible thing they'd ever seen in their lives; little by little the giant space craft changed from a ship into an even larger, stout humanoid robot that towered over everything in sight.

"Ooooh holy hell that's a WHOLE lotta Autobot!" Glen trembled in both fear and awe.

"Holy Mary mother of God, that's THE biggest Autobot I ever seen!" Hailey gasped

"That's the biggest anything I ever seen! Holy crap that's some bot! Where the hell's Sam? He'd totally flip over this!" Miles grinned wildly up at the giant

"Wha-, H-How tall is he?" Matti gasped

"About one thousand five hundred feet; I have to say he's just as impressive as the last time I saw him" Bluestreak smiled

"Shit! That's even taller than our building used to be!" Togusa gasped

"Why the hell didn't you tell us just how big he was? Shit! With him this fight is just as good as won!" Darren exclaimed, "One of the other reasons I wanted you all to stay back at the Prime Minister's residence" Prime offered with a small knowing smile. "Oh yeah, NOW you tell us!" Hailey replied sarcastically; "Well I feel like an idiot" Morri facepalmed with an embarrassed wince, "You're not the only one" the Major grimaced, "Well, in any case, the speech was appreciated" the brunette offered with a smile. "Well we're here now, we might as well make the best of it" Jetfire shrugged "And you two; QUIT THAT AND FALL IN!" he snapped at the twins, who both promptly stopped their bickering and took their places alongside the other bots; glancing up at the Dark Spark, they suddenly wished they were somewhere else, "WHOA! Who da' pit's that ugly motherfu-OW!" Jetfire swung the hilt of his axe and hit him over the helm, instantly shutting him up.

"So? See you on the other side?" Danny gulped as he watched the monsters drawing nearer, "Hell no, I figured if I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do it like a boss-" Glen flashed his favourite Star Wars T-shirt and hoodie, "Time ta feel the dark side of the force!" he grinned as he pulled the hood over his eyes and activated his BSHB, forming a long beam of energy into a light-sabre in one hand while energy bolts crackled in his other hand; "Sweet!" Danny grinned as he activated his own BSHB, while the girls merely facepalmed "geeks..." Hailey rolled her eyes.

"Okay, here they come!" John cocked his weapon and aimed as the monsters came within a mile of the front line. "OMEGA SUPREME: TAKING OUT THE TRASH" the giant bot stated in a deep bellowing monotone as his arms transformed into a set of giant multi-barrelled cannons, aimed, and in an instant the white flashing of muzzle-fire lit up the front of the giant as he fired upon the monsters. The ground in front of them exploded up into the air as plume after plume of dirt and plasma-fire decimated the whole front line of attackers, turning them into black slimy mince meat. In the centre of its mass, the Dark Spark's circular tooth-lined 'mouth' opened up and let out a long piercing wail that assaulted everyone's hearing and made their blood/energon freeze in their veins/lines. "What's it doing?" Lennox called over as he held on to his ears. "GHA! It's getting ready to feed!" Ravage growled as he bowed his head in pain; "AAAGH! MY EARS! It's so fuckin' LOUD!" Ashley hollered in pain as he tried to cover his ears as tightly as possible, "Of course it's loud your hearing's now ten time more acute!" the panther sarcastically snapped. All at once the air around them shifted and started to be sucked upwards, right into the entity's mouth, "It's trying to sucking us up!" Miles shouted out, "Thanks genius!" Tom sarcastically called back; aiming upwards the bots opened fire on the creature and struck it dead on the front and sides of its mouth.

Recoiling away, the creature's long tentacles whipped up to try and cover its mouth while its long spines grew longer and more serrated; behind the bots the tank and exo suit units opened fire while overhead the jigabachi's and Oniyama's fired their missiles and rockets. All at once the whole entity disappeared in a wall of fire that engulfed its mass and caused several huge globules of black slime to fall away and hit the ground amongst the humans and bots; everyone scrambled to get away from the black slime as it turned the ground black and made the grass dissolve into more slime. "CAREFUL! Don't let it touch you!" Prime stated loudly, "NO SLAG!" Sideswipe gasped as a small splash of the ooze landed on the tip of his wrist-gun's barrel and instantly began to dissolve it, forcing him to pull the gun's safety-catch at his elbow and dislodged the weapon before the slime could start dissolving him too. "Holy crap! If we touch that stuff it'll turn us into goo too!" Glen panicked as he and the kids threw up their shields, "Right. AUTOBOTS! Do not engage in hand to hand combat! Use suppression-fire only!" Optimus ordered; no sooner had he said those words the smaller monsters had pushed their way past Omega Supreme's assault and the whole front line lit up as bullets, plasma-fire, lazar-fire, missiles and rockets started flying, the air rang out and the ground vibrated as everywhere all around the fight consumed the land.

To his left, Batou turned and saw some of the black slime land on John's back and within seconds his Kevlar vest began to turn black; sensing the substance at work, the Royal Marine unzipped his vest and quickly threw it off, along with his shirt and other items until he was wearing nothing from the waist up. Amid the chaos and sheer deafening roar, time seemed to slow to a crawl and space seemed to have become suspended, as a surreal sense of dreamlike familiarity overcame the ex-ranger when he gazed at what was on Johns back. The marine had some impressive tribal and Celtic tattoos running up the length of his arms, but covering the back of his shoulders and upper back was the image of a fierce black horse with blue eyes, rearing up and attacking a white wolf with red eyes, beneath them both was a scroll that read: Timeo non malum, Latin for: I fear no evil.

This seemed way too familiar, as if he'd seen that image somewhere before. The distant sound of a horse snorting and screaming, and a wolf growling echoed up from the deepest reaches of his memory; was it something he'd witnessed? Something he'd seen?...a movie? A painting maybe?...or a dream?...

'Shit...' he realized in awe, '...is he the-'

But time suddenly seemed to speed up again and everything came rushing back as John disappeared amongst the fray of gun-fire and fast-moving bots as they scrambled to maintain their positions; glancing around, he spotted Matti crouched under the rear loading ramp of the tiltroater. Implementing his cyborg speed, he made a bee-line for the aircraft and slid underneath right alongside her.

"WHOA! WATCH IT!" Matti protested as his skid threw up some dirt in her face, "Sorry. What're you doing under here? There's plenty of cover behind the tanks!" he pointed over the rear of the tank units; "Yeah but they ain't protected by the shields! Look!" she pointed to the giant globules of slime that were raining down behind the tanks, decaying everything in their wake; "...Shit! Why the fuck won't that thing die?" he growled through his clenched teeth.

"Because it's got lives to spare..." Matti frowned as she studied the entity

"Huh? Lives to spare? What're you talking about?"

"Remember what Swiftshot said? About how the Spark Eater absorbed all its victim's minds and memories while their ghosts were fed to the Dark Spark?"

Silence

"...You don't mean-"

"-Yeah; all the ghosts it ever consumed are inside it right now, hell the whole thing's one big glowing ball of aura energy. There're so many ghosts in that thing I can't even make them all out!" Matti frowned bitterly; through her 'gift' she could see the countless weakened auras that made up the entity's life-force, thousands upon thousands of dead-looking human faces stared out blankly at the scene around them as the entity's own dark energies kept them bound to its power. "But the worst part is..." her face softened into a look of dubious fear, "...I think, crazy as it sounds, even if we somehow kill that thing I don't think it's gonna be truly dead. With all those ghosts trapped inside I don't see how something like that can just be stopped outright?"

Batou paused a minute as he tried to consider the situation, before replying, "If there is a way to kill it, can you see it?"

"I-...I don't know; gimme credit bro I've never seen anything like this before!-" she snapped, before calming down and taking in a deep breath, "That thing-...it's got countless ghosts trapped within itself, and yet-, it doesn't seem to have an aura; at least-, not a living one. It's full of dark energy and yet it's not alive; it's just a, 'big black empty nothingness', but the fact I can 'see' that nothingness means it must be alive. But how?"

"I don't know, but if we don't find a way to kill that thing we'll be-"

"I know I know!-...Sorry, but this is-...GHA!" she slammed her fist into the dirt with utter frustration.

"I know kiddo, I know..." Batou patted her on the shoulder reassuringly , "Can you at least-" Batou suddenly stopped; wondering what had suddenly caught his attention Matti gazed over at the piece of blackened earth he was staring at, and gasped in wide-eyed amazement. Amid the black slime and other dissolved dirt and debris, tiny shoots of grass sprouted from out of the ground and began growing at a speed that was much too fast for regular grass to grow; as more and more grass sprouted, tiny flowers began to bloom as the greenery consumed the slime, turning it brown and dissolving it into the earth. Peering out from their hiding place, the two siblings watched as the whole battlefield began to turn green under everyone's feet, but no one seemed to notice as they continued to fend off the slime monsters.

"What the hell-..."

"That isn't natural! How's this-" Matti suddenly stopped as she saw something else, through her 'gift' she saw something huge moving upwards under the ground, something that had an aura, and was shining brighter than the sun. "...Uh? Batou? Remember before we left I had that little 'moment' where I saw something was gonna happen?"

"...Yeah?" he replied cautiously

"Well? I think it's gonna happen..."

The air thundered like rocket engines as everyone was crippled by the deafening roar of the Dark Spark as it retaliated against the onslaught; gazing up, they watched as the entity's dark mouth grew wider and wider and began sucking in the air again, this time harder and more stronger, causing everything and everyone to be pulled towards it. The humans grabbed anything within range and held on for dear life as the bots grabbed the one's who'd lost their grip, and tried to find something to hold onto themselves; digging their heels into the ground and relying on their weight to keep them anchored to the earth, but as the vacuum grew stronger they started to be plucked off the ground too. Prime fired his cannons at the creature's mouth, but this time it didn't even flinch and as he began to slip from Jetfire and Ultra Magnus's grip Omega Supreme shifted one foot to the side and blocked the direct range of the vacuum, providing some cover for the time being.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake and crack apart as an earthquake hit the battlefield; Looking over at the Dark Spark from behind one of Omega's giant pillar-like toe's, Optimus noticed the volcano in the distance began to erupt and crack apart, violently spouting lilac/purple lava like a geyser and billowing out ash like a fire-hose. As the earthquake grew more violent, it suddenly cut out with a violent resounding BOOOOM! At the exact same moment the volcano went up like a nuke; sending out a shockwave that rocked everything for miles around, and in the centre of the blast a giant elongated shape emerged from out of the former volcano and soared up into the clouds. Everyone watched in silence as the object steadily moved towards them, from the way it flew and how it stayed suspended in the air it seemed to be flying under its own power, and sure enough as it approached the city the sound of a powerful set of ion-engines could be heard thrumming. As it dropped out of the clouds, the object turned out to be another, much larger cybertronian ship; almost Decepticon in profile, the giant spiky charcoal-grey behemoth activated its reverse thrusters and came in for a crash landing. Sending out a shockwave as it hit the ground, the dagger-like bow cut through the earth like a plough, screeching and grinding as it sent up dirt, dust, rocks, ash and anything else standing in its way; including the scores of slime monsters that were still standing, tossing them aside like ragdolls, or the ones that stood directly in the way were crushed under the undercarriage while the Dark Spark got violently knocked to one side and landed face-down in the ground. As the air all around began to fill with dust and ash, the ship's momentum was finally spent the reverse thrusters deactivated, the ship ground to a halt about fifty feet short of Omega's chest plates and a deep THMP! Echoed out as the giant swallowed hard, "OMEGA SUPREME: RELIEVED" he stated as everyone stared up at the ship in utter confusion, coughing and venting air hard as the ash got in their lungs/vents.

"What-*cough!*-The. Fuck-"

As the remaining monsters picked themselves up and proceeded to attack; a large door on the side of the ship blew off and a silver/grey cybertronian jet blasted out; circled up and around before diving to the ground, transformed into a large well armoured cybertronian and landed with a resounding THUD!...Unsheathing a set of curved swords from their forearms, their bright red optics glimmered as they eyed the monsters, and with the speed of a cheeta, charged at the attackers and cut them down where they stood. Moving with timed precision and effortless grace, the stranger made short work of the monsters as the Autobots and humans watched on in a mix of fascination and fear. Although the dust and ash obscured much of the stranger, the bots began to realise there was something very familiar about this cybertronian; the way they moved, the way they fought, and the fierce aggressiveness of their attitude began to make alarm bells ring.

"Who is that?" Bumblebee thought aloud; "I don't know, but they sure know their swordsmanship!" Jetfire frowned as he kept his axe handy. As the last of the monsters attacked, the stranger took them down in less than four moves, and finished off the others with a couple of powerful blasts from their wrist-mounted cannons..."Those cannons! Their-" Ironhide gasped as he recognized whose cannon's they were; as the stranger looked over their handiwork and straightened up, the full outline of their frame could be seen through the slow-clearing ash, as well as their glowing crimson red optics. Suddenly recognizing who it was, every bot charged their weapons and aimed at the stranger's spark chamber.

"I thought you said he was dead!" Cliffjumper angrily exclaimed

"He is! - I mean, he was! Slaggit I saw the Allspark get shoved into his spark chamber! How's this possible?" Ratchet retorted

"Doesn't matter, he's going down! And this time there's plenty to go around!" Jetfire growled with a mad grin as he tightened his grip on his axe.

"NO!" Prime snapped

"WHA!- But Optimus that's-"

"That is NOT Megatron!" he stated, everyone stared at the Prime in utter disbelief.

"Then...who-"

"-Optimus?..." the stranger called out through the gloom...

As they slowly approached, the other Autobot's daren't drop their aim; all were on edge and nervous, except for Elita, she stood by her spark-mate calm and collected as he stepped forward. As the dust and ash parted, the stranger could be seen much more clearly, and the Autobots gawked in shock...

It was a femme, and she was a dead-ringer for Megatron...

Just as tall, broad-shouldered and intimidating, she held that same powerful, sinister, unyielding presence as the Decepticon leader once did, the kind that warned of a terrible and formidable wrath. Every last detail of her armour was nearly the same as his, one look confirmed it was created from the same alloy's and she probably had most of the same features as he had (weapons and all most likely), except her feminine curves and smoother lines made the edges sleeker and less ridged, giving a robust yet elegant profile (complete with breast plates!). Her optics shone like the dyeing light of day, a vivid crimson red that pierced the darkness and fell upon the Prime as he stood before her...

"...Majestrix? ..." Prime asked nervously, hoping and wishing that what he saw before him wasn't an illusion...

"...Long time no see, little brother" the femme smiled warmly, and wrapped her arms around him in a hug; a little taken aback at first, Prime hugged her back and for the briefest of moments the two didn't want to let go as they embraced each other dearly. Taken aback, the bots were about to fire when suddenly-

"DON'T SHOOT!-" A familiar voice called down from above, snapping their heads up, everyone saw Sam, Mikaela and Skywarp standing at the edge of the blown-off doorway. "-THAT AIN'T MEGATRON! WHATEVER YOU DO DON'T SHOOT!" he shouted again at the top of his voice.

"SAM?" Bumblebee called up, "WHAT'RE YOU DOING ON THAT SHIP!"

"HITCHING A RIDE! WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE!" the teen called back, "WE FOUND THE SHIP! THE ONE IN S.H'S JOURNAL!" Mikaela added, "AND IT TURNS OUT IT STILL FLY'S!" Skywarp interjected.

"What the frag's going on? And would someone care to tell me WHY Megatron is now a femme?" Kup frowned, Prime's optics shot wide open and the femme's optic ridges scowled into a deep murderous frown; before she could say anything Prime pulled away from their hug and turned to face his troops. Noticing the looks of confusion and weirded-out shock on their face-plates, he realized this was going to be anything but easy. But Elita's confident smile; and a warm feeling of reassurance swelling over her end of their bond gave him the strength he needed...

"Forgive me. Everyone, this is my sister, Majestrix Prime-"

"SAY WHAT!-"

"SISTER!-"

"YOU HAVE A SISTER!"

WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?"

"SHE'S YOUR SISTER!"

"HOLY PRIMUS!"

"WHEN DID SHE-, WHEN DID YOU-, Damn!"

"I realize this is quite a shock-" Prime started, "Quite a shock? Jeez Optimus that's an understatement if ever there was one!" Jazz jumped in; "How-, I mean, you-, when did you get a sister?" Beachcomber blurted out. "Actually it's the other way around-" Majestrix stated, "-We got him, five cycles after; Prime is my younger brother" she clarified

"We?" Ultra Magnus echoed

"Of course; Mother, Father, myself, oh and my twin brother..."

"Your TWIN brother?" Sunstreaker raised an optic ridge

"Megatron" she carelessly replied with a blank frown; at that the Lambo twins both fainted, Skids and Mudflap both went into a spaz and half the team was in an uproar while the rest glanced at each other in utter shock and disbelief, as if this day had been hard enough, now this?...For most, this was getting too ridiculous; "Dude, this is gonna require a shit loada therapy" Mile thought aloud as he scratched the back of his neck.

"ENOUGH!-" Majestrix snapped loudly, even her voice sounded like a feminine version of the late Decepticon leader; it was both terrifying and unreal. "While I can appreciate this has been quiet a 'revelation' to absorb, the present circumstances are more of a priority right now-" she stated firmly.

-But before she could get another word out, the ground shook and the air began to ring with another ear-splitting scream as the Dark Spark loomed over the ship, and this time it began growing bigger and bigger, slowing dwarfing both Omega Supreme and the Black Solstus until it floated up amongst the fiery clouds and was soon half the size of New Port! Everyone was left silent, the latter concern half forgotten as they watched in silent defeat; wondering now what to do, if at all anything could be done to stop it...

"How the hell do we stop that thing now?" Morri thought aloud

"I don't think it can be stopped..." one of the NEST trooped replied offhand

"Nonsense..." Majestrix stated, "There is a way, and that's why I'm here"

"How?" Prime asked in slight astonishment.

"You still have the Matrix of Leadership?" she asked, placing a hand over his spark as he felt the Matrix pulse within him, Optimus looked at her in confusion, "Of course, but why?" he asked

"Because only it can call our salvation. Take the Matrix, and summon Vector Sigma brother" she stated

Dead silence

"...Vector Sigma?" Prime echoed in disbelief, "It is here? On this world?"

"Yes, and only it can save us all now; please Optimus, you need to trust me..." she pleaded, "...the same way I trusted you that day-..." she added hastily, but hesitated when she realized what she was about to let slip; knowing what she was implying to, Prime nodded in acknowledgment and placed a hand on her shoulder, "If we survive this, will you stay this time?" he asked.

"...That's why I've been waiting all this time; one way or another, I was always going to come back to you little brother..." she smiled, "And for what it's worth...I'm sorry for what happened between us all those years ago" she sighed

"It's okay, I already forgave you..." his protective face shields slid away, revealing his warm smile, which then turned into a look of doubt, "What will happen?"

"I'm not entirely sure, all I know is that this one way or another, this ends now, and only you can do it Optimus"

"What about them? Will they be okay?" he gestured to the Autobots and humans

"Of course" she smiled, "Just because I've been buried under three miles of rock and dirt for the last twenty five thousand years doesn't mean I've been lazing around in a stasis chamber for all that time; I've been busy, we all have..." she shot him a knowing wink.

"Who?"

"You'll see. I'll see you on the other side brother..." she patted him on the shoulder and took a step back. Taking a deep breath as he opened up his chest plates, a blaze of radiant pale blue-ish white light shone out from Optimus's spark chamber, and a glowing curved object floated out and hovered in the air before him, pushing back the darkness and sending out waves of raw energy that rippled through the air. About the same size as a large dagger, the Matrix of leadership was tiny compared to the Autobot leader, but as he gently held it one hand, he closed his optics and let his thoughts go out to the Matrix; telling it what he wanted, and what needed to be done, and as his felt its power surge through his spark, an ancient and familiar presence whispered back...

"It shall be done..."

Another series of tremors shook the ground, and hundred or so metres away the earth cracked apart as brilliant white beams of light shone out upward into the sky; a covering of grass, flowers and vines burst forth and carpeted the dead earth as something enormous emerged from the light...

...A strange and powerful presence could be felt by all, as if they were standing in the heart of a star, or in the eye of a hurricane, or in the path of a lightning bolt; all around raw energy could be felt as it flowed around and through every living thing. But it didn't just feel like energy, it felt alive, like the beating of a heart or the inhale of a breath; something vast and omnipresent was here, and they could tell it was watching them. As they squinted through their tightly shut eyes/optics, everyone gazed up and saw a giant orb hovering some thirty feet off the ground, over a hundred feet tall and just as wide, the surface was covered in a triangular crystalline pattern that sparkled and shimmered with every colour imaginable, and as the orb slowly turned, countless streams of cybertronian glyphs could be seen floating within. Below the orb another cybertronian emerged from the earth, but they couldn't clearly be seen as they too were bathed in white light; but as she watched them straighten up, Morri instantly recognized the shape of their helm...

'It's him!' she realized in surprise. High overhead the Dark Spark seemed to stop, and turned around to see back the way it came; as the orb began to ascend into the sky an angry bellow erupted from the entity's black hole-like mouth as it charged head-on towards the orb. For miles around in all directions, everyone who was witness to the scene watched in silence as the Dark Spark grew larger and vaster, it's mouth now stretched for miles across the sky and reached forward to suck in the orb; plummeting everywhere into pitch blackness...

Silence...

Suddenly, a tiny pinpoint of light flashed through the gloom, followed by an explosion of white light that grew bigger and bigger, encompassing the entire sky. Realizing it was blast-front; time once again seemed to slow to a crawl as everyone did the only thing they could. Friends stood by and held onto each other, families huddled together and became immersed in each other's tenderness; and lovers embraced each other with a parting kiss. All souls everywhere whispered their final goodbyes, and stood together in their last moment...

No one was alone as the blast front hit the earth and engulfed everything in a blinding white light...

* * *

White

Nothing but endless white as far as she could see...

"Where the hell-..." Matti muttered to herself as she looked around; what was this place? "Is this-...heaven?" she thought offhand. Aside from the pristine white floor she was standing on, this place didn't appear to have any walls or ceiling, and her voice didn't echo so it wasn't enclosed; it was nothing, just a vast empty void...

...Until a tiny sound caught her attention...

It was hardly recognizable at first, like a tiny wisp of air rushing through the space around her, but slowly it grew to a small gust, and then something else...countless whispers began to carry on the air, growing louder and more recognizable as Matti realized they were all muttering the same word over and over again...

"...Thank you..."

Looking up, she stared in amazement as countless auras ascended up in to the whiteness, all happy, all at peace; a tug on her trouser leg diverted her attention downwards, and she blinked in surprise at the little four year old blond girl standing before her, boasting a broad smile and dressed all in white.

"Hi there!" she beamed in a sweetly voice

"Uh? Hi?..." Matti replied, a little unsure what to make of her, "Who are you?"

"My name's Chiyo! What's yours?"

"Uh-, I'm Matti"

"Oh yeah! You're the lady who can see us!"

"Huh? See us?" Matti echoed in bemusement

"Yeah! You know? Ghosts?" the little girl replied happily, Matti suddenly felt a cold knot twist up tightly in her stomach

"Oh God...I am dead" she muttered in a mild panic

"No you're not silly! You're just sleeping!"

"Then-, where am I?"

"At the crossroads. It's a special kinda place, not many people know about it cuz there's no map or anything to find it, but it's where living people can meet dead people and no one has to be afraid, cuz their both the same here"

"Uh-huh? So, what are you doing here? ...Come to think of it what am I doing here?" Matti scratched the back of her neck as she calmed down a little

"I'm here cuz I can't go yet..." Chiyo said blankly, her smile dropped as she took on a more serious tone

"Can't go where?"

"To heaven..." she said as the older girl kneeled down to meet her gaze, "You can't go to heaven until you've finished what you've started when you were still alive, and I can't go cuz I didn't have a chance to do what I needed to do"

"Which is?"

"To say goodbye to my best friends Mizuki and Annabelle, cuz I ain't gonna be comin' back...ever..." she said in a more glum tone

"...What happened to you?" Matti asked curiously

"I don't really know; the day of my birthday everything was great, the party was awesome and everyone I invited came and we all played and danced and ate cake...but then later that night, these scary men with glowing red eyes came into my room, stuck something in my neck and then-...When I woke up I was in a really dark place, a lot of other kids and grown-ups were there too, and we woulda been totally alone if he hadn't been there"

"Who?"

"The big white robot, he never told us his name, but he was always there watching over us, making sure we weren't alone. You know he's been watching over all'a you you know? He met Mr Saito that night the army chased the Autobots, he called out to you and gave you those scary dreams, and he was there in the dark place to show Morri and Ravage the way home"

"Wha-, how do you know all that?"

"Cuz I been watching you from here silly! When the scary monster finally went away, the big white robot opened up the sky and showed us the way to heaven, but I didn't want to go just yet so he showed me the way here so I could wait for you. You know? He must be really-really-really smart if he knew you were coming here!" she smiled

"I guess. Listen, those auras up there, are they ghosts too?" Matti pointed to the aura-lights overhead

"Oh yeah, they're all thanking you and the others for freeing them, now they can go to heaven, and the well of allsparks"

"The well of allsparks?"

"Yep, some of the other people that were in the dark place were robots; they called heaven 'the well of allsparks', but actually their the same place, they just have different names is all"

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, there's a lotta things living people don't find out about until their not alive anymore; it's weird, and it doesn't make any sense, but the white robot says that's how it's meant to be"

"Why?"

"I dunno, he said he'd tell you when you finally meet each other..." Chiyo said offhand; a distant whistle caught the girl's attention, overhead one of the auras had stopped and was gazing down on them, "I gotta go. Listen, I want you to tell Mizuki and Annabelle not to be sad, I'm gonna be okay and we'll see each other again one day; but until then, I want 'em to have fun and remember that I'll always be watching them, even when their feeling lonely or sad, I'll be there with them. Think you can remember that?"

"I think so" Matti smiled, "...Oh! One other thing, how do I get outta here?"

"Oh that's easy! You got your own way back!"

"I have?"

"Yeah, look..." Chiyo pointed behind her; turning around, Matti saw a long line of silver metal roses trailing along the ground, their leaves all pointing in the same direction, 'The roses-...thank you Ravage' Matti thought offhand with a small smile, making a mental note to thank the panther later, if and when she could get back.

"They're really pretty! Can I have one please?", "Sure..." Matti smiled as she reached out and plucked one of the chrome roses and handed it to the four year old, "Thanks! I'll plant this somewhere really special! Well, I gotta go, see ya later Matti!" she beamed as she turned to leave.

"Wait! What about your parents? Do you want me to tell them anything?"

"Oh it's okay! Their already waiting for me! Bye!" she waved goodbye as she skipped away with her rose clutched in one hand, disappearing into the whiteness.

"Hm...How many other kids are waiting to say their goodbyes?" she thought aloud as she gazed off into the whiteness; watching and waiting, wondering if anyone else would come, but after a while she turned and gazed down at the long trail of roses, "Well, if I ain't dead, I might as well try and find my way back..." she shrugged. Overhead the auras continued to whisper they're thank-you's as Matti followed the trail of roses, and slowly the whiteness began to fade into darkness, until it was so black she couldn't see anything at all. But this time she wasn't scared, it wasn't the same kind of blackness as before; this time it felt more peaceful, like the kind of darkness that came before the dawn. After twenty or so minutes of walking the sky had now become a rich deep blue and high overhead were countless multicoloured stars twinkling in the sky...

But as she walked along, Matti suddenly noticed that the stars were moving slowly downwards, as if they were falling like snowflakes from the sky; on her shoulders she saw, what at first she thought was glitter, but when she brushed the stuff off she realized it was falling from the above. Gazing up, she realized it was the stars, they really were falling like snowflakes, and as she continued to walk she saw the ground everywhere was covered in a light dusting of glittering multicoloured lights, all of which were no bigger than the size of a tiny pin-head. The strange snow continued to fall as the fresh smell of earth and flowers filled her nose, nearby the sound of birds singing grew louder, and straight ahead the sun rose over the horizon, illuminating everything in a radiant gold light. The roses were gone, and Matti gasped in amazement at the sight around her...

It was the battlefield, but instead of dead black slime-covered earth, everywhere was green with grass and flowers, and everywhere as far as she could see the glowing glittering substance continued to fall from the sky and came to rest upon everything, enhancing all the ambient colours in a wonderful pallet of bright beautiful hues. Scattered everywhere, lying unconscious were the Autobots and humans (the sounds of their breathing/ventilation was the only thing that stopped her from assuming the worst), some way off the Black Solstus sat where it had landed, all the up-turned earth around it was covered in greenery, even several species of creeping vines had snaked their way up the sides of the ship; the tanks, exo-suits, downed helicopters and even the Tachikoma's all sat motionless and were no different as they were all half-covered in plants too. Over in the distance New Port was still standing; its skyscrapers and towering buildings glistened in the rising sun and were no worse for wear as the last of the fires had died down the smoke trails subsequently thinned out. But what struck Matti the most was how peaceful the whole scene was, through her 'gift' she saw the ambient auras of the earth and all its living things were radiating a peaceful, balanced kind of energy; no pain or suffering could be felt, no poisonous or corrupted energies were anywhere to be seen. It was as it had been long before, as if the events of the past month had never happened at all...

"This, can't be right? What the hell-" Matti muttered to herself, but was stirred from her surprise when Batou started to shift and groan; "BATOU!" she run to his side and helped him sit up, "Uuh my head's killing me" he groaned as he rubbed his forehead, but his headache was quickly forgotten as his cybernetic eyes came back on and he gazed around at the scene, "...Uh? ...There was a battle here right?" he asked in confusion

"Yeah, but not anymore, apparently" Matti offered, not sure what to think herself.

"Hm? How long have you been up?"

"Actually, I was-"

"Uuugh-what the hell?-" Sam groaned as he sat up and rubbed the back of his neck; as if an 'on' switch had been thrown, the rest of the Autobots and humans began to stir and steadily picked themselves and each other up off the ground. Standing around half dazed and confused, the new scene didn't compute as they remembered the moment before they blacked out...

"Okay, if this is heaven where's all the hot angel chicks?" Miles asked dozily

"Chicks? If this is the well of allsparks where the slag is the eternal fountain of endless energon?" Sideswipe rubbed his helm

"And what's with the funky snow? ..." Beachcomber held his hand out as some of the glittering substance settled upon his palm, "Kinda cool if ya ask me" he smiled

"I wonder?..." Miles frowned in curiosity; gathering some of the stuff in one hand, he held a pinch of it up to his nose, inhaled hard, and waited a moment before replying, "Nope, it ain't crack dudes" he shook his head, to which Mikaela promptly smacked him hard upside the head. "Weird glittering stuff is falling from the sky and your first reaction is check whether you can get high on it?" She exclaimed harshly, "HEY! It doesn't hurt to check! It could be dangerous you know!" he retorted as he rubbed the back of his head, "Even so that doesn't mean you should risk your own life so recklessly!" she frowned, noticing the stern mother hen look in her eyes, Miles promptly dropped the subject.

"Well in any case our sparks are still pulsing and hearts are still beating, so we're not offline; but what happened here? And what the slag happened to the Dark Spark?" Jetfire thought aloud as he looked up at the sky.

"I think I might be able to answer that..." a voice called out from some distance away.

Slowly walking over a steady slope, two impressive (and odd) looking cybertronians approached the group. One was a mech, covered head to toe in pure white armour and boasted an elegant, almost ethereal-looking frame design; in one hand he clutched a tall staff that had a wide twisting S-shaped crook, at the top of which a large multicoloured crystal orb sat, glistening every colour imaginable. He had long trailing 'beard spokes' and a tall pointed helm that seemed to resemble a mitre with horns on the sides. His huge broad wings denoted his flyer altmode, though the way they protruded down from the back of his shoulders they looked more like a giant cape and in the centre of his chest plates, a radiant pale blue-ish white light shone like the sun, as if it were the Allspark itself. But the femme at his side was undoubtedly the strangest looking Transformer anyone had ever seen; her frame was comprised of, what looked to be several if not dozens of species of plants! Not only growing out of her, but actually making up her body and overall design. Her entire back had a huge cape of trees, creepers, vines and long willow-like plants trailing down behind her, her shoulders were covered in all kinds of mushrooms and toadstools, some of which emitted a strange vivid blue bioluminescence while some others had glistening pink spores falling away in a delicate gossamer-like mist; she had four arms which were comprised of a strange skin-like armour and covered in thick green root-like vines. She had a smooth bright yellow organic-looking face with no obvious face plates (if any at all?) and a pattern of bright blue freckle-like spots running down the sides of her temples, cheeks and jaw; her forehead had a pair of tubular horns protruding outward with six long elegant fern-line antenna curving out and around her temples, while the rest of her head looked like a giant pale pink flower bud. Instead of legs she walked (or slithered rather) on a series of long thick green tentacle-like roots, all of which moved in synchronization so she could move smoothly across the ground and from the waist down he had an elegant gossamer-like 'dress' that looked like it was made from spider's silk and dew drops, and bound together with tiny delicate lime-green tendrils, forming swirling ornamental patterns that trailed behind her and seemed to meld into the earth; the only part of her that seemed to be robotic, or metallic at the very least was her upper torso which seemed to be comprised of just a set of side plates, chest-side plates and breast plates, all of which were decorated with glowing curving lines and through the gaps in the plating a whole network of roots and vines could be seen with a vivid yellow-green glow coming from deep within where her spark chamber was. As the oddball couple stopped just short of the group, some of the bots seemed to recognize the strange white mech and gasped in both awe and shock, completely at a loss at what to think; not least Optimus as he stared at the mech in disbelief.

"Alpha Trion? ..." he gasped

"It is so good to see you again my friend; after all this time, meeting you again brings such warmth to my spark" he smiled warmly.

"You took your sweet time getting up here old mech" Majestrix raised an optic ridge, "Cutting it a little close don't you think?"

"I had the situation well in hand; and I have to say, the rest of you performed you duties most admirably" he smirked with a knowing look

"Wait..." Matti frowned, he looked down to meet her gaze; his radiant blue optics instantly caught her notice and a strange sense of déjà-vu came over her "Your voice-...I know you! ...". "Indeed, and I you. It's good to finally see you at last young one, after everything that has happened I'm glad you have made it to see this new day" he smiled, "Considering everything that's happened, that's an understatement" she grimaced slightly, to which he offered her a sympathetic look.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were-..." Prime hesitated

"I know; the reports of my 'death' were misleading, but at the time a necessary ploy if the last of the neutrals were to make it out of Iacon alive, and to avoid Megatron from picking up our trail. I would've informed you of what had happened sooner, but that incident involving the Insecticons at the siege of Kaon forced us to remain hidden, and with Soundwave monitoring all of Cybertron's frequencies we could not afford to move until the time was right. But unfortunately that time had come too late, and when we could finally escape the Allspark had been sent off-world and the majority of your forces had been scattered to the galaxy to find it" he explained in more regretful tone.

"By the time Cybertron finally went dark we'd left orbit to shut down the energon mines in the Regulon system, from there we bounced around from one Decepticon base to the next making sure Megatron's resources were kept thin, so if he ever returned he'd have very little to work with" Majestrix added, "Of course, back then he'd found the Allspark on 'our' earth and had gotten himself frozen in a block of ice while trying to retrieve it. Typical" she snorted, "You knew about that?" Sam asked, "Of course, though our bond as twins has been severed for over a millennia I could still feel my brother's presence when he came to his world, and his subsequent demise" he glanced down at him with an unreadable look, to which the teen shied away behind his guardian's leg.

"The boundaries between the universes are inconsequential, the energies that bind the life-forces of all living things, including our sparks, cannot be phased out even by the vast distances between them" the plant-femme spoke in a smooth rich voice with slight accent.

"Yeah...Uh? You are aware you've got more than a few growths coming outta your armour right?" Hot Rod pointed to the large tree's protruding from the back of her shoulders, to which she couldn't help but chuckle.

"They are not 'growth's', they are a part of my formatting, and my altmode" she smiled

"You're a techno-organic? Made up of plants? Whoa, that's pretty unique" Bluestreak blinked in surprise

"Indeed, my name is Botanica, and like Alpha Trion and Majestrix Prima, I too have been looking forward to seeing all of you" she bowed respectfully to the whole group.

"You say that as if you knew we would survive; considering what happened don't you think that was kinda premature?" Morri asked

"Perhaps, but regardless I had complete faith in all of you; even when I made my move at the very last second" he stated

"So that was you I saw just before I blacked out..." she realized, "...But what was that giant glowing white sphere? And what exactly did it-...do?" she thought aloud in bewilderment

"That was Vector Sigma" Optimus stated, "...And for what purpose did I summon it for?" he asked

"I'm afraid...That is something that will need time to be explained" Alpha Trion sighed sombrely, before directing everyone's gaze to one side. "But first; I think it might be a good idea to help Omega Supreme back on his feet..."

Glancing over to the area where Omega Supreme had been standing, everyone gawked at the sight of two giant pair of feet and supportive toe-peds; for over a thousand feet or so the giant ship-bot was lying flat on his back, motionless against the ground; all around the giant indentations from when he impacted with the ground had created a dip that dropped some several meters down. It was both impressive, and daunting.

"Oh shit..."

* * *

Wow, talk about coming out of the closet O.O If your interested, you can check out Majestrix Prima & Botanica on my Devientart page, & I'll be uploading Alpha Trion in the near future :) Don't forget to R&R on the way out please! ;)


	80. Chapter 79: Aftermath & Answers

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

Additional Disclaimer: Matti belongs to JillTheCrazy1

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 79: AFTERMATH & ANSWERS 

"Hmmm?" Ashley flexed his claws, watching how the tiny platelets of armour on his fingers slipped over each other with every movement; turning around and glancing over his shoulder, he watched his reflection in the glass as his tail flicked back and forth, the bladed tip twisting slightly with every move, "Gotta make a note to be careful of that..." he muttered to himself, "-Oh, Hi" he blinked as his dad walked into the room, "I thought you and the guys wouldn't be finished until later?"

"So did we, but Warpath and Ironhide were bored so they chipped in to help shift the rest of the stuff; the others are nearly done so I slipped away to come and find you" he smiled, "Still admiring your new look?"

"He hasn't stopped since he came here!" Ratchet called out from the other room. Ashley paused a moment and turned back to face his reflection in the glass wall, he frowned slightly as he looked at the face staring back. "You know, it's weird; it's not the fact I look different that gets me, it's that I still feel the same as I was before" he mused aloud, "I mean yeah having the tail's cool, but weird too, but then, I figure since we don't have tails anyway that's not surprising" he smirked, "...But the question is, are you okay with it?" his expression turned more serious; his father pasted a thoughtful sigh before wandering over to the glass wall and watching his son's reflection.

"Look, I've had a week to get used to the idea that things are gonna be different, but unless anything else happens otherwise, that doesn't mean it's necessarily a bad thing; and regardless of what anyone thinks or what goes on, you still are, and always will be my son..." he smiled, "That. Will never be in doubt, okay?"

"Thanks..." Ashley wrapped one arm around his shoulder, before a grave look of concern fell about his face, "...But what about mum? What am I gonna tell her? We're not gonna have to fake my death are we?"

"No, I was talking to Prime about that issue last night..." John sighed in a regretful tone, "I know I should've mentions this before, but with all the craziness going on I thought it best to leave it until we were done and things quieten down. Considering you guys have been gone for over a month without any word of your whereabouts or what's happened, coming up with a plausible cover-story was difficult to say the least; so, after much arguing and debating the top brass back home gave the green light for NEST approach your mates parents and explain our 'arrangement' between us and the Autobots"

"Seriously?"

"Believe me I wasn't keen on the idea any more than Ron and Julie were"

"Sam's parents? But they already know about Bumblebee, Sam told me they signed the NSC agreements and everything"

"I know, but the top brass thought it best to bring them in to try and help explain things a bit better; being parents themselves we figured they could act as personal liaisons for the other families. Considering how the whole thing went down I'm amazed no one needed sedatives, and for once Julie was actually the calm one"

"That bad huh?" Ashley winced

"Well? I have to hand it to Mrs Waineright; if there were a contest for the best freak-out she'd steal the competition"

"Oh boy...Do Hailey and the twins know?"

"I told them the day before last, Epps volunteered to help mediate things when they introduce Bluestreak, and Will offered to help mediate with Mikaela's dad and Darren's parents, not that there's going to be much 'shock-and-horror' with them, Darren's dad actually thought it was pretty awesome"

"Yeah, Darren told me he loves flashy cars, I guess that kinda helps, in a way..." Ashley offered a small smile, before another look of concern came over him, "...What about mum? I mean, she already knows about Deathshot, so what are going to explain to her about my 'situation'?" he asked anxiously.

"...We'll tell her together; she and your Uncle Davy and Aunt Ella were flying out to California the day we left to come here, as far as I'm aware they should still be at the base waiting for us to get back" John reassured him.

"Okay...But, what am I gonna say?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it; but for now, I'm just thankful you're alive" the elder Briggs smiled as he patted him on the shoulder.

"Oh! I nearly forgot!-" Ashley perked up "Are Batou and the other's still on the ship?"

"I ran into them on the way over here, I think they might be passing the door-"

"Already at the door!" Batou grinned as he poked his head into the room, "You still having your check-up?" the ex-ranger asked, but before Ashley could reply, Ratchet beat him to it as he came out of the other room carrying a data-pad and a creepy looking syringe-gun. "Nope, he's good for now, so unless anyone's dying, SHOO!-" he shooed them out of the med-bay; no-one argued as they took off into the corridor where the other section 9 agents, Matti, Sam, Miles Jazz and Bumblebee stood waiting.

"Finally! He's had you in there like forever!" Miles called down from Jazz's shoulder

"Hey it ain't my fault ol' Hatchet's a stickler for detail! ..." Ashley retorted before he lightened up, "So? How you guys enjoying the tour?"

"What can I say? It isn't everyday you get to go onboard an alien space ship" the Major smiled

"Especially one that turns into a giant robot, I still can't get over that!" Matti grinned as she gazed up at the tall corridor...

Glancing around at the human's excited faces, it was hard to believe a week had passed since that day; the day when the net stood still, and for a brief but terrifying period of time, the world was plunged into darkness by the Dark Spark...

In the aftermath of the finally battle, it had emerged that the giant nanite clouds had spread faster than anyone had anticipated, within the span of only ten minutes the entire Far East had been shrouded in blackness, and within twenty minutes Eurasia, North Africa, The entire Pacific Ocean and the whole western side of America from California to Nebraska was filled with ink-black skies. Air traffic was brought to a standstill, people who were offline were in a panic; and despite being freed from the Spark Eater's grip, the net was still in chaos after being frozen and unfrozen so suddenly. Over the following week the city of New Port and its people steadily got back up on their feet, and despite the demand for an explanation as to what happened that fateful day, most just wanted to go back to their homes and to try to get on with their lives. The order for the emergency evacuation was called off four days ago, and little by little the city's populous filed back into the great metropolis. Some if not most volunteered to help with the clean-up operations and to help get the city's transport systems flowing again, some with medical knowledge and basic first-aid helped out as best they could in the general hospitals and field-hospitals, and those who had a talent for computers and technology helped to get the city's communications back up and running; as well as many other important tasks that needed attending to. Elsewhere around the city and surrounding land, the true extent of the battle was beginning to come to light as the debris was shifted and the dead were collected and processed for burial; but out in the bay it had had been the American and Japanese Navies that suffered the heaviest losses in trying to stave off the flying hybrids aerial attacks. As the remaining Naval forces began the grim and tedious task of collecting the remaining dead and savaging the remains of the sunken ships, the combined death toll from both navies had been totted up to somewhere over two hundred thousand, and back on land, the count so far was at over seven thousand. Spurred into action by the tragic losses and devastation, other nations offered their assistance in the clean-up. China, Australia, New Zealand, India, Italy, Germany, Norway, France, Belgium, Great Britain, and even the American forces that survived opted to stay and help where they could, and as various charities and humanitarian aid organizations stepped up to care for those who were unlucky to be caught up in the battle, those who were directly involved went about the clean-up in their own discreet way.

After Omega Supreme was helped back up onto his feet (which was no easy feat to say the least!) and allowed to transform back to altmode, the Autobots set about helping the GSDA and other military forces get back in working order; being mechanical beings meant most the technical aspects were sorted fairly rapidly, and while the intelligence department spun its cover-stories to afford the Autobots some privacy, everything else was taken at its own pace. After everything that had happened, Prime had insisted that the least they could do was to help fix the collateral damage; no one raised any issues with the gesture of goodwill, and after a week of patch-up's, overhauls and medical attention the GSDA deployments were in a much better shape than before. After which, the Autobot's set about preparing to transport the Black Solstus back to their own world, but working on a giant alien space ship the size of a skyscraper meant the cover-stories didn't hold up for long, and soon enough everyone came to the military cordons to watch the giant beings at work. At first many mistook them for the hybrids and reacted quite aggressively, but as the Autobot's involvement with the military and their bid to save the city slowly came to light (from unknown and untraceable sources on the net who claimed to be first-hand witnesses to the scenes of the battles; when asked as to who these sources were and how they obtained the information Section 9 couldn't offer any explanations, and brushed them off as the workings of 'good Samaritans' wishing to shed light on the truth of the matter) the overall mood of the populous slowly changed from outright hatred, to dubious cautiousness , and finally to cautious optimism.

But the whole incident had left many unanswered questions, and twice as many as before; on the one hand there were those that believed the government had been (and still was) up to something very shady, much more so that during the Dejima incident, and the fact that so many human lives had been lost only underlined the fact that something had to give...No matter how much time anyone in the intelligence department spent crafting the most elaborate cover-up story imaginable, silencing witnesses or paying off the right people for their cooperation/silence; it was now past the point where the truth was the only option, anything otherwise or less, was just not going to fly...

And it wasn't just the humans that were left standing in the dark over what happened, the Autobots too had questions of their own, not least the most pressing of all was, just how did the most powerful and ancient Cybertronian artefact, Vector Sigma; one of the most revered and sacred objects of their world, had not only come to be on earth, but had obliterated the Dark Spark from right out of the sky? It had been so unreal, that the numbing sense of detachment from reality had hit most of the bots before they realized what had happened, and even when they had come to acknowledge the fact of the matter, it was still so unreal. There was a lot of explaining to do, and Alpha Trion promised that he would disclose the truth when everyone was ready; which was what had led up to today, and tomorrow would be the day the Autobots and their human friends return to their own universe; as part of the final goodbyes everyone had taken the day to chill out and relax with the bots, and one of the day's activities included a tour of Omega Supreme...

"Hey, that's old school Transformer's tech for ya; and even after all this time it's nice to know ol' Omega's still got some spunk in his spark-" Jazz grinned "AM I RIGHT?" he called out

"WORD!" Omega's monotone voice echoed down the corridor, making the walls and floor vibrate; on a nearby control terminal the monitor switched on by itself and the image of a bro-fist flashed across the screen before turning itself off.

"Where're you gonna park him when you get home?" Pazu asked

"Ah we got plenty of room in the gorge, plus the Black Solstus will fit in there no problem, but I think we're gonna have to sort out the parking arrangements" Bumblebee replied

"I'm sure you are, but how're you going to tow the Black Solstus back? That ship's a beast compared to Omega" Batou pointed out

"Ah we got that covered-" Jazz waved off, "Omega comes equipped with coupling lines, and with his rear graviton-tractor beams able to lift over twenty thousand tons, we should be able to clear earth's atmosphere okay; since the Black Solstus is running on emergency power it's only got enough energon to steer and to keep the life-support systems functional"

"What about the rift? Even if it's in outer space its well within range of a space shuttle being able to reach it" the Major pointed out

"That's another thing Prime already took into consideration..." the first lieutenant smiled, "Remember the device he used to close the first rift here on earth? Well Wheeljack made a larger one for when we finally return, the moment we approach the event horizon of the rift the device will be jettisoned into space, and after we've cleared the anomaly on our end it'll automatically detonate and close the rift forever; no rift, no risk of cross-universal travel"

"As incredible as the idea of cross-universal travel sounds, I guess it would be more trouble than it's worth huh?" Ashley thought aloud curiously

"That's probably one of the more smarter things you've ever said" his father teased, Ashley was about retort when the sound of the Chevy twins and the Lambo twins arguing began to drift down the corridor, steadily approaching their position. "Oh heck..." Bumblebee huffed, "Okay, moving on-, who wants to visit the bridge?" Jazz offered; no one objected as they quickly took off down the corridor following the Autobots.

"Hey dad? Where did D get to?" Ashley asked

"He's still with Saito; said they had some business to take care of, don't know what though?"

* * *

The wind was like a whisper as it blew through the trees and long grass, the various hues of pink, yellow, red and purple dotted the scene as the various species of wild flowers blossomed and overhead fluffy white clouds rolled across the endless blue sky while swifts darted and flitted about on the breeze, like little boomerangs circling around and around. But down below on the ground, the scene was hardly disturbed as a long gun barrel protruded from the bushes, under the cover of the thick foliage the sniper lined up his weapon and glanced down the barrel at his target; over a mile away on top of a sloping hill two boards, each with a jackrabbit shooting target, stood alone and somewhat out of place. As his Hawkeye activated and calculated all the variables that were likely to influence the shot, he drew in a deep steady breath, so silent only he could hear it, and when he was comfortable with the Hawkeye's shot-specs, he adjusted the aim as such and gently squeezed the trigger...

The shot rang out across the open field, and within less than three seconds the bullet struck the left-side target board dead centre; at almost the exact same moment the right-side board jerked backward slightly as a larger bullet hole appeared in the centre of the target. Placing the gun on the ground and standing up from his hiding spot, Saito smiled in satisfaction as he admired his handy-work; a large jet-shaped shadow moving swiftly across the ground denoted Deathshot's presence as he came into land next to the human.

"Five out of five, and not a single millimetre off target; I guess you really are the best Autobot sniper" Saito smirked up at the bot. "And your certainly the best human sniper I've ever seen, even without the Hawkeye doing all the work for you your targeting rate is less than point seven; not many humans can attain that level of accuracy, even with a soft breeze like this" Deathshot smiled down at the human.

"You know, I'm glad we could do this, ever since you told me you were a sniper the obvious question had been burning in the back of my mind" he said as he sat down cross-legged in the undergrowth and started disassembling his gun. "Me too..." the Autobot sniper replied as he carefully sat down next to him in front of the tree-line. "It's not every day you get to challenge a fellow sniper of such calibre, and not be at the opposite end of his barrel" he thought aloud; glancing up, Saito noticed the distinct thoughtful look on his face, and the look of concern in his one optic, "Okay, spill" he sighed

"Huh?"

"You've had that look on your face for most of the day, what gives?"

Knowing he couldn't fool the human, the mech sighed heavily through his vents as he stared up into the sky. "I'm concerned..." he thought aloud

"Of what?" Saito raised an eyebrow

"...The future. I'm glad that my ship survived; and thankful that my comrades will be okay once they get out of stasis-lock"

"So what's the problem?"

"...Not that I've ever needed anyone's approval or opinion as to who I am, but I can't help but wonder how my comrades will take to the fact that I'm a guardian now"

"So? They're your friends, your sniper buddies, they'll understand..." the human offered, but the look in the mech's optic told him otherwise as he offered a small smile. "Hm, sniper buddies yes, friends? ..." he thought aloud ruefully, "...I was a very different mech compared to who I am now, there are many things I see and understand now that I didn't back then; being alone with yourself for twenty five thousand years can really change you. I was a great sniper once, but a friend? I was hardly fit to be called an Autobot let alone anyone's friend. No. I've got a lot of making up to do, a lot of apologies to make, and much forgiveness to seek; and though it's unlikely any of them will truly understand what I've been through, what I've had to endure to redeem myself, I hope they can at least accept the fact that things are different, and I have a family to think about"

"Twenty five thousand years...That's a long time to be left out of the loop" Saito offered

"I know, and it worries me. Twenty five thousand years ago was one of the worst periods of the war, and had been for quite a number of years in the run up to the battle of Tyger Pax. Divisions like the 9, with our 'particular' talents were in much demand to take on the worst of Megatron's forces, and everyday there was always a new battle and hardly any breaks. To go from constant heavy combat to the end of the war practically overnight is going to be quite hard to come to terms with"

"Adjusting to civilian life post-war is never easy; but with friends like yours, they'll be okay" Saito offered, "...You know, there was a time I probably would've taken a more objective view of the subject, but now? ...I'm not sure if I want to be so negative in the long run" he thought aloud. "Why not?" Deathshot raised an optic ridge; "Because after everything we've been through, I think I've got a good reason to look for the silver lining in every cloud" he smiled, "Though with the foreseeable future shaping up to be complicated to say the least, I don't think a lot of other people can see their silver linings at this moment in time"

"Maybe, but they'll find a way to carry on; if there's one thing you humans are naturally proficient at, its going up against heavy odds and coming out looking forward regardless of the injuries you sustain along the way. You look back, but you don't look back for long"

"True, but looking back means looking for a way not to repeat your mistakes; and after everything we've learnt of what happened in this country over the last couple of hundred years, forgetting the past is the last thing we can afford to do...But how can you bring what's happened in the shadows into the light, and try to convince others that 'it' actually happened?"

"I don't know, that's something you'll have to figure out for yourselves; I just wish we didn't have to be a universe away then he could stay and find a way to help"

"But you've done so much already, how much more can you possibly give?"

"As much as is required to ensure you and your kind can survive into the future; after everything we've done to our world and ultimately each other, we're in no position to dictate to humanity what it can and cannot do with its destiny"

"Maybe not, but you are in a position to help enlighten us, to teach us how to better ourselves and to be better to each other; hell knows having you guys around would make our jobs so much easier if you can teach everyone not to be so ignorant and how not to make the bad choices in life"

"Hm, that would certainly-" Deathshot was about to reply when a serious look came over his face and he cocked his head up, as something had grabbed his notice, "What's up?" Saito asked, "Ultra Magnas just commed me. It's time" the Autobot replied as he stood back up.

"Already?" Saito asked curiously as Deathshot bent down, picked him and his gun case up and stashed them both into his cockpit.

"Yep, and I have to say I'm intrigued as to what Alpha Trion's got in mind..." he said as transformed back into his altmode and shot off into the sky.

* * *

"Wow..." Morri breathed as she stared up at the stasis-pod...

The whole stasis room was enormous, divided into four main levels with a transparent central column running down through the centre with various computer terminals lining its smooth glassy surface, all keeping tabs of each pod's life-support system. On the walls standing side to side in long rows that stretched from end of the room to the other, tall broad stasis pods gently hummed away; each containing the unconscious form of an Autobot. The heavy condensation on the glass-like covers made it impossible to see the bots in detail, but their silhouetted forms against the glow of the pods mechanisms indicated their presence. As she strolled along the top-most row of pods, looking down through the central column's glass-like surface she could see the pods were bigger towards the bottom level; whoever occupied those pod had to be truly enormous! As huge as a building and probably just as powerful as Prime himself, what possible machines or vehicles did they turn into? But then, judging from the overall outline of their silhouettes many of these bots boasted some pretty impressive features; it would be fascinating to meet them when they finally woke up. As her thoughts flitted about the prospect of meeting Deathshot's friends, a cold feeling suddenly gripped her in her stomach, making her stop in her tracks and snapping her mind back to reality; looking over her shoulder, she jumped at the huge form of Majestrix Prima looming over her like the grim reaper, her red optics gazing down at her suspiciously.

"Bloody hell!-" Morri exclaimed in shock, "For such a big femme your quiet!"

"Years of experience child, it's served me quite well" she waved off as she bent down and scooped the brunette up in her long clawed hands, "You on the other hand, could use some practice..." she looked her up and down with a critical optic; "What are you doing down here anyway?" she asked suspiciously, "I suppose Deathshot let you have the run of the ship?"

"Well-, he did say we could have a look around; Tom, Danny, Glen and Mikaela were looking around too but we kinda got lost and I somehow ended up in here, the door was open so I assumed it was okay to take a peek?" she explained. As she eyed her carefully, Majestrix noticed how steady she was in her grasp, sure she was nervous (who wouldn't be in her presence?), but she didn't scare easily. With a satisfied hum, she walked over to the console and placed her down next to the terminal as she got to work typing various commands into the computer. "With all my subordinates in stasis I've had to do all the work myself; my brother offered some of his bots to help, but I'm a stickler for having things just how I like" Majestrix explained in a smooth tone, "I can relate, I hate it when my mum spring-cleans my room and moves all my stuff about; she say's its chaos, I call it organized chaos" Morri offered.

"A sound-minded femme" the femme glanced sideways at her, "So, you're the little human that poached my best sniper hm? I'm still finding that quite hard to believe..."

"Why?" Morri raised an eyebrow

"If you know Deathshot like I do child, you'll know he's the very last bot in this universe, or any other, who'd look upon organic beings with any favourable attitude" Majestrix smirked in a smooth sly tone.

"Maybe, but that was over twenty five thousand years ago; a lot can happen in that time" Morri offered, Majestrix stopped typing and gazed down at her with an unreadable look, "...So it would seem..." she quirked an optic ridge, "...Tell me, what was it you said that convinced him to trust you?"

Morri paused a moment as her mind racked her thoughts back to those first several months she and Deathshot spent together, and going over the days that passed, only one thing came to mind; "...Nothing-" she blurted out, "I just-, we talked..."

"Talked?"

"Just general stuff really; I told him about myself and my life, and he told me about himself. Though, it didn't come easy, being 'open' was something he'd never really done before, but, he got better at it as time passed, and the more he got to know us the more comfortable he became" Morri explained frankly

"...Forgive me if I don't take you at your word, but the Deathshot I remember would never have spoken to anyone unless he absolutely had to; and being 'open'? Hardly-" Majestrix replied in snobbish tone, "...But still...there's much I've missed in the last twenty five thousand years. And I must confess, when we fell through the rift into this universe I thought he and the others had perished when the rift's shock-waves went out...It never occurred to me that he might have survived..." she thought offhand in a slight rueful tone. "Well? What happened happened; you weren't to know. Besides, Optimus is certainly happy to have you back, though I have to admit your 'introduction' was a real surprise; under the circumstances don't you think it could've waited until after we were done with the Dark Spark?"

"The truth was going to emerge sooner or later, when it comes to the more 'unfavourable' aspects of life I prefer to get it over and done with as appose to procrastinating. Whatever the others think of me I don't care either way, I've lived in the shadow of my brother's disgrace throughout the entire war; being an Autobot isn't going to change that"

"Brother? You mean Megatron? ..." Morri asked offhand; for a brief moment a look of pure hate came over the femme as a look of murderous rage filled her crimson red optics, making them look as if they were burning like volcanic embers. Morri felt a rush of alarm course up her spine but she stood her ground, and waited as Majestrix took a deep breath through her vents and calmed herself. Glancing at the young human, she could see she had scared her. "Forgive me...Even after all this time that name since raises my hackles" she growled ominously.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't know... Jetfire explained what happened at the temple of Primus, and believe me I can understand your anger. But, what I don't get is why Optimus never mentioned you before? I know he said that Megatron was his brother but he never mentioned having a sister. I can understand Megatron being the black sheep of the family, but from the way he hugged you last week I think he's cares for you deeply, so why didn't he mention you before?" Morri asked

Silence

"...It's complicated..." Majestrix huffed

"Try me"

From the look in the young brunette's eyes she wasn't going to drop the subject, and although she couldn't put her servo on it, Majestrix got the sense that she wouldn't settle for half-truths either. "...Prime never me mentioned me before not because of the shame that Megatron brought upon us, but to save my life, and those of daughters..."

"You're a mother?" Morri blinked in surprise, Majestrix gestured to the three nearest stasis-pods, and the sleeping occupant within...

"...After Megatron tried to overtake the temple I was in no fit state to fight, and my youngest was close to offlining; to keep her and her sisters safe I had to flee Iacon. Being twins Megatron and I share a spark-bond, our thoughts and emotions are, or were, in perfect sync, no matter how far the distance we could always tell what the other was feeling. But everything has its flaws, and the spark-bond is no acceptation; I had to get as far away from him as I could. The Black Solstus was already in my possession back then, and the alloys within its innermost structure possess unique energy dampening properties, even the energy that comprises a spark-bond could not penetrate them"

"So, you stayed on the ship throughout the war?"

"For most of the time yes, the few times I could leave was when my brother was a star-system away, and even then my 'excursions' had to be brief, for as much as I could sense him he too could feel me; over time I learnt to 'numb' my end of the bond and block him out completely. But ultimately, no matter how hard I tried I could never truly disconnect from him, and even during stasis I felt his spark extinguish at the hands of the Witwicky boy. Now I don't know whether to thank him for getting rid of my twin brother, or to kill him for denying me the chance to snuff my brother's spark out personally" she said with a slight once of venom in her voice, the underlying rawness of her agitation told Morri to leave the subject be, least she dredge up anymore unsavoury memories for the femme.

"Well? Then why didn't you? He was the one who woke you up"

"Indeed. Just as Alpha Trion said he would..." the femme smirked with a knowing look.

"Wha?-, how did he know Sam would be the one to wake you up?"

"That will be explained soon enough. We should be going now, Trion's calling us; can I give you a lift?" she asked as she scooped the human up on her hand, "Uh? Sure, just don't do any fancy flying; Uncle John's infamous chilli con carne is still weighing my stomach down and I don't think it'll let me enjoy a barrel-roll" she winced with a small smile and she held onto the femme's thumb for support.

* * *

A couple of hours later:

"Man, it's hard to believe this was a raging volcano..." Togusa said offhand as he gazed up at the green slopes. "I know, it was quite a sight when first erupted; it was so hot I actually though my face would fry" Batou concurred.

What had once been the San-nin Shimai Mountains and valley was now quite a different place; instead of steep sloping valley walls, deep narrow gorges and towering mountains, was now a giant smooth-sloping caldera that spanned for over ten miles in diameter. Shaped perfectly like a soup bowl, the caldera stood some two thousand five hundred feet above sea-level, but sank over one thousand feet into the earth; various rock formations lined the inside of the former-volcano, forming large structures that resembled bracket fungus, cliffs, tor's, stone runs, and even a large stacks lined the top-most edge. In the very centre of the caldera was a circular lake the spanned over four miles in diameter and in the centre was a large island that seemed to resemble a huge stack of boulders that had been piled up in an untidy manner; the only accessible way to the island was a straight line of large boulders that formed a neat row of stepping stones while the water was the darkest shade of aqua-blue imaginable, how deep it really was, was anyone's guess, but some were estimating it to be hundreds of feet deep.

But the most prominent feature of the new landscape was the fact that it resembled a mini-rainforest; what would've taken centuries and countless seasons of growth, had been completed within less than a week, for the entire inside of the caldera was covered in a thick lush forest that clung to the steep walls with very little difficulty. Various species of trees, bushes and bamboo towered high above the ground, while the undergrowth consisted of thick grass, delicate creepers and vines that huged the thick tree trunks and snaked over rocks and boulders, while the rocks and boulders nearest the lake were covered in thick moist blankets of moss; scattered in carpets and clusters around and within the various hues of green were a palette of various pinks, yellows, reds, purples, whites and blues as countless species of flowers looked up towards the sun, bobbing their dainty little heads in the soft breeze.

However, the island by far had the most impressive foliage; in the centre of the island was giant camphor tree towering fifty five feet high, with huge branches that reached out to form a giant umbrella-like shape, covering most of the island in its shade while its thick robust roots snaked and crisscrossed over and around the boulders; its trunk was so thick that one might have mistaken it for having been there for centuries. Various bushes and grasses grew in the shade of the camphor, while around the edge of the lake and island were tall reeds and bulrushes, and beyond those were large clusters of beautiful pink lotus flowers. And it wasn't just plants that had occupied the new landscape; not long after the first trees sprouted various bird, rodent, and insect species ventured into the caldera looking for food and shelter, and not long after they moved in the various species that predated on them followed on, now the vast landscape was filled with the various choruses of bird songs, the buzz and hum of insect wings, and the distant eagles cries as they circled high over head in the sky while the hawks and falcons 'neeps' and 'shrieks' echoed from out of the trees.

Once a vision of hell, now a living breathing personification of paradise, as Botanica had spent the better part of the week employing her strange power to breathe life into the decimated earth; everywhere she went in the caldera a carpet of plants sprouted from the ground she touched with her hands and roots. As she scattered seeds and shoots from her own body, trees grew in a matter of minutes while grasses, bushes, flowers and burst forth in a dazzling display of greenery and lushness; for those who'd seen the amazing phenomenon first hand it had been a sight to behold. Now, gathered together on the north side of the lake, the Autobots and humans were waiting for the final arrivals, but they didn't have to wait long when the sound of thundering engines drew everyone's attention upwards as Majestrix's silver jet-form appeared over the top of the caldera, circled around and down towards the group and transformed in mid-flight before landing on the ground with a resounding THUD! In her hand Morri breathed a sigh of relief as the femme gently handed her over to her guardian, who placed her on his shoulder. "Holy crap-" she sighed with relief, "You really need to expand that cockpit to include some proper seats; being cramped between the back of your helm and the edge of those blades was not fun!"

"Oh don't be so dramatic, at least you had room to breathe" Majestrix waved off, Morri shot her a deadpan look but dropped the subject.

"Well, this is certainly quite a gathering-" Jetfire looked over the large group, "-Though I doubt we're here for a picnic; does anyone know what we're here for?"

"Answers, I believe..." Alpha Trion smiled as he emerged from the forest; everyone blinked in surprise, where did he come from? A mech of his size couldn't hide among the trees that easily, could he? Regardless, the bots acknowledged him with discreet nods as he stopped just short of a large cluster of boulders and sat down on the largest rock. "I promised I would be honest with all of you when you were ready to listen, and now, I am yours to ask what you will" he smiled. Everyone looked at one another in slight bemusement for a brief moment before approaching the giant white mech in a large circle, like children sitting down to hear a story.

"So? I guess the obvious question is...-Actually what would be the obvious question dude? There's like, so many; like why was there a second DRD? Why did you guys stay in hiding for so long? And just how did Vector Sigma come to be on here on Earth?" Beachcomber asked in his usual chilled and laid-back tone as he reclined against a large cluster of moss-covered boulders, as if they were a reclining chair.

"Those are good questions, as are all the others swimming about your present thoughts, and while the experiences of the last month have moulded and altered your perceptions and understanding of the world and each other, you are all very much the same as when you first started out on your adventure; ergo, some of the answers you will understand and some you will not. Concordantly the first question asked may be the most understandable you may or may not realize that it is also the most obvious" he glanced down at Miles with a knowing look.

"Why were we brought here? I mean-, I know _why_ we were brought here, but _why_ why you know?"

"Well, I could go into detail about how the 'ripple effect' of your combined presence is the remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the nature of this universe; but I think the more rational explanation would be prudent, and to best understand how all this came about, we shall start at the very beginning..." he explained; waving one hand over his staff, the orb glowed in a myriad of colours before swirling out around the group, in an instant the landscape around them fell away and was replaced by a very different scene; gawking in astonishment, the humans and bots watched as the scene played out while Alpha Trion explained...

"As many of you know, the Allspark was the single greatest source of power in the known universe, its yield was unmatched by anything else in the known galaxies and no one knows where it originated from; this, everyone on Cybertron knew, but one fact that only a small minority were aware of, was that the Allspark was in actual fact a living organism. Like us it breathed, it consumed energy to feed itself, and before the coming of the golden age, it bore its own offspring: Vector Sigma. To many the great orb was the creation of Prima and myself, before he parted this life to join his brothers in the well of allsparks; on the surface it was the great matrix that bore the sum total of all of Cybertron's wisdom, its power, and ultimately the Allspark's capacity to create life. But in truth, its outer crystalline shell was the cocoon that protected the vulnerable offspring while it grew and matured...When the Allspark first came to Cybertron and breathed life into the planet, I was among the first Thirteen to be sparked by the great cube; as some you may know the Thirteen were the first Primes to oversee the creation of the planet and became its subsequent rulers. But unlike the others who's duty it was to guard the Allspark and replenish its vast power, I was unique because the Allspark chose me to act as its oracle; to interpret it will, to use its power for the betterment of our people, to see the past the present and the future across all time, and to write its infinite wisdom down in the covenant of Primus. But this honour came with certain conditions, in return for being allowed to hear its voice and use its power the Allspark made me immortal, and I could never bear arms nor kill another living entity regardless of whether they were evil or not. When the Allspark first revealed to me its offspring, I hid Vector Sigma deep in Cybertron's core where it could grow in peace and where I could watch over its development...For countless eons, many speculated as to the Allsparks true level of sentience, but only I and the other Primes knew that it was a sentient being, with conscious thought, awareness, and the capacity to empathize and feel for others; not least its own creations"

"The foundries" Bumblebee realized

"Through the sparks of those it brought to life and the femmes who bore their own sparklings, it lived their lives with them; every memory, every thought and feeling, and every hardship that that spark endured was felt by the Allspark, and with every death it sang of sorrow and joy: sad to sense that spark leave, but also happy that it lead a life, be it good or bad every life counted and the Allspark held every one dearly; and through its mother, Vector Sigma came to love its mother's creations just as much as she did...over the eons legends of Vector Sigma grew among the populous on Cybertron and over time its vast accumulated wisdom became a source of knowledge for those seeking guidance and council. All was as it should be, until the day came that Megatronus and his sister Majestrix were sparked-"

"Megatronus?" Mikaela echoed

"Megatron, as he was known back then; and it was most peculiar for they were the first twins to be born to the Primes. One would think it would be a happy occasion, but when they were first brought to the Temple of Primus to be presented to the great cube, the Allspark did not choose either as the next Prime and forewarned that Megatronus's future was darkened with uncertainty. Through its power I foretold that he would become one of the most powerful mech's of his time, and that he would have the power to either create or destroy; concerned for the child's welfare I personally promised the Primes that I would oversee his tutoring and council, but his father believed he knew best how to raise him, and refused my offer. Strangely enough, while the cube did not choose either twin to serve as the next Prime, it did choose Majestrix to be guardian and high-governess of the foundries of Cybertron, and thus imbued her with the power and endurance of a Prime. I wanted to ask the great cube its reason as to why it chose her for that particular honour, but I knew from experience that the Allspark always has a reason for everything it does, and I decided to let the answer unveil itself, in time... Over the next five years I kept a close optic on the young Megatronus and his sister, and to my relief nothing of particular concern came about, until the day Optimus Prime was sparked..."

"Little Meggy didn't take to his little brother so well huh?" Glen peeped in

"Did you know? ...If you really can see the future, did you know what he would become?" Thundercracker asked as he watched the scene of a little (much cuter) sparkling version of Megatron playing with his sister. Alpha Trion looked up at him and sighed regretfully...

"I can't say for certain, all I know is that the child's future was in doubt, and at that age I knew that if anything happened his innocence would be destroyed forever; through my best efforts I tried to council him and his siblings, but as he grew older his jealousy of his little brother became more evident, especially after he was chosen to be the next Prime, and when his mother discovered he and his sister used to sneak away to Kaon to fight in the underground gladiatorial pits on a regular basis, she was at a loss what to do" Alpha Trion explained.

"Hm, we had many good victories in those pits" Majestrix though aloud nostalgically.

"Not when you dragged me along" Optimus deadpanned

"You? Optimus Prime fighting in the pits of Kaon? How scandalous" Buzzsaw grinned, the Prime shot him a look and the eagle-drone retreated behind a boulder as Alpha Trion continued...

"Anyway. Deciding to be more decisive his parents entrusted me with his tutoring, and I decided to take the initiative and teach the young one firsthand the true meaning of power and responsibility. I took him before the Allspark and availed its wisdom to him. Afterwards, believing he had understood what the cube taught him I let him go and he and made no further fuss, and for a while I believed that was it the end of the matter..."

"But? ...-I'm sensing a but coming on" Ashley added, "As fascinating as this trip down memory is, what's this got to do with what happened here?" the Major asked, "Patience Kusanagi, I'll be getting to that part soon enough" The ancient mech reminded her.

"But it wasn't the end of the matter, was it?" Morri asked

"...For the longest time Megatronus stayed unusually quiet, he spent much of his time in Kaon on 'official business' or in the Temple Archives; unbeknown to me or anyone else, when I took him before the Allspark he'd taken the opportunity to learn how to open it and access its knowledge, and since then he'd been secretly accessing it to learn all he could about its power and how to control it. But what Megatronus didn't understand was that because he wasn't chosen to be Prime, the Allspark didn't let him access its_ true _power and thus it hadn't given him what he needed, instead it only showed him what he wanted to see. And there was a further danger, his regular exposure to its raw power and countless streams of data flowing into his CPU began to take their toll, and over time it twisted and warped his sanity from the inside out...until, one day..." he sighed as the scene shifted to show the fall of Iacon, and the attack on the Temple of Primus, everyone watched in awe-struck silence as they watched Optimus and Majestrix fight their brother; the cries of three tiny hapless sparklings rang out as Megatron picked up one of the little femmes and crushed it in his claws. As the tiny pathetic figure screamed in agony Majestrix watched in ire as she watched herself tear her brother to pieces, her rage-filled optics burned bright crimson as she ripped his armour off in a fury, he fought back, landing several well-placed blows, but she was too lost in her fury to notice she was bleeding to death and that half of her own armour had been stripped off. As the chaos subsided and the Decepticons overran the temple, the last scene showed Optimus carrying his sister away in his arms; in her own arms the three tiny femme sparklings cried for their mother, the tiniest one wreathing in pain. Its cries kept her from going into emergency stasis-lock, but aside from holding her daughters tightly, she was too weak and injured to do much else as she watched her spark-mate look back at her one more time...

"Take our daughters and go! I'll try and by you as much time as I can!" he called out, before wielding his energy-swords and charging head-on at Megatron...

Majestrix's face-plates scrunched up into a bitter scowl as energon-tears threatened to well up in her optics, but with a hard sigh she pushed them down and huffed through her vents; some, if not most of the bots looked at her in a mix of disbelief...and pity...

"You know, of all the things I never thought possible, a brother or sister attacking their twin was at the top of the list...But he-, I can't believe he did that..." Sideswipe breathed in horror. "Neither could I...until he tried to kill my daughters..." Majestrix growled venomously, Optimus put his arm around her, and in an instant her ire soothed down to unease.

"You said you can see the future, so what happened? Of all things you could see that were about to happen, why didn't you see that?" Sunstreaker asked incredulously, many of the bots and humans perked up, listening closely as to what the answer was going to be; glancing around at all the expecting and curious faces, Alpha Trion sighed ruefully as he explained...

"...When many sentient beings try to comprehend the mechanism of time, they often believe that time is a linear progression of cause to effect, But it's not...Imagine in your minds a giant bubble the size of the planet Jupiter, and on its surface are countless rivers and streams all flowing in one direction; some of them overlapping, flowing into one another, and some branching off to form new rivers while some join up to current streams and are no more; each of these rivers and streams are time-lines, and in each of them are different versions of everything and everyone, including us. But what separates them is a surprisingly simple yet powerful anomaly, one that is inherent to the logical processes of every sentient being and is systematic in creating fluctuations in even the most basic of equations, and one that when applied to the life of even the very primitive of sentient beings, when realized, can change the course of a whole world's destiny or fate"

"...Choice..." Morri thought aloud, "the anomaly is choice"; to which Alpha Trion nodded.

"Our choices can have greater consequences than we'd like to believe, and one simple choice can have the power to change everything. Each time-line is structured from the collective effects and consequences of what we choose to do in our lives, and likewise new streams branch off to form new time-lines because of a choice that had an alternate choice, in other words, an alternate future"

"So? Somewhere in the great ether of time, there are countless versions of us that turned out differently because of_ all_ the choices we ever made in our lives?" Batou quirked an eyebrow.

"Oh yes, for instance: there's one universe where Togusa was shot by a cyborg and his injury was as such that he had to swap into a full prosthetic body in order to save his life; in another Batou didn't join the Rangers and so kept his organic eyes and in another the Major left Section 9 right after the Dejima incident in order to work independently. There are countless universes where things turned out differently as a result of the alternative choices we had, it is at these crucial crossroads that the fate of one time-line lies in the balance, whether it continues as it is or branches off to become a new one all hinders on the decision of that one being at that one time. And while choice may be the deciding factor of how a time-line is shaped, what you have to remember is that time a very mysterious and unpredictable thing. The past and the future are one and the same thing, and as we stand here in the present tense, how the individual perceives what has been and what might be, determines whether the past becomes set in stone and whether the future can be shaped. Right now, is where the importance of those deciding factors matter most, for just as the past can have a far reaching influence on the presence, the future can just as easily effect the past too"

"So? ...Your saying that you didn't foresee Megatron's attack because he hadn't made his mind up whether to attack Iacon or not?" Sam asked incredulously

"So essentially his choice to attack was-...on a whim? ..." Morri's eyes went wide in realization.

Silence

"...All those years...all those lives; a whole planet rendered lifeless, all because one mech woke up one morning and thought 'Hey, I'll think I'll take over Cybertron today?'..." Hot Rod sarcastically asked in disbelief. "He understood the cube well enough to avoid Alpha's all-time seeing gaze, and that was the depth of my brother's insanity. When I sensed over our spark-bond just how much of his spark had been consumed by it I screamed in terror; for there was nothing of my brother left, just the rage and the hunger, and nothing else" Majestrix replied bitterly as she clenched her fists. Many of the bots glanced at one another in horror, all those years of death, carnage and destruction, steaming from a whim? Their minds reeled as they tried to comprehend the sheer depth of it, but many pushed it aside, sensing that it would (most likely) drive them insane.

"But it couldn't have been that simple, with the sheer number of cons that attacked the temple Megatron had been building his forces for years" Deathshot pointed out.

"Indeed..." Alpha Trion replied as the scene continued to unfold, "-And while his future choice lay beyond my sight, the further future told me all I needed to know; the Allspark availed to me that an army would come for the Allspark and kill Optimus his family in the process. I made preparations to have the cube relocated to the core, and hid it alongside its daughter Vector Sigma. When Megatron realized what I had done he came after me and the entities, from that day on and throughout most of the beginning war I moved the entities around Cybertron, keeping them out of Megatron's reach as I foresaw future attempts to obtain them. But as the war grew worse and Megatron's impatience grew shorter, I foresaw Cybertron's future grow blacker and more lifeless; until one day, the Allspark availed to me that Cybertron's end had finally come, and that it would sacrifice itself to bring an end to the war. With so much death and suffering, it wept to see all good things pass into memory and shadow, and so commanded me to let it play its final roll...With Prime's help we readied the cube to be jettisoned into outer space; getting it past Megatron's forces were no simple feat, and amid the chaos of the battle of Tyger Pax the cube was thrown to the stars. Although Megatron pursued it, it was far out of his reach by the time he realized what had happened; by that time I had met up with Majestrix and her division, and requested to seek sanctuary aboard the Black Solstus. I relocated Vector Sigma to the safety of the Ios Crystal, and from then on spent the remainder of the war aboard Black Solstus, on the Red Level"

"You were hiding on the ship the whole time?" Deathshot quirked an optic ridge, "Why did you hid yourself away? You could've made a difference somehow, with your vast knowledge and power you could've helped us"

"But I did..." he explained as the scene shifted to the innermost level of the Black Solstus, "Through the Ios Crystal I helped to move countless defectors, neutrals and refugees get off Cybertron and make it safely beyond our empire's furthest boarders; where they now and how many are still alive is anyone's guess, but many of the places I sent them to were well beyond the Decepticons reach. But it was a serious undertaking, for while many of these sanctuaries were safe they were accessible only through me, and once there, they couldn't come back the way they came. In short, many of Cybertron's inhabitants are in galaxies that far away even from our own, too far even for our technology to reach. Later on in the course of the war a brilliant scientist and inventor from the Iacon Science Academy by the name of Que came aboard the ship, seeking sanctuary in an effort to keep some of his more 'risky' inventions from the Decepticons reach, one such machine was the Dimensional Rift Diolater, or DRD for short, a device that could open a stable worm-hole through time and space into another universe..."

"Finally!" Danny huffed under his breath

"Through our numerous conversations I learnt he'd originally built two of them, the first was the prototype that he entrusted to his apprentice to keep it safe aboard the Ark, while the second, the one he possessed, was a second prototype he'd modified to act as a ground-bridge"

"Ground-bridge?" Mikaela echoed

"A ground-based teleportation device, for those of us that don't come equipped with in-built teleportation capabilities" Ultra Magnus replied

"Over time we helped the 9 as best we could, my ability to see across the time became a useful means to stay one step ahead of the enemy's reach while Que designed and built weapons for the 9. Then one day, when we were about fifty thousand light-years away from the Xoin system, I sensed the presence of something ominous emerge into our universe; what it was exactly I couldn't tell, but I felt its hunger reaching out across the dark void of space, as if it were sniffing for something in particular...When we came within range of the planet Prarex 9, I sensed it much more acutely and realized that it was something very dangerous indeed; for not only did it feed off the life-force of other living things, it could smell my power, and it wanted it for its own. Realizing it knew I was aboard the ship, I hastily tried to escape in a bid to lure it away so as to give the 9 a chance to escape, but the entity was much faster than I anticipated, and before I could get off the ship it had already forced its way past the Black Solstus's defences...The rest, you know from Swiftshot's holoform message..." Alpha Trion explained as the scene shifted again. This time they watched at the Black Solstus came crashing down to the earth, and straight into an exploding volcano, its deflector shields being the only thing that protected it from the burning lava; the resulting explosion sent up wave after wave of lava, forcing rocks and boulders up and crushing together to form steep valley walls, deep gorges and part of the base of two nearby mountains.

"So that's how the San-nin Shimai mountains were formed" Kubota realized

"I wondered how the ship got trapped underground like that, I assumed it sank down through the pipe and got stuck in that lava chamber, it never occurred to me that it came equipped with its own deflector shields" Darren added

"Okay. So we know everything up until that point, and the rest of it we know from Swiftshot, but if you were her 'guide', what exactly did you do?" Tom asked

"And if you kept the Dark Spark in the spark-prison why didn't you destroy it?" Hot Rod asked

"Like I said before, being Trion comes with conditions, and even stricter rules. The capabilities I wield are never to be regarded lightly nor taken for granted; for all I am capable of and all the things I can do, a single misuse of such power could upset the balance of the space-time continuum, rippling across the multiverse and affecting the other time-lines detrimentally. As much as I might have wanted to, I am bound by my oath of loyalty to Primus to never harm other living entity; and besides, the universe had other things in mind, for when I gazed into the future to see if there was any hope of escape, instead I saw a very different set of events: that was when I formulated a plan to stop the Spark Eater, and to get us home...In the darkness of the ship I sent myself into a deep meditative state and detached my mind from my body, from there I wandered the earth as a spark-spirit, keeping a close optic on the Spark Eater's movements, as well as learning about humankind in the process. When the Spark Eater and its minions began to grow in strength, I decided to employ the help of another; that was when I awoke Swiftshot from her stasis..."

"And the rest we know from her holo-message; but why didn't you just tell her straight up what lay ahead?" the Major asked

"Power and reconcilability Kusanagi, and being able to see the future comes with a strict no-spoiler-alert policy; just because you can see _a_ future doesn't necessarily mean it will become _the_ future, like I explained before, one person's choice can shape the future as such, but when they chose an alternative the future inevitably changes too. What you see in one set of future events, can chance in the course of the present, and if it's in the long-run anything can be possible" Alpha Trion smirked

"So basically your long-term predictions were unreliable if not way too uncertain" Batou interjected

"Exactly, I instructed and guided her based on the immediate future, and I couldn't risk unveiling myself, for if the Spark Eater knew of my existence and attempted to come back to drain my spark and power, the consequences would have been very different to what they are now. That, and the far future was another scenario altogether. What Swiftshot did was lay the foundations of support for when you would come, for when the time was right to make a move and go on the offence...Over the years I watched humanity I watched as they changed throughout the decades; they grew more advanced, little by little they became more open-mined and open to new ideas, and over the last hundred years I watched as their culture, science and technology blossomed in a flurry of progression and enlightenment. And over the last fifty years I watched as their computer science became more integrated into the various levels of society, until it reached the point where they could transplant their very consciousness into cybernetic bodies: it was at this point that the Spark Eater discovered it could gain a great advantage, that it could up its game to whole a new level and use the human's technology against them, and they wouldn't be able to stop it"

"That's when you activated the DRD, and everything else from there on is history" Sam interjected

"Initially, but I was always watching over all of you, and with the advent of the net being a spark-spirit in both cyberspace and offline afforded me a great deal more flexibility: for instance, because the net is comprised of pure electrical energy manipulating the binary code was fairly simple, and being able to create anything at will as well as cover my tracks meant I could aid you all further"

"Such as constructing that E-package?" Aoi asked

"That was one such thing, but the Spark Eater was no fool and I knew it was only a matter of time before it figured out I was the one helping you all; so I created a means by which only all of you would be able to find what you needed, something that was beyond the Spark Eater's reach, and something that required faith in one's ability"

"Matti" Morri realized

"You knew I was the only one that could find those things at the temple, as well all that other stuff" she gazed up at him, "But why me? There must have been other psychics that could've done a better job than me"

"True. But there are no other psychics like _you_; none that have the tenacity or courage of heart to do what you did; and suffice to say, even among other human psychics you are a very rare one...Each of you have your own strengths, and when applied to what needed to be done it brought you that much closer to the truth; but being told you are capable is one thing, and encouraging as it may be, we never truly realize our virtues until we discover them for ourselves: after all, a bird cannot realize the use of its wings until it tries flying for itself"

"I guess; and I kinda get all that you said up till that point, but there are still some things that don't make sense. Like Hidaka's involvement, he wasn't a pretender and the autopsy proved his cyberbrain hadn't been hacked or brainwashed, so what part did he have to play?" Batou's Tachikoma asked

"What all beings with power want, more power; in the course of accumulating his ill-gotten wealth Hidaka discovered the Black Lotus and what they really were; knowing there were some 'friends' of his that would be very interested in their modified cybertronian technology he threatened to expose them unless they did what he told them. So the Black Lotus made a deal with him, in exchange for his silence they would forward top secret information on certain individuals to him to use as blackmail, as well as turn a profit on several lucrative but illegal deals. But in truth it was an opportunity for the Black Lotus to gain access to certain information on the Intelligence Department's network, unbeknown to Hidaka he was just another puppet for them to use as they will; but when he got too greedy and demanded more of them, they had him killed" the white mech explained

"At some point a while ago, when things were starting to look dicey for you all, Alpha Trion stirred my mind from my stasis; since he was not much of a warrior he relied on me for my combat expertise, and through him I learned of your kind and what was at stake...I have to admit, for such small beings you've certainly got some brass bearings" Majestrix smirked down at the humans.

"And all the events that followed as such, transpired as such; but there were several points where the fate of your mission hung in the balance. Once or twice, you all came very close to choosing a different path, to opt for what was easy, instead of what was necessary"

"But you stopped us, right?" Miles quirked an eyebrow

"Oh no, I couldn't afford to put you all at risk by being in your presence, if the Spark Eater had smelt my essence it would've been the end of everything; you may not have been able to figure out where the Spark Eater was until the last minute but it certainly knew where you all were. Though it understood you were all a great threat, it tried repeatedly to get within striking range, and on one occasion it did, and very nearly succeeded"

"That was when it snatched my mind, and you were the one I saw in the astral void..." Morri realized, "I understand it was already weakening by the time it took me, so why didn't it try to take me, or any one of us before? When it still had a fighting chance" she asked

"Alas, madness can poison the mind on a multitude of levels, and the Spark Eater had no comprehension of what was happening within itself until it was too late. Originally it could sense you were the strongest mind of all the humans, and it believed that if you could be 'transformed', the others would follow suit"

"But it must have known that there was no way in hell it would've been that simple! We would've put up one hell of a fight before we let it brainwash us!" Hailey exclaimed incredulously

"And that was why its plan was doomed to failure; telepathy is a unique and mysterious anomaly, and one of the few that has been the least studied on account of its rarity. It may afford the individual a great deal of advantage in terms of mental strength, agility, and dynamic capability; but all strengths inheritantly have their weaknesses and telepathy has no real power over those who have strength of will, conviction of virtue in their actions, and believe in themselves. Even if the Spark Eater had attempted to brainwash you and completely wipe your mind of your true self and memories, it would have been anything but easy; a mind as strong as yours takes time and energy to dismantle, and even then you would not have let it do so without a fight"

"So why did all the other humans get brainwashed so easily? Especially the ones whose sparklings were taken?" Jetfire asked sceptically

"A human brain might be hard to brainwash but a cyberbrain is certainly easy to manipulate; and with over eighty percent of the human population of this planet possessing a cyberbrain or simple brain augmentation at the very least, making sure everyone was none the wiser wasn't particularly difficult for an entity that had all but fused with the net..." the white mech pointed out

"So in essence, it was all for nothing" Kagawa sighed bitterly

"What was?" Sam asked

"Everything we'd ever done through human history, all the obstacles we'd overcome, all the miles stones we'd reached; would've been all for nothing if we were simply raw material for an alien entity to turn into mindless robots" he frowned up at the white mech

"That's one path that would've lay before you if things had been different" Alpha Trion replied

"But if you were to look at this for what it really is, essentially this whole thing started in the first place because you brought that thing here! Everything we went through, all those lives lost, because you couldn't fess up to what you'd done!" one of the other Ranger's spat angrily; everyone else was about argue back when Alpha Trion held up one hand, everyone remained silent as the white mech directed his attention down to the human-cyborg at his feet.

"...Yes. The only reason the Spark Eater came to this world was because it was aboard the Black Solstus, why the crew of the ship didn't destroy it when they had the chance I do not know; but when I gazed into the future to see what consequence's would arise from that decision, nothing I could've done then would've stopped what happened now, the future was as I saw it, and it transpired as such; nothing I nor anyone else would've been able to change the course of the events without causing further harm. In the short-run perhaps it would've hindered the Spark Eater's efforts, but if you were to travel back to a time when it could've been stopped, could you have known that you were not simply going to make things worse than they already were? Like I explained, time is an unpredictable thing, and manipulating past events can have dire consequences for the rest of time, regardless of whether your intentions are good or evil manipulating something as simple as the position of a pencil on a desk could change the outcome of an entire set of circumstances drastically, and with time there are no 'take-backs'. What transpires as the future only becomes so because of how we shape it, and the past is as such because of the choices we did and didn't decide to act upon. And not once did any of us deny that this tragic set of events was our fault; the first duty of an Autobot is to protect and respect life, and to take responsibility for one's actions, especially in preventing collateral damage. Remember, a life is a life, not matter how small or weak it might appear; for the smaller one is, the mightier he stands. No amount of power or tyranny will ever change that, and it is not our place to judge the worth of one species simply because they are different in flesh and organic structure"

"A very noble observation; but rewinding back a few clicks, you missed the part about how Vector Sigma destroyed the Dark Spark? How'd that happen?" Sideswipe pointed out

"Indeed, and I hadn't forgotten about it..." Alpha Trion straightened up as he continued; waving one hand over his staff's orb, the scene changed again as he explained, "...With the Ios crystal always close at hand, Vector Sigma was always safely in my sight, but like its mother before it too had bound its power to me, and through me it became aware of the human's plight, as well as that of its mother's fate"

"But the Allspark was back in our universe when Sam destroyed it, how'd it know what had happened?" Bumblebee asked

"Ah you forget, the Allspark and Vector Sigma are not limited to the boundaries of any one universe alone, the power they both possessed allowed them exist on a multitude of realities and dimensions at any one time, and to stay in contact as such. Vector sigma was well aware of its mother's plan to end the war, and contrary to what many of you believe it was not Sam that killed Megatron; the cube only permitted him to do so because it coincided with its plan. From the beginning the Allspark had no intention of allowing Megatron, or any other to control the balance of life; be it mechanical or organic, through its power. But even in the depths of his madness Megatron was still capable of many things, and one way or another the cube would not have been entirely beyond his reach, even it had ended its life and he was left alive; this was a great conundrum for many eons, and as I sensed the cubes presence in our universe, I felt its helplessness and wondering upon what to do...But then, quite by chance, across the ether of the astral void and the endless expanse of the space-time continuum, I sensed that the Allspark had chanced upon an opportunity to truly keep its power away from Megatron's reach for good; but at a great cost. As it tumbled and drifted through space the great cube had discovered a world upon which to hide, but when it crashed and settled under that planet's surface, it discovered that it was not the only omnipresent entity that inhabited this world. The entity in question was, and is, the sum-total of all the life-forces of the planets organic inhabitants that had ever lived; a collective consciousness that existed between the realms of life and death, and that was known to ancient humans, as Gaia..."

"Gaia? As in the Greek goddess of the earth?" Darren quirked an eyebrow in disbelief

"That was what your ancestors called her, and it is but one of the many names humans have called her over the centuries; she makes up the planet's collective life-force, and ultimately is the formless embodiment that protects the balance of all life upon the earth. She is nowhere and everywhere around us; across the multiverse upon all the different versions of earth, she thrives throughout the planet, and when she encountered the Allspark and learned of the war and what it had done to Cybertron, she howled in fury and told the Allspark that she would kill it for bringing its blight upon her world; but sensing its sorrow and lament at losing Cybertron, Gaia spared the great cube and proposed a deal. In exchange for letting its children seek sanctuary upon her world, the great cube must surrender its power to the earth and to never interfere with the balance of life and death, to never interfere with the order of the natural world nor do anything to manipulate the humans to its will. Agreeing to the terms, over the following millennia the cube slowly released its power into the earth, enriching Gaia's life-force and empowering her with the strength to reach across the ether, across all time and throughout the many plains of reality. When the cube was finally discovered by the humans it had enough raw power left to finish Megatron, and to leave behind a little of itself to give back life to those who deserved it"

"You hear that Jazz? The Allspark _wanted_ you to come back!" Bluestreak perked up, "Well that certainly somethin!" the silver Pontiac grinned.

"So all this time the Allsparks power has been in the earth?" Cliffjumper went wide-eyed in surprise.

"Well? Yes and no, discharging its power to the earth wasn't as straightforward as you would believe, we're talking about releasing energy to a multitude of extra-dimensional plains of existence, and all that energy isn't just in any one place, its everywhere and nowhere; and in living form. When life is concerned time is an illusion, and so is death; just because someone we love is gone from this life does not mean they are gone forever, the spirits of the dead still linger upon this world because they still maintain their connections to the living, whether it be through love, friendship, duty or personal pain, they cannot deny the ties that bind life and death together. It is the nature of all existence across the multiverse that life and death live side by side in harmony, and when Vector Sigma sensed its mother's parting, it knew not to be sad. And when it sensed the Spark Eater's power rising and threatening to extinguish all life in this world, it knew what it had to do"

"And thus the greatest source of wisdom in the known universe is gone forever" Kup deadpanned as he leaned on his walking stick.

"Not quite" Alpha Trion smirked with a knowing look in his optics, "Being multidimensional entities, 'death' is not quite as straightforward for the Allspark and Vector Sigma; though their physical bodies that kept them anchored in this and our own universe are gone, the collective essence that made up their beings still live, and with them all the collective wisdom of Cybertron, far beyond the reaches of our universes safely at the edge of the white void; where all become one with the well of allsparks"

"So? Cybertron could still be saved? If we built them new forms to occupy they could come back, right?" Skywarp asked eagerly.

"Alas young seeker..." the white mech dropped his head in rueful thought, "...Cybertron will never live as it once did, and even if there were a way to restore life to the planet, it would, and could never be as it was before. Remember, everything that has a beginning has an end, and even before Megatron was sparked I could see the darkness looming over the horizon of our world; I saw fire and I saw death, as it was written in the covenant of Primus, so Cybertron's demise would come at the hands of the descendant of Megatronus Prime...I wanted so much to believe that child could be saved, that he had a chance to be a good mech, a noble protector and a dear loving brother to his siblings; for all the wisdom I handed down to him and for all the lessons tried to teach, ultimately it was his choices that dictated where his future lay. For this and more I wept and lamented to see all good things pass from this life in such an ugly and brutal way, and it pained my spark to know there was only so much that my power afforded me to do. At least here, upon this world, I was able to stop our fate befalling your kind" he gazed down at the humans.

"And for that, you have no idea how thankful we all are..." Chief Aramaki smiled, "All of us are, but what about the rest of the world? What do we tell everyone else?" Kobuta asked

"I'm glad you asked..." the white mech smiled as he stood up from his seat, and with a wave of his hand the illusion dissipated and faded away, and everyone found themselves back in the caldera again; stepping over to the water's edge, Alpha Trion held his staff as the orb nestled at its top began to glow. "-For that is part of the reason I invited you all here today; first of all, for those of you who were wondering, _this_, is the Ios crystal..." he gestured to the lake; the water surface rippled with shimmering green, pink and yellow lights before a giant white crystalline obelisk rose from out of the water and hovered up into the air. The crystal looked like two obelisks stuck end to end with two shelf-like structures surrounding its widest point; the whole thing was over two hundred feet tall and over eighty feet at its widest. The crystal was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before; its white surface shimmered with every colour imaginable while under its glassy surface countless streams of cybertronian glyphs rippled up and down while countless other alien symbols and glyphs swirled all around.

"Whoa, that's some crystal!" Togusa breathed

"This is the gateway to the Nexus, a dimension that leads to multiverse, where all time, space and reality exist as one and the same; in other words, the great crossroads that lead to all universes, realities and voids. All that ever was, all that is, and all ever could be and ever would be exist within here..." Alpha Trion smiled, "And from this great cosmic gateway, I have a parting gift to give to you and your people..."

Holding his staff up high, and raising the other up in the air; the air around the white mech began to hum as the wind picked up and a multicoloured aura began to swirl and grow around his form. As the wind grew stronger, the crystal slowly hovered across the lake and came to a stop five hundred feet above a wide stretch of ground some two hundred yards away; there it began to spin while a white aura began to pulsate around it; from the bottom obelisk a white laser-like light shone out and spread to encompass a perfect circular area over five hundred yards in diameter. A blinding flash of white light lit up the whole caldera for a spilt-second, before everyone rubbed their eyes/optics and marvelled at the sight that lay before them...

On the edge of the lake a giant pure white circular platform stood out from the greenery, in its centre a giant five hundred foot tall white obelisk stood stretching up to the sky and around the edge of the platform a row of various species of cheery trees stood in full bloom, each in various shades of pink and white, and on the lake-side of the platform a giant white Japanese dragon sat gazing up at the obelisk. Its curling body stretched all the way down to the water's edge while it held a pearl-like orb in its front left claw.

"Whoa! What is _that_?" Boma gawked

"A little something I've been working on this past week. It is a memorial to the past, a reminder of the present, and wisdom to guide you into future; this is a place of remembrance and enlightenment...Come, take a closer look..." the ancient mech gestured as he walked over to the strange structure. As everyone approached and got a better look at the obelisk, they saw the giant platform was covered in thousands upon thousands of rows of cybertronian glyphs, and the obelisk too was covered in lines and lines of tiny writing of some kind. As the Major stepped onto the platform, she jumped when the whole platform lit up in a pale blue glow and a whole load of vivid blue three metre high holoform panels shot up, creating a maze of semi-transparent panels that were covered in Japanese writing.

"Whoa, pop-up info boards" Hailey thought aloud, when she stepped onto the platform the writing changed to English, "Info boards that know our native language?" Morri quirked an eyebrow.

"All the languages mankind has ever spoken, and illustrations to better grasp some of the more complex points" Alpha Trion gestured to a set of animated images that displayed the Autobots fighting a group of hybrids.

"This is data storage bank" Batou realized, "All we did, everything that happened, is stored in this as a giant holo-projector"

"Not just everything that happened here this past month; but the history of Cybertron and the war, as well as the history of earth and its people are all here to be read and discovered" the white mech replied

"And all the different languages, it's meant to be read by anyone" the chief thought aloud as he read a line of text in his native Japanese.

"Anyone and everyone; for those seeking answers as to what happened a week ago, all they need do is come here, read our stories and our histories, and make up their own minds what happened. Freedom is the right of all sentient beings, and everyone has the right chose what they believe; some will believe in the truth, others will not, but at least there shall be no more secrets. This gift is meant to serve as both wisdom, and a warning of the consequences of our poorer decisions; and those who wish to erase the knowledge of this memorial, will have to contend with its guardian..." the white mech gestured to the dragon, "So long as he stands guard, he will never permit anyone to destroy this place, nor allow it to be kept a secret from the world; remember, wisdom is the light that cuts through the darkness of ignorance and intolerance, and the lessons that our histories have to offer must never be taken for granted, for it is by learning from the past, that your people will be able to look to the future with a greater hope"

"What are all those on the obelisk?" Becca pointed to the writing on the obelisk

"Those are the names of all the lives the Spark Eater ever took, since the very beginning, up until last week" Alpha pointed to the obelisk; walking through the holoform's to the towering structure, Morri squinted as she read the tiny lines of names. Gazing up at the rest of the solid structure she gasped in astonishment; 'Where there really this many?' she thought offhand, running a hand over the writing she gasped when the names lit up in a soft blue light and the holoform-image of a child's face hovered before her; running her hand over another name, the image of a soldier's face hovered next to her shoulder. She ran her hand over several more names and saw several more faces before she sighed in acknowledgment at what this particular feature was meant to illustrate.

"This is incredible..." Batou smirked, "But, you do realize telling everyone to take us at our word about this place isn't going to be a stroll in the park?" he asked

"Well, that's for them to decide; if they seek answers then they're here if they want to learn them. The truth may not be an easy thing to accept but it's better than some other alternatives; and I sense that may be the scenario for quite some time to come as everyone readjusts to their lives. The events that happened here have changed many things, not least the understanding of the integration of technology and sentient life, and how that determines the future from here will depend largely on the will of the populous; organizations like Section 9 will be in demand for quite some time to come" the white mech replied

"Is that your wisdom talking, or are you seeking a peek into the future as we speak?" Deathshot smirked

"Hm, mostly an educated guess based on the current facts and how their likely to lead to another scenario..." Alpha Trion smirked before his expression turned serious again, "But from what I have glimpsed into this world's future, things are going to quite uncertain for a while; as your science will be reviewed and rewritten, so many opinions will be challenged and amended, old prejudices will be questioned, and new ideas will be heard and tested. But be warned, innuendo and cynicism can damage trust and faith, and for just as many doubts and half measures have been laid to rest by what happened here, just as many new problems and complications will arise. It will not be easy; the road of progression has many twists and turns, and just because someone has the well-being of the future at hand, does not necessary mean they have other people's well-being in mind"

"Who?" the Chief asked

"Ah ah ah, no spoiler-alerts..." the white mech smirked as he wagged one finger, "All I can say is, the evil smile of the villain who twiddles his moustache isn't hard to make out, but those who cloak themselves in good deeds to camouflage their true intentions are even harder to pick out; remember, deception is a master that wears a thousand faces, and the most deceptive of them all is virtue"

"That maybe true, but it's not like we haven't encountered worse. After everything that's happened I don't know what could possibly top our experiences" the Major replied

"Oh I can think of a few..." Ashley smirked with a sly look in his red optics; the Major shot him a deadpan look while the other agents and kids chuckled.

"In any case, regardless of whether Section 9 stay's instated or not, we'll always be around to make sure everyone gets back up on their feet okay, and to keep tabs on all the creeps who'll be crawling outta the woodworks...But what about you guys, what's gonna happen when you get back home?" Batou asked, the kids glanced at one another, then over at the elders, and smiled.

"Meh, we'll get by" Miles shrugged

"Considering very few people know about the rift, probably not much if not some paperwork to take care of" Lennox offered

"What about the 9? Are they gonna be okay?" Batou's Tachikoma asked

"That's-, probably not going to be so easy..." Prowl sheepishly thought aloud, "Being in stasis for over twenty five thousand years is a long time to be brought up to speed, and with the war over adjusting to civilian life's not exactly going to be an energon picnic"

"Whatever obstacles lay ahead, we will meet them as they come" Optimus stated confidently

"And what about the Decepticons? Won't they still be an issue?" Togusa asked, the bots all glanced at one another for a brief moment before Jazz spoke up, "Only if they wanna make an issue out of it; after what we went through together-" he glanced down at the drones with a smile, "We might have to reassess a few things, like our policy on defectors? We probably might make it a little more 'approachable' for those who want out of the cons, as well as anyone else who comes to earth not wanting to fight"

"That'll be the day" Mirage scoffed

"Hey it could happen! Primus knows there were many cons that went AWOL after Megatron left to find the Allspark, what's to say some of them don't want to be left in peace?" Skywarp retorted

"Besides, with the Allspark well and truly gone and Cybertron dead for good, even the dumbest con will have to realize there's not much point in continuing the fight; even if they want to be just neutrals, there's not much point in fighting a war that no longer has a prize" Ravage offered

"In any case we're gonna have to do some major extension work to the base, god knows it's gonna be cramped with all the bots as it is" Epps added

"Just as long as there's room for my pets to run around, I don't mind" Majestrix smirked

"Pets?"

"I have to admit, I'm still getting used to the idea of those lil' creeps being one of the good guys now" Smokescreen quirked an optic ridge at the drones, who simply looked up at him with the most angelic smiles they could muster.

"That might be an overstatement; reformed yes, but good? ..." Morri deadpanned when she caught a glance of the stink bombs tucked under Buzzsaw's left wing, "...Eh, we'll see..."

* * *

A/N: Incase you noticed, I started using _Italics _in general punctuation now :)

R&R Please! ;)


	81. Chapter 80: Loose Ends Unbeknown

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

Warning: strong swearing here, and maybe there.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 80: LOOSE ENDS UNBEKNOWN

"Well, this certainly turned out differently than originally expected..." Suzuki Sato said offhand as he leaned towards the large window and watched the city of New Port disappear among the clouds down below, "Of all the shit that could've gone down, it all ends in a blinding flash of light" he huffed as he propped his head on his hand.

"That's your _only _concern? We were lucky to get outta that place before those things stormed the building!" his partner, Watanabe pointed out in a less than pleased tone, "Never mind how it all ended! ...Still, we've got other concerns now; like how the hell are we gonna spin what happened in the bay?"

"We can't. The whole damn world knows about it now, and even worse, Kayabuki's too damn ballsy to step down from any form of intimidation now; and even if we could find a way to spin the situation around to put the political odds in our favour, our own country was just as much affected by the 'net blackout' as everyone else" Sato huffed in ire.

"We lost twenty one ships in that battle, over one hundred and fifty five thousand naval personnel as well as over seven hundred soldiers; there's no way the top brass will be able to pin it on Japan, not when half of their own fleet went down fighting alongside our own...But still, sticking around to help with the clean up sure put a good spin on the Empire's image, and the administration's spin doctors have been having a field day with the media" Watanabe offered

"That's something I guess..." Sato thought offhand; an (android) air hostess came out with two cups of coffee and gingerly placed them down on the table in front of them, bowed respectively and went back to the forward cabin. With the mood on the aircraft already tense as it was, the flight back to America was not shaping up to be a good one.

"Oh please..." a snarky feminine voice drew their attention as one of the other agents made her opinion known, "They did save our lives. Not that I'm thankful but if we had known about that 'pretender' we could've been able to spin the situation to our advantage"

"With _those_ things right outside the door? One could literally turn invisible in the blink of an eye, one had a giant flaming axe and the rest could've easily made mince-meat out of us! Even if we had the odds in our favour we were in no position to do anything otherwise...besides, I didn't know about that thing anymore than you did, so don't presume to guess that we could've been successful" the agent growled

"You're just pissed because nothing went to plan; from the outset I warned you that this was insane; those things not only turned out to be aliens, but were there to stop an even greater alien threat, one that very nearly wiped out our entire naval fleet! Even with the big guns at our backs those creatures outnumbered our combined forces two to one, we were lucky to get out of the Prime Minister's residence in one piece; and thanks to you two fucking morons I'm going to have to explain to my superiors how we couldn't even secure a bunch of snot-nosed brats!..." the woman stated venomously, the tone of her voice didn't escape the agents notice as they regarded her with equal distain, "Besides..." she continued in a calmer tone, "...To stop that so called 'Spark Eater', they froze the entire net everywhere across the globe for over seven hours...Seven hours. We and everyone everywhere was completely in the dark; no comms, no e-links no anything. And you know which one of them did that? The fifteen year old with the antique prosthetic leg...We were dealing with something we were totally unprepared for, we assumed we knew what was going on and how to handle it accordingly, and we rushed in like idiots. It was bad enough we assumed Kayabuki would bend over backwards if we showed up with enough clout and the threat of military action; manipulating the Japanese constitution by way of the Intelligence Department's central data-forum by including that article 46 was risky enough, but going to the trouble of trusting someone like Hidaka was dangerous and stupid. He may have been a reliable assent to this agency in the past but I always knew one way or another the consequences of his greed would catch up to him eventually"

"So what? your suggesting we shouldn't have relied on him? If it wasn't for him we wouldn't have known about the Autobots in the first place! If he hadn't gotten the idea to put those machines up for auction we could've handled this very differently; we were willing to match his asking price and then some! We could've had them out of the country within forty eight hours if you hadn't stepped in and botched everything up!" Watanabe retorted.

"Now now Watanabe..." another gentleman interjected from where he sat near the back of the small passenger jet, his seat facing one of the larger windows with his back to the rest of the group, "...Don't let your pride get the better of you, Miss Everton was doing you a favour; those machines both outgunned and outnumbered your special forces units, and even if you had taken them their friends would've come looking for them eventually. It doesn't pay to mess with the wolf if you aren't prepared for the teeth, and Section 9 certainly wouldn't have stood by and let that happen so lightly. Remember, Kusanagi is one of the foremost Class-A hackers on the planet, the fact that she took a liking to the children would've made her a very dangerous enemy if we'd done anything to overstep the mark. As I'm sure your aware, Mercy..." he said in a deep smooth voice as he turned his chair around to face the other agents, his face was obscured by the shadows but his large wide frame and smart suit indicated importance and acknowledgment. To his right side another woman leaded forward and made her presence known; her fair milky-pale face was complimented by golden yellow hawk-like eyes and a head of bright red hair trimmed into a neat bob-cut; her slim sexy build was only accentuated by the skin-tight black and charcoal grey body suit with lilac sides and fingerless gloves, a simple tan trench coat covered her otherwise provocative dress-sense as she reclined in her chair like a cat eyeing a saucer of milk. From the off-sized proportions of her hips, breasts and limbs it was clear she was a fully prosthetic cyborg, and from the look of the dummy barrier she wore around her neck she seemed to be quite the talented hacker. She regarded the stranger with a content hum and a less than reassuring smile.

"Indeed..." she purred, "I have to admit, of all the things she was capable of I never imagined her being good with kids; but the fact that she took such a liking to the Briggs girl certainly proves she has more morality than I originally thought. I have to confess it's a real shame we couldn't capture and interrogate her, I'd be interested to see just what it is she's has to offer that made Motoko as pleased as she was; but then again, this could be a very great advantage if we ever need any leverage against her in the future. God only knows I certainly haven't forgiven her for that little 'stunt' she pulled on me in Prague"

"It's certainly an idea to put a pin in for another time, but with the aftermath of the 'net blackout' still being felt globally, it might be a good idea to keep our heads down, not least with the top brass" Sato replied pointed out.

"Oh please..." Miss Everton scoffed, "They knew just as much as we did what was going on behind closed doors over this past month; when they said they wanted to keep the data on this on the down low, they meant _everything_"

"Wha-, but why did you-"

"I didn't-" she smiled, "...Who do you think authorized that nuke to be fired at Dejima seven months ago?" she taunted them, the looks on their faces delighted her while Mercy silently savoured the moment as she grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"You don't mean it's-..." Watanabe gasped, unable to spit out the rest of his words.

"-You guessed correctly, and seriously Watanabe, did you _really_ think I wouldn't have stepped in without _his_ approval?" Miss Everton gazed at him in slight disbelief, "After all, he was one of the first ones on sight the night that message beacon arrived, and standing right over it when the Autobots subsequently took it. Procuring that site where the 'rift' occurred was risky enough, everything else before then was just as dangerous. He and the others lost a great deal of money because of the Autobot's escape, and no thanks to Hidaka we lost out on the opportunity of a lifetime by not being able to procure those aliens. Believe me when I tell you, once he's done chewing your superior's asses out, he's going to be baying for you blood" she glared at them both venomously.

"You bitch! How could you do that to us! After everything we did for you, this is how you repay us?" Sato spat angrily.

"Hey, Mexico was a long time ago Sato, a lot has changed since then; and if you were under the impression that I had any form of loyalty to you for that little favour, you're very sorely mistaken. My loyalty is reserved only for _him_ and no one else" The blond woman sneered

"I can certainly testify to_ that..._" Mercy teased with a sly grin

"Ugh, not know Mercy, I'm not in the mood" she glanced at the cyborg woman with a deadpan look.

"So..." Watanabe interjected, "What are we going to tell_ him_? The Autobots leave to go home tomorrow so any chance we have of capturing them now is very slim if not damn-near impossible"

"Capture is out of the question, even _he_ knows any attempt to capture them at this point will be doomed to failure. No, the Autobots must now be considered a loose end that will remain indefinite. We however, have other, more _promising_ things to look forward to" the stranger replied, the CIA agents glanced at one another in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Sato asked, the stranger gave a discreet nod to Mercy, who reached down the side of her chair and produced a silver chrome briefcase; opening the locks, the case opened to reveal seven cylindrical vials sat snugly in protective package-foam. Each vial contained a thick gooey liquid with tiny shimmering 'flecks' the size of pollen dust, each a different colour and each were linked up to a small monitor of some kind.

"What are those?" Watanabe frowned

"The future gentlemen..." the stranger smirked, "While you two were running around like headless chickens amid the chaos of the 'hybrids' attack on the Prime Minister's residence, Mercy was able to slip in unnoticed and retrieve these nanites. Part of the Ainsly boy's 'emergency kit' that was given to him by the sniper-bot, these vials fell out of his backpack when the GSDA's central command centre was attacked and all but completely demolished" he informed them.

"And, what's that one? It looks more like blood" Watanabe pointed to one of the vials, all the other nanite-liquids were semitransparent, but one was deep red and had a slight crimson glow to it.

"That's because it is..." Mercy grinned, "While I was keeping tabs on the action, the Briggs youngest underwent-, well, shall we say, quite a 'remarkable transformation'; and while that doctor-bot was keeping an eye on him, he took some blood, and I took it before he realized what had happened; in any case it wasn't easy, but it'll be so worth it when we get the chance to see what these little gems can do" she gleefully purred.

"Consider this your peace offering for my constituents upon our return to the Empire; I'll settle the details with the others and explain the situation to _him_"

"But-, why would you of all people go out of your way to save our asses?" Sato glanced at the stranger in confusion.

"Because gentlemen, your incompetence and brashness is only matched by your ability to weasel your way out of a tight situation and salvage anything of usefulness. As we all recall, seven months ago we came so close to achieving our biggest accomplishment imaginable, to hit the reset button and to shape the Japanese economy to fit our needs. The defence contracts and weapons manufacturing deals we had lined up in readiness for the civil war against Dejima had taken months to line up, having Kazundo Gouda manipulate the public, the government and the refugees was an even greater ploy that took me years to put in place, and a lot of grovelling to him no less! Losing him was a real blow to us, and the others. A man of his particular intelligence and vision is a rarity in this day and age, and after all the trouble I had to go through to limit the amount of damage-control Section 9 had created; I can assure you two, I am no mood to hear your whining or complaining. Make no mistake; I am _not _doing this for _your_ benefit, we still require the CIA at our disposal and you two are the only ones in our pockets who have Alpha-Level access to above-classified data in the Pentagon's stand-alone data network, as well connections to the Special Force's special weapon's unit" the stranger growled venomously, the ire in his tone told the agents he was in no mood to be messed with.

"You think these could be put to some real good use huh?" Sato smirked

"Real good use is an understatement gentleman; these aren't just nanites, this is _alien technology_, capable of being transmitted as electronic waves and reassembling at a predetermined point. Multiplying like a fertilized ovum from a single-celled unit to become a multi-cellular organism in a matter of minutes, and even combine with human tissue to become living weapons controlled with a single thought. Once we learn what makes them tick, the possibilities for their application are endless" Miss Everton smiled eagerly.

"So we're back in our 'benefactors' good graces then?..." Sato smirked, "Does this mean you'd like us to get in touch with our friends in 'special weapons unit'?" he asked.

"Very much so, when the time is right; for now we will keep our heads down and let the world recover from what's happened. You'll return to the CIA, hand in your reports and carry on with business as usual; I'll return to the others and inform them of what we've acquired, and once we have a strategy in place we'll contact you. Despite of the 'Dejima deal' falling through, I still have some contacts who might still interested in helping us, as well as one or two others who might be intrigued, and might prove useful in the long run..." the stranger stated in a calmer tone.

"Sir?" one of the other CIA agents poked his head out from the forward cabin, "We've got Washington on the comm, they say it's urgent and they need to speak to both right away" he informed them

"Okay, put the terminal setting on B and set the scramble frequency to point 9" Sato informed him, "Right away sir" the younger agent replied, "If you'll excuse us both, duty calls" the agent smiled in smug tone as both he and Watanabe got up from their seats and went through to the forward cabin, as soon as the door closed behind them, Miss Everton and Mercy both glanced at the stranger with knowing looks.

"So? How long are we going to keep them for?" Miss Everton smirked

"For as long as needed; Dejima was one thing, but this will become something far more that anything anyone has ever seen before. We can't afford to trip up on this one, there will be far too much at stake to simply gamble away on a whim" he replied

"You said that about Dejima; and Project Sunset" Mercy pointed out

"Project Sunset was merely an incentive to entice those I needed in my thrall, as was the Ares project, the Chimera intuitive, and the A11 Alpha virus. Sometimes you've just got to put out the right bait for the right fish to bite, and if we do this right the rewards will be unlimited; we could do far more than just push the reset button, we could shape this world to suit whatever we want, remake it even"

"What about escalation?" Miss Everton asked.

"Escalation?"

"If this is going to change the world we won't be only ones who know of this technology's existence; sooner or later someone's going to catch wind of this and come sniffing around" she pointed out

"I'd already taken that into account, which is why I invested so much time and money in having Mercy upgraded to the very latest military-grade Class-A cyborg body with the very latest in cutting-edge software and hardware, as well as enhanced strength and endurance. You see, what many people don't realizes is that while there may only be a handful of Wizard-class hackers in the world, Mercy is _the_ Wizard-Class that ranks above them all; her cyber-ESP is unrivalled and unmatched, even by the likes of Kusanagi" he smirked

"You really hate her don't you?" Miss Everton grinned

"Not as much as I do, and I can assure you the minute I get the opportunity to repay her for what she did to me, all those years ago, you can be sure I'm going to take my time and make sure she suffers to her last" Mercy purred in contentment.

"I'm sure you will my dear, but for now we must consider her and Section 9 a loose end to be taken care of another time. We're going to have much more pressing matters to attend to once we get back to America, and I'll need you to guard these nanites with your life while I take care of the necessary arrangements" the stranger replied.

"Anything for you darling" she purred as she closed the case and stashed it under her seat.

"What about _him_? Do you want me to take care of the usual details?" Miss Everton asked.

"No, I'll handle_ him_ personally; he'll want to know about the nanites first before anyone else. But I will need you to square up the financial details with our contacts in the CIA and Pentagon, they'll want their usually fees increased if we're going to be using them on a regular basis from here on. Much of the ground work we lay down on this will determine how well we can keep this covered and within our control; we might have to initiate the deep-cover protocol if we're to work in relative secrecy, and the others will have to contribute if they want to share the profits of the results" the stranger thought aloud.

"Will you need any help? I could probably ghost-hack a few brains if you ask nicely" Mercy smiled

"A generous offer my dear, but it's nothing I can't handle; just a lot more grovelling and having to throw a lot more money around. But your government backing however, will no doubt come in usefulness; see if you can get in contact with any of your 'former colleagues' and see if their looking for any work. They will be paid handsomely for their discretion of course, and if they have no qualms with undertaking certain 'off the record contracts', they will have a bright future in my employment" he smiled.

"Oh I don't think they'll refuse..." Mercy smiled with glee, "...All we need now is a bottle of Champaign and this would be perfect"

"First rounds are on me as soon as we land, I know this nice little wine bar not far from the airport, they serve the finest Cava this side of France" Miss Everton added.

"Then it's a date ladies, for we have much to celebrate..." the stranger smiled as he turned his chair to face the window while the two women started talking between themselves and Watanabe and Sato re-entered the room, sat down and took a sip of their coffee as they listened to their female acquaintances chat...

...But nobody noticed the stranger's glowing red eyes as he gazed out of the window, nor the silver mercury-like veins that throbbed and pulsated under his skin...

'...One day-...' he thought venomously, '...I will return...And when I do, this whole world will bath in its own blood; for _no one_, denies _me_ my destiny! One way or another I will find you, Autobots, and when I do...I will bring hell with me...'

* * *

O.o...R&R Please!


	82. Chapter 81: & So We Come To The End

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

Additional Disclaimer: Matti belongs to JillTheCrazy1

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

CHAPTER 81: AND SO WE COME TO THE END

"Okay, yesterday this thing was over two hundred feet tall, how the hell did it shrink like that!" Hailey gawked as she held the Ios crystal in one hand, its pristine glassy surface shimmering in every colour as it hovered an inch above her palm, while Jay-jay sat on her knee watching the now tiny crystal in fascination.

"Anything is possible when you know how to apply the cosmic energies of the universe; and understanding how size and mass work in this reality can go a long way" Alpha Trion smirked as he clicked his fingers and the crystal flew from the blond teen's hand and right into one of his subspaces.

"I still think that's so cool" Becca thought aloud, "And practical too, at that size it could be hidden anywhere and a thief would be none the wiser" Becky added as she handed the sparkling her sippy-cube of energon. "Indeed, now if you young ladies will excuse me, with my check-up complete I have an appointment to keep with Optimus" the white mech waved goodbye as he left the med bay.

"Shiny-fing gone" Jay-jay squeaked in disappointment.

"Oh its okay sweetie, I'm sure you'll see it again sometime..." Hailey cooed, "Besides, you got your mommy back now, and when she wakes up, she'll be so happy to see you" she reassured her as she gestured to the unconscious form of her creator lying on the birth nearby.

"Mammy gonna be happy?" the little femme squeaked curiously.

"Yeah sweet-pea, mommy's gonna be very happy" Hailey replied as she took the clean rag from the table nearby and wiped away the trickles of energon that appeared at the corners of the sparklings mouth-plates as she downed her energon; at the moment she took the last gulp, the sound of Annabelle and Mizuki playing with the other kids outside the room instantly grabbed her attention. Chucking her sippy-cube to one side she dashed out the door and joined them in flurry of giggles and squeaks. Becca and Becky followed her out to keep an eye on her while Hailey put the rag back on the table and turned to face Ratchet who was busy organising some creepy-looking surgical tools and putting them back in their respective tool boxes; she climbed up the edge of birth and stood next to Swiftshot's helm, the sound of the spark and energon pump monitors ticked over gently as the air in her vents came out so soft and quiet that it was barely audible. Glancing at her sideways and seeing the look on the young human's face, Ratchet had a good idea what she was about to ask.

"...Will she ever wake up Ratchet? ..." she asked softly, the Ratchet put the tools down and sighed through his vents, coming over to Swiftshot's side, he glanced down at her with sympathetic look in his optics.

"...It's hard to say; what she used specifically to offline herself in the first place is still a mystery, in all likeliness she must have had an EMP baton; when thrusted into the spark chamber directly it can snuff out a spark instantaneously while leaving the rest of the body and central systems intact" he replied frankly

"Would she have been in pain?" she asked with dread in her voice

"No, it's quicker that falling into recharge, and since the spark doesn't feel physical pain she wouldn't have felt anything" the medic reassured her.

"...I guess that's a small reassurance, but now that she's got her spark back she'll be okay right? Why's she even in a coma in the first place?"

"That's somewhat trickier to answer; it's not unusual for those who've had their sparks reignited to suffer from fluctuating energon residue in the spark chamber while their sparks readjust to their normal level of pulsation. But for some reason her central regulating systems are locked in stasis, that's always a classic indication of CPU damage"

"Damage? Like what?"

"We'll know as soon as we get her back to the base and I can do a complete thorough scan of her entire infrastructure and systems; but for now your guess is as good as mine, it could be anything from a piece shrapnel lodged in her helm to organic infestations. You know it's not unusual to find some types of funguses growing on a bots motherboard"

"Gross!" Hailey grimaced

"Eh, nothing a bit of laser-spot treatment can't cure, in the meantime her spark's healthy so she's out of danger..." the medic lightened up, before he returned to his work, Hailey simply looked down at the femme and sighed as she listened to her breath, and let her own thoughts turn to Jay-jay and her future. The sound of the children playing outside drew her attention away, and as she glanced outside the door, she watched as Jay-jay and the other kids were climbing all over Skywarp, giggling happy and swinging and jumping all over the seeker's frame like little moneys. Curious, she watched as Jay-jay stretched up to hug the mech around the neck, squeaking and cooing in contentment while he simply stood there and took the kids hyperactive excitement in his stride; it was clear this wasn't his idea of fun, but he wasn't making a fuss and telling them to get off either, he was just...okay with it. As she watched the cute little scene, an idea began to formulate in the back of her mind.

* * *

"It feels weird to be going home; I mean, it's a relief and feels good, but it doesn't feel right leaving you guys, and it sucks that you're a universe away, and that once we're back in our own universe we won't be able to come back. Ever..." Darren sighed in disappointment as he packed the last of his things away.

"It sucks for us too kid, I'm pretty sure the Chief would've asked you guys to join us if you hadn't come through a wormhole" Ishikawa replied

"And I'm pretty sure I would've taken him up on that offer, but NEST already has me on their pay-grade list and I don't think they'd let me go _that_ easily" the teenager smirked

"...So what are you going to do? When you get home I mean?" the veteran hacker asked.

"Well, I think I might give maturity a go, I hear it's the way to go if you really want to prove to your superiors you're with the programme..." Darren joked casually, before he stopped and turned to face the hacker with a more frank look, "But really? ...I don't really know. For starters I've got a few things to think about, like how I'm going to explain to my mom and dad that for the last two years I've been working for both the government and a race of transforming alien robots as one of their tech-support, and that one of them's my guardian"

"That's the breaks kid" Ishikawa shrugged

"Yeah, right..." the teen huffed before lightening up, "...But, after that, I've got some other stuff I need to take care of, but after that I'm not entirely sure; just take whatever comes and deal with it as you go I guess? ...What about you? With no HQ what're you and the other's gonna do?"

"We'll manage somehow, we've been without a HQ before, we'll pull our resources and figure something out; though after what happened this past month I wouldn't be surprised if the military approach us with any offers"

"Which you'll turn down no less"

"We wouldn't have it any other way, and the chief would be caught dead before he saw me, Batou or the Major go back to the GSDA; whatever name we go by or whatever budget we have to work with, one way or another this country needs a unit like ours, after all the chaos the battle stirred up the police will be stretched as it is, and someone's gonna have to keep likes of the Yakuza and any would-be terrorists in check, as well as put the American's back in line, though from the way Kayabuki's been overseeing the clean-up operations I think they'll be a loose end to take care of later"

"I wouldn't want to be around for when that happens" Darren grimaced slightly

"Neither do I..." Ishikawa thought aloud, "...So, you all packed?" he asked, changing the subject

"Just about..." Darren replied as he looked down at his bags and noticed there was nothing left to pack. For a moment the two hackers glanced at one another, knowing this would be the last time they spent in each other's company; neither regarded each other as a kid or an old guy, a rookie or a master. Instead, they had that look in their eyes that told each other that they were equals; that they both trusted and respected each other, because both knew they'd earned it from the other. "Your not going to get sentimental on me are you?" the young hacker joked

"Seriously?" Ishikawa quirked an eyebrow

"Nah I guess not" Darren shrugged, "...But it's been fun all the same. We should do this again sometime"

"Yeah, defiantly" the veteran hacker smiled, knowing it wouldn't be true, but he didn't mind; and neither did Darren.

"...But, there's still one thing I didn't get a chance to investigate further; during the fight, when we were trying keep the vaccine stable against the Spark Eater's online assault, what _were_ those 'ghost programmes' that showed up? And where did they come from?" the teen frown in slight bemusement.

"You know? We couldn't figure that out either; afterwards, when we helping to get the GSDA's main servers back online I took a snoop around the barrier arrays to see they'd showed up anywhere, but they had all gone. And the weird thing was even though the dummy barriers had recorded every keystroke ever typed and listed every type of programme, virus and software write-up during the fight, there was no record of any of those things anywhere and there wasn't any evidence that the software in the barriers had been tampered with online or otherwise"

"Seriously? That's weird" Darren thought aloud, "But, probably not very surprising; and call it a hacker's hunch but I've got a feeling those 'ghost programmes' might not be a one-off"

"You might be right. There's gonna be a lot of other kinds of 'one off's' that'll probably start showing up here and there; with the net being frozen solid for over seven hours there's no telling could've happened in that time, or before or after when the Spark Eater laid down the worst of those attacks"

"It's daunting, which makes it suck all the more that we have to leave; I hate to leave a question hanging without an answer"

"Then I'll guess I'll just have to pick up from where you left off..." Ishikawa smiled, "And see if I can find those answers instead"

"Considering it's you, I don't think I'd mind that..." Darren smiled as he picked up his bags and headed out the door, "Just as long Aramaki gives you a raise for your troubles"

"Heh, that'll be the day"

* * *

It was quite a sight, probably the only one she would ever see in her lifetime; watching the two giant alien space ships as they sat on the open ground, the Autobots were preparing the last of their pre-flight prep-work while the GSDA kept the whole area clear for over two miles. On the hillsides and highways beyond the cordon lines the citizens of New Port had come out in their droves to see the spectacle, some had come out of sheer curiosity while others had merely come to stake their claim that they were there, the day when the 'visitors' returned to their own world, and the media too were standing by, waiting for something, or anything, to happen. From where she stood on top of an armoured truck, the Major hadn't left her post for most of the morning, making sure everything ran smoothly and that no one disturbed the bots.

"Still as vigilant as ever..." A familiar electron voice purred behind her, "Despite the fact that there's not a single unauthorized human for miles around, you still think some poor fool's going to try his luck and attack?" said Ravage as he leapt up onto the truck and sat next to her.

"It could happen; humans can be tenacious when motivated by their convictions, regardless of whether their moral compass is pointing in the right direction or not" she replied as she scanned her eyes over the scene.

"True; and it's a good excuse to avoid the subject that you don't do goodbyes very well..." he purred; she dropped her gaze in thought, unable (or not willing?) to acknowledge that he was right. "...It's always easier to say hello; but when it's time to leave, being sentimental always make it that more difficult"

"Is that your way of saying you'll miss me? Or is your sentiment still the same as before?" she smirked

"Please. Being emotional is for weaklings, and if it's the other's your concerned about, I wouldn't recommend hiding away; you've made more of an impression on them that you think" he replied

"How did you-..." the Major glanced at him in surprise.

"-With that white point chip in my CPU, your mind is like a data pad scrolling at ten pages a second, nothing is secret from me anymore. And you've certainly changed; you've not been the same since you were hacked...You may be blameless and the circumstances were not your fault, but I still sense the guilt weighing down your thoughts..." he pointed out

Silence

"Your friends, plus all of us risked our lives to save you; and though you are thankful, you don't feel you are deserving of such forgiveness, not because you nearly killed us all, but because you weren't aware of the Spark Eater's hold over your mind, and that you failed to act upon it...Get this through your thick helm, it's not your fault what happened, and don't think for one minute that you deserve punishment for it. Your friends know you too well, and just like everything else that happened it was a very unique set of circumstances. If this had been any other time or place it would be questionable, but this time you've nothing to ashamed of. They forgive you...and I forgive you" he stated, she glanced sideways at him with an unreadable look in her crimson eyes.

"...Perhaps, so why do I still feel bad about it?" she asked

"Because, believe it or not, that would be the morality of your humanity talking; it's a handy little reflex of the human consciousness that reminds you that your actually a 'good person', and not as bad as you let yourself believe" he smirked.

"I could say the same about you..." she lightened up a little, "Your certainly not the same as before...But then, I think perhaps, this is who you always were..." she smiled, Ravage glanced at her in curiosity, now it was his turn to be intrigued as to what she was talking about, "...It's been no secret that I couldn't figure you out, and to some extent I still can't completely make sense of you. But the thing I did notice, and failed to acknowledge, was that you did care for the kids; especially Ashley. Being who I am and the career I have, assuming the worst of people's more negative qualities is near-second nature, if it looks like smoke and smells like smoke then it's no question that there's a fire nearby. And I have to confess I didn't want to believe that something, or someone, with so much of a history could be capable of changing for the better..." she thought aloud. Ravage tilted one ear to the side as he considered her wisdom, and idly gazed over at the space ships as his own thoughts began ticking over.

"...The last order my creator gave me before he died, was to survive and live no matter what; when I came to earth and discovered Frenzy was still alive I made a promise to live for him, and to ensure we had our freedom, even if that meant seeking refuge with our former enemies; anything else didn't matter. Until we came here..."

"And now?"

"And now, I'm not entirely sure what the future holds for us, but I do know I don't have to look forward to prospect of more fighting; and being a 'bot' isn't as bad as it's cracked up to be I guess. I have my brothers back and that's all that matters to me at spark. But I will have responsibilities to maintain though, and not just to my brothers; Ashley will need help adjusting to his new 'situation', and since his new exo-protoform armour is formatted to my design he'll need help figuring it out"

"I'm not so sure, he looks like he's got it figured out to me" the Major smiled as she watched the cyber-enhanced twelve year old run across the grass on all fours, chasing after the swifts that were darting and flitting about over the wide open pasture while Lazerbeak and Buzzsaw chased after him in playful banter.

"He may have grown comfortable with his new exo-protoform armour, but he will have to learn how to handle the finer points of being part hunter-drone; for now though he can have his fun, because I certainly won't spare the rod when he starts 'drone school'" the panther purred with a wicked smirk.

"My condolences to him" she smiled, "so...are we cool?" she asked

"...We're cool" he smiled

"Ha! Pay up! He made up first!" Glen's voice drew their attention to the back of the truck, where he and Miles were crouched down low, and in the middle of exchanging a twenty dollar bill while Pazu and Batou looked like a couple of deer caught in the headlights.

"Uh? Hi guys, what's shaken' up there?" Glen smiled nervously.

"I don't know, what's shaken' down there?" the Major raised an eyebrow

"Uh nothin much really, just- uh? Showing Miles how to check to for a counterfeit Twenty dollar bill!"

"Yeah, you'd be surprised how easily those things go around in circulation" Miles nodded

"Really? So you're not settling a bet on which one of us would make peace with the other first?" Ravage grinned

"What! *Pfft!* No! What the hell gave you that impression!" Miles waved off with an uneasy smile.

"Miles your mind may be a labyrinthine of typical human teenager mentality and impulsive happy thoughts but I _do_ know a lie when I sense it" the panther coolly reminded him

"So how long has this been going on for?" the Major glanced at the agents with an unreadable look.

"Um? Since we moved the kids from the first safe-house; it's kinda been a way to pass the time" Batou grinned nervously

"What? The Spark Eater wasn't enough for you guys?" she raised an eyebrow

"No no! It was just-"

"-Just a bit of fun?" Ravage grinned with a deep purr, "Hm, well, you've had yours, now I think I'll have mine..." he chuckled as he leaped off the truck and chased after the two younger males.

"What the hell did those two do?" Matti pondered aloud as she watched Miles and Glen take across the open field, squealing like a couple of little girls as Ravage chased after them, snapping at their backsides as they tried to find some cover.

"Don't know, but I'm guessing it's their fault somehow..." Morri huffed in deadpan tone as she watched the two males run around like headless chickens. "Anyway..." she lightened up, changing back to the subject at hand, "So what are you going to do with your time once you get back home?" she asked

"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure; when I first joined you guys I thought I'd be kept strictly as an advisor or something; I never thought I'd have such a 'firsthand' part to play; but what Alpha Trion said yesterday, about how he practically set the whole thing up from the start and how we were all important in making the plan work, kinda got me thinking...Do I really have courage of the heart? All my life I've been so cautious about everything, and everyone bar big brother and mom and dad. I've had firsthand experience at seeing, and experiencing the darker aspects of human nature, and when I finally had a chance to live my life for me I was still afraid to completely let my fears go...but after all this..." she glanced over at the space ships, "...I'm not sure if I'm the same person I was before, I'm still me but at the same time I'm not; is that how it's supposed to feel? When you find your courage?"

"I suppose, but I've not lived the life you have so I can't honestly say; to be honest I can't really remember a time when I was absolutely scared. I mean, I've had my qualms, worries and initial fears along the way, but I've always been more curious than cautious...I can remember, I watched this news broadcast of some guy who'd been brought to trial for killing a woman he knew, and I asked my Grandma, 'why did he kill her?', and she replied, 'because he's evil, that's all you need to know'. I probably should've accepted my Grandmother at her word, but deep down her answer just didn't satisfy me, for the rest of the day I pondered on what had lead that man to do what he did, what his motivations were and what had happened in his life to make him who he was; and ever since then that's how I've always approached people who needed figuring out" Morri thought aloud

"Yeah, you're kinda good at that; did you ever consider becoming a shrink? You'd make a damn good one" Matti smirked.

"The thought hadn't crossed my mind before; but I've been giving some thought to something along those lines; I'm not sure what exactly, but something productive" the brunette shrugged, "What about you?"

"I'll probably go back to my job for the time being, but I'm thinking I might try moonlighting at 'other things' now that I have no shame in my 'gifts'"

"What kind of 'other things?'"

"Counselling of sorts, helping those who've 'departed' and are kinda 'stuck' where they are; even in the afterlife people need help to work out their problems so they can 'move on'" Matti replied with a knowing look, "I don't know where it'll take me; but hey, it might be interesting" she smiled.

"That. I have no doubt about" Morri smiled, for a moment the girls watched as Miles and Glen were now being chased by Ashley as he bounded over the grass like an antelope, or rather like a playful kitten as he glomped Bluestreak by the face.

"...What's gonna happen to your cousin when you get back home?" Matti thought aloud, the slight hint of concern in her voice didn't escape Morri's attention. "I don't know yet; but I get the feeling we might have to sit down and thoroughly talk about it. Ratchet say's this a pretty unusual and unique, and I'm incline to think this might bring up new complications, but whatever goes down, we're gonna be staying with him on the base, no matter what happens we're still family, and we ain't going anywhere without him" she replied

"Amen..." Matti nodded, "...I get the feeling he may like his new 'look'" she smiled.

"That's another thing I'm worried about..." Morri sighed in exasperation, to which Matti couldn't help but chuckle. "...-Oh, there's something I want to give you before we go..." The brunette said as she straightened up, reached into her pocket, and pulled out a small yellow envelope; "...I've been thinking, about what Alpha Trion said yesterday; about how our choices shape the future, and how it's important not to take your choices for granted. I know we've always got a choice in life; but sometimes, when we reach our low-points we feel we don't have any choice at all, and that we must consign ourselves the inevitable...For someone who doesn't give herself a lot of credit for trying, you are undoubtedly one of the bravest people I've ever known, and I'm not just saying that okay? From the get-go you had your worries, like all of us; you fretted you procrastinated, you even held your own against the Major and she's not someone you can look in the eye without losing your bottle" Morri explained, "I know, I still can't believe I mouthed off to her that day after the first attacks on the city" Matti stared off into space in wide-eyed bemusement. "...Yeah, well in any case-" Morri continued, "I've no doubt you'll be okay, but just in case life gets you down, and you feel you can't do anything; I want you to read this..." she handed Matti the envelope, "A long time ago, when I was at my lowest and I felt I couldn't do anything right or please anyone, my dad gave me an envelope just like this one, and he told me that it contained the single most important thing that would ever matter to me in life. The one thing, that in the end would always be true, and that no matter what anyone else said, it could never be taken away from me; and the next time I was down, I read it, and sure enough he was right; since then it's always reminded me that anything is possible, as long as you remember to bare the contents of the envelope in mind. But just remember, only read it when you feel totally down, and you've got no options, no choice, or even no hope...I can't promise you the words inside this envelope will solve all your problems, and chances are they probably won't, but they will help you to remind you of who you are, and what your capable of. All I ask, is that you won't take them for granted, okay?"

"Okay..." Matti nodded as she tucked the envelope into her back pocket. Morri was about to say something else when she stopped, sniffed the air and scrunched her nose in disgust; sniffing the air to see what had alarmed her, the scent of rotten eggs suddenly came wafting by. "Oh Lordy! What the hell-" Matti exclaimed, and paused when the towering forms of Ironhide and Springer loomed over them with hard deadpan scowls upon their face plates, and absolutely stinking of rotten eggs. "Uh? - Hi guys" Matti nervously smiled, "I uh?, take it the stink bombs didn't wash off too well?" Morri asked cautiously, "Oh they washed off alright, the one your smelling is the one that slipped down behind my engine and got stuck under my rotor shaft" Springer grumbled, "Oh yeah, the one we couldn't fish out" the brunette realized, "Yeah, that one..." the bot scowled, "If you ask Ratbat nicely I'm sure he'll be able to-" Matti stopped when she saw their scowls harden even more at the mention of the drone's name, "...Uh, never mind" she waved off. "One hour and we're off, okay?" Ironhide grumbled as he and the dark army-green bot walked away, and once they were out of ear-shot, the girls looked at each other and tried to stifle their fit of giggles.

"Man, I'm gonna miss you guys..." Matti chuckled as she watched the bots ready the ships, and smiled as they watched Scorponok and the Tachikoma's scuttle and frolic about, chasing Annabelle, Mizuki and the other kids across the wide open pasture.

The hour seemed to fly by with the work, much to everyone's disappointment; the kids and their Autobot guardians had gone through all the notions of departing and giving their final fair-well's to those they'd come to call their friends. And the Section 9 team too had a hard time (in their own discreet ways) letting go of this band of brave and extraordinary souls and sparks. To have come so far, to have endured so much together, it didn't feel right that they had to leave, and the occasion was made all the more remorseful by the fact that they were never going to see each other again after it was revealed that Wheeljack would decommission the DRD soon after their return.

But it wasn't a completely sad occasion; as the Autobots and their charges said fair-well to the agents, in a strange nostalgic kind of way they didn't regard each other as youngsters or elders, nor as inexperienced or too ridged and 'long-in-the-tooth'. But rather, as equals that had earned the right to regard each other as such, and to have faith in each other's ability enough to trust them with their lives. As he watched the heads of the military forces and the Prime Minister give her personal thanks to each of them, Optimus couldn't help but feel a little wave of pride well up in his spark, and a smile tug at the corners of his mouth plates. Finally, when all the official business had been taken care of and the cordons had been moved further back to allow the ships as much room as possible to take off, the Autobot rescue party and back-up party boarded the ship, and waited for the humans and their guardians...

"You sure we can't tempt at least one of you to sneak aboard? You know the landing gears not up yet, there's enough room for at least three people on each one?" Bluestreak asked ruefully with a small smile.

"That's very generous, but I think we're good..." the chief smiled, "-THAT GOES FOR YOU LOT TOO!" he called over the Tachikoma's who were all huddled onto Omega Supreme's giant undercarriage. The tanks all jumped off and sullenly waddled over to the kids.

"Aww! Do we have to?" all the Tachikoma whined.

"Unfortunately yes" Batou patted his favourite tank, "Believe me it's a tempting offer, but we got plenty of stuff here to do"

"Yeah, like keeping you outta trouble" Ashley grinned as he approached the ex-ranger; at ten feet tall he looked down on the cyborg with a light smile, but his red glowing eyes then turned to a mixed look of gratefulness, and heavy heartedness, "...You know, it ain't gonna be the same without you around" he offered.

"I know..." Batou smiled ruefully

"Dad's gonna miss having you for a drinking buddy" he added

"I know...you look after your old man you hear me?"

"-And don't put him in a home when he's past it?" Ashley smirked

"Come on, can you honestly see a guy like your dad wanting to retire, even when he's past his best?" Batou raised an eyebrow.

"Nah, I guess not..." Ashley chuckled lightly, "And I seriously don't think you'd go for it either"

"Hell no, I'm way too lovable to be shit-canned" the ex-ranger grinned. Unexpectedly, Ashley leaned down and wrapped his arms around the man in a huge bear hug; Batou was a little taken aback at first, before he returned the gesture and a sense of wistful happiness passed through the back of his mind.

"...I'll miss you big guy" Ashley whispered in a half-sobbed voice as a single tear escaped his eye and trailed down his pale metallic cheek; "I'll miss you too kid..." Batou smiled as he stood back up and patted him on the shoulder, "...You're gonna be something incredible, you know that?"

"I think I do...and you know what?, for a guy whose all circuits and metal underneath, your way more human than you give yourself credit for; no matter what anyone says, please don't forget that okay?" Ashley smiled as he swished his tail back and forth. "I don't think I will..." Batou gazed over at the top of the rear entrance ramp leading up into Omega Supreme's undercarriage and saw John leaning against the ramp's hydraulic system, arms folded and with a content smile as he regarded the cyborg with a satisfactory nod. "You better go, don't wanna keep the old man waiting" Batou grinned, "You don't wanna keep the little sister waiting either!" Ashley called over his shoulder, dropped down on all fours and bounded up the ramp like a kitten with his tail up high and the blades kinked forward.

"Guess you won't be crying over us any time soon huh?" Sam regarded the Chief with a light-hearted grin; the old man approached the teen and gazed at him with a nostalgic look in his eyes. "A wise man once said: true goodbyes are the ones never said or explained; thus I bestow upon you all my best regards for the future, I would say I wish you the best of luck, but you don't need it"

"True; and that certainly sounds like the kinda goodbye we were expecting from you" Mikaela smiled

"And it's the only one you're getting, so no more of this hanging around or we'll never get rid of you all" he smirked as he shooed them off, and they made their way up the ramp with their guardians close behind, waving goodbye as they passed the agents.

"See you around sniper..." Deathshot smiled down at Saito

"Not if I see you in the next life" the human called back, as the Autobot Sniper stepped aboard the ship Morri approached the Major, and the two women regarded each other with that knowing look: the kind that only good friends share, and know what they truly mean by it.

"...So? What's your ghost whispering right now?" Morri asked softly

"Can't you guess?" the older woman raised an eyebrow.

"I think I can, But I know I don't have to say it, because I know you won't either. And that's okay" the brunette smiled as they both shook hands, the briefest of moments passed before a look of heartfelt honesty filled her eyes; "...Thank you. For saving our lives..." she said frankly as she fought back the tears.

"...Thank you for saving ours..." Was all the Major found she could say as she lifted up one hand to Morri's face and stroked one of her bangs behind her ear; the tender softness of her fingers conveyed her warmth, the likes of which was rare for a woman of her stoic nature, but in that one moment Morri could see her for all she truly was. Sensing Ravage's familiar telepathic presence in the back of her mind, he gently came up alongside the forefront of her conscious self, and through him, saw the true Motoko Kusanagi...

A ghost in the shell; radiant in white, pristine yet demure in nature, mysterious with far reaching depth of the mind, and every last bit the human she was.

And in that one moment, something inside began to hurt a little; she'd never see this extraordinary person ever again, as an untold future unfolded before her eyes she imagined all the adventures and cases they worked together, and all the good times they'd have together: never to happen, never to be known...never to be...

Pure white cherry blossoms filtered through her mind as the panther's astral projection faded, and in its place the crimson-eyed woman stood before her. He slipped out of her mind like smoke on the wind, and a feeling of content peace echoed across the ether as he rejoined his brothers.

"ARE YOU QUITE FINISHED YET? WE GOT TO GET THIS PILE OF JUNK UP IN THE AIR!" Majestrix rudely bellowed out from a loud-speak on the side of the Black Solstus as the ships main thrusters fired up, and Omega Supreme's own engines began to rumble to life. "TEN SECONDS 'TILL LIFT-OFF KIDDO!" Jazz called down the ramp, at that, Morri leaned over and placed a small kiss on the Major's cheek, catching her by surprise.

"I know you wouldn't have done it, But I did cuz that's the kind girl I am!" Morri called back as she ran up the ramp, as she reached half-way up the ramp closed up swiftly, until a loud hiss and a THUNK! Indicated the undercarriage had sealed shut. The Section 9 agents and everyone else present made a mad dash for the safety lines as the engines began to rumble louder and louder; they just barely made it behind the concrete safety barriers before a huge down-draft of hot air blasted over the top. As the two ships hovered up into the air, Omega Supreme slowly turned in a wide arc as the Black Solstus, being towed behind by the huge coupling cables attached the stern of the giant bot, adjusted its position in preparation for take-off; as Omega's starboard side turned to face the open green field, the agents could see the figures of the Autobots and the kids standing in the windows, waving frantically and hollering like crazy. As the agents waved back, all at once a collective cheer went up as the far-off crowds waved and hollered too; the Prime Minister, the heads of the military all stared on in astonished silence, but only the Chief and Kobuta smiled, knowing what they were cheering for.

When the ships finally straightened out Omega's main thrusters unleashed their full power, with a thunderous roar the two ships glided into the sky and started climbing up in a wide arc; a powerful boom echoed across the nearby city as Omega broke the sound barrier, and the two ships zipped up through the clouds and disappeared above the atmosphere, a long glowing blue vapour trail being the only indicator of their presence. As the crowds died down, everyone watched as they glided across the sky before disappearing in a flash of green, pink and yellow, followed by a much larger flash of light, and then nothing more...

**: This is control calling in; we just got confirmation from the radar, their gone sir...:** a voice called over one of the comm frequencies.

**: Very well, stand-down and begin the clean-up protocol...we're done here, nothing else to see...:**

* * *

48 hour later:

"So this is the little 'hidey-hole' the humans allotted you?" Majestrix smirked as she gazed down into the gorge, "For such meagre dwellings, it's certainly spacious" she purred with a satisfactory nod.

"We are grateful for their generosity Majestrix; beggars cannot be choosers, and with our freedom on this planet greatly limited, we were thankful for this gift of good will" Prime replied matter-of-factly.

"Yes, a thank you present for saving their city from my brother and his cronies" the femme grimaced before an unreadable look came upon her sleek fair features, "...I still cannot believe the Witwicky boy held his own against him like that; not least being aware of what would happen if he had failed"

"Sometimes we do not truly discover our true courage until the moment of absolute fear is upon us; being afraid, and knowing that there is something more important at stake than being afraid are two different things; and I believe that deep down, he knew what he had to do in that one moment, and he became that much stronger for it" he wisely stated.

"As did the others..." she sighed ruefully, "...You know, in the brief time I spent being connected to Alpha Trion's mind via his 'spirit-spark' link; I glimpsed at the humans in both this world and the other. Through him I saw them live their lives down the centuries and watched as they evolved and adapted; despite their inherently violent nature and their weakness for war, I saw them become that little more enlightened with each passing year, and with every decade a new form of understanding and reason had slowly settled into the forefront of the consciousness of their society. And all the while I couldn't help but wonder just how much similar they were-, are to us: how we were, before the war" she thought aloud.

"The contrast is quite stark, which is all the more reason why we must protect them, from anyone wishing to continue the war"

"Well that won't be much of a problem, with all the members of your original division all alive and well, who would dare stand up to you little brother?" she smirked

"As encouraging as that is, you of all people know better than to be so wistfully optimistic Majestrix" Prime pointed out ruefully with a melancholy look in his radiant blue optics.

"...Indeed..." Majestrix sighed sadly as she turned her gaze over to the still form of the Black Solstus, which had been landed behind Omega Supreme, at the north end of the gorge; "...What am I going to say?, when they awake from stasis I'm going to have to tell them the truth: who I am, why I put the 9 together, and why I've had to hide all these eons...To an extent I'm not sure if I made the right choices, they were, and still are the best warriors in their fields, their results and proficiency unquestionable; but they did the right things for the wrong reasons, and more than once it very nearly cost us"

"I do remember: that one time I had to come to the Balkarr Que system to oversee that court-martial concerning two of your snipers" Prime thought aloud; Majestrix snapped her head round to face him with a look of bitter anger in her crimson optics.

"I still haven't forgiven them for that-" she growled venomously, "...As far as I'm concerned their _still_ on notice for that particular transgression, and if they over-step their mark like that again they _will_ pay dearly!...For so long they, along with half of my division regarded all other Autobots with contempt because we were the finest of the finest, lethal and efficient in ever sense of the word, and because of it we became as much a fear as the terrorcons, even the rest of our own faction became terrified at the prospect of meeting one of my warriors..." she seethed before pausing to calm down and take deep breaths through her vents. "...Contempt is bad enough, but when it costs lives its unacceptable...I didn't help create the 9 to become the stuff of ghost-stories rookies tell to pass the time on guard duty. We were meant to be the fighting elite that served _you_ from the shadows, to be _your _optics and audios where you and your soldiers couldn't be, and to be the driving force behind your power-...I never meant for it to go the way it did..." she shuddered in bitter resentment.

"I know you didn't..." Prime assured her as he gently wrapped one arm around her shoulders, "...Despite where you come from you're not your brother; I know that, and I've never forgotten it. All these years I know you made the choices you made because they were the right decisions for all concerned, regardless of how difficult the situation became. There may have been times when you doubted your choices, and even doubted yourself, but not once did you forget to not lose faith in yourself; your courage, wisdom and resolve have always kept you and your soldiers strong, and they are grateful for having such a capable and good commander to lead them" he stated; for a moment she looked at him as if he had taken leave of his senses before chuckling lightly, "Capable and good?..." she smiled, before a look of uncertainty filled her optics and the smile dropped from her face. "...Forgive me brother, but they will not be singing my praises when I reveal to them the true nature of my family 'relations'. In case you have forgotten, the one thing that _always_ kept half my warriors going was the prospect of destroying Megatron, and _anyone _close to him: being his twin sister is as close as you can get, and not even Soundwave could trump that fact" she grimaced slightly.

"Your, as the humans like to say: 'making a mountain out of a molehill'. You're their commander; they trusted you all these years and they will come to understand the reasons for your secrecy" he stated

"Right. Like the reasons they trusted Blackjive when they discovered Malacewing was his brother? ..." she raised an optic ridge sceptically; at that Optimus paused, and an unreadable look came upon his face as he dropped his gaze, unsure how to reply. Majestrix heaved a heavy sigh and shook her head in disbelief.

"...That one truth lost him the respect of half the division; forget that he had served us loyally for over a millennia, the very fact that he had a Decepticon for a brother made him all but an outcast. Half the division wouldn't even look him in the optics, forget trusting him to cover their backs ever again..." she sighed bitterly, "Even if I reveal who I really am and I survive their initial shock; I won't be in any position to issue them orders let alone punish them for any insolence, because it won't be me they see, it will only be_ him_!" she spat.

"And you think that if you do or say anything to curb their insubordination, it will only confirm that you are as bad as Megatron used to be?" Prime asked softly; Majestrix turned her gaze away, unwilling to reply.

"Majestrix, you must not torture yourself over how this situation may or may not transpire; are you so sure that they will be prejudice of our shared background? Megatron was my brother too remember? And many of the Autobots under my command are aware of that" Prime pointed out.

"Prime, it was common knowledge that you and Megatron were brothers long before the war ever came about, _I_ kept my head down for my daughter's sake! To allow them the chance to grow and pursue their own destinies; _not_ to live in the shadow of their uncle's legacy. That disgrace I can put up with, like I've had to put up with everything else in my life because of him, but my daughter's do _not _deserve to carry the burden of our family's disgrace! To be collateral damage for the creeping moral decay that has held back any hope for a peaceful future" she growled before she calmed down a little, "...And with the Allspark gone, we have no choice but to embrace such a future..."

The sound of laughing and giggling grabbed their attention, as down below in the flat bottom of the gorge, the kids and their guardians were playing with Annabelle and Jay-jay, chasing them in and around the undercarriage of the giant ships while they played tag. For a moment the tenseness of Majestrix's agitation seem to slip away, and the soothing cool winds blew over her heated engines; soothing her irritated nerve.

"...Do you think what Alpha Trion said was really true?" she thought aloud

"What's that?"

"That the Allspark really had no intention of continuing to live? I may have been linked to his mind for a brief time but I had no awareness of the Allspark's being, or its demise...Did all that death and suffering over the eons really persuade it to end its life? If it did, was it out of desperation to escape? Or to punish us all for our transgressions?"

"I cannot answer that Majestrix; but if there's one thing I've learnt from experience it's that there has always been a reason for why such profound undertakings have occurred, and there has always been a reason for everything Alpha Trion does, even if we cannot see it"

"I'll admit, for one who has never held a gun in his life he's certainly capable of holding his own in the thick of things...So if the Allsparks power's really does belong to the earth now, where do we go from here? What's left for us?"

"The promise of a future, and the prospect of peace; Jay-jay is the first sparkling to be onlined since Bumblebee and Bluestreak and she is the first new generation to be seen in over a millennia. Her ancestry may be of Cybertron but she was the first sparkling to be born here on earth, her life and her future are intertwined with us, and the humans. If we cannot forge a peace for ourselves we can at least make sure that she will never have to bear arms in her lifetime, that she will know peace and to have the freedom to live and to pursue her own ambitions"

"Hm, you never truly forgave yourself for Bumblebee and Bluestreak becoming soldiers did you? ...You are aware that was _their_ choice, I know you didn't persuade them to become Autobots" she softly replied

"But it was _because_ of me that they chose to risk their lives so many times over in the name of the Autobots and Cybertron, and nearly died because of the pursuit of my ideals; I may be leader of the Autobots but I am _not that_ important that anyone should have to risk their lives just for me" he ruefully sighed in lament.

"Optimus Prime, still as selfless as always..." she smiled warmly as she stroked his cheek plates with one clawed hand, "It is because of you and that supernova-sized spark of yours that everyone cares for you so much; you have earned their respect, trust and friendship more times than I can count, and each one of them would gladly follow you into the depths of the pit: not out of obligation to the Autobot cause, but because they care for you as their friend. Bumblebee and Bluestreak always knew the dangers they were going up against, but you trained them well, and they are still here now because of you. Don't let the ghosts of the past hang over your spark, they died in the belief that peace would one day be returned to our people, and now it has" she assured him, "Don't short change yourself because you couldn't save everyone; not all lives are destined to survive in war dear brother, and while our loses were greatly regrettable, they did not die in vain"

"Neither did Blackjive..." Prime pointed out, she looked at him in slight surprise, as if caught off guard; "Which is why you owe it to him and his family to try your best, I cannot ask you to be perfect, no one is ever perfect; but you now have the opportunity to make amends for past mistakes. Your past may not have been a happy one, but that does not determine who you are, or how you chose to live your life. If you are still apprehensive about approaching your comrades with the truth, then I will be at your side to lend guidance; but you have more virtue than you give yourself credit for, your temper may get the better of you sometimes, but not once have you ever allowed it to consume you. For all the onerous troubles and spark-ache you've had to endure, you've still proven yourself to be one of the finest commander's I've ever known, as well as the dearest sister I've ever had" Prime smiled as he softly cupped her face in his hands. For a moment they both gazed into each other's optics in silence before Majestrix let out a sigh of defeat.

"You haven't lost your gift for orating pep-talks dear brother..." she smiled, "Alright Optimus, we'll try it your way..." her face then turned serious, "But I'm warning you here and now; this isn't going to be easy. Getting use to 'civilian life' will be one thing, but coming to terms with the fact that we can never return to the way things were before, is going to take some getting used to. I know some of them will able to accept this new life and adjust to it as such; but the rest will need guidance"

"Then we will be there for them, as will our new friends..." he directed her gaze down into the gorge, where the human children were still horsing around.

"Do you think they will be as accommodating to the 9 as they have been to you and your troops?" she thought aloud offhand.

"I'm sure they will come understand them, as they have come to understand us; they will simply need time and space to accept them upon their own terms. Our species may be worlds apart but they are not so different, under the hood and skin we both have much in common, and I know both our peoples virtues will come to light, they just need the opportunities to realize them"

"...You know, in all the time I watched the humans through Alpha Trion's optics, one thing stood out the most..."

"What was that?"

"You're right; they really are like us, and at the same time they're so very different from us. I can see how my brother would've despised them..." she turned to gaze at him with an honest smile, "But I can see why you love them"

"For such small beings, they stand as tall as giants" Prime smiled

"Some taller than other's..." Majestrix raised an optic ridge as she watched Miles scrambled up the top of the Black Solstus's rear port-side stabilizer and began dancing like a crazy man, singing some incoherent song that was too far away to be made out clearly, "Somehow, I get the impression that life around here will be anything but dull" she smirked

"You have no idea" Optimus chuckled as he watched the humans and their Autobot guardians play and laugh together, behind them the sun set on the horizon, and all around them, a feeling of good karma rose up on the desert winds, and carried their laughter far up into the sky.

* * *

In the other world:

"So where do we go from here?" Batou thought aloud as he leaded on the railings, "After all this, I honestly can't see what lies beyond tomorrow, forget the rest of the week"

"Me neither..." Togusa sighed as he took a swig of his drink, "My head's still spinning from the day before last..."

"How's Mizuki?" his partner asked curiously

"Alright now; she was pretty upset when she realized the enormity of 'forever is a very long time', but I think she's going to be okay" the detective offered

"You know, I still can't believe she and the other kids had the guts to go on that journey and actually take on one of the hybrids; with that kinda spunk I'd hate to be you when she finally becomes a teenager" Batou grinned wickedly

"Don't even get me started on the prospect of that-" Togusa deadpanned as he downed the last of his drink, "...It's bad enough she was begging me to keep one of the Tachikoma's, just several hours ago she came to me begging to take karate lessons"

"What did you say?"

"I'll consider it, maybe when she's thirty five" the detective shrugged, to which Batou chuckled "Ah the joys of parenthood; glad I've only got Matti to worry about"

"How's she doing?"

"Same as everyone else, missing them like crazy, but-" he hesitated

"What?" Togusa probed

"...It was weird, she was bummed about it, but okay with it in a way. I've never seen her take something like that-, so well before" he thought aloud.

"What did she say to the Chief's 'job offer'?"

"Well you know the old ape, he doesn't waste any time when he sees something of an opportunity in someone that shows promise. And Matti, being her usual self, was a bit of everything"

"A bit of everything?"

"Yeah; everything all at once: scared, shocked, amazed, and totally flipped. She might need a few days to wrap her head around it all, but after everything she's been through, I got a feeling she'll be okay..." Batou smiled as he took a sip of his drink, and an unreadable look came his over his hardened face; "...Come to think of it, she's been a lot more 'okay' compared to before all this...I guess this whole thing really made her realize just how much guts she's got, and way more spunk than she originally gave herself credit for"

"And do you think she'll be okay?" Togusa asked

"...I think so..." Batou smiled in satisfaction

"...What about Aoi? Did he take up the Chief's second offer this time round?"

"Not necessarily, I think; he said he needed to take care of some stuff first, with everyone still reeling from the global net-blackout this would be a perfect opportunity for some pretty unsavoury characters to start taking advantage of the chaos; and he did say he'd made enemies. Personally, I think he just wants some time to think about it" Batou replied

"What makes you think that?" Togusa raised an eyebrow

"Well, he didn't exactly say no this time, so perhaps? ...Maybe?" Batou flashed him a cryptic look, to which Togusa smiled. A moment of silence passed between them as they watched the evening light bath the city in gold; high overhead the clouds drifted north-westward towards the coastal mountain range, and out in the bay several naval ships were anchored over one of the sunken wreaks, one of the many salvage operations that would be busy for quite a long time to come.

"Are they gonna raise the ships?" Togusa thought aloud

"Only the ones that the portable pontoons can carry, word is they might leave the air craft carriers and destroyers in place; too much wreckage...and too many dead" Batou sighed quietly

"...I asked Mai if she could put my black jacket and tie aside, I got a feeling they're gonna be used a lot over the coming weeks"

"Yeah, I better get myself a new tie, but with practically the whole city shut down for the clean-up operations no one's open for business"

"I can loan you one of mine, Mai likes to make sure I've got three of each colour and I don't think she'll mind, just so long as you don't get any stains on it" Togusa smiled.

"Thanks..."

"Paying our fare-well's to those we lost will be one thing; but what really concerns me is what their gonna do with Alpha Trion's 'parting gift'. No doubt the military will want to study it down the line, but will they be so willing to let hoards of strangers come from far and wide to see it? And to allow them to read the holoform chronicles contained within it? ...I can't help but think, for all the wisdom Alpha Trion left us and all the good it's meant to serve, it's also an opportunity for all kinds of new trouble to arise" Togusa sighed in wearisome unease; "But-, it's not like we didn't anticipate another Pandora's box would open in the aftermath of all this..." he added.

"True, and everyone's all been worrying about it enough that the PM announced yesterday that she would be putting Kobuta in charge of a new unit specially tasked with guarding the 'parting gift'" Batou announced.

"Already?-" Togusa looked at him in surprise, "...I'm surprised she took up the Chief's hints so quickly, and to get through the paperwork in record time"

"She's certainly a capable lady, and after her performance dealing with this past month I gotta feeling the cabinet and the board members of the ruling party will be voting her in for a second term; god only knows she's got some serious balls after standing up to the American's the way she did, and for what this whole experience has been worth I got a distinct feeling the American Empire will be keeping its head down for quite a while. Not least because that business with the security treaty is still open, and I don't think the Prime Minister will be forgiving them for that" Batou frowned

"They really gave themselves a black eye on that one; I wouldn't be surprised if the article 9 issue is scrapped altogether because of it..." Togusa placed his glass down on the table behind him. "...Still, at least the CIA won't be poking their noses around our doorway again"

"Amen..." Batou nodded as he took another swig of his drink, "...You know, your kinda different" he offered with a small smile.

"...I feel different" Togusa nodded, "...and I feel better for it. By the way, I promised the Tachikoma's I'd join them for a few games of chequers in the morning, providing we don't have any prior concerns; after that I promised a few rounds of laser tag in the firing range " he added

"Wow, you playing laser tag with the Tachikoma's? Are you sure you're okay?" Batou raised an eyebrow.

"Are you? ..." Togusa glanced sideways at him, Batou's smile dropped as an unreadable look came over his face, knowing who he was referring to.

"...I'll be okay" he replied offhand, "...I'm just glad he's okay, considering"

"Life's not gonna be normal for him, but then, what's normal about their lives anyway?" the detective shrugged, "...As long as they got each other, and loves in the equation, they'll be okay"

"That's the only reassurance that'll let me sleep at night; the fact that he risked his life to save both his father and me has been hanging over me like a spectre; but for once, I know I don't have to doubt what's happened. Sure I'll carry it with me, like I've had to carry everything else in my life because of the job I chose to do, but I know who he is, and I know he'll do good in his life"

"That's really not like you..."

"I know...but I feel better for it..." the ex-ranger smiled honestly; a moment of silence passed between them as they watched the san approach the horizon, and the gold in the sky slowly began to turn peachy pink.

"So..." Togusa changed the subject, "What can we look forward to when we start work again tomorrow?"

"The chief said something about helping out the Intelligence department sort out their server connections, helping to put their attack barriers back in order; and the GSDA's science division will taking preliminary scans and readings of the 'parting gift' while the new 'Arete project' will be setting up shop outside the caldera"

"Arete project?"

"Arete, after the ancient Greek spirit of virtue, goodness, excellence and valour; Kubota's made the outline of the project very clear. To take heed of what's happened and be grateful for the wisdom we've been given; no one's gonna be trying anything underhanded while he's in charge, he's even selecting the personnel from scratch and not going by the GSDA's NSC recommendations. I tell ya, it might be interesting to see a unit who's actually honest in their work ethic" Batou grinned

"As if we're any better, we must have broken protocol enough times over to receive multiple life sentences just for keepin the kids secret from the GSDA, forget what would've happened if they found out we were helping the Autobots"

"And would you do it all again?"

"...Hell yeah" Togusa grinned

"It's defiantly been an experience..." Batou smiled as he poured himself another scotch, "...and I look forward to the next one, be it in this life of the next; either way, I'm happy to wait..." he took a sip, and let the wind caress is face as the sounds of the city drifted up on the wind, and echoed across the sky.

* * *

The end is nigh!...Just one last instalment! R&R Please!


	83. Epiloge

Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's & the plot.

Warning: A bit of swearing towards the end.

* * *

SPARK IN THE SHELL

EPILOGE:

EPILOGE 1: WISDOM & WARNING:

The evening was an artist's dream; as peaches, pinks, gold, periwinkle purple and cobalt blue painted the sky in a blaze of colour as the sun shed the last of its light for the day; illuminating the caldera in the gold of old oil paintings and sending shafts of hazy light down through the trees and taller rock formations. The forest was at peace as the zephyr winds rustled the leaves in the tress and bamboo, the flowers slowly closed their little heads as the sun's light left them, and the high overhead the eagles glided in circles on the evening thermals, their cries echoing off the caldera walls and down into the forest below where all the other birds sang their evening chorus. On the north side of the lake, Alpha Trion's memorial site was lit up in the golden evening light like freshly fallen snow as it sparkled and shimmered with the colours of the sunset. Its white surface was like diamonds and marble as its smooth polished surface seemed to glisten with a strange crystalline-like gleam; denoting its alien origin as the cherry trees softly shed the last of their blossoms, their petals delicately falling upon the platform in a mix of pastel pinks and whites. All around and as far as could be seen, not a soul was around in sight...

Except one...

A lone figure slowly strolled through the long grass until he reached the edge of the platform; he stood a moment as he gazed up the obelisk and was struck by just how tall it was, as he stepped onto the circular platform the holo-projectors flared to life and the tall holographic panels of text materialized from out of the cybertronian glyphs. As he strode towards the obelisk, he walked through the holo-form projections, uninterested and unconcerned about their content; when he stopped in front of the base of the monument, he noticed all the names inscribed into the strange crystalline stone...

But out the corner of his eye, a large shadow caught his attention as its owner stepped around from the other side of monument; and gazed down at him with an unreadable look in his glowing blue optics...

"I thought you were gone?" the stranger asked, undaunted by the fact that a giant robotic alien was standing less than fifteen feet away from him, and looking down at him from over thirty feet high.

"Physically speaking yes; but one component of this memorial is fashioned from one of my own armour platelets, and all my armour bares the seals of Primus; thus, it provides a sufficient-enough beacon for my spark-spirit to find its way back to this world from across the multiverse. Ergo, I was able to remain here just long enough so we could have this little chat, Kuze..." Alpha Trion replied, as Kuze looked up at the bot, he could see most of the bots top half was solid, but everything from the waist down seemed to be semi-transparent. As he stepped out onto the platform, Kuze stood where he was; his stone-like face hardly gave anything away.

"...Why are you still here?" he asked in an unreadable tone

"I think we both know the answer to that" Alpha Trion stated

"You want to convince me otherwise of my choice of action?"

"No. We both know that will mean nothing at this point; You've changed much since your apparent 'death', and in more ways than one. I'm here simply here to offer you council and to make you aware of the ramifications that are likely to arise from your 'renewed revolution'...things may not have gone to plan on Dejima, but what makes you so sure this is the right way to go about restoring balance to the world?"

"Because I haven't given up hope"

"Of creating a new system that acknowledges the order of the super-structure and the base's intertwining natures? I don't disagree creating a new form of order that doesn't exploit the weak is a tempting prospect, and it would've been a realization that could've been seen within less than a generation; that is, if _this_ hadn't had happened..." the white mech gestured to the obelisk. "...The Spark Eater's actions may not have been your doing, but _you_ were the reason Section 9 and the Autobots very nearly failed" he frowned at the man.

"Why did you stop me?" Kuze turned to face the mech; his face still frozen and unmoved, but his voice now took on a more firm tone, "...You knew I could've helped them, so why did you keep me away?"

"Because what you had in mind would've jeopardised everything they had worked to achieve; everything that had led them up until that point had been carefully put in place beforehand, to guide them along the path of least resistance, and less danger. You have no idea how closely the Spark Eater was watching you, how intrigued it was that such a being like you could exist, fused to the net itself and yet not be deprived of your conscious awareness"

So why didn't you say anything to me sooner?"

"I would've done, but would it have persuaded you to change your mind? ..."the mech regarded him with a sceptical look as Kuze dropped his gaze, unwilling to answer.

"Kuze, you may have mankind's best interest at heart; but your newfound abilities do not permit you to play God with the lives of others; even if it's for the sake of doing what's right. Knowing when to help and knowing when to let events take their course is part of the responsibly you now bare, and as the leader of this 'renewed revolution' no one must appreciate the depth of that fact more than you"

"I have no intention of doing anything other than doing what I originally set out to do; you of all people must appreciate the ramifications of what has arisen because of the 'plan' you put in place to save us. Didn't you think it might not have been best to let events take their course and let us face the Spark Eater on our own terms?"

"And have humanity pay for our sins? Who would conceive of such a notion? ...Or perhaps you're forgetting, you're no longer a human Kuze, at least, not in the physical sense of the word..."

"And for that one fact, you would doubt my judgement because I've evolved to a different level of consciousness? That my understanding of the world and the net are so intertwined and far-reaching that I could never see anything less than everything? ..." the man frowned, "...I'm not innocent; as a terrorist I've taken lives and caused as much chaos, but always in the name of fighting for what was right of the refugees, and the rest of the world as a whole. And I'm certainly not making any excuses for the damage that would've been caused if I had been allowed to do things my way and take on the Spark Eater"

"But if you had done things your way, the truth would never have come to light, and all the children would've remained unknown. Their ghosts would've never been able to rest, knowing they had passed into the shadows of time forever forgotten"

"Forgive me if I lack any visible sympathy, but how would the truth of the kidnappings have served any good except to highlight the fact that humans have been nothing but genetic livestock for an alien entity seeking to reshape the world to its own suiting?"

"I'm not saying revealing the truth doesn't have its consequences, there will be many that will cry out in anguish and sorrow at what has been done here. But to forget that such evil ever exist is inviting doubt upon the future; as you humans like to say, 'those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it'. And I will be damned to the darkest reaches of the pit if I let what happened here come to pass, knowing full well I could've stopped it"

"Then why didn't you do it sooner? To hell with the vow you took, you could've done something, anything to stop that thing overtaking the earth while it was still helpless, but you didn't. Ignoring what had happened over the centuries, blindly disregarding the countless dead that have been left in that entity's wake, the thousand, millions that have unknowingly suffered; all that, and you couldn't think to break the rules in order to do what had to be done?" Kuze said accusingly. Alpha Trion's expression softened as a look of disappointment filled his optics, and he passed a rueful sigh.

"...You don't understand...I don't think you ever truly understood, just what was at play in all this as well what was at stake; you say I have been blind to mankind's suffering at the hands of the Spark Eater, but did you ever stop to think that your own morality hasn't suffered as a result of the path you have chosen to tread?"

Kuze blinked in surprise

"...I took the vow of Primus for a reason; because the responsibility that goes with all that power is all the more heavier by the fact I can only do so much without disturbing the balance of the world, and all other worlds, including yours. I have sacrificed much in my life in the name of my duty and servitude to the powers of fate and destiny, but at least I was willing to accept what came with the job...You however, had no comprehension of what you would have to sacrifice to become 'a new kind of being'; to be a being of higher consciousness, but of indistinguishable morality...Tell me Kuze, you have access to all the knowledge of the net, you can go anywhere and be in multiple places at the same time, you can ghost-hack any human to come and go in and out of the offline world as you please and you can do whatever you want within the near-infinite boundaries of the net. And yet, for all your power and freedom, your 'ascension' changed you in such a way that you gave up the one element that makes you truly human...Tell me, how does that make you feel?..."

"...Had I known back then, perhaps my choice would've been different..." the man sighed

"Different? Or merely belayed until you could find a way around it?" Alpha Trion raised an optic ridge, Kuze snapped his gaze up to him in disbelief.

"For someone who has not known his true humanity in over a lifetime, you certainly have the same stubbornness and determination of any all-natural human; a good quality perhaps? But that being said, that's not what vexes you..."

"...No...I was hoping, _she_ would understand..." he sighed as Alpha Trion stepped closer and kneeled down in front of him. "...Kuze, I'm sure if she had, things might have been different; but it wasn't, and still isn't your decision to force her to become something she's not. Her ghost is the only thing tying her to humanity, to _her_ humanity; Morri reminded her of that, and if you took that away, all those paper cranes you folded for her so long ago would've been for nothing. For someone who cared so much for the first girl he ever truly loved, you would be willing to deprive her of her heart and her life, just to be company for a formless ghost that haunts the shadows of the net?..."

Silence

"Kuze, if you _truly_ care for her, you will let her go. If your paths cross again by all means reveal yourself for what you truly are now, but at least allow her to make up her own mind for herself...You may be more powerful than any hacker on the planet now, but you are by no means _more_ than any human. That is now a fact of your existence, and no matter what you do you can never take it back"

"I doubt she'll change her mind, if this whole thing has proved anything it's that humanity's far more resilient; and a lot less prone to weakness than I originally believed"

"That just goes to show you. Not everyone may have what it takes to be a talented hacker, a brave soldier or even a gifted clairvoyant, but good talent can come from anywhere and in any form; do not doubt those who's intelligence doesn't hit the mark, for intelligence and understanding are two different things, and learning the difference is what makes for a good soul, compared to someone who prefers to take the easy way around everything" Alpha Trion said as he stood back up.

"So if comprehension of the impact of one's choices is the essence of this monument; what happens now?" Kuze turned his gaze back up at the obelisk.

"Now, the future is mankind's to do with what he will; there will be times where he will stumble, but for the most part, I'd like to believe he will learn from this. All we can ever really do is hope"

"I thought you said you could see the future?"

"Correction, I see many futures, but which one will come to pass always remains to be seen. Only _you_ know your own future, as does every sentient being who can understand the reasons why they chose to do what they do, they may question why afterwards, but the fact that the majority of us do what's right on impulse is a good a indicator as any as to where our sparks and hearts truly lie..."

"Perhaps, but what about the majority that don't?"

"The balance of all things in life corrects itself one way or another; whether through karma or some brief random turn of good luck, justice always finds its way to those who have to face it, and to those who are in need of it. And make no mistake; there are those out there that will get their comeuppance sooner or later"

"And in the meantime?"

"In the meantime, let the world get back up on its feet and find the bearings of its moral compass; there is much to learn and much to adjust to, but mankind is strong and will adapt in time. Whether you decide to take an active role in the changes remains to be seen"

"You don't think I can try to make a difference? Neither my objective nor my mind has been changed by the events of this past month, I still intend to continue with the revolution; especially now more than ever"

"If that is your wish, I will not stand in your way. But know this Kuze, if your revolution transpires the way you envision it; humankind will evolve, but it will not thrive. One way or another humanity needs its humanity to survive, to bare the horror of its own nature, and by the will of its own yarning, to strive for and appreciate the awe of its own virtues..." he turned his back to the man, "...And take heed, you're not the only one who's learnt of the super-structure's existence; others will come, and their intentions may not be so spiritually motivated as yours..."

"Duly noted..." Kuze replied unfazed, "You know? In some strange way, I hope we never have to meet again"

"You and I will not..." Alpha Trion sighed as he slowly walked away "...Peace be with you, Hideo Kuze..."

"Wait, what do you mean-" Kuze turned to face the mech but saw he was gone; looking all around he was nowhere to be seen. As the sun finally disappeared below the horizon Kuze was left alone with his thoughts as he gazed up towards the night sky, now shimmering with thousands of diamond-like stars; suddenly, a bright golden shooting star streaked across the heavens, leaving a golden trail in its wake...

"...I guess I'll have to wait and see...I know one day we'll meet again, but until then, maybe I'll fold some more paper cranes for you..." he thought aloud.

* * *

EPILOGE 2: A BOTTLE OF WHISKEY:

It was so quiet, probably the most quiet he'd ever heard in this place; but then, in all fairness he hadn't been here very long. For such a huge base it wasn't surprising the sound of metal feet on concrete carried through the corridors and passageways like thunder in a storm, even on the graveyard shift the distant echo's of the bots moving around could be heard, and sometimes felt if they were close enough. But tonight was different, tonight had been a night to breathe a sigh of relief and relax; 'the lost unit' had been brought home safe and sound, and the knowledge that they had saved a whole world from destruction had filled them with a quiet sense of pride, and peaceful contentment. The celebrations had been short and discreet; a couple of rounds of high-grade, watered down scotch and flat Pepsi , energon candies and some brownies from the cafeteria were the only edible perks, but nobody minded as they celebrated well into the night. Welcoming Majestrix Prima to the ranks, welcoming the new arrival Jay-jay, celebrating the memory of good friends, and ultimately, just enjoying each other's company again. As John reclined in his chair, he smiled as he watched his son, niece and nephews nod off in Deathshot's arms while Ravage sat curled up in his lap with his brothers piled on top, their happy purrs, squeaks and chirps denoted their contentment while nearby the other Autobots dozed off with their charges in their arms and laps.

Tonight was certainly a good night, and as he let his heavy eyelids close, he gently nodded off to sleep...

Hours later:

He awoke with a sharp intake of air, his subconscious dreams waking him from an otherwise peaceful sleep; as the rest of his mind and body awoke, he could feel he was still in the same uncomfortable metal chair with his whole top half slumped over Ironhide's leg. As he sat up and rubbed his eyes, he looked around and saw all the Autobots and humans had hardly moved from their places, slumped and propped up against one another in one big pile with the humans sleeping were they wouldn't get squished or crushed; though looking at the angles and positions they were sleeping in, it was clear there was going to be a few aching backs and necks in the morning. Looking at his watch, John saw the time 02:05 hours, and as he quietly got up and stretched his stiffened limbs he gently strolled out of the hanger and made his way to one of the kitchen units for some water.

As he strode down the corridor, a distant sound made his stop and listen: distant footsteps, human; but no one was supposed to be in this section of the base at this hour, who was it? And what were they doing? Curious, he softly stalked along corridor, following the footsteps and gradually keeping up with them as they made their way to one of the other storage hangers. Finally they entered the end-most hanger, the one where the Ios crystal had been placed in for temporary storage; now concerned as to what they were up to, John reached for the gun in his holster and silently came up alongside the door. But as he entered the hanger, he saw nothing but the Ios crystal hovering in the air a foot or so off the ground, and Alpha Trion standing nearby with his staff in his hand.

"Ah good, I was just coming to find you" the mech smiled as he approached, "You were?" John asked perplexed as he scanned the hanger a second time, where the heck did they go? "Uh listen; you didn't see anyone come in here did you?"

"Only you I'm afraid" the mech smiled

"But I could've sworn I heard someone come in here?"

"Must have been some curious soul wanting a look at the crystal; it's not every day one sees a floating crystal on this planet"

"Uh huh?" John raised an eyebrow in slight irony, "...Wait, you said you were coming to find me?"

"Oh yes, you have a visitor..." Alpha Trion gestured to the crystal

"A visitor?" John glanced between him and the crystal in confusion.

"Yes. A somewhat unannounced arrival considering this late hour, but he's very adamant to see you..." the ancient mech kneeled down and offered his hand to the Marine Sergeant, lifting him up onto the platform-like ledge that surrounded the crystal's widest width. As he stepped onto the polished surface, John was instantly aware of just how alien this thing way as a buzz of energy shot up his legs and through his spine as the crystal's power rippled through him like waves of electricity. All under its semi-transparent surface countless cybertronian glyphs rippled up, down, and across from left to right; "Just step on through, he's waiting for you on the other side"

"The other side?" John went wide-eyed, "Who the hell do I know lives in there? And how the hell do I get inside the damn thing anyway?"

"Oh this one you'll remember, he's quite a character; and as for getting inside the crystal, you just walk straight on through"

"'Walk straight on through'?" the human echoed in disbelief as he looked the surface of the crystal up and down.

"But there's no door-" he turned around, but saw Alpha Trion was gone, looking around, he was nowhere to be seen; John frowned in disbelief, how the heck did a guy that size disappear like that? And where to? Looking back at the crystal, he approached the surface apprehensively, but as he reached out to touch it, he nearly jumped when his hand phased right through the glassy surface. Looking more carefully, he saw the crystal's surface rippled like water every time he touched it. Taking a deep breath, he nervously stepped through the crystal's surface and onto the inside; all at once it felt just like slipping into a bath at room temperature, only it was vertical, which made it feel weird. Once on the other side he found he could breathe okay; but the scene before him was not what he was expecting...

Behind him the crystal's reverse surface was gone, and in front of him was a very familiar place...

"No bloody way..." he breathed in disbelief

As he walked along the old cracked and worn road, the light of the bulbous moon filled the dense forest with silver as the screeching of owls echoed through the trees. The sound of running water could be heard under the humpback bridge and the smell of wild garlic hung in the still night air. John knew this place, he'd passed through these woods a thousand times before, it was the main road to his home, and one of his favourite places to hike and camp. Following the winding road for another fifteen or so minutes, he eventually came to the hamlet of Rouges Roost, and to one of his favourite pubs; The Rouges Roost Inn. With nine tiny cottages and one pub, Rouges Roost was a quaint little picture-postcard hamlet, partially hidden from sight in the dense woods; the pretty little dwellings and their equally small gardens always enticed passing tourists to come and take photos, and to sample the local beer and menu. Looking around, the lights in the pub were still on and smoke wafted up from out of the chimney; as he approached, John couldn't hear anyone else around, although at this late hour he shouldn't be surprised, but still, he caught a glimpse of Mickey the barman through the window, changing one of the barrels.

As he stepped inside the mixed smell of beer, cooking food and musty old drapes hit his nose, and all at once the memories of all the good times he'd had in this place came flooding back to the forefront of his mind; bringing with them a sense of happy nostalgia, and belonging. The place was exactly as he remembered it, and like any typical old English pub it had a real 'lived-in' look: homely, quaint, and welcoming. Its walls were packed with old paintings and prints of the local landscapes and old black and white photos of local characters long-since departed, the old oak beams in its ceiling had a myriad of items hanging off dented nails and hooks; everything from old silver jugs and fishing gear to old muskets and poachers traps adorned the place, and even the six mounted tatty dust-ridden fox heads from the great hunt of 93 hung over the fireplace, their snarling jaws gapped open while their fixed glass eyes stared across the bar in morbid austerity. Looking around, no one was at the bar and all the benches, stools and tables were empty, but through the door that lead to the saloon, he saw a shadow cast across the floor; someone else was here...

"Johnny!-" Mickey smiled in delight, "Back so soon? You shoulda called, I woulda put yer favourite on the menu!" the elderly gentleman beamed in broad Cornish accent as he came over to the end of the bar; "What brings you over 'er at this late hour? Last orders were over an hour ago..."

'An hour ago? ...' John though in confusion, 'California's over eight hours away, if it was 2:05 thirty minutes ago, how the hell did I-'

"-Oh well since yer 'er, you might as well 'ave somthin' fer yer troubles..." Mickey smiled as he got out a bottle of whiskey and two glasses, "You've kept 'im waitin' long enough..." he gestured to the saloon.

"Who?" John frowned in bemusement

"Who?-" Mickey gawked at him in disbelief, "Bloody 'ell Johnny don't you know gunny when you see 'im?"

'Gunny...' John stared at him, not quite sure if he heard him right; there was only one person he knew who was nicknamed 'gunny'... Looking over at the shadow in the saloon, he took the bottle and glasses and made his way over there. The saloon was a long room that stretched all the way to the back of the building, and afforded a little more peace and quiet away from the bar; sat at the small circular table in the far end corner, was a giant of a man. Dressed from head to toe in green army camouflage gear, he wore a green beret (the green beret of the royal marine commandos); big boots that were caked in mud, and had a face that only a mother could love. As he gazed up at John, a big broad smile spread across his face and his eyes lit up with a devilish look.

"Johnny-boy! You magnificent bastard! You took yer sweet time getting the drinks!" he exclaimed in a husky voice. The colour drained from Johns face as he stared at the man in utter disbelief, not wanting to believe what he was seeing; and yet he slowly approached, nervous and unsure if he'd gone mad...

"...Donny? ..." he uttered nervously

"Well who'd you think it was? Mother Teresa? Get over here and pour the whiskey already..." he chuckled as John continued to stare at the man in disbelief. "...What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost"

"...I-..." he shook his head, trying to clear his mind, "...This can't be real-"

"You said the same thing about yer stag night, but we still survived that; even when the strippers came at us with those straight razors-" the man chuckled hoarsely.

"No-, I mean- ...Donny, your dead! - You- you died!" John exclaimed

"I know, and bloody inconvenient it was too-" he replied curtly as he leaned over the table, took the bottle and glasses from the Sergeant's hands and poured himself a drink.

"...How is this even possible?" John asked, still not convinced this was for real.

"Why don't you ask 'im-" he gestured to the small window that looked into the bar; John went wide-eyed at the sight of Alpha Trion sitting on one of the bar stools, enjoying a cube of energon and happily chatting with Mickey as if he were one of his regulars. "-I asked 'im if we could 'ave this little get-together, so he was kind enough to set the 'ole thing up"

"Set up?" John echoed

"Well where would you 'ave preferred to meet? Right outside the pearly gates? The queue up there's long enough without more famines and wars adding to the line, but old Pete is right old git at the best of times! Won't even let me through 'till I've finished what I started" Donny frowned. John just kept staring at him; heaving a heavy sigh, Donny gestured to him to sit down. Taking up the seat opposite him, John sat down and took a moment to clear his head.

"Okay, either I'm dreaming or I had way more to drink than I originally thought" he said offhand

"Heh! More like you didn't have enough, 'ere, get this down yer pie-hole-" he gave him a glass of whiskey, John downed the amber liquid in one go, and breathed deep as he felt the alcohol hit his system, "There ya go! Feeling better already?" Donny beamed as he poured a second round.

"...A little" John sighed reluctantly. "Okay...So, what or where am I? And if your here, that must mean I'm where I think I am"

"Hahahaha!" Donny laughed out loud before he recomposed himself, "Nah not quite; but if you do die and pop down to old Nick's place I'll come down there and kick yer arse out meself-" he took a swig of whiskey, "...Nah, we're in a kinda 'half-way' place; not quite in the waking world, but not quite on the 'other side' either, 'neutral ghost ground' I suppose you could call it"

"So you're a ghost?" John realized; though his face didn't show it, he didn't know whether to be scared, or what?

"Bloody hell you only just realized that? 'Ere, 'ave another..." he poured another drink; "Yes, I'm a ghost; I'm dead, departed, cashed in me chips, call it what you want, point is, I'm dead"

"So what are doing here?"

"I came 'ere to see you ya muppet!" he grinned, "Just cuz I'm dead don't mean I can't 'ave one last drink with me best mate; and don't point out the irony in that cuz I can't quite figure that one out either. Basically, in this place the dead and the living are one and the same; the fact yer physical body's gone don't mean shit, and don't ask me to explain cuz it's already gone over me 'ead" he sighed in frustration.

"...Alright" John took another swig of his drink, as he sighed in disbelief, and just decided to go with it.

"Oh, and in answer to the obvious question? It's quicker than falling asleep; although I have admit stepping on an anti-tank mine ain't exactly the prettiest way to go, but on the other hand there are more painful ways to go out" Donny offered.

"I suppose..." John replied offhand, "But bringing you home for the funeral was hardly painless"

"I know, I'm sorry there wasn't anything to bury mate; but thanks for the speech, I didn't think poetry was your thing"

"-You were there?"

"'Corse I was there ya nit! What? Did you think I wouldn't turn up for me own funeral? No joke intended of course; but yeah, I came to make sure you lads did a descent job on my send off...By the way, thanks for taking care of Renee and the kids, and for making sure Reggie and Butch went to good homes"

"It's alright, but it's the first and last time I'm ever going near ferrets again" John deadpanned.

"I can appreciate that, Butch never liked strangers so don't think he 'ad it in for you..."

"...So how long have you been haunting me?"

"Nah, If I wanted to haunt you you'd 'ave known about it; I've just been takin' care of me affairs so to speak. Makin' sure everyone was able to move on okay, and that weren't any lingering doubts or tears. I went through me notions too you know, the dead mourn the loss of their own lives as much as the living mourn their loved ones, but just cuz your on the other side don't mean you can't do anything to move on from it. And the only way to do that, was to make sure that life could move on, that the empty space I left behind could be filled with something good"

"And has it?"

"Thus far? Renee and the kids 'ave come to terms with it and have moved on, the boys 'ave come to terms with it, and for the most part 'ave moved on; but you? I know that look Johnny, ya can't bluff ya way past me mate..."

"...It was my call Donny, my responsibility-" John sighed ruefully

"-'Ay, Don't start guilt-trippin' yerself; you weren't to know the place was booby-trapped let alone know that that prick had set anti-tank mines around the place. If you wanna blame someone blame the bastard who dropped the ball on the intelligence. We weren't told about those traps, we knew someone _had _to know about them; and whoever it was, was probably some little pencil-pushing prick who couldn't be asked to pull his finger out and check over the details or put two and two together...Either way it doesn't matter now, it was years ago, and digging up the past ain't gonna do ya any favours" Donny sighed, "...At least, not in this case it won't..." he added.

"What do you mean? ..." John frowned in curiosity. Donny glanced at him with an unreadable expression, he seemed to hesitate a little, before a glint of concern filled his eyes; he leaned on the table and looked the sergeant straight in the eye. John knew that look, this was serious...

"...Remember I said I asked Alpha to help set this little meeting up? And that I've gotta finish what I started?"

John nodded

"...I've taken care of everyone I cared, and still care for, making sure they didn't mourn me any longer than was necessary and that they were able to move on okay. I've taken care of everyone, including you; but I had to arrange this meeting cuz there's something's you 'ave to know, or at least, be aware of. Meetings like these aren't exactly 'standard policy' in the 'upstairs department' if you know what I mean. But considering the state of my soul and the life I chose to live, this one's a freebie so to speak; anything I chose to do after this I'm gonna 'ave to pay in full..."

"...What's wrong?"

Donny hesitated, before passing a sigh, "...Things are different now, I don't 'ave to tell you that; but you no idea just _how_ different its gonna be...I've been with you and everyone since I 'passed' and I can tell you, following you and the lads through to that other world was no easy trek"

"You were there?"

"Every step of the way, and I was there in that god-forsaken hellhole when Ashley saved your life"

John dropped his gaze

"I know what happened Johnny and I'm both sorry, and proud that you raised him right. He's a good kid; always has and always will be, and no matter where life takes 'im deep down he'll always be your boy. He's a Briggs through and through and that fancy new armour of his ain't _never_ gonna change that...But it ain't gonna be easy for 'im; he's gonna 'ave some tough times ahead, 'im and 'is cousins, their all gonna be pushed to their breaking points down the line, and their gonna need help. Don't get me wrong Johnny, you, Mike, Davey, you all did a smashing job of raising 'em; taught 'em what's right, and told 'em how to _do_ what's right. There ain't no one in this life or the next that can take that away from them...But- ..."

"...Donny?"

A heavy tense silence passed between them before the Marine continued. "...Things ain't gonna be just different for you and the kids anymore. It's gonna be different for _everyone_, including the Autobots...There's gonna be some pretty bad shit headin' yer way Johnny, and you better make sure your ready, cuz when it comes it's gonna go to town on you guys. Even though the Allspark is dead and the war's over, there're those that 'ave been stuck fighting for so long that they no longer know anything else; only death, only suffering, only pain and only power, and they won't be willing to let it go. When you've spent a whole lifetime hating and killing, how do you pull away from that? How can you just be expected to drop everything you knew for a way of life you never thought possible?...Not everyone's gonna want peace; and sometimes, it ain't always the enemy that wants to keep spilling blood..."

"...Are you saying the Autobots-"

"-I'm just saying; it's one thing to keep yer friends close and yer enemies closer. But when it's a bunch of guys like the 9, be very careful; everyone 'as skeletons in their wardrobes, but sometimes they keep other dirty little secrets in there too, and those bots in particular are no acceptation...Just be careful is all I'm sayin' Johnny" Donny regarded him with a serious look as he took of his beret and placed it on the table beside him; for a moment John stared at his friend, trying to figure out what he was getting at.

"...Are you saying they aren't legit?"

"Sorry but I can't go into details, 'no-spoiler policy' even extends to ghosts apparently. Yer just gonna 'ave tread carefully, and trust yer gut-instinct; cuz while those guys are gonna be adjusting to civilian life its all yer gonna 'ave to see you and everyone else through...But it ain't just them you need to be careful of. You may not believe this now but the Cybertronians 'ave been on earth way longer than you think, and we're not the only ones who knew of their existence. Somewhere in the shadows some pretty ballsy bastards 'ave been keeping tabs on 'em, and worse; somewhere down the line someone saw an opportunity and took it"

"An opportunity for what?"

"Isn't it obvious? What do all men with power want?"

Silence

"...How can I stop it?"

"You can't. This shit's been in motion for a very long time, long before any of us were around; and I'm sorry to say, but when it does come you and everyone are gonna 'ave to make some pretty hard choices...It ain't fair when you 'ave to chose the lesser of two evils, but it's a real smack in the face when you realize you 'ave to do bad before you can do any good; but just cuz yer low on options don't mean you don't 'ave a choice. Like Alpha Trion said, our choices go a long away, and unlike what some people are led to believe, you _always_ 'ave a choice what to do Johnny..."

"That's easier said than done; remember back when we were in Bosnia and we-"

"-No Johnny, It's nothing like that, not this time"

"Why?"

"Cuz the boss-man upstairs 'as something bigger in mind. This ain't just about the end of the war; it's about the fate of mankind and cybertronian-kind alike. Everything that 'as a beginning 'as an end Johnny, and when it's time for change, you gotta be willing to step into the unknown if you wanna do what's right by everyone..."

"...When?"

"Can't say...But I promise you, when its time, it's gonna be somethin' incredible..." Donny grinned as he downed the last of his drink and stood up, "Well, I gotta get going; other stuff to do, other places to be" he walked to the end of the saloon.

"Wait-" John got up and followed him out into the bar, "-I don't understand-"

"What's there in life that any of us really understand? All we can do is just go with it and figure it out as we go along" Donny offered

"No, what I mean is-...If this is about fate and destiny, how can I make any choice if my choices have already been made for me?" John asked dubiously

"Because you already made yer choice Johnny; I didn't come 'ere to tell you make yer mind up on what to do, I came 'ere to return the favour, _all the favours_, for all those times you covered my back when the shit hit the fan, and don't say you wanna return the favour cuz you already 'ave"

"How?"

"Being my best mate..." the Marine grinned; John couldn't help but smile, "I'll miss you, you old wheezy git"

"'Ay, I'll be around; someone's gotta keep an eye on you and the lads, and those kids are gonna need some pointers if their gonna live up to Primus's expectations"

"Primus?" John raised an eyebrow

"Aye..." Donny smiled as he stepped out of the front door, "Oh, and one last thing-" he turned round to face his friend, "Life may put ya through the wringer at times, and all the crap that comes with it don't always make sense, but I do know this; your one of the bloody finest men I ever served, one of the best and no one can say otherwise. I know you'll find a way around it all Johnny; you _always_ do. But the one thing you gotta remember above all else, is don't stop being _who_ you are. Don't just be 'Thunderstorm' Briggs, be _Jonny Briggs_; father, uncle, husband, best friend, damn good decent bloke. Ain't nothin' that can take that on and hope to win"

"...Why didn't you say it sooner?"

"I'm saying it now, and I'm saying it cuz it's true..." Donny smiled as he stepped out the door, "-See ya 'round Johnny-boy" he waved goodbye. John stood alone with his thoughts for a moment before something else came to mind...

"Wait! Donny-" he chased after him, but when he rushed out the door and out into the night, he couldn't see Donny anywhere; he ran out into the road and looked in both directions but the Marine had vanished. As he stood there, John heaved a heavy sigh and began slowly walking back the way he came.

"...See ya 'round Donny" he thought aloud, "...Now, how do I get back?"

"Your already back" said Alpha Trion

"Huh?"

John squinted as the morning light hit his eyes and made him recoil back into the shadows, sitting up and looking around, he gasped in amazement. He was where he'd fallen asleep, sitting in the uncomfortable metal chair, slumped over Ironhide's leg.

"...I'm back?"

"Back where?" Will said as climbed down from Ironhide's shoulder, being careful not wake the sleeping bot.

"Uh...Never mind..." John rubbed his eyes

"Bad dream?"

"I don't think so; I think I need a cold shower to clear my head" the Marine mumbled as he yawned, and got up to make his way to the human living quarters.

"Some party last night huh?" Will grinned

"Yeah...some party..." John frowned as he left with a spaced out look in his eyes

"Hmm..." Will frowned in bemusement, "We didn't have that much scotch last...did we?..."

* * *

The Rouges Roost Inn, 10 miles south-east of Porth Nev: 7:37am the following day:

"Darling!"

"Yes dear?"

"Did we 'ave anyone order a bottle of whiskey last night?" Mickey called back to his wife as he picked up the empty bottle and two glasses up off the table.

"A whole bottle?"

"Yes, there's an empty one in 'ere"

"Huh? I don't remember anyone ordering a bottle?"

"Me neither...Come to think of it, the only punters we ever 'ad who ordered a bottle was Johnny Briggs and-"

The colour drained from Mickey's face as he staried at the bottle, but he almost collapsed over backwards in shock when he saw the green beret sitting on the table...

* * *

Ah alas! We have finally come to the end of the road! It's been a great journey through and through, and if I may be permitted to blow my own trumpet, Spark in the Shell turned out pretty good :) This fanfic has been a great experiment in creative writing for me, it started out so crude and basic, and now to finally come to the end of the road with a lot more experience and wisdom, is a really great feeling, and relief that it's finally finished! :D A BIG Thank you to JillTheCrazy1 for being so kind in letting me borrow her OC Matti, who slotted into the story very well ^^ Give yerself a cookie sweetie! & A BIG BIG BIG THANK YOU to everyone who followed the story, and for all your reviews; the hints and critique were very helpful & much appreciated, as well as the awesome sauce ^^. It's been fun, it's been a blast, but now, it's time to bid farewell, and move on to other things. Check out my profile page to see what I get up to next, so until next time chicky-peas, Goodbye & Goodnight.

P.S Don't forget to give one last R&R Please! :)


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